Plump DJ's - An Interview for www.4clubbers.net

Aby caught up with these pioneers of the breaks scene, to talk about the last hectic year, music and the year to come. Times change, labels change, music changes, but their love for what they do has stayed as strong as ever.

It’s been a big change for the Plumps this year i understand, moving from finger lickin’ after many years to set up your own label ‘grand hotel’. can you tell us more about the new label and what brought you to the decision to leave finger lickin’?

We completed our successful long contract with fingerlicking records, and set up grand hotel as a platform to voice our own new music and that of acts that we descover during our world tours.

Your sound has changed quite a bit from the days of ‘a plump night out’ and ‘eargasm’, these days taking more influences from techno and electro, who would you say inspires you from the techno world?

We love the repetitive engery of techno and the hypnotic atmosphere at techno events. The inventive synth led electro sound too with its undeniable 80's roots... both of which inspired many early tracks of ours.

You pretty much pioneered the breaks genre back in the early 00’s, and there was a period where it was the genre du jour and everyone seemed to be playing and making breakbeat music . As artists who have been in the industry for more than 10 years, what are your opinions on these ever changing musical trends and does it effect what you play/produce?

Times are ever changing but we have simple needs as artistes, we miust crate and find new ways to make people dance! We are happiest when we are experimenting in the studio and coming up with fresh ideas. What ever style of music people may think or say we are making, we are fortunate that we make what we like for the love of it. We have the technology to make pop music for money, but we would rather make experimental dance music for love.

What are your tips for longevity in this industry?

We are always trying to better ourselves, as humans we are capable of complacency but we try to improve, excell, learn and motivate. We also are aware of our strengths and weaknesses and try not to take ourselves too seriously. How could we with a name like Plump DJs. It is important to be respectful of everyone around you in the industry from the door to the bar, from the reception to the consierge we are all in it together and will be for some time to come.

You have achieved great success in the UK, Australia and have recently been touring the USA... anywhere you would like to conquer that you haven’t already? How do you find the crowds differ in Australia and the USA compared to the UK?

We would like to give the biggest shout at present to grand hotel records and the music we are involved in there. Maybe tour the lable and artistes worldwide soon. As Plump DJs we would like to get some gigs in Europe and Asia where we have not toured extensively for some time. We are very excited about going to the USA and Australia this autumn.

Do you have a favourite country/city/venue to play in?

The UK is hard to beat though recently we have had amazing gigs in L.A. 'Avalon', Canada 'Shambhala', Ibiza 'Space Carl Cox'. It's a real tuffy finding a favourite, steak or ice cream?

As two people who have been in the industry for a long time, do you treat your time djing at clubs and festivals as a party or a job?(or both!) do you have any stories to tell from your recent tours?

We used to party at every event, this carried on for years. After 7 years of gigging and nearly 100 gigs a year we started going a bit mad, our limbs started falling off and our hair started to fall out. We realised then that we should take things a little more seriously for our own sake. We also by this point had been made fully awre of the gravity of our situation, the good fortune that we had. We have been lucky enough to find our calling, our talent, wasting this life would be a serious mistake. Nowadays we let loose every time we feel the urge, but like the adver says we 'drink more responsibly', honest...

What’s your setup these days when DJing? Will you be going down the digital avenue in future, using software like Serrato and Ableton if you don't already ?

We like to use 4CDJS and one mixer- and a rather nifty little box called a Q2 which allows 2 djs to listen to one mixer. We’ve got no plans to go digital at the moment- with 2 of us we can drop beats and samples using the CDJS and that can be pretty creative.

Who or what do you take inspiration from when producing? Who do you respect in the music world? What other types of music do you enjoy aside from electronica?

We take inspiration from anywhere and everywhere and try to listen to loads of different music. too many influences to mention, but we’re both soul boys at heart so that would probably be our favourite music outside electronica.

What is your creative process when in the studio? Do you follow a particular format or is it just a case of getting some beers in and seeing what happens?

We usually talk about an idea or sample before we start, but it can be anything that interests us. Then we spend a day or so getting the groove together and decide at the end of that whether it’s any good or whether we bin it. Actually we have tried making music pissed but everything sounds better and faster so not advisable really.

Everyone loves a good bootleg in the breaks world, donna kebab being a particular favourite from yourselves... are there any current records from the pop world you'd like to have a play with?

Breakbeat went through a dodgy stage where every big tune had to have a breakbeat bootleg, so after that we had a period of staying away from bootlegs. more recently we’ve started doing it again though, we’re playing 3 or 4 booties in the set. we’ve got a few ideas too but you’ll have to watch this space.

What else are you looking to achieve? What’s next for the Plump Djs?

The label is obviously a big proirity and we will continue to put tracks out on that, as well as a couple of remixes and we’re booked up with gigs till November which is great. We’ve just confirmed a six date tour of Australia over christmas and New Year too.

Finally, you must be knackered after all of this travelling around, what do you do to chill out?!

Anything we can… drinking, golfing and fishing seem popular activities at the moment!