How do you think the roles of the DJ and the label owner have changed? At one point both of those roles involved predicting future trends to some extent. Do you think that’s still possible now that things move so quickly, or is it more about keeping on top of current trends now?
Andy: Difficult one. I think it’s about just doing what feels right and making sure that you’re massively passionate about what you do. From our point of view we were playing a lot of music like this when we first started DJing, which was when we were very young really. I guess we were kind of swept up with a trend that was happening then, and then kind of repackaged, but the music that we play has always been based around house and disco really and that’s been the common thread through everything we’ve ever done.
Jaymo: To be fair, I think it’s actually the opposite of what you said about keeping on top of trends. We want to be beyond that. You don’t want to keep on top of trends.
You still want to be ahead?
Jaymo: Yeah, it’s sort of going back to what I was saying about people who sound different. Obviously Hot Since ’82‘s on the label – he was the first person we released and his sound happened to get big in the process. People we’re signing now are people who are making tracks that sound different. There’s no point trying to predict what the next trend’s going to be, we just go with our own gut instinct. If something excites us when we’re getting sent so many promos all the time, that’s a pretty good acid test. Hopefully that translates to people who are into the label, and I’m pretty sure it will. I guess if there ever comes a time when that stops I think that’s probably our time to get out of the music industry.
You talk about getting endless promos and there is this non-stop torrent of music. I think that has a knock-on effect for all of us. People seem to get bored of things so quickly. Tracks which are so hyped are completely played out by the time they get released. Is that frustrating or is it just the way the world is now?
Jaymo: We were talking about promoing with the A&R at Southern Fried the other day and he was saying he’s on the verge of thinking promoing’s almost pointless now. A lot of DJs are buying vinyl and using that as a filtering process because going record shopping or hopping on Juno’s more satisfying than trying to get through this constant wave of promos. I think that’s an interesting reaction to it but it’s a weird one. People are happier to pay for something that they’ve probably already been sent for free via their promos. It’s easy to sound ungrateful. It’s a sad fact when you’re saying you’re getting sent so much music that you’d rather not listen to any of it, but that’s probably the extent of the digital world we’re living in. I read an interview with Danny Daze yesterday and he was saying you feel like you’re on quite thin ice because you’re trying to forge a career on something that comes and goes so quickly, which is why I think it’s important not to get swept up in something that’s too fad-based.
Andy: As label owners it’s more about making sure that every record gets the kind of impact it deserves. If we sign something we really want to see it go places. In a really promo-heavy environment it’s important for records we put out to get heard.
If something excites us when we’re getting sent so many promos all the time, that’s a pretty good acid test.
You talk about not wanting to appear ungrateful. Do you think that’s quite important? It’s always funny to see young producers and DJs on Twitter going from ‘Wow, I’m on a plane! Exciting!’ then a few months later it’s ‘The champagne in the first class lounge is tepid. I hope someone gets sacked for this.’
Andy: We’re very conscious of avoiding being like that. We’ve been lucky enough to do this professionally for the best part of five years now, so it feels like we’re old hands, but compared to most people we’re nowhere near. You’ve got people like Sneak and Derrick Carter, people who’ve been DJing non-stop for fifteen, twenty years. We always try to remember we’re very lucky to be in this position. When you’re hopping on and off planes and skipping through time zones, on week four of not being at home it’s easy to get frustrated. It’s certainly something we don’t take lightly. We try not to say anything negative on Twitter, although I did say something the other night about a Daft Punk bootleg.
Jaymo: That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, is it?
Andy: I need to read your self-help books to try and stay calm.
We try not to say anything negative on Twitter, although I did say something the other night about a Daft Punk bootleg.
Jaymo: The thing is that a lot of people are DJing on their own. As much flak as the Nina Kraviz video got, she raised some pretty valid points. If you’re doing amazing things but you’re doing them on your own then they don’t really exist. Andy and I obviously DJ together all the time so it’s just a bit of a laugh really and you can enjoy it a bit more, but I do understand why people get a little bit frustrated. If you turn to Twitter or Facebook then occasionally you’re going to say something that maybe gets people’s back up. But the grass is always greener on the other side: when you want to be a DJ you spend all your time wishing you were flying around the world, then you start flying around the world and you spend all your time wishing you were back home…
Andy: …with your dog.
Jaymo: With your dog?! Anyway, it’s just human nature, isn’t it? You always want what you don’t have.
Andy: But Twitter’s the wrong place to broadcast your problems.