How did you guys meet?

 Murison: We met through a combination of deejaying together and hanging out at House Afrika Records and basically just having a shared passion for really solid house records. If I think back to the very first time we met - I think it was at a Sonic Mushroom party that we both deejayed at in Pretoria back in the day - Graeme (G-Force) was involved in it and it was an event thrown by a friend of mine from Kempton Park named Craig Marshall. Those parties were so wicked. I loved having the opportunity to be part of them.

What influences the music you make?

 Massiv: We both started out playing house records in the early 90s, so house music will always be close to our hearts. Dance and electronic music has evolved so much since then and incorporates a bunch of different styles and genres. Just as that’s evolved, so have we as producers. We take inspiration from anything that moves us, anything with a bit of depth and soul. The most exciting thing about music at the moment is that there are no rules. We are constantly listening out for something fresh and new.

Is this the first time you’ve worked together on a project?

 Murison: Craig and I experimented in the early days in a friend’s studio in Pretoria. Although nothing became of it, that was when we first worked on a project together. I think shortly after that I moved to the UK, but we had always talked about working on something together over the years. So it was just a matter of time.

Why the name Loskop?

 Murison: We wanted to think of something that would work globally. To people in South Africa it may have been a slightly odd choice but for the rest of the world it's a unique name. The ‘Los’ links to the fact that I live in Los Angeles and the direct translation ‘loose head’ is pretty cool too. Then there's the simple fact that Craig and I can both be a bit loskop at the best of times, so we found it fitting. All in all it's a classic South African word which ties us firmly to our roots and where we grew up.

What was the process behind These Sparks?

 Murison: The two of us really like the new drum and bass stuff that's coming out from Sub Focus, Netsky to the obvious like Rudimental UK. We always knew we would want to explore this angle with some of the records on this project at some point. I met Maiya through a session musician that I work with here named Lincoln Cleary and we were actually trying to do a house record with her because she has that amazing diva voice. We were having a hard time getting something we were all happy with on that tip, so at the end of one session as an experiment I said to her, "Maiya can we try something quickly before you have to head off?" We had about 45 minutes before she had to leave so I rushed and chopped a loop of a chord progression out of an old drum and bass record that I liked, that sat at 175bpm.

I had jotted down a bunch of lyrical content a few days prior, inspired by tracks that I listen to, so I gave those ideas to her and said: "Let’s see if we can make this work.” Needless to say she killed it and it came really easy. The two verses and the pre were written and we had a scratch vocal down in the 45 minutes. Then there was a lot of the usual back and forth of the track between Craig and I plus some help from Lincoln on the bridge and eventually we ended up with it as you hear it today.

What can we expect in the future from Loskop?

 Massiv: Definitely the start to something greater. Writing music for Loskop is our main focus at the moment. We’ve just signed to Sony Music with the aim of getting our music out both locally and internationally.

These Sparks is now available to stream or download.