Words by Isaac Jay Solanki. Photography by Harvey Ryan. BTS by Isaac Jay Solanki. Thanks to Tomas Fraser [Patchwork Comms].

Collect 200’s debut album, “Everything Will Be Alright” serves as a reminder that everything might actually be alright, and I feel like it’s come at the perfect time. Not just for me but for a lot of people right now. “Joy” is the word that singer-songwriter and producer, Stevie Appleton and diamond-selling writer and producer, Nick Henriques use to describe the music they make together, and after rinsing the new project on repeat for the past month, I couldn’t agree more. A bit like Collect 200 themselves, this body of work feels laidback yet naturally uplifting and everything about it just works.

Effortless but euphoric, these two working together sounds like a summer rooftop party and this incredible record feels like the perfect setlist for golden-hour. You can picture friends on balconies, glasses raised with conversations folding into the music rather than competing against it. “Everything Will Be Alright” feels like an open invitation to groove, wherever you might be listening to it. Happy dance music, refreshingly bright, it’s the kind of sound that lifts your mood without trying too hard. Collect 200 aren’t forcing you to feel anything with this debut album, they’re just letting the music do what all good dance music should… lift you up, make you want to move, socialise and enjoy being alive.

I think the stories behind settling on a name for the project as well as the name “Collect 200” for them as a duo [see video 1], perfectly sums up the wholesome connection these two have. After originally choosing “High Vibrational People” for the album at Glasto last year, Nick explains how they “just kept saying “Everything Will Be Alright” throughout the album making process” before realising that they’d “already put the single down as track number one. It all fell into place quite naturally from there.” This optimistic yet relaxed approach to it all is truly inspiring to see, especially nowadays where it feels like a lot of artists put themselves under so much pressure to make it. “Between the two of us, I think there’s a lot of optimism” says Stevie, “we both back each other up if there’s ever a dull moment, it’s the benefit of being in a duo.”

Taking us back to the very beginning of Collect 200 [see video 2], Stevie recalls how him and Nick “spent Miami Music Week together, wrote “Mixed Emotions” on day four… hungover with more than a couple of espresso martinis in this crazy red velvet cocktail bar that looked like how the song felt and just hit it off immediately.” Now, “going from writing for the people doing the thing to being the people doing the thing has been quite an interesting… thing. We’re exactly where we both wanted to land. We love writing music, it’s our passion and getting to play our own music live while sharing the stage together is infinitely more fun than being up there alone.”

Being sent new music is great, I love listening to new things and every now and then, I stumble across something amazing… and these two really are incredible. They’ve already started album number two and have a London show on the way soon. “People can see the vision and we can see it too, it’s very exciting” says Nick. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, go and give “Everything Will Be Alright” a listen, it’s beautiful.