They have worked with the likes of Lily Allen, Olly Murs, Little Mix and Shakira has seen them contribute to 35 million album sales, three UK #1 hits and a further eleven international chart-toppers. Meet the production team of Future Cut – Tunde Babalola and Darren Lewis – two men whose musical journey has taken them from kings of the underground drum ‘n’ bass scene to curators of some of the pop world’s biggest hits. “The general public don’t know who we are,” says Lewis. “But they’ve definitely heard us.”
As promoters in Manchester’s drum ‘n’ bass community of the mid-nineties, it was inevitable that that the duo would meet and subsequently embark upon the touring life of superstar DJs. This evolved into Un-Cut, a band project uniting Future Cut on a full-time basis with Jenna G landed them a recording deal in 2002 with Warner Bros. Records. and that turned us from being beat makers to record producers.”
While the finished album, ‘The Un-Calculated Some’, earned positive reviews for its fearless hybrid of genres it most importantly lead to them being introduced to a young singer-songwriter by the name of Lily Allen.
“We got together in a basement studio in Manchester & the first song we wrote together was ‘Smile’” exclaims Lewis. We set Lily up with a MySpace and the rest is history.” Future Cut produced and co-wrote the bulk of her 4-million selling debut album ‘Alright, Still’ including its two hits ‘Smile’ and ‘LDN’.
Eager to capitalise on their moment in the spotlight, Future Cut’s new priority was to make progress in America and they soon did exactly that, landing high profile production work for the likes of Rihanna, Nicole Scherzinger, Shakira and MIA to name but a few.
