I recently met up with Jence and Isi from Digitalism before their DJ set at the closing night of the Warehouse Project in Manchester. Here’s what they had to say:
Hi guys, nice to meet you both. So tell me, are you looking forward to tonight?
Yeah definitely, we have lots of friends coming – Erol is playing, Metro Area….we are good friends of Metro Area.
Who are your other DJ friends that you see out on tour?
Simian who are playing tonight, Erol obviously. But probably Boys Noize because I actually went to school with Boys Noize so we are quite close. Apart from that you normally see most of your friends at big events like WMC in Miami.
Ok, so you guys have been to WMC before?
(Lots of laughter) Yes we have been 2-3 times. Not this year though.
What’s it like there, I have heard lots of different things?
It’s crazy but it’s also “wannabee” crazy, full of plastic tits and people wearing sunglasses when it’s dark, it’s….it’s very American. It’s changed a lot, it used to be all about the music but now I think it’s different. It’s fake but also fun because everyone is there, all your friends are there so I guess you cant complain.
Sounds interesting, so tonight – let’s talk about tonight. You have played the Warehouse Project before right?
Once, actually twice sorry, in fact more haha, three times. We played at the old one I think?
Boddingtons?
Yeah, there. So we played there once, then two years ago at the new place and again this year.
Ok so which do you prefer?
I think……..the new one, just because when we played at the last one there were lots of problems with the sound. They were very strict with the bass frequencies so for us it sounded pretty rubbish without the bass, it was really bad actually (laughing).
Let’s hope it’s better tonight then! Jence, I saw you at Sankeys last year, is that because you (Isi) were ill or do you generally prefer to do the club gigs alone?
No no, it was because I was sick. It’s much better playing together, we prefer playing together.
Do you prefer DJ’ing or playing live sets?
Definitely live, playing live is so much more exciting because you can add your own little spin on things and change things whenever you like. DJ sets are also cool though because you can try new stuff, friends songs, try a little bit of a new song to see how the crowd react, if they like it then carry on, if they don’t then turn it off straight away haha! It’s also good for us now because we can see what the crowd think, get their reaction and then go back to the studio and change layouts and things. You also don’t have to sound check which is good if you are playing lots of dates on tour and there isn’t much time.
So you haven’t been to the Warehouse yet, are you planning on going early to see Erol etc?
No we haven’t been yet, we just had a nice meal here but we will be going down quite early to have a couple of drinks and watch Erol’s set.
Cool, us too. So tell me, what records have you got in the bag at the moment that you have been playing recently?
We’ve got some of our own new tracks to play, but you won’t know which ones they are! We like playing our own stuff because it feels good to get a reaction from the crowd to your music, it’s the closest feeling you can get to playing live I think. Apart from that, you’ll have to wait and see!
What live setup do you guys use? Lots of DJ’s now are using more and more advanced tools like Ableton live and Traktor Scratch.
No, we just use CD’s and vinyls, back to the old school!
Sounds good, someone has to be! So are you in the studio at the moment? What’s happening with the new album?
We are recording it at the moment but it’s not going to be out for a while. We are kinda refurbishing our studio right now so we’re busy with that.
Is it true that your studio is an old World War II Bunker?
Yeah, but it looks really nice now. Originally we bought it because they couldn’t get rid of them so we got it for a really good price. In the first place we had another one, they usually get rented out to musicians or whatever but after a while we decided we wanted a new one so we got this one. It has 2 levels, it’s pretty big so we have lots of space. And it means because we own it, we can go there whenever we want.
Sounds very nice. Ok so tell me how is the new record going to differ from ‘Idealism’? Obviously when it came out in 2007 there was the whole electro sound, Ed Banger was really starting to take off and Simian’s first album had just come out. Are you looking to stay with that kind of sound because ‘Taken Away’ which you released for the Mercedes Commercial definitely didn’t have the same sound as anything from ‘Idealism’?
No I don’t think so. Taken Away was purely for the advert and nothing more. I think the new album will be more like that. Everyone has their directions and I think ours is going to be more band based stuff, more lyrics etc. We don’t really know yet though, it’s not finished so we can’t say what specific style it’s going to be. Once it’s finished, it will be out two months after that. Right now, it’s not done and we don’t know when it will be! We’re working on it, we’ve got a few studio dates set out but nothing concrete, we just go when we like, that’s the beauty of having your own studio.
Ok, I’ll get off your back about the new record now! Tell me who you guys listen to, what music are you into right now?
Umm, if we have time we go to a lot of concerts, the last one was The Virgins in Hamburg, it’s good too see a lot of bands and live music I think. We enjoy live music a lot. Aside from that, lots of bands that you probably won’t know, our friends own bands, some Kitsuné bands too.
What’s the deal with you guys and Kitsuné now? You still release vinyls with them right?
Yeah we’re still working with them. We are good friend with them but we aren’t so much involved with everything else. We don’t really go the parties and things, we always to try and do our own thing instead. We prefer to do our own thing, we are friends but we don’t tour together or anything like that, label parties and things. We don’t know all the bands that well, apart from a few exceptions.
So how did things start with Kitsuné?
Well a friend of ours was sending some tracks out for us, he went to a party and asked the DJ to stick on ‘Idealistic’. The next day I wake up and I have this crazy voice message from a guy saying “Hey guys, I just played ‘Idealistic’ and everyone went crazy…..I need this track for my label.” That was the start of it really so we started working together as of then. Then another friend started playing ‘Zdarlight’ at parties and apparently everyone was going crazy for it!
Ok well time’s almost up so before we go, what’s your schedule for the rest of the summer?
Well we are playing in France in a couple of weeks, in Bruges I think, then some festivals this summer, Oxegen in Ireland, o2 Wireless where we will actually be playing live which we’re looking forward to. Funny thing, we’re playing in Oxford which we’re not sure how that will go down, I don’t know how much genius people like our music!! But at the moment this quiet schedule is perfect for us because it means we can go to the studio whenever we are free.
Ok guys well thanks very much. One more question, will you guys come and talk to the Blue Walrus again next time you’re in Manchester?
Yeah for sure, we’ll definitely do that.
Great, guys thanks very much for your time. Enjoy tonight and we’ll see you next time.