The freaks come out! The boys are back in town…
Interview by Dan Prince
Guys a big welcome to DMCWORLD. Where on Planet Earth are you right now?
Hello DMCWORLD! How youz guyz doing? We’re here with W+L and Nick Monaco in Miami Beach…This is the 5th year we’ve been coming down here as snowbirds escaping the COLD of NYC. Brrrrrrrrr.
The best piece of new music you heard today, if any…
Right now we’re home listening to Nick Monaco and David Marston rehearse their new collab project called Island Life and they are sounding SUPER tight! They’ll be debuting a new live performance this weekend at Bardot in Miami and then next weekend at the new Marcy Hotel in Brooklyn NY.
The world famous Buzz Chart has seen your Freaks ‘Washing Machine’ remix riding high for a few weeks and you also scooped Single of the Week. You must be chuffed?
Wooooo! Hella chuffed! We out here on the Buzz Chart mannggg!
A big week for you with the release of ‘Crew Love – Based on a True Story’. An ingenious collective of 10 artists and producers containing a total of 17 members. All of you with your tongues stuck firmly in your cheeks. One scribe described the album as having “a Lou-Reed-if-Lou-Reed-listened-to-house-music style swagger”…how would you describe this project…?
Haha! Yeas maaaaaate, thank you for that. I suppose there could be some sort unconscious parallel between Crew Love as a modern Brooklyn phenomenon and the variety of characters that may have hung downtown back in the 60’s and 70’s…We like to think of this project as demonstrating the power of collaboration as well as the continued diversity of Crew Love’s ever evolving sound.
Talk us through your collab with Navid Izadi ft. Kidhead ‘Unprotected Ex’…
Wow, this song was such a breakthrough in terms of song writing. We wrote it at Moulton Studios (yes as in TOM MOULTON!) in San Francisco, thanks to Chris Smith from OM Records for the hook up. He has a studio there along with Miguel Migs, Jay-J and Chris Lum. We had been cranking away trying to get groove going, but sort of hit a wall. Then Charlie got a call from his girlfriend…They were in the middle of breaking up and things were falling to pieces!!! He came back into the studio CHARGED with creative despair and BOOM the melodies just came flowing out. Its really incredible how love and heartbreak power artistic creativity. What a strange connection…
Now that the return of vinyl is back by dope demand, we are now being led to believe that the cassette tape is next on the agenda. Good news for the ghetto blaster massive right?
Cassette tapes are just dope. They look and feel dope. They sound like shit and get all tangled and fucked up and you need to fix it with a pencil and THAT is all fun, which is dope! So big up the G-B Massifffff!
True or false? When you were DJing at your Reunion Thursdays residency in Boston a decade ago, the manager would often come up to you and ask you to stop playing such amazing records for a while so people would go to the bar and the place would earn some dollar?
This is a TRUE statement. The dancefloor was always packed with dee girls dem wine. Sometimes the manager would notice it was the middle of the night and the bar was kinda dead, so he’d ask us to play something shitty so people would stop dancing! Typical Boston move. That manger and owner were good guys, but just like everyone in the night life biz in Boston (or Cambridge to be exact), they just cared about the bottom line.
Nice of you to recently holler…”a big shout out all the DJs that dance out there”. With that in mind, what DJs do you like to dance with?
Haha, you know our DEAR friend Heidi really loves to get down! Big up to HER on the dancefloor!
Which famous person would you most like to see play you in a film?
According to Gadi from Wolf + Lamb and Nick Monaco, Charlie should be played by Bradley Cooper and Eli of course would be played by The Hebrew Hammer (Adam Goldberg).
Another juicy quote from you…”We like to pay tribute to our inspirations by making references to them in our remix titles”. For our younger readers, who are some of these inspirations that have helped mold the way you are today?
Young bucks listen up! If you want to learn some NYC House music history check out Louie Vega & Kenny Dope aka Masters At Work, Tony Humphries and David Morales. Then for the roots of NYC Disco you must research Larry Levan and the legendary night club where he was resident DJ called the Paradise Garage.
So we come back to your crib after the club, you tell us you’re gonna mellow the vibe for a while. What is a typical Soul clap Back To Mine 10 you’d spin us…
Wow, so we rocked a full night of music at the club, we invited you home and now you want us to keep performing??? Sheesh, come on guys, getting a bit greedy are you???
How bout:
Bootsy Collins – I’d Rather Be With You
Wally Badarou – Mambo
Donald Byrd – Think Twice
Herbie Hancock – Stars in Your Eyes
Key Tronics Ensemble – You X Me (Slow Latin Version)
Black Science Orchestra – New Jersey Deep
Shinehead – Lady In My Life
Jennifer Lara – I’m in Love
Barry White – Playing Your Game, Baby
SOS Band – Tell Me If You Still Care
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Perhaps the biggest risk we ever took was when we decided to commit to trying to make it as artists in this industry. Back in 2007, we were still living in Boston. We had a company called Next Generation Productions with our close friend Sammy. The business was like a DJ one stop shop, we played private events, night clubs, retail stores, shopping malls, we helped with marketing and promotions, we rented sound systems, EVERYTHING! But all of this wasn’t enough to make it outside of Boston. We knew that the only way was to drop everything and focus on music production. So eventually we said fuck it and jumped in with two feet. If we failed we would give it up and try to find another direction in life, but we believed in ourselves and knew we couldn’t accept failure! It was a tremendous risk, but thanks to the support of Paulo and Henry at Airdrop Records and our Wolf + Lamb family we MADE IT!
You are to be marooned on a desert island for a year. Which one of these beauties do you take with you…
Classic Jazz – Funk Mastercuts Volume
Kruder & Dorfmeister – The K&D Sessions
Rawkus presents: Soundbombing II
Califroniadrumandbass – Mixed by 119 Cru
Little Louie Vega – Mad Styles And Crazy Visions
Haha! Thats a hilarious question. Thinking K&D Sessions!!!! That used to be on repeat back in the day. But what a hard choice. Perhaps it would be best to listen to the sounds of the ocean? Ohmmmmmmmmm…
What are your plans for Ibiza this summer, I live here and people are still talking about your Pikes pool party…
Pikes pool party will definitely be in full effect, but that typically goes down at the end of the season. On the table at the moment there is talks of Glitterbox, Soul Heaven, Paradise, Space and maybe more…
A tune that always reminds you of Ibiza?
Locomia….HAHAHAHA…
The mere mention of a pool party reminds us all of Miami Music Week…what ya got planned for dance music’s most insane week this year…?
Oy….it’s gonna be a whopper of a week! We start things off on Wed the 16th with our 5th annual Fucking Catalina Wine Mixer at the Soho Beach House, then Friday is Crew Love at the Electric Pickle. Saturday is completely insane with 3 plays, the Yoshitoshi party where we do a vinyl tag team set with Deep Dish, then the afternoon at Get Lost and the evening at Claude Von Strokes party. Finally Sunday theres 2 parties, we play at the Rhonda daytime disco event at the Soho House and then a return to the Electric Pickle for a House Of EFUNK where we’ve booked with Tony Humphries, The Black Madonna, Scott Groves and his live band Overdubs and more!
A tune that always reminds you of Miami?
Jan Hammer – Crocketts Theme or Miami Sound Machine – Rhythm is Gonna Get Ya!
What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of?
In our music career, working with George Clinton probably takes the cake!
What is your next studio commitment?
At the moment we’ve been having a blast jamming in Miami with Gadi and Zev from Wolf + Lamb and Nick Monaco. Then in May we’ll be touring Europe but flying in and out of Barcelona where Martin Buttrich lives. He’s going to help us mix the new Soul Clap album which we’re SO excited about and is scheduled to come out in September 2016!
And finally, is love still the answer?
ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY! Like Debra Laws said…Love is LIFE and LIFE is LOVING! VERY SPECIAL!
Freaks ‘Let’s Do It Again Pt.2’ ft Soul Clap’s Washing Machine Remix is out now on Music For Freaks.
Preview: https://soundcloud.com/mff-musicforfreaks/freaks-washing-machine-soul-clap-remix
