At long last, Canadian duo and dance music moguls, Adventure Club, have burst through 2022 with their sophomore album, Love // Chaos. Despite what the two years have forced upon the world at large the two veterans have shown incredible endurance, releasing one heavy hitter after another ahead of their long-awaited LP. With nearly every track featuring a fresh collaboration, the boys enlisted help from dance music luminaries, including Krewella, Said The Sky, Blanke, to name a few.

Finding strength in the quiet that the height of the pandemic held, the duo have curated some of the most essential dance music anthems of the last two years, namely, “High Like This” with Dia Frampton, “Anywhere” alongside AMNHMR and HALIENE, and “Colorblind” featuring Dayseeker, plus many more.

More recently, AC has gifted listeners with their favorite track from the now-released album, “Drive,” a melodic voyage that combines Adventure Club’s treasured synth work for an ethereal bass-heavy excursion, along with emotionally potent entities like “Never Surrender” featuring Sarah de Warren and collaborative effort with ALRT, “Away From Myself.” AC brings together a slew of dance music’s finest, finessing vocal chops, expertly layered production, and energy that throws listeners into a trance-like state.

With a their highly anticipated 25-track LP finally hitting streaming platforms, it would be accurate to assume the two have worked their fingers to the bone in the studio. Still, Adventure Club’s Leighton James and Christian Srigley had some time to tap into a new a brand new creative outlet—one that might shock long-time fans.

Although deemed by AC themselves a “super secret side project,” the two told Dancing Astronaut a little bit about their forthcoming endeavor, Grumgully. Teaming up with their tour manager, Jon Spero, the three coined dance music’s next great craze, bestowing fans with the all-new, ever-enthralling, “tavern-step.” Throwing this interviewer entirely off-course, James and Srigley divulged that the upcoming project could be described as “tribal-heavy with a fairly large splash of hardstyle,” and “Lord of the Rings meets EDM,” making it known that upon listening, the sound might be akin to finding one’s self “in between an Orc-ish war.”

With the pandemic wreaking havoc on nearly all creative professions, touring musicians being some of the most devastated, I inquired the pair on how they delivered such consistent music without feeling the energy of their usual jam-packed crowds, Srigley replied, “Not being able to get that feedback for so long was tricky, but now that we’re able to play this stuff and make adjustments as we go, that’s very necessary.”

Not only was Grumgully an exciting new undertaking, but also a saving grace in an unprecedented time where, ironically, nostalgia served as the ultimate anchor to the present. Srigley continues,

“I’d be in my home [gym] doing workouts, listening to, like, heavy stuff, wanting that bigger field-level production. Thousands of people just head-banging at once, you know, thirsting for that. So I think maybe that desire is where that project was born from.”

Not enduring the negative impact of touring, i.e. claustrophobic tour buses, absurdly quick set-time turnarounds, and never-ending flights across the world, James and Srigley have honed in on making sure their days are peppered with gratitude for where they’ve been, in tandem with a firm hold on where they’ve yet to go. Srigley goes on, stating,

“We’ll look back and be like, holy moly, we get a little bit of either nostalgia, [or] just reminiscing together. We’re best friends, we’ve been best friends for 20 years. We have a whole lot of past and history together. It’s fun sometimes to reflect on how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.” As if the two been attached at the hip for two decades, James adds a final encompassing thought about their journey together, sharing, “Sometimes we’ll just sit in the hotel room and reflect on how grateful we are.”

After a shudder-inducing two years away from live events, the boys have finally been able to get back on stage and test out all the new music they have in their extensive catalogue. With the release of their Love // Chaos, in tandem with the introduction of Grumgully, it’s safe to say that no matter which direction they take their sound, it’s working.

Stream Love // Chaos below, out now via Ultra Music.

Featured image: Jason Fenmore

Tags: Adventure Club, drive, grumgully, interview, love // chaos, Ultra Music

Categories: Features, Music