Detroit Swindle

World exclusive! Massive remixes, ADE, Glasto, New York, Ibiza…booom! 

Interview by Dan Prince


Lars, Maarten welcome to DMCWORLD…where in the world are you today?

“Actually Dan, we have two legs in Bali enjoying a bit of diving on the Gili’s, chilling on the beach – and also two legs in Amsterdam spending all our money on new synths – we bought a Korg Mono/Poly today…”

Fabulous. All of it! Well, there are certain records which now and again we cannot ignore…it’s that good. You have spent the last few weeks in the Buzz Chart with your incredible remix of Hercules & Love Affair ‘My Offence’…classic house music production guys! Please talk us through your rework…

“Ha, thank you for that! This was a tough one for us to do because the vocal is so catchy and demanding and we really wanted to use that…but still keep a dancefloor vibe. We literally had over 10 versions of the remix before we came to this version and we immediately knew that this was the one. The Synths tingling nice and easy and the percussion that just keeps on rolling…”

You artist names was decided upon due to you wanted to use the main influence in your music, good job you weren’t into brass music, Cymbal Swindle just doesn’t have the same ring to it! Can you remember some of the names you discarded?

“Haha…or Trombone Swindle! We had a really really big list of names but conveniently enough, I can’t remember any of them! Well, that’s not really true. The other day I was cleaning my overly messy old computer at home and came across our first mixtape as a duo. The name back then was ‘Le Coollectif’ and we did this horrible robotic voice over to introduce ourselves. I died a little bit when I heard that back.”

Fucking love that. Le Coollectif, brilliant. Lars, your background was in Hip Hop…who were some of the artists you were nodding your head to back in the day?

“Oh man, Too many to recall. Dilla was my favourite producer by far, but I listened to bands like A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, the Alcaholiks, Beatnuts, Mobb Deep, stuff like that…”

August saw you on tour in the States and Canada hitting the likes of New York and Los Angeles. What were some of the highlights of that trip, loved your skyline shots!

“The rooftop party in LA was definitely a cool one. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but we ended up playing a bunch of old disco tunes that we’d just bought in New York and got people singing along to tracks like MAW’s ‘Loose Joints’ remix that we copped in NYC as well.. That was really special, cocktails, sunshine and nice tunes. New York was great as well. We played Output and we had a really good crowd. Loads of people that were really knowledgeable about the music. The most unexpected tracks worked best over there, all focused on the grooves and basslines. I remember we played Little Fritter – ‘Fifteenth Avenue Funk’, which isn’t really a party track, but in the breakdown, everyone went completely mad for it.”

We were on the dancefloor at Booom! in Ibiza last week for the Defected party. Seems like you had fun out at sea earlier in day! Are we loving Ibiza?

“I think Ibiza has a lot of things to love, and a love of things to hate. It’s that weird combo that gives the island an edge and if you do it right, you can really have a great time there.”

Steve Angello, Oakenfold and Afrojack infamously were on Radio 1 during the summer complaining that Ibiza had become too VIP, too expensive and had lost it’s mystique. Do you agree?

“Well, we don’t really attend the same kind of parties as those guys, but yeah, clubs with more space for table service and VIP areas than the dancefloor are not our favourites. Luckily, we get to play at nights that tend to have the same idea about partying and underground house, so let’s leave those VIP problems to the VIP’s…”

Paris Hilton earning $200K a night at Amnesia in Ibiza. Thoughts?

“It’s simple. Money makes money.”

Tune of the Summer?

“Ouch, that’s a tough one…I’d have to say Percussions – Khlhi. It’s an alias of Four Tet and that track has the right amount of everything.”

As Amsterdam residents you must be getting excited about ADE which is just around the corner, what have Detroit Swindle got planned for us all this time round?

“ADE is gonna be crazy. We’re doing a bunch of cool things! We’ve got our own night on Saturday together with Freerange and Delusions of Grandure and local party promoter Cartel at Stadsschouwburg. That’s gonna be one for the heads with guys like Frits Wentink, Session victim, 6th borough project, Andre Lodemann, Manuel Tur and many more. We’re doing a party with Sneak and his buddies at Baut on Thursday. He called us and said we had to be in. We didn’t talk about fees, he just said there’d be a BBQ and lowriders, that’s all we needed to hear. We’re also doing a show for our buddies from 22tracks where we curate the house playlist, and we might be doing an invited only pop up party for a certain beer brand, but who knows?”

If BPM in Brazil is about escaping the rain, Miami WMC is about the party and IMS in Ibiza is about the networking and speeches…what is ADE all about in your opinion?

“ADE is about getting run over by local traffic whilst trying to ride a bike after smoking too much hashies, still being hungover from that 36 hour bender you’ve been on since that Detroit Swindle party you accidentally went to.”

Fair enough. Well it’s that time of year again, the annual DJ Top100. I interviewed Arthur Baker this week, he remarked…“there are too many DJs and genres for a realistic competition, it needs to split”. What is your opinion on that?

“I don’t really see why people care so much about a top 100. Who reads that anyway? But yeah, people like lists. Best track of the year, best album of the year etc. etc. I guess the RA top 100 is a cool list to be featured in though, cause that one is really focused on ‘underground’ DJs. As far as most top 100’s, they’re just as useful and obsolete at the same time as any show on E entertainment or your Gossip mag of choice.”

Good answer. On the subjects of lists then, what are the biggest 5 records in your box at the moment?

“These are (new and second hand) vinyls we’ve gotten recently that have been killing it…”

Percussions – Khlhi (Text)

Snacks – Perdie (Magic Movement)

Andy Hart – Epsilon Girls (Heist)

Split Decision Band – Watchin out (Athens of the North)

Mateo & Matos – Body ‘n Soul (Glasgow Underground)

The Forbes DJ Rich List for 2014 came out a couple of weeks ago with the likes of Calvin Harris and David Guetta earning well over $25 million last year. The chart has received a lot of stick on the socials these last few days, people are saying it obscene. DMC views it as simply the world’s biggest market (America) finally tapping into the dance scene and blowing things up. What are your views…?

“It is obscene, but that’s actually why it works. It’s a matter of supply and demand. And it’s the same reason why guys like Messi, Ronaldo or Bale make these absurd amounts a week. Because there’s enough commercial pull around it to make them worth that amount of money. It’s not about them anymore, it’s about the brand. The same goes for Guetta or Harris. They’ve made some smart moves in the past and now they’re here. Good for them. I wouldn’t wanna trade places, not even for a day. Perhaps it’s a good thing. People get to know about commercial dance music and might just look a bit further and find a whole new world to discover. On the other hand, perhaps it’s a bad thing and kids get turned into mindless zombies, waiting till the bass to drop…” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCawU6BE8P8)

Couple of gigs we want to talk about. Glastonbury 2014. What a gig huh?

“Glastonbury was crazy. We literally stared at our screen for the next hour after the booking request for Glasto came in. We couldn’t believe it. When it turned out to be true, we really went for it. Booze, wellies, raincoats…the whole 9 yards. We played two shows and both were amazing. Playing at the old Olympics stage that is now used for Block 9’s Genosys was something else though. That’ll be one we’ll never forget.” 

Second up – your new live show in Dublin on June 1st. Did you shit yourself? How was it?

“Haha, yeah, that was quite scary. We had done a lot of live sets before, but with a much easier set up. This new set up we have is way more extensive and flexible, but also way more challenging. We’ve got all these drum computers, laptops, samplers all syncing together and we’ve both got complete freedom to play our tracks exactly how we once recorded them, or make a completely messed up live acid remix or something like that. The crowd in Dublin was really nice, and people really gave us the time to build up the set. We felt really welcome, so the stress we had before the start soon made place for a relaxed vibe where we could jam about and have fun ourselves. We’ve already changed the set up again, and we’ll keep on working on it to get the best set up for a full on improv’ live show!”

Some producers from around the world you are giving high fives to at the moment?

“Yeah man, Big high five for our buddy Francis Inferno Orchestra for getting his album out, high five for Max Graef for delivering a killer remix on our track ‘ The Break Up’, high five for Tom Trago and Bokbok for their crazy ghetto style EP on Night Voyage, big up to Chet Faker for letting us remix his track ‘1998’ on Future Classics and big up to Trus’me for blending awesome disco with ruthless techno and coming to play on our party at studio 80 on September 20th in Amsterdam.”

Cool. And finally…what is coming out next from you studio wise?

Maarten: “We’ve literally just finished 2 remixes. One remix for a track that has been a personal favourite for a loooong time for both of us. It’s ‘Too Long’, the track Romanthony did with Daft Punk on their album Discovery. They re-recorded the vocals and now, a little over a year after his passing away, there’s a remix EP coming up with our remix on it, so that’s really really exciting and a great honour. Also, we’ve just done a remix for The Organ Grinder to celebrate 1 year of Heist Recording. We drew straws between all artists of the first year, and everyone remixed a track of another artist. So we’ve got that EP coming up lateron in the year. And after that, you’ll see some new originals from us popping up…”

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