Interview: Disclosure

Wildlife was created by Disclosure in early summer 2014 as an extension of their hugely successful live and DJ shows. What began as tiny and very sweaty east London parties, soon grew into a global prospect within a matter of months and found Disclosure curating events in major cites across the world and hosting stages at various festivals in the UK, Europe and USA. These included Wildlife line-ups at Glastonbury, Unknown, Exit Festival as well as bespoke events at The Greek Theatre in Berkley, Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Detroit and a summer residency at Space in Ibiza.
Less than a year later, they reached out to their good friends Rudimental in order to put together the inaugural Wildlife festival at Shoreham Airport or what is now officially called Brighton City Airport. What does Guy Lawrence, one half of Disclosure think the venue should be called? “Shoreham!” he say emphatically. He, along with his younger brother Howard have literally taken the world by storm with Disclosure, an act that has helped to re-establish house music in the multifarious world of EDM. And it wasn’t so long ago that the Lawrence brothers were two inexperienced producers using the skills they’d picked up in their music technology A-level class to make a string of underground club hits, beginning with ‘Latch’ and ‘White Noise’.
Winner of the Best New Festival at the 2015 UK Festival Awards, Wildlife tapped into an audience who like variety and musicality within their music; music from across the board, with artists and DJs such as George Ezra, Mark Ronson, Wu-Tang Clan, Annie Mac and Jamie xx just the tip of an iceberg.
This year, the line up is bigger, better, and even more eclectic, with the likes of hip hop legend Ice Cube, Brighton indie roots-rocker James Bay, techno-house king Carl Cox, indie sensations Bastille, new-kid-on-the-block Jack Garratt, drum’n’bass supremo Andy C, alt-techno experimentalists Four Tet, Avalanches, and new age hip hoppers De La Soul just a few of the names that will be bestriding five stages.
How do you find the curatorial side of things? “We just call people up and ask,” says Guy. “We’re always amazed that people say ‘yes!’. We are able to book a lot of people I thought we would never meet or see. We’re fans of everyone we book, and I think that personal touch helps. I think that people find it refreshing that artists are curating the line-up, to make it more personal.”
Were you able to see much of the festival last year? “Not as much as we would have liked,” says Guy. “We were also booked to play another festival that weekend. But this year we are planning on being there the whole weekend, beginning on Friday night for a little pre-festival party, and then seeing as much as possible. We’ve cleared the diaries… Last year we loved Wu-Tang and Skepta and JME who filled in for Sam Smith (who went down ill just before the festival)”
And this year? “I’m looking forward to Flume, and Jamie Woon, whose last album is just incredible; Busta Rhymes, and some of the grime artists. Last year we spent a lot of time in the backstage area because there are a lot of friends there. But we also made a big effort to make it nice for everyone. I think that’s really important. And we’re of course really looking forward to playing again this year on the main stage!”
Any changes made from last year? “Not really, just a few tweaks here and there, the layout will be different… We were surprised at how smoothly it went last year.”
The brothers grew up just up the road in Reigate, and ventured down to Brighton many-a-time in their early forays into dance music, seeing the likes of Joy Orbison at seafront clubs like Digital, Funky Buddha and Audio (all have subsequently changed their names to The Arch, The Tube and Patterns respectively), and as such their parents and even their Grandfather are expected to make the trip, as he did last year. “He loved it! He said he’d never seen anything like it… That was great, to be able to show him what we do.”
Why did you choose the airport as the venue? “We went to visit it and everyone thought it would be perfect. There’s the Great Escape, but there isn’t like a festival in a field in the area. It needed one!”
Brighton City Airport (Shoreham!), 11 & 12 June www.wildlifefestival.com