August 18, 2025 • 30 mins
Celebrating the incredible success of their latest smash, Alex from DVBBS joins us for the first time on America's Dance 30 to talk all things "Move A Little Closer"! He shares how the song was born w Abi Flynn, how long ago they started working on it, and how many Vs there were of the song before its release. He also talks about artists testing new music by posting samples on socials, and if he likes it.
Alex also answers a question he's never been asked before, AND we get to know DVBBS better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Alex also answers a question he's never been asked before, AND we get to know DVBBS better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
- if music was the first thing him and his brother wanted to get into growing up
- if 'DVBBS' was their first choice for an artist project name
- the first time they ever performed as DVBBS, and how many shows they've done in their career
- the first dance song that made him fall in love w EDM
- who he would love to collab with if he could travel to the past
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alex, it has been way too long.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I don't even know the last time that I got
a chance to catch up with you.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It may have been like Sunset Music Festival a.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Decade say that.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
That was a decade ago.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
That's an amazing festival.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
By the way, I need to come back to Sunset
Music Festival.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
That crowd is wild.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hold on, I'm pouring one out.
Speaker 5 (00:21):
Really it stopped, yeah, unfortunately, but yes, it was an
incredible festival and hopefully at some point they will bring
it back and it will be an incredible festival again.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I believe so. If not, we'll do something bigger and better. Yes,
but that was the last time I saw you. It's
so good to see you. Thank you for having me
on the show today.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It is great seeing you two. We've got a lot
to catch up on.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We're gonna be chatting all about your smash move a
little closer with Abby Flynn. We're gonna get to No
Dubs a little better with Thinky's First, And I'm gonna
possibly ask you a question that you have never been
asked before. Alex Dubbs, Welcome to a America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
For the first time, Dance.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country. This
is America's dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Alex, congratulations on this new smash Move a Little Closer
with Abby Flynn that's climbing the charts.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's such a special record to us, and you know,
with the support of you guys and a bunch of
our close friends in the industry supporting it all the
way up. I'm so excited to see what this record
is doing and how it's getting, you know, recepted by everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So yeah, and I can't wait to find out how
it was born.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
But I saw that you guys recently posted some teases
in your stories of some new music.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
You know, you guys have been doing this a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Originally, testing a record was just throwing it in your
sets and seeing how the crowd reacts and maybe putting
it out SoundCloud to see.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
But now with sharing teases on Instagram and socials, do
you like that better to see crowd reaction?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
You know what the craziest thing is is that I
basically fought against joining TikTok for so long, and.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Move a Little Closer is the first.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Song that we I started three months ago on TikTok
and Move a Little Closer was the first song that
you know, everyone was like, wait for this, wait for that,
wait for this, And I said, I'm going to see
what the people think on TikTok and it the first
video that I posted on it was a studio video
Move a Little Closer went viral and that was the
(02:48):
whole birth of this record. It was actually a product
of TikTok. And we're about to hit ten thousand sound
uses of people just using it in all their videos
and it's just like that straight organic and it's so wild,
and it's like to me, I'm like, damn, I should
have started this five years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well listen, don't feel bad.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I'm the same way with TikTok, Like I'll hop on
there and post my content and then get out.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Yeah no, but but it's kind of a beautiful thing
to be honest to. You know, the people are They're
really the determining factor at this point, and I think
that's great. You know, before, yeah, you'd play the record
in your sets, and we still do that, and you know, see,
we can gauge the crowd audience of how they're enjoying
(03:35):
it live because that.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Is super important to us.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
But to put a teaser online and to be able
to gauge how many people are like I need this
song now, it makes it, you know, it makes it
pretty like it's a great determining factor.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, And it's crazy because when you do throw it
in your sets at a festival, there's like, you know,
fifty thousand people. You don't know how many of those
fifty thousand actually like it. When you've got it being
used as a sound like, that's more engaging.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Absolutely, I mean yeah, And if you think about how
many people are using it and the song traveling to
their database of people and then it's just this web
and it's just it's such a wild way of kind
of like premiering music nowadays. But yeah, I mean, I
also take a grain of salt that, you know, not
(04:28):
every first post of a song needs to go completely viral,
because I do think there is amazing music out there
that maybe, you know, needs to just be digested a
little longer.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
But you know, I'm taking it on this one. I'm
loving it.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Before we talk all about music, let's get to know
dubs a little better with Thinkey's first Perfect Now when
you guys were growing up, was music the first thing
that you wanted to get in two or was there
something else that you guys wanted to be soccer players?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Really?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, So Chris is my older brother. He's the second
half of Dubs. We both played very competitive soccer, where
at the age of fifteen we went and played in England,
and yeah, we played for like the semi pro youth
academy in Toronto where we grew up, called the Toronto Links,
and we were brought to England to train in Manchester United,
(05:27):
where we trained with Ronaldo and Roy Keane and yeah,
on the Carrington Grounds. And when we got back from
that trip, we played all the academies across England for
quite some time. And when we got back from that trip,
I actually quit soccer and started music.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
What made you quit the fact that.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
When I played in England, I had the same position
as the coach's son, so got I got benched a lot,
and I get to play the last like ten minutes
of the game, and you know, I scored some goals
in those last ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
But Chris was also way better than me.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
He got a soccer scholarship and when he left to
go to continue university with his soccer scholarship.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
That was kind of the way we communicated was through music.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So how did you convince him to start Dubbs?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So he was basically about to graduate and I was
about to start university, and there was just some fire
inside me that was like man like, you know, we
grew up loving music.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
We had some bands before he left.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
For school in his scholarship, but when he was in university,
he started teaching himself how to produce on ableton and
I'd be writing songs on guitar and recording vocals and
he would send them back almost in like a remixed
version of the song.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And that's how we that's how we just like stayed
in touch.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We were always best friends around We're eighteen months apart,
but you know, once he left, that was a big
like switch in my life. But we communicated through music
and almost through these rem of like you know, I
was writing like rock records and reggae records, and he
was setting back these dance versions of you know what
I was creating. And that was the early beginning of Dubs.
(07:11):
And that was right when David Ghetta and Lmfao and
Avici were becoming like North American superstars, and that's when
Dubbs was created.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That is amazing that it started by him kind of
remixing you.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I'm telling you, it was like I could, I could
send you something.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
I think we still have some of these demos. I'll
send them to you.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Oh my god, I gotta hear them.
Speaker 6 (07:32):
They're probably super embarrassing, but you gotta start somewhere, man.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I think I think it was more important that, you know,
we were creating a sound before like the boom was
actually happening. So you know, being eighteen nineteen years old
and getting into this like wave that was happening in
North America was like the most powerful part about it all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Now, think back to the early days when you were
trying to figure out name for your artist project. Was
Dubbs your first choice or were there other names you
were considering.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So we had a few bands growing up, but Dubs
was actually, to be honest, dub Reggae is a style
of reggae music that is an electronic component of reggae music,
and we always love that name. We always kind of
used it as like, you know, you're catching a dub
like a w like a win rolling on duves.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
We just we just love that word. Our crew said
it a lot and we had a hard time.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Trademarking it with a you so our last name is
vandenhof I have the V tattooed on me right there.
We ended up putting the V in there and the
rest was history. That was kind of just we just
we just rolled with it. And to be completely honest,
it has been a blessed and a curse the amount
of places in the world, in Europe and places where
they're like dv bbs like everyone.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I said it at least once before, you know what.
It made a great story.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
And and that being said right when we were starting,
you know, like when I first saw dead Mouse and
all these like you know, cool names with letters and
different you know, numbers, and I was like, this is
this is dope.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
We're a part of it.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Well if it makes you feel better.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I remember Pete Tong calling dead Mouse dead mouth five
So so da vibs in the house.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Now, speaking of Europe, you guys just recently played Tomorrowland.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
You played all over the world.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Side note, do you have any idea how many shows
you guys have done in your career.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I'd say we're well over one thousand plus gigs now. Yeah,
from two thousand and twelve teen to twenty nineteen, we
were doing at least one hundred and fifty to two
hundred a year.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
God, I'm exhausted just hearing that.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
It was an interesting time, you know, and we you know,
to this day, we still do, you know, seventy five
hundred gigs a year, if you know, But we're a
lot more strategic, you know, picking you know, the festivals
and the and the cities that we want to headline.
And it's a different time in the touring market right
now as well.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So just being strategic and you know, making sure.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
That it's lining up with your releases and doing things
properly is a big part of the strategy. But yeah, dude,
during that during that initial boom where you know, we
moved to Los Angeles March of twenty thirteen and Tsunami
was released a few months later, and after that, we
basically got asked to do an Adventure Club.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Tour in the middle of that release.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It was fifty shows across America, and once we finished that,
we went to Europe and never stopped touring ever since
that time.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That is insane.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well do you remember the first show you guys ever
did as Dubbs.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, and it's a crazy and it's
a crazy, crazy story. So that soccer scholarship that Chris
got and he ended up in this university where they
were doing a showcase and in Canada we don't have MTV.
We do, but it's called Much Music and Much Music
(11:26):
was it still is now. It was a massive music
platform where they created a TV show called Disband and
they found some great artists and signed some big artists
from Canada on that TV show before. But the premise
of the show is they go across all of Canada
doing showcases and the best band wins the show, gets
a record deal, gets an agent, gets a whole bunch
(11:48):
of like a new team, and his school was hosting
the showcase and that was our first show as Dubbs
and we want it oh no crab, Yeah yeah, So
we got our first agent, Colin Lewis, who was at there.
Now he's at Live Nation doing post Malone in the weekend.
One of the reps from Universal. We got signed to
Universal Records and That's why I got accepted to school
(12:10):
right around that time and ended up dropping out right
then because that one showcase landed us a TV show.
We filmed two episodes, and we stopped filming because we
didn't like where it was going, and we got the
whole team based off of that though.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
That's actually what I was going to ask you, because
a lot of the contestants, like on American Idol, when
they lose, they actually say that they're happy that they
lost and didn't win.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Was it like a kind of double edged sword?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hundred percent? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
It was like you have so many things getting thrown
at you at once, and it was like, Okay, you
won the TV show, so now you got to film
like nine episodes.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Then they have contracts coming your way.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Then they have people trying to sign you from different
you know, left, right, and center, and you're just like
I was eighteen at the.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Time, so I didn't really know what was going on.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I was just excited to you know, get my my
my feet wet in the music industry. And by the
second episode we filmed two episodes. I think the pilot
of the first episode got like premiered, and by the
second episode, it became so reality based and they were
asking us so many questions about things that had nothing
to do with music that the punk inside of us
(13:20):
was like, you know what, I think we got to
just like reanalyze this whole situation and we uh, we
went in made an EP and ended up getting Universal
as our label.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
From the beginning there, we got a great agent who
was putting.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Us on some good festivals and shows right in the
very beginning, and we got to ditch out on the
whole show without having to sign like a you know,
a really bad like TV contract.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, that's incredible that you actually got good stuff out
of it.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, dude, I say this all the time, Like I.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Truly believe we have some some angels watching over us
during our career because it's.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Been a it's been an amazing roller coaster.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
And there's any any musician that gets to a certain
point in their career understands that, like, you know, there's
a lot of there's a lot of things that can
take you down, especially bad contracts.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Now do you remember the first festival or ed M
show that you went to.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
So we had a crazy venue in Toronto actually called
the Government, and that's that was a legendary venue where
you know, I saw like Sander van Dorn back in
the day, I saw Steve Aangelo do a solo show
in there. Those were like the early early early days.
But Chris saw Avici first. Oh wow, Yeah that was
(14:39):
that was like when he was still doing his like
college tours. And it was really my big bro who
kind of like really like put me on to that stuff.
And then I will say I wasn't really like, I
wasn't I wasn't partying, I wasn't really going too many shows.
I was in the studio working on stuff in hopes
that I could get playing in some of.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
These you know environments.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
And after that whole you know, we'll have a longer
interview to eventually explain what happened with the early Universal
deal and all that stuff. But long story short, we
signed a Josh Herman and Steve Herman, who are our
managers to this day. They signed us when we're eighteen,
and Steve's over at Live Nation and he put us
(15:22):
on an identity it's called Identity Festival.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, we had that here at Tampa.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah, so we get we got put on the Identity Festival.
We did eight shows driving around America in a pickup truck.
Cascade was playing. I'm pretty sure Dead Moss was playing,
Show Tech was playing, and we were the first guys
on on the Amphitheater stage. And to be completely honest,
we were still doing it live with like instruments. Chris
(15:50):
took all his drums and put triggers on all his
heads so everything sounded electronic.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And we get to the show with the pickup truck.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
We're unloading the drums and the synths and everything, and
they go, they go, you guys can't put this on stage.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
There's too much pyro. You guys got only DJ.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
And we're like, oh, okay, that tour we learned how
to truly like DJ on that tour in front of
like thousands of people.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh my god. Talking about Trial of Fire.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a video that says
dubs the worst DJs in the universe.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I hope I didn't post that.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I swear you'll find it's on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I wonder if you guys came through for our identity
because I vividly remember the Fairgrounds that it was at. Yeah,
and I remember going inside with my friend we saw
Nervo was playing inside Cascade.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Was there. I wonder if you guys were there.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I gotta look at I gotta look at the schedule
of that. That that would be insane. Yeah, Tampa, We've
had some amazing times in Tampa.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh, it's such a great city for parties. Now, you
guys have had some on iconic songs. You mentioned Tsunami,
you've had gold Skies. Uh, just words your new song
move a little closer. But do you remember the first
dance song that made you fall in love with E
D M.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I think it was I remember, oh, Cascade.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Yeah, I would say that was because I was still
like downloading music on like this old computer at the time,
and I was just like illegally I got arrested straight
off with I think it was it was, I remember, yeah.
And then and then Chris fell in love with with.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The It was around that time. It was the David
Getta that that that uh when love takes So.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I remember being at Ultra when he dropped that, and
I remember literally the second I left Ultra reaching out
to the record label going what is this?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I need this song? It was just so amazing, incredible.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
And like you know, I mean we when you come
from like a band background and and all of a sudden,
you know, us being kids, like we never really understood
that like the world of electronic music could just be
so big and so powerful, and we were we were
so naive at times being youngers, being like, no, we
have to we have to drum live and sing live
(18:24):
and play bass and guitar live.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
And it was that moment that.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Like it shifted in our brains that like we knew
we could really just kind of like transform our sound
into something, you know, much bigger than it ever was.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
That's incredible. Now, just going back to Tsunami really quick.
It's still played at almost every sporting event.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
If there's a good in arena DJ.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
When you're at a sporting event and they drop it,
is it annoying at this point.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I would say, like six years ago, like when you've
heard it like non stop on the radio two you know,
because we keep in mind, like Tsunami was actually an
underground record, you know, like when it came out, it
was like that that was fresh, that was underground. It
was it was the masses that took it up into
the mainstream.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
At a certain point then I'm like, oh, I actually
feel like this is a huge like bad dream at
all times, and then you hit a certain point where
you're like, this is such a blessing, Like to be
able to have a song in your catalog that continues
to just like play during sport games, like that's like
and you know growing up in sports. It's here in
(19:39):
Los Angeles, the Rams play it like every single game.
You know, back home, the Toronto Maple Leafs they play
it like religiously.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I know the Tampa Bay Lightning play it.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And I was just at the Buccaneer game
on Saturday they dropped it. I don't know if people
still tag you, but like they played Sandstorm again and
I tagged a root in it.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Such a legendaryer.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
But I will say the one coolest thing that has
been happening with Tsunami is that the US Army Versus
Navy game, It's become a staple for that game. It's there,
it's their every game, kind of like anthem. And to
watch I think it was Dave Portnoy who just posted
(20:22):
it again recently, but to watch the whole stadium of
the Army and the Navy, that just going so crazy
and chanting it. Someone told me recently that they're actually
bringing it into the army to be like one of
the like one of the songs that they like, actually yeah,
perform and like do all like the drum March stuff too.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh that's so incredible. Well, congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Thank you, thank you. So.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I mean you were there, like literally from the very beginning,
like you were there watching that happen.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And I mean it still never gets old when it
comes on. It is such a great hype song.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Ardwell just did a crazy remix to it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It's so insane.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
He premiered it a Tomorrowland. I keep telling him, like,
send it to me. I want.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
The fact that he hasn't sent it to you.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
He had crazy, right, It's funny.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Now finally in Finkey's First you know, your latest song
is a collab with Abby Flynn. If you could time
travel and go back in the past to collab with anybody,
who would be your first choice?
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I mean I feel like we can make something amazing
with Bob Marley.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Oh my god, that would be incredible.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Yeah, just having like a vocal that can uplift you know,
and people are gonna think, oh wow, it's just gonna
be like, you know, reggae aspect record. I just think
that you know, a perfect vocal that can uplift an
audience over top of the right chords and you know, progression.
It doesn't need to be just fully you know, reggae.
(22:03):
It could just be a beautiful record. Who else, who else?
Who else? I would say, I don't know, But all
I know is we hit up toev Low again today
for this record that we worked on, you know, a
while ago, and I'm trying to I'm trying to revisit
this idea because it's it's there's something about music that
if you make a great record and it doesn't come out,
(22:24):
you might just need to update the production of the drums,
you know, four or five years later, and a good
record is still a great record. So yeah, yeah, So
there's there's stuff we're sitting on at least like fifty
sixty songs in our vault that are you know, some
stuff just demos from back in the day that I
like to revisit once a year to see what we'll
align with like the palette of where the world's at
(22:45):
musically right now.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, let's talk about your latest smash how was this
song born with Abby Flynn?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
This song is so special, I can't even lie. Abby
is a true superstar. She's a UK bass singer to
be honest. If you do some research on Abby Flynn,
she's been on about four massive, massive dance anthems, just
hasn't been credited and which happens.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
But this time around in March. We've been talking to
her since December last year.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
But in March I got I got the like the vocal,
like the demo idea of move a little closer.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And I know that there were a lot of the big.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Guys, you know, like I think it was yes, So
some of some of the big guys have been circling
around trying to get that vocal.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And I told her straight up that Abby, if you
allow us.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
To work on this record, I want to put you
on the forefront. I want to credit you, I want
I want you to be on this record with us,
you know. And she, you know, she could have easily
gone and just you know, shock this song to.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
One of these major major DJs.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
But she trusted in our in our like talk, in
our process, and you know, we worked on a version
of that record.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
We sent it back and for we had about three.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
It was the drop that took actually a few extra
weeks of just trying to like get right because this
song is so simple and sometimes the simplest songs are
the hardest to just connect the dots. Yeah, So we
worked on that record in March and it was about
eight weeks later, ten weeks later when I decided to
just put it up on TikTok and it just went
(24:23):
completely viral. That was the first time we've ever done
that before. And the more the more you look into
the story of Abby Flynn. You know, she's such an
incredible vocalist. She just beat cancer a few years ago.
She's a single mother who every time I've been talking
to her, you know on the dms, she's just going
(24:44):
from studio session to studio session, just like working with
every single DJ and just like creating these like amazing records.
I know, she had a top ten in the UK
recently with Nathan dah And once this record like showed
us like what it was actually doing on you know,
online and how many people were like absolutely loving it
(25:06):
and telling us to release it. We had a festival
that we're playing in front of thirty thousand people Escapade
Music Festival, and thirty six hours before the festival, we
called it and we're like, would you hop on a
plane and come perform it with us?
Speaker 6 (25:19):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
And she did.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
She put her kid into child like, she got a
babysitter right away. She hopped on a flight immediately, and
with the travel, with the time change, she was there
and so excited, just glowing, and she came out on
stage with us and we performed the song literally twenty
four hours later in front of thirty thousand people, and
(25:42):
that became the music video.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Oh my god, that is an amazing story.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, it was so epic and like I have goosebums
talking about it right now.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Oh, it's like there's moments in like that when you
when you're working on a record that makes you realize
like how special it all? You know, because you go
through recording sessions and dealing with artists that you know
they're worried about the contract and their money and this
and that, And then there's people that are like, wait,
(26:13):
this is about the music first.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
It's getting the reaction is insane.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Right now, I'm hopping on a flight and we're getting
straight on stage cameras rolling bubble. It's like when it
happens in real time like that, It's undeniable.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Oh, I love hearing that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I mean, not only did you guys absolutely kill it
with the production, but she sounds so amazing on the song.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Oh, I just and I've heard there's a few massive
remixes right now in the works too, which I'm you know,
I love playing the song live and we we played
it at Tamorland like a week and a half ago.
But to get a couple of remixes that we can
kind of like play the original first for like the
first half and then drop it.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Into like a remix, that's what I've been really excited
for too.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Well, hopefully you get those remixes sent to you.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, congratulations on the amazing success of it.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Thank you so much, and thank you so much for
supporting it. It's meant so much to us. Like you know,
we've we've been working on so many records and as
a musician, you go through, you know, times in your
career where you're like experimenting with new sounds and trying
to catch new waves and sometimes they don't work and
they don't connect. But when they do It's like it's
(27:26):
one of the best feelings in the world.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I bet, and I mean when I produce the show
every week, it's just so good seeing you guys back
in the top thirty.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
It makes me so happy.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
I hope that you know everything we do after here,
we'll stay there as well.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Now, before I let you go, I asked chat ept
to give me a question that Dubbs has never been
asked before.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So I gotta test this out, all right.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I watched you do.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
This with David Gettis, so I'm.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Some of these questions are so insane.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
I've talked to chat and by the way, I talked
to GBT like it's my Hobie, one.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Of my good friends uses it as a therapist. So
you're not alone.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Now you get to swap lives with any other DJ
producer for twenty four hours. Who would you choose and
what would be the first thing you do?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Wow, it's got to be Calvin Harris. Oh, yes, got
to be Calvin, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Not only like is he kind of like musically just
so goaded and kind of like a spirit animal. But
I feel like we align in a lot of like
the health world, the stuff that you know that he
truly believes in I live here in La I know
he didn't live too far, a few minutes up the
road for me before. I think he moved back to
like Ibiza and like got a farm and all this stuff.
(28:50):
And that's just that's just stuff that I dream of
for the future, you know, because I do. I love
the chaos, and I love making music and touring. But
the other half of me just, you know, absolutely loves
to to to to enjoy life, the still moments of life,
the peace, the quiet, you know, farm farm life, you know,
(29:12):
just just being you know, completely still and happy and
you know, having balance.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
All that sounds amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
But I don't know if this is the right time
to turn into Calvin Harris for twenty four hours because
he just had a newborn so you'd be on diaper duty.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I take him back, I take him back, I take
it back.
Speaker 7 (29:32):
I'll go, Oh my god, Alex.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It is so great seeing you again. Congratulations on everything
going on for dubs. Thank you so much for your
time with us on America's Dan's thirty.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Way I got I got one little guest right before
I leave here.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
This is me sus.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Oh me so oh, sorry me so.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Like I'm sleepy.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Oh oh, that just makes me wish I had my
boy talk Curry here.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
She's the best dude.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Oh my god, how old is she?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
She's a year.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Oh, congratulations on that newborn. Then you're on diaper duty.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It was kind of the same with some of these
wiener dogs. I think they're like humans.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Well, it's so great seeing you. Thank you so much
for your time with us.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Thank you so much, Brian. I'll see you soon.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
America's Dancerties Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
America's Dance thirty
Alex, it has been way too long.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I don't even know the last time that I got
a chance to catch up with you.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It may have been like Sunset Music Festival a.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Decade say that.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
That was a decade ago.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
That's an amazing festival.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
By the way, I need to come back to Sunset
Music Festival.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
That crowd is wild.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hold on, I'm pouring one out.
Speaker 5 (00:21):
Really it stopped, yeah, unfortunately, but yes, it was an
incredible festival and hopefully at some point they will bring
it back and it will be an incredible festival again.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I believe so. If not, we'll do something bigger and better. Yes,
but that was the last time I saw you. It's
so good to see you. Thank you for having me
on the show today.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It is great seeing you two. We've got a lot
to catch up on.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We're gonna be chatting all about your smash move a
little closer with Abby Flynn. We're gonna get to No
Dubs a little better with Thinky's First, And I'm gonna
possibly ask you a question that you have never been
asked before. Alex Dubbs, Welcome to a America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
For the first time, Dance.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country. This
is America's dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Alex, congratulations on this new smash Move a Little Closer
with Abby Flynn that's climbing the charts.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's such a special record to us, and you know,
with the support of you guys and a bunch of
our close friends in the industry supporting it all the
way up. I'm so excited to see what this record
is doing and how it's getting, you know, recepted by everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So yeah, and I can't wait to find out how
it was born.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
But I saw that you guys recently posted some teases
in your stories of some new music.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
You know, you guys have been doing this a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Originally, testing a record was just throwing it in your
sets and seeing how the crowd reacts and maybe putting
it out SoundCloud to see.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
But now with sharing teases on Instagram and socials, do
you like that better to see crowd reaction?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
You know what the craziest thing is is that I
basically fought against joining TikTok for so long, and.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Move a Little Closer is the first.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Song that we I started three months ago on TikTok
and Move a Little Closer was the first song that
you know, everyone was like, wait for this, wait for that,
wait for this, And I said, I'm going to see
what the people think on TikTok and it the first
video that I posted on it was a studio video
Move a Little Closer went viral and that was the
(02:48):
whole birth of this record. It was actually a product
of TikTok. And we're about to hit ten thousand sound
uses of people just using it in all their videos
and it's just like that straight organic and it's so wild,
and it's like to me, I'm like, damn, I should
have started this five years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well listen, don't feel bad.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I'm the same way with TikTok, Like I'll hop on
there and post my content and then get out.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Yeah no, but but it's kind of a beautiful thing
to be honest to. You know, the people are They're
really the determining factor at this point, and I think
that's great. You know, before, yeah, you'd play the record
in your sets, and we still do that, and you know, see,
we can gauge the crowd audience of how they're enjoying
(03:35):
it live because that.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Is super important to us.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
But to put a teaser online and to be able
to gauge how many people are like I need this
song now, it makes it, you know, it makes it
pretty like it's a great determining factor.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, And it's crazy because when you do throw it
in your sets at a festival, there's like, you know,
fifty thousand people. You don't know how many of those
fifty thousand actually like it. When you've got it being
used as a sound like, that's more engaging.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Absolutely, I mean yeah, And if you think about how
many people are using it and the song traveling to
their database of people and then it's just this web
and it's just it's such a wild way of kind
of like premiering music nowadays. But yeah, I mean, I
also take a grain of salt that, you know, not
(04:28):
every first post of a song needs to go completely viral,
because I do think there is amazing music out there
that maybe, you know, needs to just be digested a
little longer.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
But you know, I'm taking it on this one. I'm
loving it.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Before we talk all about music, let's get to know
dubs a little better with Thinkey's first Perfect Now when
you guys were growing up, was music the first thing
that you wanted to get in two or was there
something else that you guys wanted to be soccer players?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Really?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, So Chris is my older brother. He's the second
half of Dubs. We both played very competitive soccer, where
at the age of fifteen we went and played in England,
and yeah, we played for like the semi pro youth
academy in Toronto where we grew up, called the Toronto Links,
and we were brought to England to train in Manchester United,
(05:27):
where we trained with Ronaldo and Roy Keane and yeah,
on the Carrington Grounds. And when we got back from
that trip, we played all the academies across England for
quite some time. And when we got back from that trip,
I actually quit soccer and started music.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
What made you quit the fact that.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
When I played in England, I had the same position
as the coach's son, so got I got benched a lot,
and I get to play the last like ten minutes
of the game, and you know, I scored some goals
in those last ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
But Chris was also way better than me.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
He got a soccer scholarship and when he left to
go to continue university with his soccer scholarship.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
That was kind of the way we communicated was through music.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So how did you convince him to start Dubbs?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So he was basically about to graduate and I was
about to start university, and there was just some fire
inside me that was like man like, you know, we
grew up loving music.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
We had some bands before he left.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
For school in his scholarship, but when he was in university,
he started teaching himself how to produce on ableton and
I'd be writing songs on guitar and recording vocals and
he would send them back almost in like a remixed
version of the song.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And that's how we that's how we just like stayed
in touch.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We were always best friends around We're eighteen months apart,
but you know, once he left, that was a big
like switch in my life. But we communicated through music
and almost through these rem of like you know, I
was writing like rock records and reggae records, and he
was setting back these dance versions of you know what
I was creating. And that was the early beginning of Dubs.
(07:11):
And that was right when David Ghetta and Lmfao and
Avici were becoming like North American superstars, and that's when
Dubbs was created.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That is amazing that it started by him kind of
remixing you.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I'm telling you, it was like I could, I could
send you something.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
I think we still have some of these demos. I'll
send them to you.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Oh my god, I gotta hear them.
Speaker 6 (07:32):
They're probably super embarrassing, but you gotta start somewhere, man.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I think I think it was more important that, you know,
we were creating a sound before like the boom was
actually happening. So you know, being eighteen nineteen years old
and getting into this like wave that was happening in
North America was like the most powerful part about it all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Now, think back to the early days when you were
trying to figure out name for your artist project. Was
Dubbs your first choice or were there other names you
were considering.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So we had a few bands growing up, but Dubs
was actually, to be honest, dub Reggae is a style
of reggae music that is an electronic component of reggae music,
and we always love that name. We always kind of
used it as like, you know, you're catching a dub
like a w like a win rolling on duves.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
We just we just love that word. Our crew said
it a lot and we had a hard time.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Trademarking it with a you so our last name is
vandenhof I have the V tattooed on me right there.
We ended up putting the V in there and the
rest was history. That was kind of just we just
we just rolled with it. And to be completely honest,
it has been a blessed and a curse the amount
of places in the world, in Europe and places where
they're like dv bbs like everyone.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I said it at least once before, you know what.
It made a great story.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
And and that being said right when we were starting,
you know, like when I first saw dead Mouse and
all these like you know, cool names with letters and
different you know, numbers, and I was like, this is
this is dope.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
We're a part of it.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Well if it makes you feel better.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I remember Pete Tong calling dead Mouse dead mouth five
So so da vibs in the house.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Now, speaking of Europe, you guys just recently played Tomorrowland.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
You played all over the world.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Side note, do you have any idea how many shows
you guys have done in your career.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I'd say we're well over one thousand plus gigs now. Yeah,
from two thousand and twelve teen to twenty nineteen, we
were doing at least one hundred and fifty to two
hundred a year.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
God, I'm exhausted just hearing that.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
It was an interesting time, you know, and we you know,
to this day, we still do, you know, seventy five
hundred gigs a year, if you know, But we're a
lot more strategic, you know, picking you know, the festivals
and the and the cities that we want to headline.
And it's a different time in the touring market right
now as well.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So just being strategic and you know, making sure.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
That it's lining up with your releases and doing things
properly is a big part of the strategy. But yeah, dude,
during that during that initial boom where you know, we
moved to Los Angeles March of twenty thirteen and Tsunami
was released a few months later, and after that, we
basically got asked to do an Adventure Club.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Tour in the middle of that release.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It was fifty shows across America, and once we finished that,
we went to Europe and never stopped touring ever since
that time.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That is insane.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well do you remember the first show you guys ever
did as Dubbs.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, and it's a crazy and it's
a crazy, crazy story. So that soccer scholarship that Chris
got and he ended up in this university where they
were doing a showcase and in Canada we don't have MTV.
We do, but it's called Much Music and Much Music
(11:26):
was it still is now. It was a massive music
platform where they created a TV show called Disband and
they found some great artists and signed some big artists
from Canada on that TV show before. But the premise
of the show is they go across all of Canada
doing showcases and the best band wins the show, gets
a record deal, gets an agent, gets a whole bunch
(11:48):
of like a new team, and his school was hosting
the showcase and that was our first show as Dubbs
and we want it oh no crab, Yeah yeah, So
we got our first agent, Colin Lewis, who was at there.
Now he's at Live Nation doing post Malone in the weekend.
One of the reps from Universal. We got signed to
Universal Records and That's why I got accepted to school
(12:10):
right around that time and ended up dropping out right
then because that one showcase landed us a TV show.
We filmed two episodes, and we stopped filming because we
didn't like where it was going, and we got the
whole team based off of that though.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
That's actually what I was going to ask you, because
a lot of the contestants, like on American Idol, when
they lose, they actually say that they're happy that they
lost and didn't win.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Was it like a kind of double edged sword?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hundred percent? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
It was like you have so many things getting thrown
at you at once, and it was like, Okay, you
won the TV show, so now you got to film
like nine episodes.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Then they have contracts coming your way.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Then they have people trying to sign you from different
you know, left, right, and center, and you're just like
I was eighteen at the.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Time, so I didn't really know what was going on.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I was just excited to you know, get my my
my feet wet in the music industry. And by the
second episode we filmed two episodes. I think the pilot
of the first episode got like premiered, and by the
second episode, it became so reality based and they were
asking us so many questions about things that had nothing
to do with music that the punk inside of us
(13:20):
was like, you know what, I think we got to
just like reanalyze this whole situation and we uh, we
went in made an EP and ended up getting Universal
as our label.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
From the beginning there, we got a great agent who
was putting.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Us on some good festivals and shows right in the
very beginning, and we got to ditch out on the
whole show without having to sign like a you know,
a really bad like TV contract.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, that's incredible that you actually got good stuff out
of it.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, dude, I say this all the time, Like I.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Truly believe we have some some angels watching over us
during our career because it's.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Been a it's been an amazing roller coaster.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
And there's any any musician that gets to a certain
point in their career understands that, like, you know, there's
a lot of there's a lot of things that can
take you down, especially bad contracts.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Now do you remember the first festival or ed M
show that you went to.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
So we had a crazy venue in Toronto actually called
the Government, and that's that was a legendary venue where
you know, I saw like Sander van Dorn back in
the day, I saw Steve Aangelo do a solo show
in there. Those were like the early early early days.
But Chris saw Avici first. Oh wow, Yeah that was
(14:39):
that was like when he was still doing his like
college tours. And it was really my big bro who
kind of like really like put me on to that stuff.
And then I will say I wasn't really like, I
wasn't I wasn't partying, I wasn't really going too many shows.
I was in the studio working on stuff in hopes
that I could get playing in some of.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
These you know environments.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
And after that whole you know, we'll have a longer
interview to eventually explain what happened with the early Universal
deal and all that stuff. But long story short, we
signed a Josh Herman and Steve Herman, who are our
managers to this day. They signed us when we're eighteen,
and Steve's over at Live Nation and he put us
(15:22):
on an identity it's called Identity Festival.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, we had that here at Tampa.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah, so we get we got put on the Identity Festival.
We did eight shows driving around America in a pickup truck.
Cascade was playing. I'm pretty sure Dead Moss was playing,
Show Tech was playing, and we were the first guys
on on the Amphitheater stage. And to be completely honest,
we were still doing it live with like instruments. Chris
(15:50):
took all his drums and put triggers on all his
heads so everything sounded electronic.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And we get to the show with the pickup truck.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
We're unloading the drums and the synths and everything, and
they go, they go, you guys can't put this on stage.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
There's too much pyro. You guys got only DJ.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
And we're like, oh, okay, that tour we learned how
to truly like DJ on that tour in front of
like thousands of people.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh my god. Talking about Trial of Fire.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a video that says
dubs the worst DJs in the universe.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I hope I didn't post that.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I swear you'll find it's on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I wonder if you guys came through for our identity
because I vividly remember the Fairgrounds that it was at. Yeah,
and I remember going inside with my friend we saw
Nervo was playing inside Cascade.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Was there. I wonder if you guys were there.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I gotta look at I gotta look at the schedule
of that. That that would be insane. Yeah, Tampa, We've
had some amazing times in Tampa.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh, it's such a great city for parties. Now, you
guys have had some on iconic songs. You mentioned Tsunami,
you've had gold Skies. Uh, just words your new song
move a little closer. But do you remember the first
dance song that made you fall in love with E
D M.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I think it was I remember, oh, Cascade.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Yeah, I would say that was because I was still
like downloading music on like this old computer at the time,
and I was just like illegally I got arrested straight
off with I think it was it was, I remember, yeah.
And then and then Chris fell in love with with.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The It was around that time. It was the David
Getta that that that uh when love takes So.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I remember being at Ultra when he dropped that, and
I remember literally the second I left Ultra reaching out
to the record label going what is this?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I need this song? It was just so amazing, incredible.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
And like you know, I mean we when you come
from like a band background and and all of a sudden,
you know, us being kids, like we never really understood
that like the world of electronic music could just be
so big and so powerful, and we were we were
so naive at times being youngers, being like, no, we
have to we have to drum live and sing live
(18:24):
and play bass and guitar live.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
And it was that moment that.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Like it shifted in our brains that like we knew
we could really just kind of like transform our sound
into something, you know, much bigger than it ever was.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
That's incredible. Now, just going back to Tsunami really quick.
It's still played at almost every sporting event.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
If there's a good in arena DJ.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
When you're at a sporting event and they drop it,
is it annoying at this point.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I would say, like six years ago, like when you've
heard it like non stop on the radio two you know,
because we keep in mind, like Tsunami was actually an
underground record, you know, like when it came out, it
was like that that was fresh, that was underground. It
was it was the masses that took it up into
the mainstream.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
At a certain point then I'm like, oh, I actually
feel like this is a huge like bad dream at
all times, and then you hit a certain point where
you're like, this is such a blessing, Like to be
able to have a song in your catalog that continues
to just like play during sport games, like that's like
and you know growing up in sports. It's here in
(19:39):
Los Angeles, the Rams play it like every single game.
You know, back home, the Toronto Maple Leafs they play
it like religiously.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I know the Tampa Bay Lightning play it.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And I was just at the Buccaneer game
on Saturday they dropped it. I don't know if people
still tag you, but like they played Sandstorm again and
I tagged a root in it.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Such a legendaryer.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
But I will say the one coolest thing that has
been happening with Tsunami is that the US Army Versus
Navy game, It's become a staple for that game. It's there,
it's their every game, kind of like anthem. And to
watch I think it was Dave Portnoy who just posted
(20:22):
it again recently, but to watch the whole stadium of
the Army and the Navy, that just going so crazy
and chanting it. Someone told me recently that they're actually
bringing it into the army to be like one of
the like one of the songs that they like, actually yeah,
perform and like do all like the drum March stuff too.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh that's so incredible. Well, congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Thank you, thank you. So.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I mean you were there, like literally from the very beginning,
like you were there watching that happen.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And I mean it still never gets old when it
comes on. It is such a great hype song.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Ardwell just did a crazy remix to it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It's so insane.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
He premiered it a Tomorrowland. I keep telling him, like,
send it to me. I want.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
The fact that he hasn't sent it to you.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
He had crazy, right, It's funny.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Now finally in Finkey's First you know, your latest song
is a collab with Abby Flynn. If you could time
travel and go back in the past to collab with anybody,
who would be your first choice?
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I mean I feel like we can make something amazing
with Bob Marley.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Oh my god, that would be incredible.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Yeah, just having like a vocal that can uplift you know,
and people are gonna think, oh wow, it's just gonna
be like, you know, reggae aspect record. I just think
that you know, a perfect vocal that can uplift an
audience over top of the right chords and you know, progression.
It doesn't need to be just fully you know, reggae.
(22:03):
It could just be a beautiful record. Who else, who else?
Who else? I would say, I don't know, But all
I know is we hit up toev Low again today
for this record that we worked on, you know, a
while ago, and I'm trying to I'm trying to revisit
this idea because it's it's there's something about music that
if you make a great record and it doesn't come out,
(22:24):
you might just need to update the production of the drums,
you know, four or five years later, and a good
record is still a great record. So yeah, yeah, So
there's there's stuff we're sitting on at least like fifty
sixty songs in our vault that are you know, some
stuff just demos from back in the day that I
like to revisit once a year to see what we'll
align with like the palette of where the world's at
(22:45):
musically right now.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, let's talk about your latest smash how was this
song born with Abby Flynn?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
This song is so special, I can't even lie. Abby
is a true superstar. She's a UK bass singer to
be honest. If you do some research on Abby Flynn,
she's been on about four massive, massive dance anthems, just
hasn't been credited and which happens.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
But this time around in March. We've been talking to
her since December last year.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
But in March I got I got the like the vocal,
like the demo idea of move a little closer.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And I know that there were a lot of the big.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Guys, you know, like I think it was yes, So
some of some of the big guys have been circling
around trying to get that vocal.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And I told her straight up that Abby, if you
allow us.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
To work on this record, I want to put you
on the forefront. I want to credit you, I want
I want you to be on this record with us,
you know. And she, you know, she could have easily
gone and just you know, shock this song to.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
One of these major major DJs.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
But she trusted in our in our like talk, in
our process, and you know, we worked on a version
of that record.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
We sent it back and for we had about three.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
It was the drop that took actually a few extra
weeks of just trying to like get right because this
song is so simple and sometimes the simplest songs are
the hardest to just connect the dots. Yeah, So we
worked on that record in March and it was about
eight weeks later, ten weeks later when I decided to
just put it up on TikTok and it just went
(24:23):
completely viral. That was the first time we've ever done
that before. And the more the more you look into
the story of Abby Flynn. You know, she's such an
incredible vocalist. She just beat cancer a few years ago.
She's a single mother who every time I've been talking
to her, you know on the dms, she's just going
(24:44):
from studio session to studio session, just like working with
every single DJ and just like creating these like amazing records.
I know, she had a top ten in the UK
recently with Nathan dah And once this record like showed
us like what it was actually doing on you know,
online and how many people were like absolutely loving it
(25:06):
and telling us to release it. We had a festival
that we're playing in front of thirty thousand people Escapade
Music Festival, and thirty six hours before the festival, we
called it and we're like, would you hop on a
plane and come perform it with us?
Speaker 6 (25:19):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
And she did.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
She put her kid into child like, she got a
babysitter right away. She hopped on a flight immediately, and
with the travel, with the time change, she was there
and so excited, just glowing, and she came out on
stage with us and we performed the song literally twenty
four hours later in front of thirty thousand people, and
(25:42):
that became the music video.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Oh my god, that is an amazing story.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, it was so epic and like I have goosebums
talking about it right now.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Oh, it's like there's moments in like that when you
when you're working on a record that makes you realize
like how special it all? You know, because you go
through recording sessions and dealing with artists that you know
they're worried about the contract and their money and this
and that, And then there's people that are like, wait,
(26:13):
this is about the music first.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
It's getting the reaction is insane.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Right now, I'm hopping on a flight and we're getting
straight on stage cameras rolling bubble. It's like when it
happens in real time like that, It's undeniable.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Oh, I love hearing that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I mean, not only did you guys absolutely kill it
with the production, but she sounds so amazing on the song.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Oh, I just and I've heard there's a few massive
remixes right now in the works too, which I'm you know,
I love playing the song live and we we played
it at Tamorland like a week and a half ago.
But to get a couple of remixes that we can
kind of like play the original first for like the
first half and then drop it.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Into like a remix, that's what I've been really excited
for too.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Well, hopefully you get those remixes sent to you.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, congratulations on the amazing success of it.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Thank you so much, and thank you so much for
supporting it. It's meant so much to us. Like you know,
we've we've been working on so many records and as
a musician, you go through, you know, times in your
career where you're like experimenting with new sounds and trying
to catch new waves and sometimes they don't work and
they don't connect. But when they do It's like it's
(27:26):
one of the best feelings in the world.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I bet, and I mean when I produce the show
every week, it's just so good seeing you guys back
in the top thirty.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
It makes me so happy.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
I hope that you know everything we do after here,
we'll stay there as well.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Now, before I let you go, I asked chat ept
to give me a question that Dubbs has never been
asked before.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So I gotta test this out, all right.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I watched you do.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
This with David Gettis, so I'm.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Some of these questions are so insane.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
I've talked to chat and by the way, I talked
to GBT like it's my Hobie, one.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Of my good friends uses it as a therapist. So
you're not alone.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Now you get to swap lives with any other DJ
producer for twenty four hours. Who would you choose and
what would be the first thing you do?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Wow, it's got to be Calvin Harris. Oh, yes, got
to be Calvin, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Not only like is he kind of like musically just
so goaded and kind of like a spirit animal. But
I feel like we align in a lot of like
the health world, the stuff that you know that he
truly believes in I live here in La I know
he didn't live too far, a few minutes up the
road for me before. I think he moved back to
like Ibiza and like got a farm and all this stuff.
(28:50):
And that's just that's just stuff that I dream of
for the future, you know, because I do. I love
the chaos, and I love making music and touring. But
the other half of me just, you know, absolutely loves
to to to to enjoy life, the still moments of life,
the peace, the quiet, you know, farm farm life, you know,
(29:12):
just just being you know, completely still and happy and
you know, having balance.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
All that sounds amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
But I don't know if this is the right time
to turn into Calvin Harris for twenty four hours because
he just had a newborn so you'd be on diaper duty.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I take him back, I take him back, I take
it back.
Speaker 7 (29:32):
I'll go, Oh my god, Alex.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It is so great seeing you again. Congratulations on everything
going on for dubs. Thank you so much for your
time with us on America's Dan's thirty.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Way I got I got one little guest right before
I leave here.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
This is me sus.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Oh me so oh, sorry me so.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Like I'm sleepy.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Oh oh, that just makes me wish I had my
boy talk Curry here.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
She's the best dude.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Oh my god, how old is she?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
She's a year.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Oh, congratulations on that newborn. Then you're on diaper duty.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It was kind of the same with some of these
wiener dogs. I think they're like humans.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Well, it's so great seeing you. Thank you so much
for your time with us.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Thank you so much, Brian. I'll see you soon.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
America's Dancerties Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
America's Dance thirty
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.