The story of “Living it up”
The story of Living it up by Berlon featuring Helen Webster)
An unfailingly feelgood euphoric house floor filler, with the super stylish ear-catching talent of a breakthrough vocalist simply smashing it out of the park. That’s Berlon’s sun-baked sizzler for all summers Living It Up (featuring Helen Webster) for you.
This irrepressible dance smash is a tale of two men in two cities – Berlin and London – pooling the stellar song writing and production pedigrees of house legend Willy Washington and Adam Graham under the Berlon moniker.
This buzzing creative partnership is living it up on the bar raising new Knoziz Recordings, a label on a singular mission to create timeless modern music with a strong soulful steer.
And like Berlin and London themselves, the results are just capital.
Willy and Adam explain how the soaring sound of Living It Up sprung into life.
“Living It Up came about when Adam sent me a disco loop, and he and I wrote a song to that,” says Willy. “I wanted to do something for summer…Ibiza, you’re going out with all your mates and you’re having a good time.
“Summers are incredible here in Berlin, and part of that got into the song.”
Adam says: “Willy and I have known each other a long time. Being based several hundred miles apart means that our writing process is very much a two-rooms approach. I write the track and then send him over a backing part.
“Willy then sings a scratch melody over the top, sends it back to me, and I write some lyrics to go with it. Then we put it all together, get into the studio with a vocalist, and they lay down the actual vocal.
“We’ve discovered we’re quite quick in this process and we’ve managed to churn out quite a few tracks we’re really proud of – so it’s worked really well.
“That’s how we wrote and produced Living It Up.”
As for the dynamic vocal display by Helen Webster on Living It Up, Adam says was only a matter of time before her untapped talent was unleashed on a wider audience.
“I’ve known Helen a very long time and she’s got an amazing voice,” says Adam. “Everyone who knows her knows what a fantastic voice she has. She’s always singing, but she’d never been in the studio before.
“When Willy and I wrote this track, I knew it would be really well suited for her voice. We got her in the studio to give it a go, and unsurprisingly she knocked it out of the park.”
Adam and Willy say there are more tracks coming down the line featuring Helen at the vocal helm. The pair will also be working with other vocalists, with loads of exciting projects in the mix.
Willy says he’s always loved to work with talented vocalists who aren’t necessarily professional singers and adds: “(Helen) has always sung and she was just great.
“It’s great to work with raw talent and Helen did a great job on this song. I’m looking forward to doing really good stuff with her.”
Living It Up is available now in all your favourite online record shops.
Living It Up reviewed – read it here.
