September 14, 2023 • 24 mins
Celebrating Switch Disco's first #1 on the dance charts, Dan & Nikos share how "React" was born w Ella Henderson, how they decided to take on a classic like Robert Miles "Children", and how long the song took to produce.
Switch Disco also takes on #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!
Switch Disco also takes on #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
- the first thing they wanted to be growing up
- the first time they met
- how the name 'Switch Disco' came about, and if it was the first name they were going to go with for their artist project
- the first song they produced
- the first dance song that made them fall in love w EDM
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.
(00:00):
Hello, Hello, you guys arein here way early this Yes, we'd
like to be on topic. Wecan. I'm not used to it.
I won't mention any names. AllI'm saying is that I'm not used to
artists being in here fifteen minutes early. Well, it's great to finally meet
(00:24):
you guys to dance counting down thebiggest dance songs in the country. This
is America's Dance thirty. Dan,Nico's Switch Disco, Welcome to America's Dance
(00:50):
thirty for the first time. Thankyou very much for having us. Thank
you. And I gotta be honest, I'm glad Dan that you pointed to
Nico's because this is the first timewe're meeting, so I didn't know which
one was, which I think it'sa Hey, you can say that I
can't as well. But look youEnglish? Is that good? Hope?
(01:19):
Listen. I wouldn't appreciate you guyssaying I look in Adian Jewish, which
I am so so are you guys? Are you guys in Greece? Now?
Are you? Yes, we're actuallyin the office of the club that
we've we've had a summer residency.Get the whole summer really we've literally just
been out for dinner with the clubowner and the management team here because we
(01:42):
finished our residency last week, butNichos is from the Island, so we
came that kid for just like threeor four days to just hang out for
a bit and say our goodbyes.So yeah, we were literally in the
office of the club that we've beenout on some So do you say to
the may manager can you give usa second please? We actually shop the
(02:06):
door and we're letting all what we'reup. That is how you guys own
Greece. Well, congratulations on Reactwith Ella Henderson and Robert Miles going number
one. That is so amazing.Thank you so much. It's it's incredible.
(02:28):
I mean, all the way outthere having the number one is we
don't have words really, it's verysurreal for us to be on this now.
Is this Switch Disco's first number one? I believe? So yeah,
it's only it's only our second everrelease. Stop. Yeah, So we're
gonna talk about that coming up becauseyour guys story is so interesting and honestly,
(02:51):
I can't wait to find out howthis smash was born, because I
mean, not only is Ella Hendersonamazing, but Robert Miles Children is one
of my favorite songs of all times. So I can't wait to find out
how the song was made. Butfirst, let's get to know switch Disco
a little better with Finky's first.We've had a few balls of wine.
(03:16):
It'll honestly probably make it better.So I love finding out the origin story
of artists. And like you justmentioned, you know, this is only
your second release, but switch Discowas actually born ten years ago, right,
(03:38):
Yeah? Pretty much? So?Yeah, pretty much so it was
the brand was initially set up justto put a name to kind of edits
were doing it for the DJ sets. We didn't put a face to that
brand first of all. But yeah, ten years ago, Wow, that
is insane. So for anybody thatthinks that making it happens overnight, there
(03:58):
you go. You got it.Keep pumping that. Yeah. But was
music the first thing you guys wantedto do when you were growing up or
was there something else? Yeah?I started playing music when I was thirteen,
and dwned pretty much after school youwent to college. I was never
someone when I was at school,like I was never someone who was like
I'm going to be this when I'molder, Like I never had that kind
(04:21):
of vision back then. But Ifinished school, I went to college,
I started going to like house partiesin the UK, and I saw people
DJ for the first time, andit was the first time I was obsessed
with something and I was like,I need to know everything about what's happening
in front of me. And fromthat point on, I went to music
(04:44):
college and then went into the industryfrom from there. But yeah, Nichols
a lot a lot earlier. Ithappened a lot different for me because,
as we just mentioned, I'm fromhere. I'm from this island, and
this is a pretty much tourist islandand it's called bars and clubs everywhere.
So when I was thirteen, mybrother was working as a bartend. It
was like, do you want tocome down to the bar and help me
with the glasses? But there wasa laptop there and I could put music
(05:06):
on YouTube. And then a coupleof weeks later, the barrel and I
was like, don't worry about theglasses, just play play music, and
then brought me some decks. Andthen since I was thirteen, I became
a DJ. Whether I liked itor not, but there's a lot of
that went to music school as well, and yeah, I met down in
(05:28):
two thousand and nine. Like musichas always been in our families as well,
Like Nick Nicholas's dad was very musical, My mom was a music teacher.
So music has always been around us, I guess subliminally from from the
minute we were Yeah, yeah,but yeah, to get that into a
career like to because a few moreyears, well, thank god it finally
(05:48):
did for you guys. Now doyou remember the first time you guys actually
met, we do. This doesn'tsound like a positive story. It was
from neutual friends. I'm trying tothink of the fits we can talk about
the story. Yeah, it was, it was, It was. It
(06:09):
was being neutral friends of ours,good friends of us who were still friends
with now from the UK. Theywere doing management of nightclubs over in the
UK. They then come out toGreece, where Nichols was already working.
They got involved in the club here. They then brought me out from the
UK and then we worked together backin two thousand and eleven. Although we
(06:32):
did meet the year before very briefly. Yeah, two thousand and eleven was
the time that we kind of reallymet each other and got to know and
that's that's when I started going backand forth from Greece to the UK winter
summer, and that's when we're prettymuch started forming the brand. Was Switched
(06:53):
Disco the first name you guys weregoing to go with, so it so
the actual name was was was setup there there were there was someone else
before involved and we kind of hada very loose forming of the brand back
then, so we kind of cameup with the name. And this is
(07:14):
going back fifteen sixteen years now,Yeah, and then Nichols then came on
board as a third member. Theother member who was involved then got involved
more in events rather than DJ andand when he went in that direction,
which is which is ten years ago, that's when we then decided, right,
we need to do more here,Like we need to do more than
(07:36):
it just be a name to editswe're doing. We need to put a
face to our brand. We decidedto keep the name because Switch was our
ages were switching the original to aremix or a different drop or an appella
instrumental fixed like that, so Switchwas perfect and then Discord just sounded name
(08:01):
when we switched us this guy,I've got my ope answer to that,
ye, now, as we weretalking about, you guys started by doing
mashups and remixes. Do you rememberthe first song that you guys produced.
(08:24):
I remember the first mashup Pidot,but this was years ago. It's just
isn't that garage one? Yeah?Yeah, yeah, So I there was
a there's a quite a big sceneyears ago called called UK garage back in
the UK. Absolutely when I firststarted DJ and I only played UK garage,
it was it was all on vinyl. I didn't want to play any
(08:46):
anything else, like that's all Iwanted to do, and I started.
I found an a cappeller on ona on a vinyl and I was like,
I'd love to use this and putsome different instrumentals behind it. So
that was the first mash up Iever produced that ended up being played by
like every big UK garage DJ.He said, I go to Easaid first
(09:11):
of all. I'm not sure ifyou know he said from the UK,
but huge, huge dago over thereand my idols still so yeah, I
gave my stuff to hit him andhe was playing on like national radio stations
over in the UK, and thenother DJs kind of followed what he was
doing, and yeah, that's mymy first ever whereas I grew up in
(09:33):
a more underground house seeing back thenwith defected Africans some after house and it
was very underground, and I startedproducing and making ten minutes extended deep house
tracks and like for like seven minutes, which was cool, I mean for
twelve thirteen years ago, it wasreally cool. Not anymore after the better
(09:56):
now they say, But yeah,but se we got together and all started
like playing out in clubs and stuff. I read it to became more condensed
and more elements in them, andwe yeah, we kind of we started
off. We're not started off,but a lot of our edits would just
be like Nichols said, like quickitters, like shorter of edits, like
(10:18):
straight to the point, like nobreakdowns, quick in throws, that kind
of stuff, straight to the hooks, hooks in just to kind of intensify
our DJ set. So and westill do that now, like we're still
doing that kind of edit as wellas all the matchups as well. You
guys were making DJ tools before DJtools was actually a thing. I'll tell
(10:39):
you there's actually a DJ who wereferred to all the time. There's a
guy called Conflict who I actually metout in Vegas ten years ago and I
saw him play at the Bellagio andI listened to the way he was playing,
and he was he was he wasa resident DJ, Like he was
(11:00):
playing all commercial music and I recognizedeverything was playing and I also knew the
structure of the songs he was playing. I was like, well, he's
done something there like this, thisgoes straight to the point. And I
came back from that trip to Vegasand totally reinvented the way that I DJ
completely, Like I was like,I need to be like this guy,
(11:20):
like he was just on another level. And we actually met him. We
met him in my in Miami thisyear and we went back and he's kind
of followed us since we kind ofgot together. And it's quite a strange
circle because he's been very influential inboth of our DJ sets and our career.
(11:41):
Is really there's actually a lot ofAmerican DJs and DJ pauls that they
joyed right out there, and we'vealways looked up to the American scene and
the DJ edits and the competitions outthere. Yeah, really good. Yeah,
it's so crazy how music has changed. Because I started doing a dance
(12:01):
underground show about the time when youcould get away with like eight minute testo
songs at the time. Now that'snot even a thing anymore. But even
the UK garage we have So I'min Florida and we've got Florida Breakbeat,
which was kind of like UK garageexcept it wasn't as fast as a garage
(12:24):
was more broken than breakbeat was.But I love stuff from like Craig David
and even Daniel Beddingfield did stuff earlyon that was like that. Yeah,
I mean, I mean Daniel Bedingfield. His big hit was released on the
label that we are now signed toyou no crape, Wow, gotta get
(12:48):
through this such history, yeah,fun funnily enough played a big pot into
the garage scene back in the UK. And for Dan to have started buying
Viral from that label back then andnow releasing disaw Tune on the same label
you did. You did that Instagramof course, So when so when when
(13:09):
react? When silver in the UKlike I've got I've got the plaque that
we were said like next to aload of record sleeves that I went into
a local record shop and four yearsand years and years ago, I've written
the DPMs in the top right handcorner, and I've got all of these
record sleeves on the same label thatwe then released on and ye, first,
(13:31):
that is absolutely incredible. Full circlethere. Well, finally and think
he's first in honor of React goingnumber one. Of course it's samples Robert
Myles Children. Do you remember thefirst dance song that made you guys fall
in love with DM? Wow?Great question, great question. I mean
I remember the first job that Iever had. I was working in like
(13:54):
a local shop. I was aboutfourteen years old, and with my first
paycheck, I bought Club as GuyTibitha, which was a Ministry of Sound
compilation album. And again I rememberI remember Cafe del Mark Energy fifty two
was on. That was on that, That's a good one was on that
classic Yeah. And then from thereI used to yet at all the Ministry
(14:18):
of Sound albums, and again Iwas kind of just fascinated of how these
things went into each other, andback then I didn't understand any of it.
But one particular song, I mean, I mean, Robert Miles Children
I had on CV. I rememberlistening to that and repeat and it would
have been around that era. Somany too many to mention too many to
(14:41):
mention, I couldn't. I couldn'tsay one either. Yeah, like all
of the big words from back there, that fragmar, soccer, spirit,
carfet del mark, all of thoselike insomnia, that all of those big
truths that you're shared York on thebeach, because the beach I sort of
one. Yet all of the allof this records pretty much shade down this
(15:05):
music and influence DJs and records though, absolutely, and it was Yeah,
I think there's one in particul Itwas such an amazing time of music back
then, like you had, youknow, wink higher state of consciousness.
That was apt. Oh, thatwas one of those that made me fall.
(15:26):
I don't know if you guys haveheard of lustrol every time? That
was a man. It was sucha good time. But let's talk about
this amazing smash React. Of course, like I mentioned, Children is one
(15:50):
of my favorite songs of all time. In fact, it's my ring tone,
the original Robert Miles song. Howdid you guys decide to take on
this classic? So we we actuallydid we obviously it's such an iconic instrumental
and with the content we put outon the mashups, we put out.
We're always looking to use iconic elementsof vocals or instrumentals, so we did
(16:15):
a few with Robert Marles. Wedid one with Nellie for Tardo Say It
Right. We did one with SegarlandLullaby. Both both went viral. And
then our label, Jamie from who'sthe head of A and R at Relentless,
(16:36):
who has some amazing ideas, cameto us and said, why don't
we remake Robert Mirles Children And weboth said no, with thatching that is,
we're not doing it. And thenthe label and Jamie said, trust
us, we're not going to putit out if it's not really good,
(16:56):
And we went into the studio,made the first version of it, played
around for a couple of months withit, and then send it to Ella,
send it to their team, andthey came back with this amazing top
live. Yeah. Like we saidto Jamie, we were like, it's
such an iconic instrumental that the vocalhas to match it equally. Otherwise this
(17:18):
this just can't happen. And wewere actually in Zanti in Nichols' car,
not far from from the club orin now and we heard Ella's first version.
There's a there's a video of thatonline somewhere, and literally the first
play that we went through we werelike, she's now, like she's she's
(17:41):
absolutely now. And we didn't endup changing much, non god, there
was I think we added we addeda slight second verse middle middle eight,
but apart from that, the firstversion we heard is the one that ended
up being released. There was arisk. It was a huge risk,
right, like like for so manypeople. We thought we were going to
get a lot bigger backlash than wedid from from purists, which we completely
(18:06):
would would understand some some some peoplelike very few, but some people were
like, you shouldn't been touching this, or some people were very nice and
said you shouldn't be doing this.But at least it's done all right.
It doesn't sound bad, so Ithink because it was done so well by
by Ella and Megan who who whowrote the lyrics. It was done so
well that when people heard it theywent, you know what, Okay,
(18:30):
yeah, yeah, it's funny thatyou guys actually mentioned that. You know,
as a programmer and as a dancemusic lover, I get very nervous
when a song comes by that youknow, somebody tried touching a classic.
You get very nervous that it's notgoing to be good. But the first
time that I heard it from Ultra, when Phil sent it to me,
I was like, wow, thisis really good. We appreciate that.
(18:52):
Thank you. How long ago didyou guys work on it? I think
I think we made the third versionof Instrumental before last summer. It would
have been twenty It would have beenlike many May twenty two, late twenty
two. Wow, and Ella's versionwe've got in August twenty two, and
(19:15):
then we released January January twenty soit was pretty fast once you guys started
going through it. We had wehad we had a Yeah, we had
a few back and forth us withdifferent different writers, the top liners and
things like that, but it waspretty straightforward. Like when we had Dana's
version, We're like, well thisis is it? Yeah? She always
(19:37):
kills it now. Something that Ilove to find out is how many different
versions there are of a song fromwhen you start working on it, all
the tweaking to it when you finallyput it out. I know you mentioned
that there weren't too many versions onceyou got Ella's vocals, but in the
production side of it, do youremember what V it was V twenty two.
I think I brought them lap topicor V twenty two, but he
(20:02):
might he might have been one onesyllable or in nest or can we please
have like this s bridging into thechorus or something silly. But Elam and
her team are very very good atwhat they do, so that there was
some nods from them as well,and then mixing and mastering. There was
a few versions that but all prettystandard. I think when it comes to
(20:25):
it got it got. Yeah,it was they It probably got to about
the four and it was pretty muchdone. But then it was just little
intricacies after that that we're really particular. Our label is obviously Alice Team as
well. We ended up we endedup moving the pre chorus after the first
there was a lot of structures.Yeah, it wasn't like we ended up
(20:48):
moving that part into the middle ofthe song and then creating a delayed and
then but to be honest that thesong was pretty much there. It was
just like piecing it together. That'sso incredible. A now obviously rest in
peace, Robert Miles. But whenyou guys are touching classics like this and
making mashups, do you think aboutwhat the original artist is going to think
(21:11):
about it, or do you noteven worry about it? No, of
course, let's be honest, likethe genius of Robert's instrumental like, unless
he made that happen, obviously thiswould never happens. It's firmly based on
that. So yeah, of course, and we were very we're very conscious
(21:33):
of how his team would would receiveit. Luckily, we got a personal
message from this I think it washis dad Stad commented on one of our
Facebook posts, and that's saying heliked the track, which was which was
a real win emotionally, because youknow, you get you see that and
(21:56):
you're like, oh, we mustbe doing something right, and yeah,
it's it's very much a forefront ofour mind like these these people, I
mean, we've sampled their genius.That's what we've done. And the fact
that it seems well. But thefact that their team were like, yeah,
it's okay to do and that commentfrom from his family meant meant the
(22:17):
most to us because we were like, okay, we've done all right here
like that, it's it's approved bythe people that actually matter. We feel
the same sometimes when we when weput out a mashup on tip top or
reels and then one of the originalartists comment that says, oh this is
sick or this is amazing. We'relike, yes, I probably approval.
I didn't ruined the song. We'veput out Calvin Harris versus Swedish House Mathew
(22:45):
mash up the other week and bothI think axwell and both commented on it,
and we're like, yes, sick, and we're like, okay,
cool Stephen Calvin to say it's cooland we've got a full st Now you're
just dropping names. Now you're justshowing off. Now did you guys use
(23:06):
the original children for the sample ordid you guys reproduce it? Really?
Wow, I mean it sounds absolutelyamazing. So congratulations on your number one
with React. What is next fora switch disco? Funny should say that
we had we had a follow uppretty much ready to go. It didn't
(23:30):
happen, unfortunately, but this islife. But we've been working with some
incredible writers, producers, vocalists overthe last few weeks when we've been flying
back to the UK in between shows. We've been lucky enough to be in
sessions with some hugely talented people andwe're working on twenty five demos at the
(23:52):
minute, all of which we thinkcould be something. There's a lots going
on, we're working on lots atthe minute. We're just trying to decide
which is the best way to go. But yeah, we've got lots to
come for sure. Well let's hopeit's not another ten years before another release.
Dan Nico's Switch Disco. Thank youso much for your time with us
(24:17):
on America's Dance thirty. It's greatfinally meeting you guys. Thank you so
much, Faminess, and hopefully we'llbe out there soon. There's a lot
of people who want us to comeout there. Hopefully we'll be out there
for some shows very soon. America'sDance thirty is counting down the biggest dance
songs in the country. America's Dancethirty
Hello, Hello, you guys arein here way early this Yes, we'd
like to be on topic. Wecan. I'm not used to it.
I won't mention any names. AllI'm saying is that I'm not used to
artists being in here fifteen minutes early. Well, it's great to finally meet
(00:24):
you guys to dance counting down thebiggest dance songs in the country. This
is America's Dance thirty. Dan,Nico's Switch Disco, Welcome to America's Dance
(00:50):
thirty for the first time. Thankyou very much for having us. Thank
you. And I gotta be honest, I'm glad Dan that you pointed to
Nico's because this is the first timewe're meeting, so I didn't know which
one was, which I think it'sa Hey, you can say that I
can't as well. But look youEnglish? Is that good? Hope?
(01:19):
Listen. I wouldn't appreciate you guyssaying I look in Adian Jewish, which
I am so so are you guys? Are you guys in Greece? Now?
Are you? Yes, we're actuallyin the office of the club that
we've we've had a summer residency.Get the whole summer really we've literally just
been out for dinner with the clubowner and the management team here because we
(01:42):
finished our residency last week, butNichos is from the Island, so we
came that kid for just like threeor four days to just hang out for
a bit and say our goodbyes.So yeah, we were literally in the
office of the club that we've beenout on some So do you say to
the may manager can you give usa second please? We actually shop the
(02:06):
door and we're letting all what we'reup. That is how you guys own
Greece. Well, congratulations on Reactwith Ella Henderson and Robert Miles going number
one. That is so amazing.Thank you so much. It's it's incredible.
(02:28):
I mean, all the way outthere having the number one is we
don't have words really, it's verysurreal for us to be on this now.
Is this Switch Disco's first number one? I believe? So yeah,
it's only it's only our second everrelease. Stop. Yeah, So we're
gonna talk about that coming up becauseyour guys story is so interesting and honestly,
(02:51):
I can't wait to find out howthis smash was born, because I
mean, not only is Ella Hendersonamazing, but Robert Miles Children is one
of my favorite songs of all times. So I can't wait to find out
how the song was made. Butfirst, let's get to know switch Disco
a little better with Finky's first.We've had a few balls of wine.
(03:16):
It'll honestly probably make it better.So I love finding out the origin story
of artists. And like you justmentioned, you know, this is only
your second release, but switch Discowas actually born ten years ago, right,
(03:38):
Yeah? Pretty much? So?Yeah, pretty much so it was
the brand was initially set up justto put a name to kind of edits
were doing it for the DJ sets. We didn't put a face to that
brand first of all. But yeah, ten years ago, Wow, that
is insane. So for anybody thatthinks that making it happens overnight, there
(03:58):
you go. You got it.Keep pumping that. Yeah. But was
music the first thing you guys wantedto do when you were growing up or
was there something else? Yeah?I started playing music when I was thirteen,
and dwned pretty much after school youwent to college. I was never
someone when I was at school,like I was never someone who was like
I'm going to be this when I'molder, Like I never had that kind
(04:21):
of vision back then. But Ifinished school, I went to college,
I started going to like house partiesin the UK, and I saw people
DJ for the first time, andit was the first time I was obsessed
with something and I was like,I need to know everything about what's happening
in front of me. And fromthat point on, I went to music
(04:44):
college and then went into the industryfrom from there. But yeah, Nichols
a lot a lot earlier. Ithappened a lot different for me because,
as we just mentioned, I'm fromhere. I'm from this island, and
this is a pretty much tourist islandand it's called bars and clubs everywhere.
So when I was thirteen, mybrother was working as a bartend. It
was like, do you want tocome down to the bar and help me
with the glasses? But there wasa laptop there and I could put music
(05:06):
on YouTube. And then a coupleof weeks later, the barrel and I
was like, don't worry about theglasses, just play play music, and
then brought me some decks. Andthen since I was thirteen, I became
a DJ. Whether I liked itor not, but there's a lot of
that went to music school as well, and yeah, I met down in
(05:28):
two thousand and nine. Like musichas always been in our families as well,
Like Nick Nicholas's dad was very musical, My mom was a music teacher.
So music has always been around us, I guess subliminally from from the
minute we were Yeah, yeah,but yeah, to get that into a
career like to because a few moreyears, well, thank god it finally
(05:48):
did for you guys. Now doyou remember the first time you guys actually
met, we do. This doesn'tsound like a positive story. It was
from neutual friends. I'm trying tothink of the fits we can talk about
the story. Yeah, it was, it was, It was. It
(06:09):
was being neutral friends of ours,good friends of us who were still friends
with now from the UK. Theywere doing management of nightclubs over in the
UK. They then come out toGreece, where Nichols was already working.
They got involved in the club here. They then brought me out from the
UK and then we worked together backin two thousand and eleven. Although we
(06:32):
did meet the year before very briefly. Yeah, two thousand and eleven was
the time that we kind of reallymet each other and got to know and
that's that's when I started going backand forth from Greece to the UK winter
summer, and that's when we're prettymuch started forming the brand. Was Switched
(06:53):
Disco the first name you guys weregoing to go with, so it so
the actual name was was was setup there there were there was someone else
before involved and we kind of hada very loose forming of the brand back
then, so we kind of cameup with the name. And this is
(07:14):
going back fifteen sixteen years now,Yeah, and then Nichols then came on
board as a third member. Theother member who was involved then got involved
more in events rather than DJ andand when he went in that direction,
which is which is ten years ago, that's when we then decided, right,
we need to do more here,Like we need to do more than
(07:36):
it just be a name to editswe're doing. We need to put a
face to our brand. We decidedto keep the name because Switch was our
ages were switching the original to aremix or a different drop or an appella
instrumental fixed like that, so Switchwas perfect and then Discord just sounded name
(08:01):
when we switched us this guy,I've got my ope answer to that,
ye, now, as we weretalking about, you guys started by doing
mashups and remixes. Do you rememberthe first song that you guys produced.
(08:24):
I remember the first mashup Pidot,but this was years ago. It's just
isn't that garage one? Yeah?Yeah, yeah, So I there was
a there's a quite a big sceneyears ago called called UK garage back in
the UK. Absolutely when I firststarted DJ and I only played UK garage,
it was it was all on vinyl. I didn't want to play any
(08:46):
anything else, like that's all Iwanted to do, and I started.
I found an a cappeller on ona on a vinyl and I was like,
I'd love to use this and putsome different instrumentals behind it. So
that was the first mash up Iever produced that ended up being played by
like every big UK garage DJ.He said, I go to Easaid first
(09:11):
of all. I'm not sure ifyou know he said from the UK,
but huge, huge dago over thereand my idols still so yeah, I
gave my stuff to hit him andhe was playing on like national radio stations
over in the UK, and thenother DJs kind of followed what he was
doing, and yeah, that's mymy first ever whereas I grew up in
(09:33):
a more underground house seeing back thenwith defected Africans some after house and it
was very underground, and I startedproducing and making ten minutes extended deep house
tracks and like for like seven minutes, which was cool, I mean for
twelve thirteen years ago, it wasreally cool. Not anymore after the better
(09:56):
now they say, But yeah,but se we got together and all started
like playing out in clubs and stuff. I read it to became more condensed
and more elements in them, andwe yeah, we kind of we started
off. We're not started off,but a lot of our edits would just
be like Nichols said, like quickitters, like shorter of edits, like
(10:18):
straight to the point, like nobreakdowns, quick in throws, that kind
of stuff, straight to the hooks, hooks in just to kind of intensify
our DJ set. So and westill do that now, like we're still
doing that kind of edit as wellas all the matchups as well. You
guys were making DJ tools before DJtools was actually a thing. I'll tell
(10:39):
you there's actually a DJ who wereferred to all the time. There's a
guy called Conflict who I actually metout in Vegas ten years ago and I
saw him play at the Bellagio andI listened to the way he was playing,
and he was he was he wasa resident DJ, Like he was
(11:00):
playing all commercial music and I recognizedeverything was playing and I also knew the
structure of the songs he was playing. I was like, well, he's
done something there like this, thisgoes straight to the point. And I
came back from that trip to Vegasand totally reinvented the way that I DJ
completely, Like I was like,I need to be like this guy,
(11:20):
like he was just on another level. And we actually met him. We
met him in my in Miami thisyear and we went back and he's kind
of followed us since we kind ofgot together. And it's quite a strange
circle because he's been very influential inboth of our DJ sets and our career.
(11:41):
Is really there's actually a lot ofAmerican DJs and DJ pauls that they
joyed right out there, and we'vealways looked up to the American scene and
the DJ edits and the competitions outthere. Yeah, really good. Yeah,
it's so crazy how music has changed. Because I started doing a dance
(12:01):
underground show about the time when youcould get away with like eight minute testo
songs at the time. Now that'snot even a thing anymore. But even
the UK garage we have So I'min Florida and we've got Florida Breakbeat,
which was kind of like UK garageexcept it wasn't as fast as a garage
(12:24):
was more broken than breakbeat was.But I love stuff from like Craig David
and even Daniel Beddingfield did stuff earlyon that was like that. Yeah,
I mean, I mean Daniel Bedingfield. His big hit was released on the
label that we are now signed toyou no crape, Wow, gotta get
(12:48):
through this such history, yeah,fun funnily enough played a big pot into
the garage scene back in the UK. And for Dan to have started buying
Viral from that label back then andnow releasing disaw Tune on the same label
you did. You did that Instagramof course, So when so when when
(13:09):
react? When silver in the UKlike I've got I've got the plaque that
we were said like next to aload of record sleeves that I went into
a local record shop and four yearsand years and years ago, I've written
the DPMs in the top right handcorner, and I've got all of these
record sleeves on the same label thatwe then released on and ye, first,
(13:31):
that is absolutely incredible. Full circlethere. Well, finally and think
he's first in honor of React goingnumber one. Of course it's samples Robert
Myles Children. Do you remember thefirst dance song that made you guys fall
in love with DM? Wow?Great question, great question. I mean
I remember the first job that Iever had. I was working in like
(13:54):
a local shop. I was aboutfourteen years old, and with my first
paycheck, I bought Club as GuyTibitha, which was a Ministry of Sound
compilation album. And again I rememberI remember Cafe del Mark Energy fifty two
was on. That was on that, That's a good one was on that
classic Yeah. And then from thereI used to yet at all the Ministry
(14:18):
of Sound albums, and again Iwas kind of just fascinated of how these
things went into each other, andback then I didn't understand any of it.
But one particular song, I mean, I mean, Robert Miles Children
I had on CV. I rememberlistening to that and repeat and it would
have been around that era. Somany too many to mention too many to
(14:41):
mention, I couldn't. I couldn'tsay one either. Yeah, like all
of the big words from back there, that fragmar, soccer, spirit,
carfet del mark, all of thoselike insomnia, that all of those big
truths that you're shared York on thebeach, because the beach I sort of
one. Yet all of the allof this records pretty much shade down this
(15:05):
music and influence DJs and records though, absolutely, and it was Yeah,
I think there's one in particul Itwas such an amazing time of music back
then, like you had, youknow, wink higher state of consciousness.
That was apt. Oh, thatwas one of those that made me fall.
(15:26):
I don't know if you guys haveheard of lustrol every time? That
was a man. It was sucha good time. But let's talk about
this amazing smash React. Of course, like I mentioned, Children is one
(15:50):
of my favorite songs of all time. In fact, it's my ring tone,
the original Robert Miles song. Howdid you guys decide to take on
this classic? So we we actuallydid we obviously it's such an iconic instrumental
and with the content we put outon the mashups, we put out.
We're always looking to use iconic elementsof vocals or instrumentals, so we did
(16:15):
a few with Robert Marles. Wedid one with Nellie for Tardo Say It
Right. We did one with SegarlandLullaby. Both both went viral. And
then our label, Jamie from who'sthe head of A and R at Relentless,
(16:36):
who has some amazing ideas, cameto us and said, why don't
we remake Robert Mirles Children And weboth said no, with thatching that is,
we're not doing it. And thenthe label and Jamie said, trust
us, we're not going to putit out if it's not really good,
(16:56):
And we went into the studio,made the first version of it, played
around for a couple of months withit, and then send it to Ella,
send it to their team, andthey came back with this amazing top
live. Yeah. Like we saidto Jamie, we were like, it's
such an iconic instrumental that the vocalhas to match it equally. Otherwise this
(17:18):
this just can't happen. And wewere actually in Zanti in Nichols' car,
not far from from the club orin now and we heard Ella's first version.
There's a there's a video of thatonline somewhere, and literally the first
play that we went through we werelike, she's now, like she's she's
(17:41):
absolutely now. And we didn't endup changing much, non god, there
was I think we added we addeda slight second verse middle middle eight,
but apart from that, the firstversion we heard is the one that ended
up being released. There was arisk. It was a huge risk,
right, like like for so manypeople. We thought we were going to
get a lot bigger backlash than wedid from from purists, which we completely
(18:06):
would would understand some some some peoplelike very few, but some people were
like, you shouldn't been touching this, or some people were very nice and
said you shouldn't be doing this.But at least it's done all right.
It doesn't sound bad, so Ithink because it was done so well by
by Ella and Megan who who whowrote the lyrics. It was done so
well that when people heard it theywent, you know what, Okay,
(18:30):
yeah, yeah, it's funny thatyou guys actually mentioned that. You know,
as a programmer and as a dancemusic lover, I get very nervous
when a song comes by that youknow, somebody tried touching a classic.
You get very nervous that it's notgoing to be good. But the first
time that I heard it from Ultra, when Phil sent it to me,
I was like, wow, thisis really good. We appreciate that.
(18:52):
Thank you. How long ago didyou guys work on it? I think
I think we made the third versionof Instrumental before last summer. It would
have been twenty It would have beenlike many May twenty two, late twenty
two. Wow, and Ella's versionwe've got in August twenty two, and
(19:15):
then we released January January twenty soit was pretty fast once you guys started
going through it. We had wehad we had a Yeah, we had
a few back and forth us withdifferent different writers, the top liners and
things like that, but it waspretty straightforward. Like when we had Dana's
version, We're like, well thisis is it? Yeah? She always
(19:37):
kills it now. Something that Ilove to find out is how many different
versions there are of a song fromwhen you start working on it, all
the tweaking to it when you finallyput it out. I know you mentioned
that there weren't too many versions onceyou got Ella's vocals, but in the
production side of it, do youremember what V it was V twenty two.
I think I brought them lap topicor V twenty two, but he
(20:02):
might he might have been one onesyllable or in nest or can we please
have like this s bridging into thechorus or something silly. But Elam and
her team are very very good atwhat they do, so that there was
some nods from them as well,and then mixing and mastering. There was
a few versions that but all prettystandard. I think when it comes to
(20:25):
it got it got. Yeah,it was they It probably got to about
the four and it was pretty muchdone. But then it was just little
intricacies after that that we're really particular. Our label is obviously Alice Team as
well. We ended up we endedup moving the pre chorus after the first
there was a lot of structures.Yeah, it wasn't like we ended up
(20:48):
moving that part into the middle ofthe song and then creating a delayed and
then but to be honest that thesong was pretty much there. It was
just like piecing it together. That'sso incredible. A now obviously rest in
peace, Robert Miles. But whenyou guys are touching classics like this and
making mashups, do you think aboutwhat the original artist is going to think
(21:11):
about it, or do you noteven worry about it? No, of
course, let's be honest, likethe genius of Robert's instrumental like, unless
he made that happen, obviously thiswould never happens. It's firmly based on
that. So yeah, of course, and we were very we're very conscious
(21:33):
of how his team would would receiveit. Luckily, we got a personal
message from this I think it washis dad Stad commented on one of our
Facebook posts, and that's saying heliked the track, which was which was
a real win emotionally, because youknow, you get you see that and
(21:56):
you're like, oh, we mustbe doing something right, and yeah,
it's it's very much a forefront ofour mind like these these people, I
mean, we've sampled their genius.That's what we've done. And the fact
that it seems well. But thefact that their team were like, yeah,
it's okay to do and that commentfrom from his family meant meant the
(22:17):
most to us because we were like, okay, we've done all right here
like that, it's it's approved bythe people that actually matter. We feel
the same sometimes when we when weput out a mashup on tip top or
reels and then one of the originalartists comment that says, oh this is
sick or this is amazing. We'relike, yes, I probably approval.
I didn't ruined the song. We'veput out Calvin Harris versus Swedish House Mathew
(22:45):
mash up the other week and bothI think axwell and both commented on it,
and we're like, yes, sick, and we're like, okay,
cool Stephen Calvin to say it's cooland we've got a full st Now you're
just dropping names. Now you're justshowing off. Now did you guys use
(23:06):
the original children for the sample ordid you guys reproduce it? Really?
Wow, I mean it sounds absolutelyamazing. So congratulations on your number one
with React. What is next fora switch disco? Funny should say that
we had we had a follow uppretty much ready to go. It didn't
(23:30):
happen, unfortunately, but this islife. But we've been working with some
incredible writers, producers, vocalists overthe last few weeks when we've been flying
back to the UK in between shows. We've been lucky enough to be in
sessions with some hugely talented people andwe're working on twenty five demos at the
(23:52):
minute, all of which we thinkcould be something. There's a lots going
on, we're working on lots atthe minute. We're just trying to decide
which is the best way to go. But yeah, we've got lots to
come for sure. Well let's hopeit's not another ten years before another release.
Dan Nico's Switch Disco. Thank youso much for your time with us
(24:17):
on America's Dance thirty. It's greatfinally meeting you guys. Thank you so
much, Faminess, and hopefully we'llbe out there soon. There's a lot
of people who want us to comeout there. Hopefully we'll be out there
for some shows very soon. America'sDance thirty is counting down the biggest dance
songs in the country. America's Dancethirty
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