|
DJ Alixir from HKClubbing.com Interviews Disco Brothers ...
Q: Hi Disco bros, how did you both come to be working together? Long time friends or just coincidence?
A: We have been Djing as a back to back DJ Team since 1994 as we have been at the same school since 1990.
Q: After a lot of years of hard work finally paying off in a big way, have you found that work has gotten a lot harder or do you have a little bit more time to relax now that the first foot is firmly in the door?
A: You have to work hard every day to build your profile and fanbase for your productions and DJing. We never stop working as we want to succeed to the top level.
Q: You've experienced the evolution of hard house and hard trance/dance filtering onto the main club scene and floor, what was your musical progression into these categories?
A: We have never played just one style so we havent intergrated the styles as we seem fit. We have now stuck to techno grooves and uplifting harder edged trance for oour style and it stands out but is very difficult to program properly so thats the Dj challenge which we are championing.
Q: Now you've hammered the UK, touched upon the Ibiza circuit as well as a few international gigs, where is the disco style headed to over the coming summer?
A: We are residents in Ibiza with Tonic in Ibiza, playing at the Energy festival in Switzerland as well as tours in South Africa and Japan coming up.
Q: When DJing, are you always both together or do you venture off for singular pursuits? Do you always go back to back or take a hour each or....?
A: Always back to back for 2-3 hours. This gives you time to soak up the atmosphere and have a sly beer or two in between mixes!!
Q: How exactly do your styles differ or are they the same? Do you follow the conventional "Anthem" formula for mixing the last sixteen bars with each track being as Euphoric as the next or do you prefer a good bit of experimentation?
A: Tim is more techno orientated and Mark loves trance so the blending of the styles is important and works. We always use the eqs to really hammer the buildups and funky cut drops. Tim can scratch as well at the right time in the set,
Q: Do you plan your sets or merely play the whole gig by ear? What kind of journey do you expect to take each crowd on?
A: We need to take th crowd on the ulitmate journey so we never plan our sets as its important to build the crowd and react to the dance floor. Planning is cheating......
Q: Obviously, you must slip a few excellent Nukleuz tracks into your sets but what other labels do you regularly play tracks from? Who's your favourite artist at the moment for both DJing and production?
A: We play alot of smaller labels material like Scott Mac's Limit label and Marco Bailey's Mb Electronixs label. We are really into labels like Lupp, MB Electronics, Limit etc. We only play Nukleuz green and BXR UK tracks from Media Records in our sets.
Q:Leading us onto production work and style, you had a good stead into the industry with "Final Frontier", do you like to work visually whencreating tracks or purely from sound alone?
A: We work on instinct and create the vibe live when we are in the studio to give us the best results.
Q: Do you both work on the same composition together or bounce the tracks off each other?
A: Yes we always work trogether and always pick a current sound and push the boundaires on the sound and influences. Build your own vibe that suits your own DJ set.
Q: When hunting for new sounds, do you use presets? If not, what effects do you impose upon raw sounds to shape them more to your own style?
A: All depends - we make loops and use presets on the synths etc. It all depends on what we feel is needed for the track to really kick.
Q: The biggest problem for most engineers is balancing drums against basslines as in dance music, this has to be important as to how the track sounds and feels, how do you personally go about getting the sound right? What kit do you use when mixing your tracks down?
A: As you said the hardest bit of the mix is getting the balance between the bass and other elements on the mix down. We use compressors etc to get the right sound. Its a Disco Brothers secret!!!
Q: Is there a certain message or feeling you try to put across to the listening audience within your own tracks? When do you know that you've got sequences that work?
A: We like to have feeling, energy and atmosphere i n our tracks - something that we pound your brain but lift it into a state of Euphoria. We know by feeling the music and deciding what we need next...
Q:What future releases have you got set for summer? Are we set to see the Disco bros tour with a live show soon? Have you an album in the pipeline?
A: We have just remixed Ian van Dahl - I cant Let You Go on Nulife Recs and have Lost Tribe - Gamemaster and Dumonde - Human remixes to attack next. These will come out in September along with a new single we are working on at present....check www.discobrothers.co.uk for all info and updates. Album - yeah maybe in the future as we dont want to milk our sound.
Q: You've both had a lot of good comments made by the leading DJs in your field, how much do these comments influence the way you think and feel about your work now?
A: Its an honour really having DJ's like Paul Van Dyk, Scot Project, Judge Jules, Fergie, Dave Pearce and Armin Van Burren supporting our material. We have created our own distinct style so we want to get everyone to follow us if they wish. We just like making intelligent music with feeling that gets the dancefloor going.
Q: You've had a very successful string of dates in Australia and are becoming firm favourites over there, have you moved your sights to a full Asia tour yet? How would you imagine Hong Kong would receive the Disco Bros experience?
A: We should have been coming to Hong Kong in June 2003 with MOS but there was a problem with SARs etc. We have a good fanbase over in the Far East as our tracks are on the top line compilations and we would love to get out there asap. We had a great time in Australia and looking to revisit asap. We hope that we would go down very well in the Far East and look forward to coming there asap.
Q: For those clubbers that have yet to experience the Disco Bros sound, how would you explain it to them?
A: The Disco Brothers sound is uplifting techno trance that is cutting edge and we entertain the crowd. see you soon.......
|
