SOS Music’s Elias Brown Talks New Single, Living the High Life and Why Manchester Will Always be Home

Rebecca Waldren | 27th April 2017

VIVA caught up with Manchester native Elias Brown, 25,  to find out all about his Dubai based group SOS Music, their collaborative single ‘Abu Dabbin’ and its’ remix which have both raked up over a million views on Youtube. We chatted to Elias about all things SOS, working with Chip and Red Cafe and why he made the move to the UAE (well it’s not hard to guess what his reply was!)

Hi Elias, how are you doing?

Yeah I’m ok, fine thank you.

VIVA Becky: Fantastic news about SOS’s single Abu Dabbin and its remix which have both raked over a million views! It’s a great collaboration, what do you think has made it so successful?

The vibe that we gave off and the energy we brought on the song. The whole concept of Abu Dhabi and Dubai that we put together, I feel like it just got peoples attention- the whole scenery of the video, the vibe of the song… People organically like the song.

VIVA Becky: What was it like working with Chip and Red Café and how did you get them on the remix?

Again, it’s just like a mad organic thing! Chip’s like our people’s people so whenever he comes to Dubai he’s automatically in with us. He’s been to a few of our shows as well and seen how we perform and he loves our vibes. When he came over he was giving us pointers on our performance, what to do and what not to do and then when he heard ‘Abu Dabbin’, before the video came out even, he was like this one’s the one. We gave him the idea and he said yes straight away, he was like yeah let’s do it!

Red Café, we must have seen he was in Dubai, one of the group members saw that he was Snapchatting and Tweeting that he was in Dubai and we said let’s link up. We went out with him on one night out and the energy was right and everything was cool and we showed him the video afterwards and he was on board straight away.

VIVA Becky: There was a lot of guys on set, doesn’t it all get a bit too much in that heat or are you all quite organised?!

Yeah, the original was shot in the middle of Summer, so it was. If you have been to Dubai you will know what summertime’s like so we were just out there sweating! The director Eric Myers from Boss Media was out there thinking he would wear flip flops out in the sand and he came back with burns on his feet [Laughs]. It was mainly just the desert shots though that were a bit of stress, but the rest of the video went smooth.

Credit: SOS Music

VIVA Becky: Tell us about your experience opening for Wiz Khalifa in Abu Dhabi?

Yeah, that was crazy. There was this company and we reached out to them, a Dubai group, because there is not that many artists out in Dubai, not many that are established and at the time we were kind of coming up in the game and people were recognising the name. We have done shows in front of 25,000 people, so we kind of used that as a leverage to say look at us and let us jump on the boat [Laughs]. The guy saw our stuff and was like cool, so we just jumped on and the experience was good! Unfortunately we did not get to meet Wiz Khalifa though.

 

VIVA Becky: You also performed alongside a few other international acts such as Sean Paul and Krept and Konan at Beats on The Beach recently didn’t you. Do you feel that it inspires you working alongside other artists? 

 Definitely. These guys do it 24/7 and we are just having that little taste of it. It definitely puts you in a position where you can experience it first hand what this life could be like.

VIVA Becky:  Yeah, you must get to meet some of the people who you look up to as well?

Yeah, exactly you get to meet some of the people you look up to! Performing on the same stage as Travis Scott is not a little thing you know!

VIVA Becky: Do you get a little bit star struck?!:

You have just got to learn to control yourself haven’t you and get through it I guess (laughs)!

VIVA Becky: Dubai has become a bit of a hub for music and culture at the moment hasn’t it, what is it about it that you think attracts so many artists there?

 Just look at the place and you can say I want to go there and I want to be there! Just look at the cold streets of the UK and the rain. I would say as well with the culture alone that people want to go there and see what the vibe is. Then you have the high life living…

VIVA Becky: Is that what attracted you?

No, for me mine was more of a family thing, I have family out there. I have been going there for about 14 years now but I just made the decision when I was like twenty and not doing the right things. I just went there and changed my life but I see every reason why people want to be there. Waking up to the heat every day, the sunshine and here people are just living life and it is inspiring.

Credit: SOS Music

VIVA Becky: Have you got a good relationship with all the boys?

Yeah 100% they are family. Well we all have our differences, we have our ups and downs but we all come together and just squash it. Again there’s that mentality to just get it, psh everything to the side, to stop acting like kids you know…

VIVA Becky: What brings you back to Manchester?

I’ve got family here. I was in Manchester to see my mum and brother really.

VIVA Becky: What have you been doing since you’ve been back?

  Just trying to crack on. Been in studios with a producer called Wizzy Wow, we have got a track with an artist called Marcus he is an amazing vocalist! Wizzy Wow has got a strong name in the game as well, he has worked with the likes of Ghetto and
Wretch on their old school albums. I did a song with my brother Sevak, he does most tracks with Mist. The production of his material is just crazy man- it is going to be something else!

VIVA Becky: As a Manchester native what would you say is your favourite thing about Manchester?

  Whenever I touch Manchester I feel like I am home. I love seeing the boys and going to town, going to Trafford Centre- there is a series of reasons why I like going back home.

VIVA Becky: So what can we expect from SOS Music in the next year?

 Bangers! That is our main focus I would say as of yet and collaborating, whether it is with a producer, artist, clothing or anything, we are open for everything right now. we are just trying to get our name out and trying to make people dance and vibe and bubble.  Can I do a shout out?

VIVA Becky: Course you can! What is it?

 T Jones is part of the group SOS Music and he just put out a song called ‘Rude Gal Desire’, it’s got a video to it, it’s a vibe and if you like Afrobeats you are going to vibe off that track 100%. I am also going to be on a feature with a guy called DeeJay Rico, he is actually from Nigeria. He’s got a song coming out called ‘God Damn’, I am featured on that with a guy called Rusty as well.

 

To watch the video to ‘Abu Dabbin’ go to their Youtube.

To follow Elias and find out what he gets up to go to his Twitter or SOS Music Twitter.