We catch up with veteran house groovemaker Chris Lake to chat about his new album Chemistry (the first in his 20+ year career) and his creative and collaborative processes in making it. Scroll down and check it out!

Date published: 28th Jul 2025

With a career spanning two decades and a reputation as one of dance music’s most consistent hitmakers, Chris Lake has never been in any rush to drop an album… until now. 

Chemistry, his long-awaited debut LP, finds the house titan diving deeper into songwriting, reconnecting with the melodies and musical hooks that first made him fall in love with dance music, and opening his doors (literally) to a stacked cast of collaborators, including Bonobo, Able Balder, and MPH.

Across the record, Lake merges club-ready grooves with an instinct for musicality that’s been bubbling beneath the surface for years. From rolling late-night bangers to rich and textured electronic soundscapes, Chemistry proves that Lake’s signature sound still has plenty of room to evolve.

Scroll down for our full conversation about why now was the right time for an album, the inspiration behind his Twitch streams, and the collaborations that brought Chemistry to life.

 

 

Hi Chris, I want to dive right into 'Chemistry', surprisingly, your first album in an illustrious 20+ year career, you haven't been working on it that whole time, have you?

“Haha, it has taken me quite a while to figure it all out. But I've got there in the end!”

“But, to be honest, I think I've just been laser-focused on singles for so long. I never really felt an urge or a need to do an album, or even felt like I had a vision of what an album that would actually mean anything to me could sound like.

“That really changed a couple of years ago. I had a vision for what I could do, what I could work on, and honestly, just feeling like I had a platform to even release it and get it heard, which is a big part of things.

“But we’re here now. I've realised I can do an album. I can put one together. And it was great to work on. 

“The vision of what to do revolved around me wanting to get a bit more musical and focus on songs a little bit more, but still make it work with beats that felt like me. Which was quite hard to do. It was actually really hard to do. 

“Getting melodies back into my tracks and making them work and making them feel right to me. It took me quite a while to figure that all out. But I got there in the end.”

 

You say it was about two years ago now that you had that mental switch in terms of wanting to do the album. What do you think it was that triggered that?

“It was the fact that I was looking back at what I'd done and going through a lot of demos that I'd written around all of these singles that I've release - I always save everything that I write - and I found a bunch of stuff that I'd done five, six years ago that was really musical. I listened to it, and it made me feel good that I put so much into the songs.

“Then after that, when I went back and actually listened to the music I had been releasing, I felt like it was getting more and more effective in a club sensibility way, but also less and less musical. 

“So I felt like I wanted to try and retool almost. It was a process of just trying to make myself a better musician and a better producer. So I just started focusing on trying to make songs with a bit more depth to them.

“I had loads of fun with the writing process and with the beats, just trying to merge the two together, and that was really what my vision was. But the first year was really spent trying to learn new techniques and trying new things. 

"It may sound stupid, and some people might hear it and think it's so f**king ridiculous for someone like me to be saying that, but honestly, I couldn't have made what I ended up making without that time. It took me a long time to figure out how to piece everything together.”

 

You've used the word musicality a lot there to describe the direction of the record. It must have been quite a fun process rediscovering your old sound, and the sound that was about then, and being inspired by it.

“Yeah, there was a couple of other things as well. I had this vision of just trying to make more musical hooks as well. 

"Like, if you listen to ‘Satisfy Me’, the hook of that is essentially just the guitar, and that was the sort of thing that was happening 15/20 years ago, and I really, really miss it in the scene. 

“So that was one of my driving forces behind trying to make songs like that. Figuring out  ways to just make these musical hooks on the drops nice and euphoric and all that good stuff.”

 

"I listen to all these songs on the album, and just think of having all these really f**king great times working with these people and having great conversations."

 

For me, another thing that I've noticed listening to the album is just how collaborative a project it's been for you. Whether it's huge names like Bonobo and MPH, or artists I wasn't personally aware of like Abel Balder and Black Lotus. Plus, with an album title like Chemistry, it feels like that collaboration was embedded into it from the get-go. Was that the case? And how did you go about choosing the people?

“It was a massive part of things, and, to be honest, I just wanted to enjoy every part of what I was doing. I did loads of recording here in my home. I’m inviting people into my home, my kitchen's in the background, half the sessions were probably spent drinking coffee, talking shit, reconnecting with people.

“Now I’ll listen to all these songs on the album, and just think of having all these really f**king great times working with these people and having great conversations.

“Often as well, if I had a vision for a sound, but I felt someone else was really good at that kind of sound, rather than me trying to do that sound and imitating it, I'd call them. 

“Miles (MPH) is a great example of that. I love him and his production, and I had a vision of what a couple of these songs could sound like if I worked on them with him, and that's what happened. I called him, he was fantastic to work with, he was so open to a variety of things, and really malleable to my ideas, but also with a strong sense of identity with his own ideas, and it was great, and he was really, really fun to work with.

“That's one of the things that I love about collaboration, and it's sort of like you listen to something that I work on with MPH, contrast to like working on something with Bonobo, and there's just such a starkly different sound to it, yet also something that kind of like ties it together at the same time with me.”

 

I agree, I was gonna say like, despite all these producers - all from quite different genres/sounds as you say - there feels like there's a real through line on the record. Was that something you were doing consciously in writing the tracks, or is it something more organic than that?

“Honestly, it’s probably not as conscious a thought as people would expect it to be. 

“I think it's more of a case of putting a lot of faith into my musical fingerprint being on everything. You know what I mean?"

 

 

I'd love to dive into a few of the tracks. First off, ‘Falling.’ Just working with Bonobo, I mean, he’s someone who I admire deeply, and someone I know you do too. What was it like working with him? And how did the conversations about that track first come about?

“Phenomenal. I was just, honestly, super happy. 

“I’d actually wrote that song before working with him. But I'd done many, many, many versions of it, and it was just not clicking. There was something I was getting wrong about my whole approach to the song, and I shared the song and my vision with him.

“I wasn't really playing that song to anyone either, not even anyone on my team or anything. It was a very personal one for me, and I shared it with him because we were in the room,  playing a bunch of music, and I shared it with him, and straight away he was like; I have the idea. I've got a vision for this. He showed me what that vision was, and I was like, that's it. That completely makes this whole thing work. He’s so talented.

“But it was so much fun working with him as his approach is completely different to mine and anyone else I worked with on the album. His approach and palette are way over there compared to everyone else. If you can’t tell, I just loved working with him.”

 

I bet. I'd imagine he’s quite physical in the instruments he's using, too. It's one of those things that I really love about his music. Like, it's electronic and danceable, but it's so imbued with such texture and lush instrumentation. He’s so unique, and his touch is definitely present on the track. 

“Yeah, for sure. I don't think he writes things with a dance mentality, whereas I do; I normally think dancefloor first. 

“I wouldn't say we fought that with this song, but with Simon, somehow, he's always just got loads of interesting musicality that ends up working with dance. Whereas, I start from dance and then like try to throw some musicality into it to make it interesting.”

 

If we're on about building stuff for dancefloors, I'd love to chat about ‘Psycho.’ That one just feels like the records stand out, balls to the wall, going for it number. 

“It’s funny, if there was any song that was the closest to getting cut from the record, it was that one. Mainly because I feel like it betrays everything I’ve told you and described that I was trying to achieve in the project.

“That is, without a doubt, the most automatic, instinctual Chris Lake song off the album. It’s the sort of song that I go into a little trance and I've made in 30 minutes, and I think that's pretty much how long that song took, haha.  

“It's just instinctual. Yeah, that's instinctual; there's not much musicality in there, there's actually none. But it's still a banger, and it’s really fun. It absolutely has a place on the project, but it's a complete outlier, and one that took a bit of convincing for sure.”

 

 

 

The last one I'd love to chat about as well is ‘Ease My Mind’. I've heard that there was quite a lot of work gone into that track in the background. I’ve heard you talk about how, when it wasn't working, you stripped it back completely and played it live in the room. I'd love to hear about that process because it really interested me.

“It really was an interesting process. When we originally wrote the song, if I showed you the initial demo next to what we finished with, you'd hear the final song within the initial demo. It's all there, but it was really, really hidden. 

“I don't know how to explain it, and it took us a long time to figure out how to get the song to flow, how to get the moments to lift in the right way and feel really alive, and figure out how Abel would sing it, perform it, and then how the instruments would go around it.

“There was a lot of manual editing of initial takes and then additional takes over months and months and months, where it was almost like Abel had an idea of how the song was coming together, and then I had a vision of how it was coming together, and it would just go on and on. 

“We eventually then we ended up with an architecture for the song that felt good, but it was also a bit of a Frankenstein, haha.

“So I suggested we get in the studio again, pull the faders down, and start from scratch. So we did that and ended up spending two days essentially just performing the song in the room, working on and stripping back things from that infrastructure, and then trying to get life back into it. By the time we got there, we were certain about how it was going to go. We laid it down, and then it became quite a bit simpler to finish after that.

“The process to get to that point was quite long and laborious, but it was absolutely worth it. I'm really, really proud of that track.”

 

It’s one of my favourites on the record, for sure. I mean, is that aspect of stripping it back and playing it live, especially with what we’re talking about with Bonobo and his live musicality before, something you’ve done before, or is it new to you? Also, is a ‘Live’ show something you have ever thought about doing?

“It is a bit newer, and something I’m doing more in the music that I'm releasing now, yeah. I really didn't used to ‘play’ that much. 

“I used to joke years ago that the moment that everything started becoming unlocked for me was when I realised I could quantise what I would play, and I could fix all the dud notes. Ironically, over the last few years, I've really moved away from that, and I've really embraced more mistakes and become more at peace with what I can play and how that sounds. 

“You know, I’m doing more audio takes; I’m doing less fixed, perfect, kind of like gridded audio; I'm performing a lot more on my songs. But at the same time, my skills as a keyboardist have not progressed since I was 13 years old, and I'm 42 now, and I'm not kidding, haha, it's actually really weird.

“I’ve just got these fingers that are not accurate, I'm hitting white and black keys at the same time, there are lots of dud notes, and it really annoys me. To be honest, it’s the thing that's stopped me from going live; it's just not good enough, I'm not confident enough. 

“It's really annoying, but you want to do it to the best of your ability, don't you? You want to make something good and be proud of it, and if you're not confident in that, then. You know, you'll be more than successful with sticking to what you're good at.”

 

While we're talking about your production, I've got to chat to you about these Twitch streams that you've been doing, because I've been loving them. I think it's such a wicked idea and a real insight, for both fans and budding producers alike, to see artists of the calibre that you and the guests are working your way through a tune, and the process that goes on there. Where did that idea come from? And what's it been like seeing the support and love for them?

“Thank you! I did the first streams during the pandemic, and it was a bit of an eye-opener for me. I feel very fortunate that I feel comfortable with who I am and what I can do in the studio, and I feel comfortable showing people the good and the bad. 

“And also that I have the belief in the good of what I do, being strong enough to support me, also showing how f**king monumentally shit my music production can be at the same time. But I think that duality of things is quite a nice process to show people because it's very, very real. Not every session is great.

“But then, if you can capture those moments where something clicks, that's what feels really nice for me. I wouldn't say there've been loads of them, but I want to continue to a point where I'm increasing the chances of capturing the real moments.

“The thing that's been hard for me since I started back up streaming in 2025 is that I was purposely not being able to show some of the main songs I was working on because they were for the album. I've not yet been at a point with the streams where I'm showing the strongest stuff that I'm working on in the studio, and I would love to get to a point where I'm going on stream, and I'm showing the hottest shit that I'm working on from start to finish, even with working with singers as well.

“I'd love to be able to show all of that, but I'd also love to get to a point where the artists that I'm working with have a belief and an understanding of what they're signing up for, what they're going to be exposing, and feeling comfortable with it, and feeling like there's enough of a benefit for them to be even bothering to do it in the first place.

“It's going to take time to kind of build up, but I do feel it's unique. I don't think there are loads of people that do it, especially to the level of artists that I'm maybe doing it at.”

 

I think that notion is in itself why it’s landing. You’re getting people like Bonobo and Sammy Virji on there. It's artists whose flow in the studio everyone wants to see. How do you see it progressing now?

‘The mad thing is that people have been calling, there are a lot of people who now want to come on. So that's definitely been making me think more. 

“There are realities. I have to set things up in a way where I can still function as an artist as well. Not everything is about the streams, so I've got to plan things ahead. But yeah, I want to continue it, and I'm really glad you're enjoying it.”

 

 

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Want to listen to 'Chemistry'? Well, it's out now on all platforms, listen to it on Spotify - HERE

Want to catch Chris Lake live? Check out his artist page on Skiddle, for all his upcoming shows - HERE

 

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