Disclosure on Songwriting & More: 'We Thought 'Latch' Was Too Weird for the Radio' (Cover Story)
It has been a couple of years since Disclosure's Howard and Guy Lawrence stashed their records and clothes at their parents' house in the London suburb of Surrey, went off on their first U.S. tour and, at some indeterminate snare kick along the way, established themselves as the global faces of a house music revival.
In addition to selling out every American show, the brothers have collaborated with Mary J. Blige ("F for You") and emerged as Madonna's favorite new EDM act. Best of all, their Sam Smith-buoyed single — "Latch," No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 — has become a song-of-summer phenomenon, almost 20 months after its original release in the United Kingdom in October 2012.
"We thought 'Latch' was too weird for the radio and not clubby enough for the clubs," admits Guy, 23, the duo's drummer, mixer and elder sibling by three years. "It's in 6/8 time — not even 4/4, which is house's tempo."
Clean-shaven, with restless sea-gray eyes and tawny hair that crests from right to left, he smiles while being shuttled in a black SUV through Los Angeles traffic, part of Disclosure's migration from one top 40 radio station interview to the next. "'Latch,'" he decides, "is just a strange song that people like."
In fact, it's more like a generational anthem. "Latch" is the most Shazamed song everywhere, from Tijuana, Mexico, to Huntsville, Ala., to house's ancestral home, Chicago — and it arguably has made Disclosure the biggest British crossover act since Adele.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6141028/disclosure-billboard-cover-story