Solardo on Camelphat ‘banter’, wacky fashion, and rise of tech-house [Magazine Exclusive]

They’re the loveable rogues of the tech-house revolution, and their meteoric rise shows no signs of slowing. To you, they’re best known as Solardo, but to millions of ravers worldwide, Mark Richards and James Eliot are known as the poster boys of a rising dance music movement. Sprinkling their sets with the same dynamic diversity found in their eclectic dress styles (bright colours are a must!), each Hawaiian shirt is accompanied by a banger more potent than the last. Don’t be fooled though, the Mancunian duo are certainly no gimmick act. Here are two giants of the scene, and en route to an Ibiza residency with ‘Bodyworks’ alongside the likes of Fisher, Camelphat, Chris Lake and many more, the tech-house heavyweights have racked up a string of club rumblers, including ‘Be Somebody’, ‘Free Your Body’, ‘Move Your Body’, and arguably the biggest track of 2019… ‘XTC’. Here’s what happened when We Rave You met Solardo…

Hey guys! You’ve both got a pretty rich tradition in the music industry, so at what point did you decide to team up to become ‘Solardo’ and how did that originally come about? 

James: “Well Mark and I have known each other for many years through the party scene and have a lot of mutual friends. Mark was living in London for a few years but returned back to Manchester. We were meeting up as friends but it wasn’t until the beginning of 2015 that we really started taking the music seriously. After a couple of months experimenting with different styles, we made a track called ‘Slam Jam’ which went on to be signed to Steve Lawler‘s label, VIVa MUSIC, and from there on out, we felt we touched on a style that wasn’t really like anything else that was out there, I guess that was the start of Solardo!”

Image Credit: Solardo (Press) / Provided by Listen-Up PR