Disclosure on Sam Smith, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and the Dance-Music High Life
On a crisp September afternoon, Guy Lawrence parks his late-model Jaguar on a side street in London, a few spaces ahead of his brother Howard’s Audi. Together they walk over to Shoreditch House, their members-only club, waving hello at a Scandinavian-accented receptionist as they stroll through the lobby. Prospective members of the exclusive institution must complete a stringent application process involving recommendations, an essay and a £200 submission fee. But the Lawrence brothers, better known as the superstar dance-music duo Disclosure, didn’t bother with any of that: Shoreditch House waived its requirements and welcomed them to the club when they played a DJ set here last year.
Everyone wants to be on Disclosure‘s team right now. In 2012, just a few years after they started making music together as teens, they crafted a worldwide smash with the sleek club-soul groove “Latch,” featuring vocals from their pal Sam Smith (it eventually went triple platinum in the U.S.). Their second album — this fall’s lush Caracal, featuring guest vocals from Lorde, Miguel, the Weeknd and more — is the crown jewel of a year in which they’ve moved steadily inward from pop’s cutting edge to its glittering center. Kanye West approached Guy backstage at a festival this summer to propose working together; a few months earlier, a parade of A-listers showed up at the post-Grammys house party Disclosure threw at an $83 million Bel-Air mansion, where they DJed for seven hours straight with their good friend Diplo. “Taylor was there dancing all night; Katy was there,” Guy says. “Mark Ronson showed up at 4 a.m. All the famous people came, and no paparazzi. It was so fun.”
“I didn’t do anything rock & roll that night,” Howard says as a waiter brings two flat-white coffees to the roomy armchairs where they’re sitting. “I just had way too long of a chat with Ed Sheeran.”
Guy laughs. “Yeah, you fucked up.”
The brothers are dressed almost identically in black jeans, neutral-colored T-shirts and sneakers. Guy, 24, the duo’s drummer and production wizard, is the more outgoing of the two. Howard, 21, a talented bassist who takes a lead role in writing Disclosure’s melodies and lyrics, has a more understated personality and a major appreciation for Lord of the Rings. “I’m wearing the ring — like, the ring,” he says, slipping a fat gold band from his right hand to show off the detailed movie replica that Sam Smith bought him for his birthday this spring. “Don’t put it on, you’ll disappear,” he adds with a giggle. Both of them are also wearing limited-edition Omega watches that suggest serious wealth (recommended retail price: $16,600 each) without being flashy. Guy explains that the timepieces were a gift from Omega after they licensed a track for a TV commercial. “It was advertising a watch called the Ladymatic, which sounds like a dildo,” he says. “Nice payment for doing absolutely nothing.”