Sentre aka Dave Gardner & Dennis White have been in the industry for a long time and have a major list of credits under their belts. They were part of Sasha’s legendary Involver project plus have reworked and produced the likes of The xx, M83, Pete Tong, Calvin Harris, Maribou State, Moby… we caught up with the guys to chat about their forthcoming album.

Hey Sentre, thanks for chatting to us today. How has 2017 been for you guys so far?

Hi, it’s good chat to you too! It’s been a pretty crazy first half of the year. We’ve been finishing the album off and remixing the singles, as well as working on the Sasha live show.

You’ve worked with Sasha before and have both been involved with a number of exciting artists over the years. Can you give us a little introduction into your musical backgrounds? What was it that got you working together?

Well we’re both just music and studio nerds really. We have very different musical backgrounds but there’s a lot of common ground too. We were originally introduced to each other around 7 years ago and tried working on something that ended up never getting finished. We started Sentre once Dennis started working with me full time alongside Sasha. I had a lot of material that just didn’t seem to fit any of the projects we were working on, so we started working on them together and it turned into the album.

How has the industry changed since you guys first started out?

Obviously there have been changes in formats and delivery systems but people are still going to clubs and embracing new technology to make music, which has always been happening so it’s not that different really.

This year sees the release of your debut album, Dream Logic. Can you tell us a little bit about the key inspirations for the album? 

It’s difficult to say exactly.  We would like to think that people take what they want from listening to the album, instead of us saying “it’s meant to be this”. Its DNA is definitely in club-land and going out though… and maybe a few morning after’s too haha!

What’s the creative process like? Does one of you usually take the lead when writing together, or is it very much an equal, collaborative process? 

We both come up with the ideas, be it a melody, sample or a demo of a track. We then bounce them off each other and make a decision on whether it’s a Sentre track or something else. We try not to labour over things too much, so if one of us has an idea we usually make a decision on it pretty quickly. Then one of us will do a bit of work to it and then finish it off together in the Rave Bunker.

What’s your favourite aspect of the creative process when making an album? 

I think it’s capturing the initial idea. When the finished track sounds close to what you first imagined that’s a really satisfying feeling… bloody hard to do though. I think if you ask anyone making music they will tell you how hard it is to not to stray too far from that first spark.

Dream Logic features everything from techno to soulful rnb. How easy have you found it merging such a mix of genres?

I think if you are making music you shouldn’t really worry too much whether it’s techno, rnb, house or whatever. Limitations can be a good thing when making music but being open to what’s going on around you and trying new things is exciting. There is a track on Dream Logic that features our friend 1403 called Eclipse and it’s basically a rave record but with this cool vocal on top. It’s exciting trying stuff like that out. You end with really cool results.

Do you have plans to perform the music live? If so, what can we expect? 

The plan is to get a live show together after the album is released. It would be great to take it on the road. I think we’d need to reinterpret some of the tracks though. We are also going to be DJing too. We do a monthly radio show on Bloop already, which is fun as we get to test a lot of our own material out.

You’ve both worked with and remixed a diverse list of names. Are there any other artists who you’re really excited about that you’d like to work with in the future? 

That list of people we’d like to work with is a very very long list, whether they’d want to work with us is another matter all together! One of the great things about music is that there is always something new around the corner to get excited about. Just by listening to 6music, Rinse or Weatherall on NTS I’m constantly hearing new exciting music on a daily basis.

Finally, what plans do you two have for the rest of the year once the album’s dropped? Any other exciting projects in the pipeline that our readers should keep an eye out for?

There are a few things that we are involved with, but nothing that we can actually tell you about, sorry! One thing is for sure though; there is plenty of new Sentre music coming.

Sentre’s latest EP is out now via Amazon | Spotify | Apple