Virus Syndicate

“I'm on the road from the gutter to the platinum plaques” say Virus Syndicate on their track Venom, which has over 200,000 views on Youtube. From straight outta Manchester, these bad boyz have been making headlines with their raw electro, grime, hip hop and jungle influenced tracks, and touring in Europe and America has created mass hysteria amongst their crowds of fans. They’re already released a couple albums and are currently recording a collaborative EP with Dope DOD, a rapper from the Netherlands. They’ll be setting off some choice bass bombs at Sundown Festival this year and I grabbed the chance to speak to the guys about how their rise in the music game has been going for them. Let’s womp it up.

 How did you start making music? What was the urge that drew you to it originally?

It was just something that came naturally to all of us. I guess you could say it was ingrained on us from the beginning and probably something we would have inevitably all done whether we had become a group or not.

 How did you all meet? Do you continue to work as solo artists at the same time as being in Virus?

We all knew of each other as MC’s in South Manchester and we kind of organically came together to form Virus Syndicate. We all like to make our own solo tracks but our main focus is Virus Syndicate.

 How would you describe your music to someone who had never heard it before?

Audio crack! Ha ha! Bass heavy ‘n’ lyrical.

 What’s the secret to being a good rapper/MC?

Strive to be the best in the world, aim for the stars with it and if you at least hit the sky (skill wise) you’ve done alright. Practice! Know what you want to get out of every verse or hook, manipulate the beat, be a don!

 Do you see your musical style changing as you get older or are you sticking with the raw, bass heavy urban sound?

I think we will always strive to make edgy music; it’s who we are as people, but there is definitely no limitation on sound. We may one day decide to release an acoustic song…as long as the concept is right we would make any kind of music that is relevant to us.

 Grime, dubstep, etc are still going strong but what’s the next big thing in dance music in your opinion?

Obviously deep house & trap are doing very well at the moment…as for what’s gonna break through next year I’m not really sure right now; probably some form of fusion between house & trap.

 How does the songwriting work in the group? Is it shared between you all or do certain people take on certain parts?

We all play our part in the process depending on the beat and concept for the song. Sometimes one of us will take the lead with first verse and the hook, and the others follow, or sometimes we just freestyle in the studio and jam the hook out; it all depends on the beat.

 How has becoming successful changed your life so far, and what do you imagine your lives would be like if you hadn’t got together when you did?

We feel really blessed to have achieved everything we have so far and feel really grateful that we are still growing and busier than ever after all of this time. Most acts peak after two years then fall apart. We have been releasing albums and touring constantly for 8 years which is rare these days.

We have all been in Virus for so long it’s hard to imagine what we would have done if it wasn’t this.

 Your well-received third studio album The Swarm came out earlier this year and you’ve also had two songs from the album out as singles. Are you more aware now of writing for other people as well as yourselves?

We are definitely open to writing for other people, but writing for ourselves takes priority at the moment.

 Where did the title and theme of the first single from this album, Worker Bees, come from?