As Makeness, Kyle Molleson makes off-kilter dance music with a loose and live feel. Having spent his much of his youth living in the Outer Hebrides, Molleson moved to Leeds for university a few years ago. There he met the members of art pop band Adult Jazz, quickly becoming friends and playing together in house party bands around the city. They remained close after moving to London and eventually ended up collaborating on “Other Life”, a post-punk-flecked piece of disco-funk with an unbelievably addictive groove.

“Other Life”, like so many great pop songs, was practically written in one take, with Molleson and Adult Jazz’s Harry Burgess laying down the track in a single studio session in south London. “It was pretty instant,” says Burgess. “We came away from that first afternoon with these really nice melodies/instrumental things. I sent it over to Tom (Howe, Adult Jazz) and he did some structuring. It’s nice for Kyle and I to work in that zone, ’cos we love it, but don’t often do it. Its quickness was quite a shock for me.”

The “Other Life” video (directed by Nicholas Pomeroy with Burgess, and featuring set design by Phoebe Darling) matches the simple, fun, colourful nature of the song. “We were looking at a lot of band, studio, white-space videos, like “Rip It Up” by Orange Juice and classic A-ha stuff,” says Burgess. “A lot of the time in the video there’s this character who’s having this moment of solitude and is unaffected by what’s going on around. (We) contrast this emotive singing about love and loss with someone who’s just doing admin.”

We caught up with Makeness’s Kyle Molleson and Adult Jazz’s Harry Burgess to discuss the collaboration and the video.

Where did you two meet?

Makeness: I met Harry at Leeds when we were at uni together. Harry was actually in my flat.

Harry Burgess: Our rooms were next door.

Makeness: That’s where it all started. We were both wanting to start a band. We even did early rehearsals, but eventually went our separate ways, bandwise.

Do you come from similar musical backgrounds?

Makeness: I guess so. We’re both quite into folk music.

Harry Burgess: I’m into really cheesy folk music compared to Kyle. Kyle comes from a bit of a folk-music heritage. A lot of Kyle’s family make music, my family don’t really.

Makeness: Getting into dance music was quite recent for me. I’ve always liked it, but in terms of making it, I’ve always been in bands. Coming from that side of things definitely informs how I make dance music – I always make it as real and live-sounding as possible.

How did you write ‘Other Life’?

Makeness: Me and Harry used to have this party band at university, just playing house parties and stuff. We used to do a few fun covers. We covered ‘Blind’ by Hercules & Love Affair and a few others.

Harry Burgess: Let’s give the setlist, come on. There was ‘Lady’ by Modjo. What else was there?

Makeness: ‘House of Jealous Lovers’, that was in there.

Harry Burgess: Recently we did Luther Vandross at a wedding, that was great.

Makeness: I was getting into recording onto tape machines, sampling, analogue synths and DIY studio stuff. I had a little back-room setup in Brockley. A weird heavy metal band from the 80s had built this home studio in this house…

Harry Burgess: What were they called?

Makeness: (laughs) Pagan Altar.

Harry Burgess: The wall was all hessian, wasn’t it? Covered in sackcloth?

Makeness: Yeah, it was a guardian scheme house that my girlfriend was living in at the time. I invited Harry over one afternoon. I had this drum groove and bass groove and we kind of built it around that in a couple of hours, and then we left the room like, ‘Oh, we’ve done something really special there.’

Harry Burgess: It was refreshing for me to work quickly, especially vocally. We’ve used takes from that first session in the track. With my other music I’d maybe pore over it a bit more, so it was nice to work that quickly. We did maybe three sessions afterwards and then it was done. I was dancing a lot while singing it, so that was the vibe in the room. Kyle is deeper into dance music, in terms of making it – I love dance music, but I’ve not really made it as much, so it was nice to be working with, like, regular kick patterns.

“Sometimes it’s good to do something where you’re not trying to be intellectual, but then you hit someone with an emotional bullet” – Harry Burgess, Adult Jazz

There’s usually a long intellectual process that goes into your lyrics with Adult Jazz. Are the lyrics as important on this song?

Harry Burgess: It’s the first time I had quite a relatable problem, so I wrote quite a relatable song about it. It’s not one of the ones you need to pore over. Sometimes in pop music, a lot of the lyrics are a bit fluffier, but then you have a few more specific lines once per verse. That always gets me – it’s quite moving. Say I’m out dancing, there’ll be a big Rihanna track, and there’s just one line (that really resonates with me). Recently it’s been the Britney song ‘Lucky’, that’s got some amazing lines in it. Sometimes it’s good to do something where you’re not trying to be intellectual, but then you hit someone with an emotional bullet.

Can you tell us about the video?

Harry Burgess: It was initially an idea by Sam Travis, who’s a guy that’s done a lot of video work with my band Adult Jazz and who’s a school friend of Kyle’s, so it’s all nice and linked together. But he wasn’t around to do the video, so we took the idea and did it with Nick, another director. We were looking at a lot of band, studio, white-space videos, like ‘Rip It Up’ by Orange Juice and classic A-ha stuff. A lot of the time in the video there’s this character who’s having this moment of solitude and is unaffected by what’s going on around. (We) contrast this emotive singing about love and loss with someone who’s just doing admin. It felt humorous, I didn’t feel like I was loading it with meaning like I would with Adult Jazz.

Makeness: I was up for having us (appear) in it – a take on a classic band video, having the live drums in there even though there’s not a live drumkit on the track.

What are you working on next?

Makeness: I’m working on an album. I’m approaching it more from a band perspective, recording with a lot of instruments but bringing it back to a dance music focus. I’m doing a few vocal ideas.

Harry Burgess: (Adult Jazz are) starting to write new stuff after having a break from our last record. We’ve been doing a bit of production with some singers from America, which is very exciting. And I’m making a record with my friend who makes music as Lil Data (on PC Music). Me and Kyle live about five minutes from each other and there’s loads of our friends who live nearby. We’re always sharing and swapping.