Soda State
Mike Ridley and Sam Tracie make up a duo that’s perhaps the most interesting exploration of industry identity today: Soda State. They have a wealth of lore behind their existence, as a storyline accompanies their music: the two friends were once transported to an alternate realm called the Soda State after playing a very specific sound on their synths. Their music is an attempt to return to that realm, a utopian digital paradise, by rediscovering the sound that got them there in the first place. It’s this background that makes this group one of a kind, not just as musicians, but as a creative entity. Clearly, that idea has caught on, as releases like “The Look” and “Midnight” have amassed hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify. With over 90,000 monthly listeners from Amsterdam to Los Angeles, we spoke to Soda State about their aesthetic, working as a duo, and more!
Hey Guys! Thank you again for speaking with us. Let’s begin with an introduction – How did you each get started making music?
Tracie: Hey! Thanks for having us. I started as a teenager playing in bands and then began DJing and producing music when my friend introduced me to Ed Banger and French House.
M: I’ve been passionate about piano and writing songs from an early age. I decided to do a sound engineering course, which is where I met Tracie. We both dropped out at the same time!
Your aesthetic is something that sticks out immediately. Walk us through the decision to go with a digital version of yourselves.
M: It happened by accident… We work out of my garage, where we’ve got our studio set up - laptops, synths, homemade gadgets, etc. It was just over a year ago, we were playing around reworking Metronomy’s The Look, when suddenly there was this massive flash in the studio.
Tracie: Yeh it was mad. The whole room shook. The lights were flashing and we were both projected forward into some kind of portal, which took us to a place we later learned was an alternate reality called Soda State. We spent a week there before being thrown back through the portal and back to London.
M: But we returned as the avatar versions of ourselves – that’s the way everyone looks in Soda State - so we’re now digital beings in a human world.
Where does the name Soda State come from? Your Spotify bio could be the plot for a T.V. series. How did you guys come up with this world?
Tracie: Man, naming your band is the hardest part of it haha. We decided to name ourselves after Soda State because that place changed our lives; it made perfect sense. Ever since we discovered how to open the portal it’s become our obsession. It’s hard to explain but you just feel…amazing there. It’s like a digital paradise.
M: Yeh we figured that the combos of digital 0’s and 1’s we stumbled on when making The Look must have been what opened that portal. Just dumb luck combined with old synths and laptops.
Tracie: So we’ve spent months in the studio trying to crack the code again - we did it a few times, once when we were making Midnight, our second single, and once when making our most recent single Way To Go.
M: Every time we make a tune that gets us to Soda State, we release it.
Your sound is fantastic – it kinda gives off a Daft Punk-type vibe to us! Who are some of your main musical inspirations?
Tracie: Thanks! Yeah, Daft Punk has always been a massive influence. We’re massive fans of the whole French House thing – Digitalism, Cassius, Kavinsky etc. And emotive synthy stuff like M83, or Duke Dumonts Ocean Drive, and Italo disco too. Nostalgia, emotion, warm synths, all that stuff.
Who’s a fellow artist that’s on your playlist right now?
M: We’re both really enjoying SG Lewis’ new album right now.
Would you say growing up in London has affected your musical style at all?
Tracie: Weirdly not too much. After we made The Look, we sent a bunch of demos anonymously to someone fairly senior in the music business - he thought we were French, which is funny. London is a super creative place though, and a melting pot of all sorts of artists and creatives, so living here means you’re around people from different backgrounds and musical upbringings which is what makes it such a great place - so I’m sure it’s rubbed off on us. Also, London’s club scene (outside of a pandemic) is one of the best in the world, being immersed in that definitely inspires you.
What’s the best thing about working as a duo? How does this dynamic play out in the studio?
M: Tracie and I have overlapping skills but we seem to have quite naturally assumed our own roles. He’s a master of the sonics and synths and whilst I get involved in some of the production elements, I tend to focus more on the toplining of the songs.
Tracie: Yeah it’s a dream partnership as we’re nearly always on the same page. M is obsessed with luscious pads though and I’m a big fan of space at times, but we’re pretty good at compromising!
M: We also work collaboratively on the music videos, which are a collage of old films, animé, found footage, anything that hits our aesthetic. I tend to spend more time editing them, but Tracie constantly sends me visuals he likes, and then once we have the general feel, we finish them together.
We love “Way To Go” – were you guys going for anything different with the release?
Tracie: Big up! We’ve tried to keep the sound and song sentiments cohesive across our early releases – that’s the main way we’ve found of unlocking the portal. So it retains our synthy sonics and themes of escapism. “Take us both where we can forget for a minute…” We love the concept of leaving the world behind and taking a trip somewhere better, losing yourself in that moment.
M: And with every main release we do our own more club-focused version called the Club Soda Mixes. DJing and club
music is very important to us and we want to make sure our music has a place on the dance floor.
What do you guys like to do on your day off?
M: Normal stuff really, skating, videogames. We live close to each other so most of the time we just hang in the studio.
What is an essential quality of every Soda State song?
Tracie: Definitely nostalgia. That plays a key role in our music - like that warm feeling you get from a John Hughes movie or listening to old Roulé records, that feeling of escaping, falling in love, getting high, that’s the essence we want to capture in our music.
What can fans expect from you in 2021?
M: Our plan is still every time we open the portal to Soda State, we release the song that gets us there. As the world reopens we’re planning on getting on the road as soon as possible.
When Soda State makes it to LA, ___________
We hope …… you’ll come to the show!