Interview by Dan Prince
Ty, Karin welcome to DMCWORLD. Well wow, what a year you have
ahead of you with new tunes coming our way on SAFE, Straight Ahead
Music and Carpe Diem…but before we get into all that, let’s rewind for a
moment and set the scene. Ty you are from Curacao, Karin from Israel.
What are your earliest musical memories?
T: I would say listening to my mom’s Bob Marley cd when I was really young,
or listening to Michael Jackson with my older cousin who used to live next
door to me.. I also took all kinds of music lessons as a kid, from a ‘kwarta’ or
‘quatro’ in Spanish, a tiny 4 stringed Latin American instrument, to guitar, to
bass guitar.. Great memories, even as a child I loved to jam!
K: I used to try to mix with actual cassettes, but please don’t ask what kind of
music. Mmm, wait this one is even better! As a child I used to hunt down
instrumentals of my favourite music and create my own lyrics on top of them!
Karin – what did you think when your sister would play Celine Dion?
I used to sing together with her, but from her. Haha! Or just put my music
louder, like it was a competition. It was of course!
Has a life in music always been the gameplan, or was there ever
anything else you wanted to do?
T: No! I wanted to be an astronaut! Until I found out you had to be great at
maths for that. What a bummer. But music was always a huge part of my life,
so it was never the question if, but rather, when I would start taking it
seriously.
K: I wanted to investigate aliens.
(crickets chirping in the background)
Who were your early musical influences?
K: Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson. Yassss.
T: Spice Girls. No doubt about it. I also loved Salt n Pepa, TLC, Bob Marley,
Michael Jackson, stuff like that. No shame, hahaha
You met at ADE in 2012 and bonded quickly. What were your first
impressions of each other?
K: IF ONLY I COULD REMEMBER!
T: True, ADE ‘12 was wild man. Probably one of the last times we really went
ballistic, raved all over the city.. Before we got all serious with the music ‘n shit
you know
How did it progress from being friends to studio partners?
K: We both have a passion for music so it was a natural progression
T: Agreed, we liked the same kind of music in that period so it was a great
experience to make a fresh start together, to do something new
Who does what in the production process, who is great at what?
T: We try to do everything together, from the idea stage all the way through to
the finished product. Like, sometimes one of us has an idea but it’s just not
fleshed out yet, and along comes the other one with an exceptional plan and
boom, it just works.
K: Yeah and we both have to really feel every element we add to the mix.
Always making sure we’re on the same wavelength.
So 2016…a year of new music! What have you got for us…?
Yassss! We are so excited that we’ve finally found our musical sweet spot, so
to speak. We work on music 24/7, usually we write two tracks every week. At
the beginning of 2016 we’d already signed enough tracks to push out 12
releases every month. But we thought it’d be better to spread it out, so what
we’re producing right now, you probably won’t even hear until 2017. To be
honest, It’s fucking awesome to have A&Rs of big labels that we wouldn’t
even dream of approaching 2 years ago even open our emails, and now they
want to sign our stuff?! It’s brilliant really. In the next months, we’ll be releasing on some
very good labels like Great Stuff, Safe Music, Strictly Deep, Hustler Trax, Suah, and Straight Ahead Music. Pretty
excited for that!
What are the 5 big tunes in your box this weekend…
1. Javi Colors Stompin
Beautiful sample usage in this one, techy goodness for days!
2. Black Girl / White Girl Don’t Believe The Hype
One of those tracks that just grows on you and it’s a nice little DJ tool as well.
3. German Brigante Samoa
These tropical vibes are giving us LIFE!
4. Mark Knight VoulezWho
KILLER! What else to say? This one is a nuclear weapon.
5. David Keno Moonshine
Def a big heater, haven’t heard such a stomper in a while really! David Keno is on fleek.
When was the last time you had an almighty argument over music?
Honestly, we wouldn’t know. We just talk it out if we happen to have a
difference of opinion. It’s definitely the only way to solve any other problem as
well, so no saucy stories here, sorry!
Love your post on your Facebook site – ‘Influences – Time Traveling’.
Okay, a two parter.
1. If you could zip back in time and bring back the
ultimate live band of musicians who are no longer with us, who would
you return with for a very special one off show?
Thank you. Well, we’d bring back Amy Winehouse, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes,
Mozart, Bradley Nowell and Jimi Hendrix. Ooh! They would make some
straight up crossover fire. Just not sure if Mozart would understand what the
devil is going on over on that stage though, hahaha! They’d probably have to
get a psychiatrist to be on call for that show..
And secondly, if you could go back in time and live for 24 hours in any
era…where would you go and why?
If we could, we would travel back to the mid 80s right now, back to the
Garage. It just feels like we would belong there, really. Just love of music, love
for each other and freedom. It’s what we’re all about!
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your life and how did you
overcome it?
Literally inhaling a shitload of tacos with extra hot sauce before a show. No
comment. Did we overcome that? No. Did we learn a lesson though? Mmm,
nope. 10/10 would repeat.
Who are the producers from around the world you are giving high fives
to with their work in 2016?
Doorly, Riva Starr, Kevin Over, Sante, Sidney Charles, Mark Knight, Max
Chapman, Wade, DJ EClyps, Latmun, Mat.Joe. And of course we love
seeing our peers succeed, people like Greco, Josh Gregg, Mad Villains,
Austin Welsh, Justin Pak, LUBELSKI, Jojo Angel, Space Jump Salute. A lot
more that we’re forgetting cause our collective memory is a mess. But all of
these peeps are kicking asses and taking names, that’s for sure.
Which famous person would you most like to see play you in a film?
We would probably do like a narrated nature movie instead. With pandas. And
dolphins. Also flamingos, and maybe some butterflies.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Going all in on music.
What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of?
That we’re doing everything by ourselves. Not asking for favours, not sucking
up to people. We’re staying honest and true to our beliefs and way of doing
things, we’re not looking to compete with other as there’s more than enough
space for all of us to coexist. Just the fact that every single day, we wake up
with one purpose: try to be good humans.
And finally, gotta ask…have you read Joyce Carol Oates novel ‘Black
Girl White Girl’?
No, sorry. We usually only read the back of air fresheners and shampoo
bottles Dan…
