Still in his early twenties, Manchester producer Sonnee is making waves right now. His 2022 debut EP ‘Your Love’ snagged swift support from key tastemakers, including Jaguar’s ‘Dancefloor Moment’ on BBC Radio 1 with ‘Leave the Water Still’, a Selector Radio ‘After Dark’ mix, and regular spins and shout outs from Radio 1’s Sian Eleri and many more who connected with his emotive sound and skilful production.
Now London-based, Sonnee has brought new joy to dancefloors with single ‘Dancing Ain’t Enough’, featuring POLIÇA frontwoman Channy Leaneagh on vocals.The track has already hit over 1.2 million streams on Spotify alone, carving this newcomer’s mark deep in the dance music landscape. ‘Dancing Ain’t Enough’ is a gorgeous confection of shimmering synth strata with a softly insistent beat showcasing Channy’s sweet voice, given the Sonnee treatment to sound subtly pitch-shifted to give a mix of acoustic clarity with a nod to the 90s.
We grabbed some time with Sonnee to hear the process behind his production and the story behind this new track. Check it below…
Hey Sonnee, thanks for speaking with us! Where are we catching you today?
Hey The Partae! Thank you so much for me having me, I’m currently in my friend’s flat in East London where I’m looking after their Chameleon. Pretty random!!
Congrats on your new track ‘Dancing Ain’t Enough’. Where did the idea for this one come from?
The idea for this one came from that simple synth line & vocal line at the beginning. I must’ve listened back to the way those combined for about a week, before I was like ‘yeah, I need to make an actual song out of this’.
What was the process in the studio? Did it come together quite quickly?
Usually, tracks take me like two days to get the first draft done. This is the first track I left intentional room for a featured vocal on the first draft. Then we sent it to Channy of POLIÇA, she liked it, sent her amazingly beautiful vocals back & it kind of fell into place from there.
Generally, do you find new music comes to you quite fast and easily? Or do you prefer to lock yourself away in the studio a bit and develop tracks over a longer period of time?
This is always changing for me, some days I get an idea I’m really into within an hour, but then other days it can feel like I’ve completely forgotten everything and I’m starting again. I also used to rush tunes to being ‘finished’ as soon as possible but now I let them breathe a bit more, which I think helps them being better in the end as there is less stress in them. If that makes any sense haha.
You often use vocal /vocal samples in your tracks, but this one seems to be the most lyrical. Do you think this is a direction you’d like to go in, or plan to go in more in the future?
Vocals are my favourite thing to use when making a song, it’s always been like that. At the moment I’m definitely loving focusing on more lyrical stuff, so expect more of that. But there will definitely be just as many non-lyrical vocal tracks down the line too.
How does it feel having POLIÇA on the record? Can you remember the first time you heard her/their music generally? If so, how did it make you feel/what was your verdict?
It’s pretty mad to be honest. The first time I heard POLIÇA was watching Jools Holland with my parents as a kid. I was mesmerised. After that, my parents had the ‘Give You The Ghost’ album on repeat. It’s a proper full-circle moment that I could’ve never seen coming.
You’re making waves in your career already even at this early stage. How did you get into production and music in the first place?
I used to watch my brothers on FL studio for hours. I’ve never said this publicly but half the reason I started making music myself was because one time my brother was recreating ‘Crazy Frog’, I was passively watching like this is wild. He paused what he was doing and went to the shop, I took over and just started messing around with it and destroyed the masterpiece he had created. I kind fell in love with it that day really.
What’s next for Sonnee, we hear there is new music in the new year?..
2023 is definitely going to be the busiest year for me yet. Loads of new tunes from the get-go, remixes, improving my live show & DJing. I honestly can’t wait.
…and maybe I should do a Crazy Frog Sonnee as a shoutout or something!
Sonnee ‘Dancing Ain’t Enough’ feat POLIÇA is out now on Inside Records, get it here: https://insiderecords.bfan.link/dancing-ain-t-enough
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Label: https://www.instagram.com/attackdecaysweetrelease/