So tell us about the story of the band so far. When did you get together and what were your ideas at the time? Have those ideas changed much since?
The two of us met at Primavera 2010 and quickly became great friends, which sort of got us thinking about making music together. It was fairly inevitable, with the two of us writing on our own before we had the time to start collaborating last year! Our ideas have certainly changed from working together, into a much more expansive sound, if you look at the original demos that were online and our first release Kinsale. I guess new synths and DJing regularly on top of the live set up has put focus on a more club friendly sound on the stuff we’re writing and playing live now.
How are you approaching HWCH? Do you have any particular hopes for the weekend?
Like any other gig we’re going to put on the best possible show we can and hopefully gain a few new fans. We’ve been to the last few festivals and always enjoyed the atmosphere and performances and this year should be no different considering the acts on the bill.
How important do you think your Pygmalion residency has been to you? What has been the best and worst parts of doing that?
The residency has turned out to be way more important than we ever thought it would be. We’re always on the look out for new tunes to spin and bands to check out and we feel this is really important when you’re writing tunes yourself. Not taking it too seriously was probably the best decision we have ever made and it definitely wouldn’t have lasted as long otherwise. We’re just as happy spinning tunes to a handful of mates as we are to a packed room. The friends we have made along the way are without a doubt the true highlight of the residency though. From the wonderful staff at Pygmalion to the numerous acts that have played, we have met so many lovely people over the past year that we are now delighted to call our friends. The only downside to it has to be that we’re just not cut out to be promoters, harping on and on about an event is just something that does not appeal to us. We tend to book stuff, announce it and hope for the best.
It’s a very fertile time for electronic music in Ireland at the minute but how do you feel the scene here compares to say London or Berlin or somewhere more established? What do you see as the main differences?
Boddika came over here a couple of weeks ago and was genuinely shocked at how thriving the scene is at the moment over here. Every weekend in Dublin now theres so much going on with the best international Artists playing which is creating more opportunities for Irish acts in supporting the acts and learning from new musical experiences. I think the main differences with these cities besides the sheer size of them and opening hours are that, Berlin especially, they’re an international hub for people to move to. We are very connected to Berlin and there are number of internationally recognized acts based there, whereas we dont have anybody moving here for music choices, only people leaving. Mano le Tough and The Drifter are both based in Berlin, Bicep in London. When people think of electronic of music they think of Berlin and London. This hasn’t stopped us producing some world class acts recently though connected to club music, and through Bodytonic and Hidden Agenda etc we have regular world class acts playing every week in clubs anyone would love to play in and go to.
Do you think the easy access to production software and sharing platforms has made a difference to producers? Do you think it’s important to stand out from the ever-increasing crowd?
Obviously it’s made a difference in the number of artists emerging, which is great in a way because with more people getting involved it helps people learn off each other and grow as artists, certainly the quality has improved ten fold in recent years. Sharing platforms have also helped us with international recognition for a number of artists. Of course it’s important to stand out, but our primary concern is to become the best musicians we can be while creating good records and throwing great parties. You don’t want to create a competition and stop artists helping each other, we’re only going to get Dublin rightfully recognized working together and encouraging potential new talent.
Can you recommend three other bands people should go see at HWCH?
Ships, Last Days of 1984 and Forrests.
White Collar Boy play The Twisted Pepper at 8.40pm on Saturday. For more details about Hard Working Class Heroes, head to http://hwch.net/
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS3yItfgi_0?rel=0]
