Big Chill House: Radioclit & Altered Native's "Womp Power"
Splitloop Exclusive
Written by Administrator
Tuesday, 02 September 2008
Names: Philip Byrne and Brendan Crowe Ages: 30 and 30. But you're only as old as you feel. I feel 90, Bren feels me. Heigths: Phil: 1m 74cm. Little Irish Leprechauns. Weights: Phil: 69 Kg Average Heartrate (BPM): Phil 73bpm Heartrate when mixing (BPM): Oddly enough I've never had my heart rate measured during a gig, just my cholesterol and testicles. Bedtimes: Always together, never awkward. All-time Favorite Breakbeat Choon: Wow. I'll stay away from Scram by the Plumps and go with Music by ILS, the Evil Nine Remix. All-time Favorite Electro Choon: For modern Electro House, and it's got to be the cheesiest pick, D Ramirez's remix of Yeah Yeah by the Bodyrockers. Played to absolute death and stolen by the pop crowd, but there is no denying the tune is amazing.
Interview
Big ups mates for your wicked album release, "Pleasure Machine" out on Against the Grain Recordings and thanks for taking some time off your excellent beats to answer a few questions. How do you chaps feel about this album and how long did the production take? Phil: I am really very proud of this album and can safely say every single track has passed QC with 100% approval. Production took almost 2 years, but a lot of tracks didn't sound right; not necessarily bad but not part of the package we envisioned. Bren: I am gay.
What track on your album is your personal favourites and why? Phil : The tracks I really like are the ones which may not get played out so much; I love 100 Places, Back That Smack That for the jackin breaks feel (it WILL catch on) and Go Down really came together excellently with Marvel delivering a top vocal once again. Bren: I cry when I touch myself.
So you guys are out of Dublin, has your home town been supportive of your music and how goes the breaks and electronic scene in your opinions over there? Phil : The breaks scene is small but healthy in Dublin. There are only about 1m people in rthe city, so the Electronic music scene is small, and sometimes too many clubs can sometimes cannibalise the market. That always sorts itself out in the end though, and the good clubs with solid bookings always stay healthy. Bren: I killed a man.
What event has been your craziest gig you played at so far in your career and why? Tell us the crazy stuff please... Phil: The craziest gig we played was probably in Prague. There was a ridiculous amount of alcohol imbibed and apparently we played an amazing set. The last thing I remember is standing on the decks roaring at the crowd. Amazing. Now we stick to the safer two pints before a set rule, 31 vodkas, not so much... Bren: I'm crazy. Really.
What are your backgrounds? How did you gentlemen decide you wanted to make electro breaks full time? Did you guys goto any music school? Phil: Ha, we never decided we wanted to make electro breaks, or even breaks. I was just writing tunes which Bren was into, so we started writing together. We never knew it was called breaks until someone in a record shop had a listen to a demo, we were just writing whatever happened. Bren: I smell bus seats to get off.
How did you two meet up to form the Splitloop? Whats the real story here? Did you meet in a Dublin rave? Club? Phil : Ah come on - you have to have heard this? We met on a bus going to a Prodigy concert, being both on the same side of an argument about Scooter can make friends for life. Bren: It's not unusual for me to eat my own poop. It's usual.
How do you two make tracks together? Do you just go in the studio environment together and just try to bang it out? Whats your creative process for your album? Phil : With the magical Interweb, we can both work on ideas individually and hook up in the studio to work properly whenever we can. It's a lot more liquid these days with fast web connections. I started the album while away traveling with a lappie and midi controller. It was great to be able to take a break and not necessarily have to write breaks, which is how the new sound of Pleasure Machine came about. There was no pressure to fit the mold we'd made for Here on Business. Once a few ideas were together we took them into the studio and really started the whole process. Bren: I can write my name. BENDAAAAAAHHHNN!
How did you hook up with Against the Grain recordings? What is your favourite Against the Grain release besides a Spliitloop track? Phil : Lloyd (Skool of Thought) was playing at a festival in Dublin (DEAF), and we were playing just before him I think. Enough said, when he saw our synchronised dance routines it was inevitable that we'd end up on his label. My favourite release on ATG/Supercharged would have to be Random Acts Of Kindness, by Ed Solo and Skool of Thought. Once of my top 10 summer albums period, just happens to be on the same label. Bren: Pee pee doesn't taste as nice as the stuff you drink to make it.
What do your families think of your latest album and your choice of career? Phil : Career schmareer! We're both still just-about clinging on to day jobs! Breakbeat can't support the golden jacuzzi habit I've developed as part of the online gambling industry. My mam and dad love the album, which I can never decide is a good or a bad thing. Bren: I fancy Phil's mam. And Dad.
Who did all the cool artwork for your releases? Phil : We had a really close relationship with the guys who did the album artwork; Filthy Media. We bounced some ideas around and ping ponged things until we were all very happy with the final product, and Filthy wanted to kill us ;) Bren: I'm an excellent driver.
My all time favourite Splitloop track is "When I Rock (Original)", how did this wicked track come about and who is the wicked MC? Will you ever do anther track with this MC again? Phil : The MC on When I Rock is actually Curtis Santiago, a fellow Canadian. This track is one of my favourites and was originally made about 7 years ago, the 'original' on the album is actually about the third remix we've done believe it or not. I'm sure we will work with Curtis again, maybe for the next When I Rock 10 year anniversary remix. Bren: plplplplplplplplpl
List some of your favorite electronic producers (past/present): Phil : Overall, I'm liking the Fake Blood stuff, a lot of Glitch reall - In Breaks, I'm liking Rico Tubbs and The Bodysnatchers Bren: I like pies
What does your studio consist of? Phil : I've stripped things down a little in the last year, getting rid of anything I didn't know inside out. Too much gear is counter-creative, so there's now only a Studio PC, Mackie Mixer, Novation Supernova, Novation Bass station, Roland SH-101 and TB 303, an MS-20 and a Novation SL controller. And a promise not to buy any more outboard gear unless I get rid of another piece. Bren: A Commodore 64 and a scratched Plump DJs CD. There's tons of wicked plugins for production nowadays–; what is your favourite Compressor and Eq for production? Phil : I love the T-Racks dynamics plugins, the Waves stuff is also pretty amazing - software really has caught up with hardware these days... it's amazing.
Bren: I like Glade plug ins.
What are you using to produce nowadays? Logic audio? Live ? Cubase? Phil : We're using a mix of Ableton Live for production and Cubase for mixdowns. Ableton is definitely the most creative program out there; if you can hear it in your head you can have it out there in a matter of minutes.
What do you guys drink when you go out giging? And are you guys regular pub drinkers? How much can you drink? Can you drink and perform? Phil : Before we'd go on, we'd really just be on a couple of beers, but once you're playing you can up the tempo a bit. We can both drink quite a lot, but that doesn't mean we're able to do quite a lot once we've drunk a lot. Performance and drinking never go together. No girlfriend jokes please.
What helped inspire you lads to keep up the work and production on your Album, "Pleasure Machine"? Does weed help you in anyway? Phil : Just getting a quality product out there that we both felt we could really stand behind kept the project going. It was exciting all the way through as the sound developed. I used to smoke quite a lot, too much really. Nowadays it's only a celebratory thing once a project is finished as I find I work a lot better with a clean head these days. What would be your dream track to legally remix? Phil : I'd love to remix Missy Elliot or work with Dizzie Rascal - both have amazing voices and work really well at a breaks tempo. Bren:
If you were stranded on an island and had a portable record player with enough batteries to play one last track,,,which track would you choose to listen to? Phil : Well, I think "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass would be pretty apt, it's also one of my favourite tunes of all time.
Whats going on this summer for you two? What is your most anticipated gig coming up in the near future? Phil : We've just returned from a tour of Austrlia, so it's all down hill from here ;) Bren: Next weeks Beachdown festival in Brighton, or the Electric Picnic in Ireland should both be amazing. Really great festivals with a great laid back vibe.
