Two Another on ‘Elation’, Creative Reinvention and Finding Their Way Back to the Dancefloor
After a decade of releases, hundreds of millions of streams and a global audience, Two Another are entering a period of creative reinvention. For Angus and Eliot, whose distinctive combination of alternative R&B, soul and electronic music has earned them more than a million monthly Spotify listeners, the next chapter is less about abandoning what made them successful and more about rediscovering something they set aside along the way.
“I think we’re very much in our club phase at the moment. We’ve always loved making dance music, but we kind of parked those aspirations early on when we saw the other side of what we do starting to gain some traction. It just felt like the right time to come back to it.”
Their latest single, ‘Elation’, captures that shift. Built around a sampled guitar groove, live bass, horns and Eliot’s vocals, the track translates the rush of falling in love into something equally suited to personal listening and a crowded dancefloor. Its accompanying remix, released on 23rd October through Another Label, finds Copenhagen producer Nandu taking the original into deeper, more rhythmically adventurous territory.
For Two Another, the move towards club music has introduced new possibilities without requiring them to discard their established creative process.
“We don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. I can definitely appreciate that people don’t necessarily want too much lyrical depth in their dance music, but we think there’s room for both.”
‘Elation’ began with Angus sending Eliot an instrumental built around a guitar sample. Vocals followed, before the duo refined the arrangement and brought in musicians to replay parts, including bass and horns. It is a familiar method for two artists who have spent years moving between live instrumentation and electronic production.
The challenge has been learning when to resist their songwriting instincts.
“One thing we’ve been learning with this newer house stuff is just letting parts breathe a little more. Sometimes we still have our pop songwriting hats on and feel like there needs to be a second verse or a pre-chorus, or that the dynamics of a track need to be driven by melody.”
In house music, they have found, rhythm and production can carry an emotional journey without following conventional song structures.
That understanding also shaped their choice of remixer. Introduced to Nandu through their management, the duo were attracted to his willingness to approach familiar material from an unexpected perspective.
“You don’t necessarily want someone who’s just going to give you a stock standard club version of the original. You want someone who’s going to approach it from a different angle, take a few risks and hopefully surprise you a little.”
Nandu delivered precisely that, retaining the emotional connection of the original while introducing broken rhythms, expressive synthesiser work and a distinctly late-night atmosphere.
“He really thought outside the box with how he used the stems and managed to put his own signature sound on the track while still making it feel very much connected to our world.”
That balance between experimentation and recognisable identity has become increasingly important to Two Another.
Although their releases have reached an enormous audience, the pair have been making music together for 15 years, developing a creative relationship built around complementary strengths. Angus concentrates on production and arrangement, while Eliot brings a stronger focus on vocals, melody and lyrics.
“Being in a band is ultimately about compromise, and in our case, I think that compromise is actually what makes the music better.”
Their commitment to live instrumentation remains another defining characteristic. Long before the duo had an established catalogue, they were recording musicians improvising over demos, building an archive of performances that could later be chopped, sampled and transformed into new material.
That approach continues to offer something they believe is increasingly valuable in electronic music.
“Sometimes a musician will bring a little bit of flair or an unexpected idea to a track that you wouldn’t have come up with yourself, and that’s often where some of the most interesting stuff happens.”
The importance of human expression extends beyond the instruments themselves.
Asked how they distinguish genuine emotional connection from technical accomplishment, the duo point towards authenticity, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes more prominent across streaming platforms.
“People are pretty good at recognising when something feels genuine, and I think they have a good ear for things that feel organic versus things that sound overly processed or digital.”
Their belief in music’s emotional power has also been reinforced by audiences in ways they could never have anticipated.
At their first show back at London’s Heaven in 2022, Two Another performed ‘Coming Alive’, a track they had regarded as relatively understated. The response surprised them.
“Anyway, we started playing it and could immediately see people’s eyes light up, couples kissing, people singing along. We literally turned to each other after the show and said, okay, that needs to be our closer.”
The song subsequently became their biggest release, illustrating how listeners can discover a significance in music that its creators might initially overlook.
“Clearly the audience had figured something out about that song before we had.”
For an act with such an established audience, however, creative change inevitably carries an element of uncertainty. Moving further into dance music means challenging familiar structures and expectations, including their own assumptions about what a Two Another record should sound like.
“You start knowing what a Two Another song should sound like before you’ve even made it, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Rather than attempting to recreate earlier successes, they are embracing that uncertainty.
“I think trying to recreate the same music over and over again can be just as alienating to an audience as experimenting with something new. Eventually it gets boring, and you’re almost competing with yourself, which doesn’t seem particularly interesting to us.”
Their independence has made that evolution easier. Having remained largely self-directed throughout their releasing career, the duo now operate through Another Label, giving them greater freedom over both their music and its presentation.
The next major step is a new hybrid live show, with Angus DJing alongside live vocals, synthesisers and samplers. It is a format designed to bring their songwriting history into closer contact with club culture.
“So for the next year or eighteen months, the goal is to make music that feeds into that show and hopefully build a bit of a community around it.”
The ambition is not to choose between emotional songwriting and dancefloor functionality, but to find a space where both can coexist.
“We want to make records that are really fun on the dancefloor, but that people still want to listen to in the car or at home. We’re definitely not abandoning the songwriting side of things; it’s more about figuring out how to bring that into this new world we’re exploring.”
For Two Another, ‘Elation’ is more than another single. It offers an early glimpse of a new creative direction, one that draws on everything they have learned together while leaving room for the unexpected.
