Avicii stable mates release debut compilation on Strictly Rhythm
Sebastian, Alexander welcome back to the house of DMCWORLD. Where in the world are you right now?
“Thank you Dan! We are currently in Stockholm finishing up our debut album!”
You are back on the front page again thanks to your brilliant new release through Strictly Rhythm, your debut mix compilation ‘Strictly Cazzette’. How long did the mix take to compile and how many tracks did you have to leave out?
“Once all the politics and licenses were taken care of the work flow was pretty high. Of course when you do a compilation some tracks get lost in the process due to legal reasons but that’s just how it is…”
Let’s talk about the three brand new, exclusive Cazzette mixes of Sol Brothers vs Kathy Brown’s ‘Turn Me Out’ (Turn To Sugar), Ben Westbeech’s ‘Something For The Weekend’ and Erick Morillio & Eddie Thonelck feat Shawnee Taylor’s ‘Stronger’. Talk us through these three reworks…
“As always we like to challenge ourselves as producers so we wanted to make three different songs so that we could variate the sound on the album. The first two are more classic CAZZETTE dub-house while the third is a progressive one but still with our dubby touch. All three are classics to us and it’s always nice to give classics a new touch. What we mainly looked for was the ability the tracks had to become something cool with a new touch. For instance the vocal in “Turn Me Out” just screams for a progressive house break as well as “Something for the weekend” had breakbeats written all over it. As for the Erick Morillo track, we thought it would be really fun to try our music combined with Shawnee Taylor. We’ve been fans of her for a long time and to be able to work with her voice was a gift.”
What are the other tunes on the mix you just HAD to have on there?
“Some of the tracks we used are tracks that we played a lot, live, and some are a few we just like listening to. For us, Hard Rock Sofa’s “Here We Go” is one of those tracks that made its way into all of our sets. We also played “Troll” a lot in our sets, it’s by our Swedish friends Qulinez so it made perfect sense to put it in the mix. Besides those, African Drop is one hell of a ride. Looking back on the first time we heard it, we were amazed by the old school acid drive the track had combined with the African chanting.”
Strictly is one of the seminal labels in dance music folklore. Have you had a delve into their history and checked out any of their early classic material?
“When we first got into this CD we took the time to go through almost every track in their massive library to find the tracks we thought that we could give our touch. Strictly really has a lot to offer when it comes to delivering classic house with tracks like “King Of My Castle” and “ Witch Doctor” which are, at least to us, given classics.”
What are the big tunes you are smashing out right now?
“Otto Knows remix of “Lies” is crazy, Alesso’s “Clash” and Sebastian Ingrosso and Tommy Trash’s “Reload” works really well too. Also some of our tracks from the upcoming album are going down really well.”
The last time we spoke I asked you what the craziest crowd you had ever played to was. You replied Super-Glow’ in Washington…”it was freakin’ nuts”. That my friends was before you experienced the island of Ibiza and four magical nights with management partner Avicii. Tell us about that first night on July 15th and what went down…
“Ibiza is a really cool place to spin at. People come there from all over the world and just party together which is great. There’s so much love for the music and the whole club lifestyle! And to be able to play there with our friends and family was a blast. Just getting there we could tell it was going to be great. Ushuaia is a massive club with a really cool set up and of course we were a little nervous, but once we hit the stage and pressed play, everything went away. Since it was our first time in Ibiza, we didn’t really know how the crowd would react to our high energy sets so we played it a bit smoother than usual but it wasn’t until the fourth and last night of our warm up residency that we actually understood the Ushuaia crowd. It’s safe to say they have been around electronic music a long time and that they are picky with what they hear but once we understood that we could build our sets around that. We always aim to play as much own productions as possible and lucky for us they seemed to enjoy it!”
Was Ibiza one of the times where you had to pinch yourself and ask, is this really happening to us’?
“It’s hard to get that feeling because you’re just so into it, but from time to time that happens and you realize you have to be the happiest men on earth. That first night on Ibiza was indeed magical.”
What was your anthem of the summer?
“Beam me up up up up up……”
What was your highlight of Ibiza 2012?
“All the nights at Ushuaia were pretty much perfect so it feels kind of weird picking one specific highlight.”
A massive summer of festivals and big events that you rocked this summer – What were the ones that stand out and why?
“All the big festivals were really fun playing. Tomorrowland was for sure one that stood out. The way they build that venue is crazy!”
You announced yourself to America in 2011 with a huge 17 date tour. You’ve been to the States in 2012 – I know it’s only been a matter of months but things move quickly in America. Have you noticed any change out there on the dance floor as the Billionaires continue their EDM take over?
“Touring in America is great. We love the clubs over there and the whole country seems like it’s made for touring with great service minded people and a lot of beautiful places! The scene hasn’t really developed that much since, it’s still growing; maybe more people are aware about electronic music now but the club still rocks as much as they did when we first came.”
Who are the producers from around the world you are giving high fives to at the moment?
“Alesso, Dillon Francis and Audrio.”
How, if at all, has your production / DJing sound changed this year?
“We like to think that we evolve for every gig that we do and production wise we always aim to mix stuff up. You can hear a big difference if you listen to our first track compared to our latest which is kind of cool when you listen to them back to back. It’s not like the first ones are bad, but as a brand new duo we still want to try out different sounds and combinations all the time. We are hungry and curious of what will come if we (e.g.) mix jazz with house and then throw a bit of “trap” in it and make it into a 128 BPM track.”
So how would you describe a 2012 Cazzette club set in one sentence?
“Progressive house mixed with dub step and a lil’ hip-hop!”
What is coming out next from you studio wise?
“Our first studio album is our main priority at this time but we have like 200 unfinished ideas and tracks we want to give an honest shot so you never know. It’s all about finding time between the gigs! As soon as we are off we just want to make another song.”
Strictly CAZZETTE Track list:
1 Norman Doray – Kalifornia (David Tort Remix)
2 Swanky Tunes & Hard Rock Sofa – Here We Go (Original)
3 Tristan Garner – Punx (Original Mix)
4 Sol Brothers Vs Kathy Brown – Turn Me Out (Turn To Sugar) (CAZZETTE’s Swiftly Remix)*
5 Henrik B & Rudy – Leave A light On (No_ID Mix)
6 Tristan Garner – Raven (Original Mix)
7 My Digital Enemy & Rob Marmot – African Drop (Tom Staar Remix)
8 Disco Fries feat. Niles Mason – Born To Fly (Liftoff! Remix)
9 David Guetta feat. Sia – Titanium (CAZZETTE’s Ant Seeking Hamster Mix)
10 Spencer & Hill & Nadia Ali – Believe It (CAZZETTE’s Androids Sound Hot Remix)
11 Avicii – Sweet Dreams (CAZZETTE Meet At Night Mix)
12 Ben Westbeech – Something For the Weekend (CAZZETTE’s Strictly Remix)*
13 Dada Life – Rolling Stones T-shirt (CAZZETTE’s Approaching Starry Homes Remix)
14 Avicii – Levels (CAZZETTE’s NYC Mode Mix)
15 Tommy Trash – Cascade (Original)
16 Nari & Milani – Atom
17 Jared Dietch feat. Kelli Sae – You’re Not Alone (Gregori Klosman Remix)
18 Erick Morillo & Eddie Thoneick feat Shawnee Taylor – Stronger (CAZZETTE’s Silky Mix)*
* Exclusive Tracks
Follow Cazzette:
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http://twitter.com/CAZZETTE
http://soundcloud.com/CAZZETTE
