Interview: Disclosure

Secretive teenage ‘lovestep’ brothers relatively happy to let their cover slip

Words by Stephen Pietrzykowski Photograph by Carolyn Lawrence

Google Chat seems a suitably distanced way of speaking to Disclosure, the duo of teenage brothers who in the last six months have moved through the blogosphere with a covert sureness. Despite their rising star, information on the pair has remained sparse. Only one awkwardly posed photograph has been posted online and it takes until our interview to establish they’re from Croydon. They’ve also only made four songs available up to now, two of which — ‘Offline Dexterity’ and ‘Street Light Chronicle’ — make up their debut single.

“We don’t want to say, ‘This is the genre of music we want to make,’” claims Guy, the older of the two brothers at 19. “We are always experimenting, so it’s hard to say where we will fit this early on.”

A desire to evolve may mean Disclosure haven’t quite settled on just who they are yet, but they’re not concealing their identity in the manner the current Zeitgeist dictates.

Led by Burial and Zomby, many recent British electronic music artists have been characterised by anonymity and dislocation. As a result, UK dance isn’t so much missing a poster boy as it is lacking a physical human connection. Disclosure are, in some respects, a necessary antidote. In a youth-obsessed industry, the meaning of their music is very much tied to their biology, as if being teenagers is the sole index of their authenticity.

“We always say that,” confirms Guy. “But we do get good reactions from people when they find out we are still quite young. We don’t want or not want people to know who we are. If they like the music enough to make the effort to find out, that’s great. We just want to be making emotional music for the dance scene.”
It’s this will to connect that has seen younger brother Howard label their music ‘lovestep’, a tongue-in-cheek moniker they both feel comfortable with. And it makes sense, too. It’s as if dubstep has laid down its arms, replaced the ket with pills and opened its heart.

Explaining ‘Offline Dexterity’, Guy unwittingly reveals how they intend to move their audience: “‘Offline Dexterity’ means just having total control of your body, so you can move in extraordinary ways without even trying to think about what you are doing.”

It’s an extraordinarily apt insight into their aesthetic, proving Disclosure to be very much rooted in the physical world. Suddenly, Google Chat appears a wholly inappropriate means of connection.

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