Turn down the lights for Night Safari
Coming seemingly from nowhere, Night Safari have been dominating the playlists of people like Oliver Heldens, Sick Individuals and BBC Radio 1’s Danny Howard all summer. The new project from two legendary veterans of the music scene, D. Ramirez and Bnann Infadel, Night Safari is about to unleash their first single on Zulu records and begin world domination, but first – where exactly did that name come from?
You’re two of the most respected names in the industry and have had huge solo success over the past 20 years, what made you decide to start making music together and set off on the Night Safari journey?
We both met via our mutual friend Alex Metric – I was working on a tune with Alex and Bnann was called in for top lining duties. We hit it off and from there we met up separately where Bnann expressed his interest in starting a new ‘electronic project’ so the idea of Night Safari was born.
The project combines D.Ramirez’ skills as a DJ/producer and Bnann’s singer/songwriter abilities to create some massive tracks. Why do you think the set up works so well despite having different musical backgrounds and styles?
That’s exactly why it works so well because we are both thinking out of the box!
How would you describe the Night Safari sound?
Forward thinking, eclectic, emotional and above all – fun!
Your new track ‘Night Franklin’ is an absolute banger –what inspired you to take a classic soul sound and put the Night Safari spin on it?
As Night Safari we are always thinking out of the box and we’d been hearing many vocal samples you’ve heard a million times with many of the same vocalists so we decided that no one had messed with the Queen Of Soul herself so we should be the first to do it.
It’s been receiving some amazing support from the likes of Oliver Heldens, Max Vangeli and Sick Individuals – did you expect to see such big names behind it?
Well of course – it’s a banger!
Night Franklin is getting a full release on Zulu Records as part of their Amsterdam 2014 compilation; as one of the hottest labels in house music right now, it’s quite an accolade to have them backing the first Night Safari single!
Yeah we are both fans of Zulu Records so we are really chuffed to be brought in as part of the family.
Have you had chance to drop the track yourselves yet as Night Safari?
I drop it in every set cos it just goes off and when myself and Bnann start DJing together as Night Safari it’s going to be one of our many weapons!
And is it business as usual for D. Ramirez and Bnann Infadel?
Yeah we are both mental busy with our own projects – Bnann is hectic as usual writing top lines for many of the dance tunes you’re hearing right now and it seems that lots of people are being influenced by the D.Ramirez sound now so I’m busier than ever!
With this only being the beginning you must have loads coming up! What have you got in the pipeline? Any big plans you can tell us about?
We are currently working on another release for Zulu Records and we have a release due in November 2014 on Love&Other. Also as we speak, we are about to release one of our most song based tracks featuring one of our favourite vocalists Beth Aggett who’s already featured on tunes with the likes of Bondax, Kidnap Kid and Rudimental. This song will show one of the many sides of the Night Safari mindset which is important to us as we want to continue as always to push things forward.
Night Franklin is released on Zulu Records on 6th October
