'We have honed our sound through a lot of trial and error' - Blasha & Allatt Interview

Co-founders of Meat Free collective Blasha & Allatt first came under our radar after Resident Advisor invited the collective to co-host the Manchester leg of their Alternate Cuts back in 2018.

Since then, the pair have gone on to play a plethora of celebrated institutions around the UK and Europe, counting Fabric in London, ://about blank in Berlin, Dali in Cork, and Sub Club in Glasgow, not to mention a heavy involvement with Dimensions Festival this year.

Hosting The Moat on Thursday with Nina Kraviz, Jane Fitz, Objekt and Imogen on behalf of Meat Free, the pair will also host a boat party with Love Muscle on Saturday, showcasing their kinetic sound and palpable energy in the surrounds of Fort Punta Christo.

With a stacked agenda ahead of them for the rest of the year, we had a chat with Steffi and Natasha to take stock on the last year and find out what's next for the flourishing duo...

2018 and 2019 have been big years for Blasha & Allatt. How do you feel about how far you have come?

Steffi: Yes they’ve been really important for us actually and I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress but it's not until you stop and look back at all the milestones do you realise how far.

I struggle to think of anything but the upcoming gig, so don’t really look backwards or forwards but there are occasions when I do reflect and and it's then I realise how much we've achieved. I feel like the last two years have seen us take that step to playing at parties that we really respect and admire, notably House Of God in Birmingham, New Faces at Tresor for the lovely Mareen and more recently Freerotation.

Meat Free has been really taking off and has been championed further afield by the likes of Ben Sims. Do you think the underground scene in the UK has become more receptive to inclusive nights like these? Have you faced any challenges along the years?

Natasha: Yes of course, now there's more onus on inclusivity, we’ve seen a wave of brilliant parties come through - ones that set their stall out from the get go i.e. this is what’s acceptable, if you don’t like it, don’t come.

I mean, it’s not much to ask! Parties like this have always existed, places where you didn’t have to mention the word ‘safe space’ etc. I think it’s a good thing, - as long as the selling point of the party is more than just that.

To be honest, we’ve not faced any challenges other than losing a good amount of cash - something that pretty much every promoter has faced. From a DJ standpoint, we have been pretty lucky so far apart from when we played somewhere in Europe which will remain nameless. After our set, one of the clubbers asked us which Manchester team we supported and when I said Man City (not that I even do!) he got visibly uncomfortable and started pacing about telling us he was a staunch United fan. The guy was actually part of some Firm in his country and started going nuts! Was equal parts laughable and scary as hell as he started getting pretty aggressive and our ride out of there hadn’t turned up! Moral of the story, just say you prefer netball!

AAlice from Meat Free at last year's AVA Festival, Belfast

Speaking of Ben Sims, you released the track on his Tribology label last year. How was that experience?

Steffi: We’ll always be thankful to Ben for giving us that opportunity. Originally, Ben asked us for a track about four/five months prior and we never did anything as we felt we were just not ready to put anything out. Also we thought he’d forgotten, but then we got an email and there was about 2 weeks to go, so we were like ‘Fuck! better get moving’. Anyway, that spawned ‘Broughton 93’ which is named after where we were living at the time in Salford (93 is the bus route).

Playing together as a duo, how do you craft your sound to make sure you’re on the same page?

Natasha: Well, this isn’t something that has come easily! At the beginning when we first started playing b2b nearly 7 years ago we sounded a lot different, put it that way. At this point, we feel like we have honed our sound through a lot of trial and error and can now just go with the flow and not have to plan at all. The most we plan these days are which sections of music to take e.g. which sub genres of techno. One we have established this we tend to have a mix for a few hours and then we are usually good to go!

You’re touring schedule is pretty full. How have you managed the stress of travelling and performing? Does travelling as a duo make it easier?

Steffi: For the last year or so, we’ve both been working a four day week (although still full time hours). This has freed up time for production and gig prep which has helped reduce the workload to some extent.

Trying to eat as well as possible and strength training have been so important for keeping us in check mentally & physically.

I tend to overthink a lot, so having Tash there does help me to process the different aspects of djing; if you feel like you’ve not connected with a crowd the way you had hoped, talking about it with someone allows you to justify the reasons for that. On the flip side, if you’ve played a wicked gig, it’s so much fun being able to share this with someone else - it sort of extends the buzz as you’ll both be chatting about it for a while.

This year will be your debut at Dimensions Festival. What can the crowd expect from you set? Do you change things up when it’s a festival setting?

Natasha: Recently we’ve been playing a lot heavier and faster, but there’s a time and a place for that! For our set at the Moat on Thursday, we’ll be scaling it back and mixing between genres I think. However, for the Love Muscle x Meat Free boat party on Saturday, anything goes! Playing at Love Muscle last year was a huge highlight of ours, so we’re just really excited to be linking up with these guys.

What’s next for Blasha & Allatt?

Steffi: We have a remix coming out for Blue Hour in the next few months, which we are excited about. In terms of gigs, we are making our debut at Printworks at the end of September, we’ve been invited back to play at a UK techno institution, which is due to be announced soon and also back to ://about blank in Berlin as well as the first Homobloc festival in November.

Ticket's to Meat Free's boat party this Saturday at Dimensions available here.

#Dimensions #MeatFree #Manchester #BlashaAllatt