How has your year been so far, what’s been a highlight?
It’s been a cracking year to date thank you. One of our highlights has got to be Carl Cox playing “Planet Mongo” on Monki’s show on Radio 1, as was Alan Fitzpatrick’s mix being included in John Digweed’s recent essential mix. The other was trying on our new Stormtrooper armour for the first time!!
Tell us how you guys first met – it’s quite geeky, right? Why did you hit it off?
We both used to collect Star Wars figures and we got to know each other attending sci-fi collectors fairs!! So yeah we are a bit geeky for sure, Dan far more than Gary arguably as he used to collect wrestling figures and hide them behind his curtains (f#*k knows how anyone decided to marry him)!!
Who does what in the studio – do you both have different tastes and musical backgrounds?
It is very much a collective effort in the studio. We have incredibly similar musical backgrounds, even outside of the electronic sound. Eighties, Oasis, movie soundtracks, Sohn, Royal Blood, pretty damn diverse for a pair of nerds don’t you think!?
And when DJing – do you go one each back to back or how does it work? How do you get the flow going with two of you?
We mix it up. We are equally as comfortable playing back to back as we are playing on our own. Back to back is definitely more fun, its very enjoyable trying to stitch each other up with mental tracks or dropping what you know the other wants to play (Gary is the master at this)!! In all seriousness, we’ve known each other for so long now, cliché as it sounds it’s a pretty natural process in terms of flow. We’ve got a residency at a wicked club called Switch in Southampton and love doing long drawn out warm ups as much we do peak slots. We’ve been lucky enough to have had solid long term residencies over the years and that’s certainly helped us cut our teeth as it were.
How much do your DJing and producing relate to one another? Do you make tunes you want to hear in your own sets?
They are very much related. We always make tracks we would want to play ourselves and of course the bigger artists such as Carl Cox, Joris Voorn, Sasha, John Digweed, Hot Since 82 and Solomun to name but a few (on that note any help getting Solomun onboard the Mongo train of love would be greatly appreciated)!!
And what inspired or influenced the new High Tide EP? Was it written with a certain club or set or time in mind?
I think it was Space in Ibiza. Sadly we never had the privilege of playing there before it closed but we had many dance floor moments, including the closing.
You’ve already road tested them right? What reactions do they get? Where do they fit in the night?
Yeah for sure, Southampton has been very much been brainwashed with “Planet Mongo” and luckily it still gets a massive reaction every time we play it. It’s definitely a peak time track although we are guilty of trying to slot it in at the very end of a warm up!
How do you like the Alan Fitzpatrick remix? What’s it like hearing someone else take on your tunes?
We love it. It’s a techno pumper which is exactly what we hoped for from Alan. He let’s the vocal breath a lot more which is both interesting and surprising, but it works. The original is better though right LOL!!?
What else you got coming up/are you excited about?
Super excited to have been asked to do a guest mix for John Digweed’s Transitions show in July and have buckets of new material to start soliciting!
What’s next after this interview, what will you do immediately after finishing it?
We have 2 remixes to finish by Monday so definitely some studio love, oh and we need to buy some voice changers for our Stormtrooper helmets!!!
Planet Mongo is out on 5th July 2017! Grab it here
https://www.beatport.com/release/planet-mongo/2039781
