Almost one year ago, we held our very first inTORview segment, which featured the likes of electronic music’s shining prince, Louis Brodinski. The concept was catchy, an explicit play on the word interview, so as to insinuate that the artist was playing a gig in Toronto. Genius, if we do say so ourselves, but we must admit, these close encounters are too few and far between, so a conscious effort will be made by us to conduct more of the like. Today we’re very happy to announce that we caught up with one of the premier duos in the realm of house music, Made To Play’s DJ/producing tandem, Round Table Knights — who are coincidentally our headliner for this Saturday. We touch all topics branching from hip-hop music, to picking sides in Black Swan; you don’t wanna miss this.
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Huge congratulations to you two upon the completion of the forthcoming album on Made To Play. The “Say What” Album Sampler gave us a taste of what to expect, but we’re curious about the tenuous process of creating a house music album. Was there a unique direction you guys chose to take with the album (a theme, maybe), or was it a bunch of pieces that eventually just came together?
The basic idea was to make a real album. Not just some dance tracks that can only be enjoyed in the club. We wanted to do something that works in the club, as well as at home, or in the car. The album should be like one of our mixes, with all the different influences we have, but at the end it should be house music.
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Your relationship with Made To Play has rendered three massive EPs, all of which have been very well-received by the house music community. Talk about your relationship with label-boss Jesse Rose, and how influential he’s been to your work, and evolution as DJs.
We have been fans of Made To Play since day one. The label has always had quite a big influence on us, so it was a big honour to hear that Jesse Rose liked our stuff so much. We first met Jesse when we opened for him in Switzerland, and that was also where he first heard Calypso. He loved the song, and one week later it was signed to Made To Play. That was a big step in our career.
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There’s no denying that “Calypso” almost perfected the tropical/ethno house sound that was so popular over the past two years. In general, has that specific sound begun to expire, or will there always be ways to keep tribal/tropical/ethno house fresh and enticing?
Its like with every sound. Someone comes up with it, it gets popular and after a while you get sick of it because everybody’s doing the same thing. Its just normal, but there will always be elements that stay and help to improve future music. The interesting thing is gonna be who is taking which elements, playing with it until they come up with something new. The learning process in never over.
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With darker strands of Techno music, more specifically Acid, and Deep House seeing such a renaissance as of late, do you guys see your sets going noticeably deeper, or do you make a point of keeping your sets fun and bouncy?
Our sets are always different. We never prepare. We usually arrive one hour before the set, check out the club and the crowd, then one of us starts with a song ,and from there on it’s back-to-back till the end of the set. But it’s true, we notice it ourselves that our sets getting deeper than maybe one year ago. That has to do with our interest in developing our music and our DJ sets. We wanna do new, fresh stuff. Improvement is the most important thing.
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We’re always curious about what artists think of the contrast between European and North American club culture. You’ve been across the pond a couple times now, where do you see the main differences between the two?
The main thing is maybe that nights start earlier here in North America than in Europe. But then again Europe is very different too from country to country. Some people told us before we came here, that North Americans like it ‘harder’, that we couldn’t play as deep as we play in Europe, but that’s not true. We play the same kind of sets over here as we would play over there. It’s all about your attitude on stage and how you combine your songs.
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We understand your early DJ career was rooted in serious turntablism, being big fans of the ITF and DMC. Hip-Hop remains a massive musical sector in North America. Do you guys keep up to date with the going-ons in rap culture?
Yes, we were big scratch nerds. We still have a lot of old DMC and ITF videos at home…haha. We still follow the hip-hop scene a little bit, but its not like it has a big influence in our music. But it can happen that we play some hip-hop tunes in our set. That’s always fun.
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You guys just recently put together a remix for your countrymen, Mercury, which dropped on one of our favorite labels, GOMMA. We were so impressed by Mercury, we were wondering if you could give us the inside track on any other budding talents from your homeland?
Yes, check out Mercury they are amazing, and there will be more stuff coming soon from them! Also check out Jagged and if you like it a bit more tropical, check out Wildlife! I’m sure you already know Deetron and Dimlite.
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RTK is part of a close-knit rat-pack so to speak, with the likes of Mowgli, Solo, Jesse Rose, Zombie Disco Squad, Renaissance Man, Camel and several others. Tell us about the dynamic when you’re together with those guys. Who’s the funniest, who parties hardest, etc. etc.?
We love those guys, and it’s so amazing to be part of this big family. It’s fun with everyone, but the best thing is when we’re all together, then it gets messy…haha.
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Who are some of the DJ/Producers you guys look up to (past or present)? Who have you seen lately that you’ve been especially impressed by?
Homework are great! And one of our favourite labels at the moment is Suol. We are also big fans of James Blake, and Jamie XX.
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Who is Reverend Beat-Man, from ‘Cut To The Top’?
Reverend Beat-Man is a voodoo Garage Rock Legend from Bern. Check his amazing label, Voodoo Rhythm, and if you have the chance, go check him out live. He’s an amazing performer!!
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We understand you guys are somewhat big movie buffs, in regard to Black Swan — Mila Kunis, or Natalie Portman?
Natalie Portman!!! We love her!!!
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Last question here gentlemen. What’s the best thing in Bern that we don’t know about?
In the summer you can swim in the river called Aare. This really is the best thing you can do! After this, go to Club Bonsoir ;-)
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Thanks very much for doing this guys, and we look forward to catching up with you again at The Social on Saturday. We’re certain that the Faktory will have the “Really Good” sign positioned all over the place! Cheers!
RTK | myspace | website
