Chase & Status: "The most exciting music in the world's coming out of the UK"

Drum & bass is having a moment right now, and Chase & Status are leading the charge.

The duo, comprising Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status), currently boast no less than three songs on the Official Singles Chart: Bou and Flowdan team-up Baddadan, Becky Hill banger Disconnect and latest cut Liquor & Cigarettes with ArrDee and Hedex.

14 years after their first Top 40 entry with breakthrough Plan B collaboration End Credits, the lads ready the release of brand-new mixtape 2 RUFF, Vol. 1. Featuring work with the likes of Stefflon Don (Selecta), Clementine Douglas (Say the Word) and Kwengface (Tough Talk), the record sees Chase & Status ride the wave of the renaissance while pushing their sonic boundaries further than ever.

Today, we catch up with Saul ahead of the mixtape dropping on November 10.

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Saul! How's it going?

Great, man. We’ve just got back from Ibiza, playing the closing party at Eden with Worried About Henry. We’ve done a 16-week residency, four months, non-stop. The final show was one of my favourites of the summer.

The reaction to the new material must've been incredible?

Yeah, all our songs that’ve done a lot recently – Disconnect, Baddadan, Liqour & Cigarettes – they're culminating to the point where, when you play them now, they’re a big deal.

What’s funny about music today is that these songs haven’t been out that long; there's such a different turnover in how things build. The old format, you’d have a three-month lead-in before it charted; leading up to that crescendo. It’s really interesting to see the change happening, though.

How do you find navigating that change, having more visibility and almost real time updates of how a song's being received?

You kind of get a vibe as to how things are going to go. With Baddadan, we saw it doing better than we'd ever expected, and it was fascinating to see a tune blow up so quickly. Not just in the clubs; it resonated universally. You can really see that with streaming.

2 RUFF, Vol. 1 is out this week - how are you feeling? Nervous? Excited?

There's always this sense of relief; the weight on your shoulders lifts. With 2 RUFF, Vol. 1 it's ten tracks, and we've played it in Ibiza in full. We've never done that before. That's what this album was built for. We're feeling good, man.

MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest songs of 2023 so far

You've just had no less than three songs in the Top 20 simultaneously, that's quite the achievement...

In our world, the drum & bass world, it’s amazing. It’s funny, people say ‘drum & bass is back,’ and I say ‘Back? Ask Andy C how he’s been. Ask Nicky Blackmarket how he’s been. This never goes away.’

What just makes us so happy is we have all these new tracks we’re so proud of and want to go out and DJ with. There’s just a great feeling right now in the air for drum & bass, and I guess we’re conduit to that.

You're really giving artists like Bou and IRAH a moment on this project. How important is it for you to work with fresh talent?

Will and I have always been passionate about new, upcoming talent. It’s amazing to work with the greats, you always want to work with people you idolise, but there’s nothing more exciting in music than working with fresh new talent with that hunger.

Artists like Hedex, Bou and Mozey have been such an injection of excitement into the drum & bass scene. Mozey’s just an incredible character, an incredible DJ. Hedex and Bou, too; they’re changing the face of drum & bass for this generation. It's inspiring to be around. I'm so grateful and blessed that our paths have crossed.

We just love UK music. Not just drum & bass, of course. Rap, drill trap, dance, electronic; all the most exciting music in the world comes out of the UK. Every few years the UK steps it up and lets the world know this is where the most inspiring new music is. We’re just blessed to be a part of it.

Chase & Status's 2 RUFF, Vol. 1 is released November 10 via EMI.