Cameron, what started you on this crazy clubbing kick?
“I remember getting into electronic music when I was a young child as a teenage kid across the street with a kid called Clive. He used to get his piece of lino and boombox out in the street opposite our house and practice his break dancing, which was kind of unusual for a white working class suburb of Liverpool! I remember the moment vividly, it was Hashim Al Naayfiysh and it was like a visitation for the future of music. It was seriously like a revelation to me. From then on I started trying to make mixtapes with loops on cassettes and scratch on my dad’s rubbish turntable!”
Cameron, first club you ever lost the plot at and what sort of DJs where around?
Probably Onzieme in Osaka. Great club. Electro house night but also with hip hop DJs and MCs. Looks like a really plush club in CSI just before everyone gets shot. The crowd gets worked up to be a baying mob. Girls were getting thrown out of the club for climbing into the DJ booth. Which was nice. Private Kariaoke rooms out the back where you end up singing ‘Sweet Chile O Mine’ plus top Japanese DJs like Fantastic Plastic Machine – and the first time we went there the Black Eyed Peas. By 6 am we were in a very traditional noodle bar with semi conscious clubbers in a weird chill out zone. From 7am until 8am I think my time was spent in a street with a bottle of rum. From 9am was the standard hotel room after party, and we have absolutely no recollection of what happened from 10am till 4pm, other than I remember recounting the plot of Bladerunner to a stranger and crying at how moving it was. (“all those moments will soon be gone… like tears… in rain”).
Hal, musical inspirations and heroes?
“I think my formative influence was that as a baby my parents used to plonk me in front of the radio. Sunday nights on Radio One in the 80s were golden. You had The Chart Show which played everything current, then the Alexis Corner show that played everything from the past century of music from blues to jazz, to disco to rock, then you had the Annie Nightingale show, which played everything that was cutting edge and up and coming. Between all three shows you were subjected to the past, present and future of music. So I think for heroes I have to put it down to Alexis Corner and Annie Nightingale. Smashy and Nicey.”
Hal, highlight of 2008?
“Well, we’ve spent the past month on something of a minor world tour and it really has been an incredible experience. We played our first ever USA gigs in New York, San Fran and LA, then went to Tokyo where we got to play to 15,000 fans in The Yokohama Arena (which is probably the highlight of my life, rather than of the year) then played a 4 hour combined live and DJ set in Lucerne in Switzerland where we got to work sorting out our hangovers by floating on our backs in the lake, surrounded by snowy mountains and then went to Ibiza to support Tiesto at Privilege. It really feels like everything you hope your life might be like when you first start making home made tracks in your bedroom. Unbelievable dream cool dance music stuff.”
Hal, the low light of 2008?
“In common with many dance artists, the low point is probably our vinyl distributer going bankrupt taking our stock and earnings with them! The industry is undergoing seismic shifts at the moment and it is an uncomfortable time while the way we used to do business is dying – but the new ways haven’t really matured yet. I’m sure given time we’ll find a new way to make the industry work, but for now, it is a little scary! Further lowlights includes too many songs about Rolex’s, everyone viewing several celebrities’ self destruction as a form of mob entertainment and some git nicking my phone in San Antonio!”
Biggest on the road ‘rock & rave story’?
“I don’t think we have space for the whole story. But I’ll give you a flashback. Its dawn in Beverly Hills in late June. The Young Punx are practising drifting down the hair pins bends that run through the celeb mansions in a Mustang Shelby GT convertible playing “Learn to Recycle” by Phonat at full volume – dodging drunken Paris Hilton’s alike as they stumble out of house parties into the morning air. We are on our way back from a Hollywood freak party in a multi-million dollar villa with glass all down one side with a view over the whole of LA. Simon (our drummer) isn’t there because he’s being shown some special techniques by a stripper back at the hotel. The down side is by Tuesday morning, we’re back to trying to negotiate the Northern line, and Simon is selling scented candles in a furniture shop. Ho hum. Live the dream whilst its there… then back to the real world.
What’s up and coming musically for The Young Punx?
As we write, we are just finishing off promotion for our debut album “Your Music Is Killing Me” by releasing a new mix package for our track “Fire” including mixes by Space Cowboy, Solitaire and Phonat. And as the summer draws to a close, we will be starting promotion on brand new tracks from our second album. The first track, ‘MASHitUP’ features Laura Kidd and will be bleeding out into the world very soon – with a great remix from Shir Khan outta Berlin, and a wicked video filmed at the “Phone in Sick” club (The successor to the infamous Boombox night) in Hoxton.
What are your thoughts that you are the new Basement Jaxx?
“Preferable to being referred to as the Chas and Dave of electro”.
