Hello Total Science gents. You must travel so much: can you give me a great road story?
TS: Quiff once pleasured a billy goat in El Salvador some years back. To be fair we’ve had such a great time over the years and we could harp on forever but most of it wouldn’t be printable or possibly legal so we’ll just say we definitely tucked in.
DB: How the link up with SPY came about for this Piano Funk tune? (sc below) I heard it recently on Friction’s show on Radio 1, loved it. Was there a common vibe or a riff or… you tell me.
TS: We had been working with Carlos on various track for some time and this was just another of the ideas we came up with. Every tune we do with him evolves differently.
DB: Was it a consideration to make it vocal? Works well without the vocal though love the vocal etc.
TS: We just thought the music needed the vocal element to drive it along and Riya smashed it with what she did as she had on countless other tracks we’d recorded with her so it was just the right course to take .
DB: Considering you’ve been going for so long the possibilities for collabs and remixes must be insane. How do you run it day to day and not go crazy? I mean you must have tunes coming at you all the time now via the internet etc.
TS: We have someone who does the business side of the label now so all we do is each morning go through tunes we had been sent the day before and see which ones are good or not.
DB: Fair enough.
TS: We try to get it done by early afternoon so we can then crack on with tune making or letching over Facebook
DB: I feel that you are consistently underrated, especially when it comes to Liquid Funk and how some people lazily refer to it (ie as simplistically ‘mellow’) I see the style as being really varied, always have: it can be wildly abstract and full on slamming as well. How do you guys perceive the genre in general?
TS: It has been a long road for us but the truth is it’s about doing what we love which is making music and regardless of if anyone else thinks it’s any good or not we just have to keep doing what we do, so it never really gets us down. We’re sure one day someone will catch on and think ‘Fuck, these boys really did make a worthy impact on the scene; they devoted most of their lives to it’.
And to be fair people who know their shit know who and what we’re about.
Also being in it from almost day dot we just see D&B as one. There is a lot of it we like and a lot we don’t like but it is all D&B. We never want to be categorised as artists who just make one style in the genre as those trends and fashions come and go. We see it year in and year out .
DB: What are some tunes you’d nominate of yours as your most fave?
TS: Top faves of ours would include ‘It’s Not Over’, ‘Wots My Code’ (Dubplate Remix) and ‘Squash’ spring to mind but things like ‘Champion Sound’ and ‘Airtight’ we did as the Funky Technicians were tracks that helped us step our profile up, so they’re also very important too.
DB: And what is one tune from the vaults of D&B that to this day floors you?
TS: Fuck, that’s a big one me personally (Quiff) D&B-wise I’ll never forget the feeling I got when I first heard Krust’s ‘Jazznote’, Bukem’s ‘Horizons’, Dillinja ‘The Angels Fell’ and Photek’s ‘Rings Around Saturn’.
For me (Smithy) pretty much the same as above but I’d add Rufige Kru ‘Beachdrifta’ because its a tune I can still listen to and get taken away with it! Best D&B intro ever in my eyes.
DB: Back to the label and the internet: considering it’s a global thing, does it translate to revenue?
TS: The whole business and promotion thing has completely changed since we started doing it. It does still translate into revenue but not like it did. You just have to adapt with the times. There is the whole online promoting thing which obviously didn’t exist back when we started. That’s a major thing nowadays. You also have to keep tunes a lot fresher now. Back in the day a tune could be well over a year old and sell well. It helped to build the tune back then.
DB: I’m still thinking about that goat. Any food tips btw?
TS: We’re just a couple of simple men, not culinary connoisseurs. As long as we don’t go hungry we’re good. The kebab shop near Carlos’ house is pretty good, and you can’t beat a good Japanese.
DB: Thanks. Have to get that Squash remix in, and the Redlines…
No comments:
Post a Comment