Ridiculous Live Bass Group Modestep Talks Ultra, Justin Timberlake and More

VIBE first introduced you to London mega lords of the live show Modestep, when they announced a headlining North American tour making stops at Ultra Music Festival and Coachella. With a live band setup, harmonious lyrical arias and unexpected anvil drops smashing souls into pancakes, the dubstep-band is the answer to a sonic prayer in today’s musical zeitgeist. Brothers Josh (vocals, keyboards) and Tony Friend (decks, guitar), Matt Curtis (drums) and Nick Tsang (lead guitar) sit down with VIBE for an exclusive rap session.

Vibe: How do you go about creating such badass videos that rack up millions of views?
Modestep: We always like to include some crazy narrative idea that kids will love and share with their friends, it’s the only way to make it go viral. We also came up at the same time as the hugely successful dubstep channel UKF so we kind of fed off each other.

You're a dubstep band, a rock-tronica group, how does Modestep at this moment sum up you sound in three words?
RIDICULOUS LIVE BASS

Since we know you're heavily influenced by Michael Jackson, how much do you listen to pop music today?
We listen to all sorts of music, but we really like the soul, hip-hop and RnB influenced pop – stuff like Frank Ocean & The Weeknd.

Ultra and Coachella, that's huge! Which one are you more looking forward to and why?
That’s a tough question. I think we are going to have to say Ultra because we love Miami and the lineup is ridiculous!

Would you like to collab with Justin Timberlake?
Hell yes! He makes amazing records, but I think we’d have to get rid of Timbaland first, haha.

What about a rapper?
On ‘Burn’ we worked with Newham Generals who are UK rappers signed to Dizzee Rascal’s label. We would definitely like to work with other rappers as long as they can bring the kind of energy we need to our music. Working with Eminem would be a dream come true.