Best known as 2 of the UK’s favourite and musically diverse DJs, defying genres and resisting the usual rules of electronic music. They are producers, players and presenters, reaching over half a million people a week on their massively popular radio shows and pulling in crowds of thousands to their events and parties.
As another summer seasons kicks off, we spoke to Andi Durrant and Nick Riley about the Electrik Playground, their radio shows and club sets, and what’s it’s like to be residents at the biggest club on planet earth…
Privilege is the largest club on Ibiza and its forecast Monday nights will pull a crowd of over 8000, which is pretty impressive! How did it all come about and what was the highlight of last year’s residency for you two?
Andi: Amazing! We always arrive at the club just before it opens at midnight and every time you walk in it takes your breath way.. even without 10,000 people in! It’s a ridiculous venue with a lot of history, and probable the only place in the world you can DJ from the middle of a swimming pool.
Nick: As for last years highlights, I don’t think there was just one as the whole summer was pretty spectacular. I suppose seeing both our name and the Electrik Playground branding in the worlds biggest club was pretty big for us.. There was one definite low point though and that was our car getting broken into outside Bar M. We got fully cleaned out – CDs, laptops, clothes, passports. Absolute nightmare!
So how did you come to know Tiesto and be running one of the Islands biggest nights together?
Andi: When we first started making music and DJing together in 2003 we were doing much more a full-on trance sound. Tiesto was a big supporter of our early records and we had a few tracks on his Black Hole record label, and often warmed up for him when he played in the UK. Over the years we’ve found our inspiration from experimenting with a more eclectic house sound, but we’ve still remained in contact with Tiesto and his crew at Black Hole. Now we provide an alternative soundtrack in our Electrik Playground room and warm up for the big man with some deeper progressive and chunky house tracks.
Can you explain what the Electrik Playground is all about for us, what’s the music policy and where did it all begin?
Nick: We started Electrik Playground as a monthly party in our hometown of Leeds at the beginning of last year along with Adam Sheridan and Nick Ferguson. We wanted to create a night with a proper genreless music policy and get all our friends together for an “anything goes” party of house, breaks, techno, prog and the weird and wonderful side of electronica. We’d got frustrated with going to (and playing at) strictly house, or strictly trance clubs, and decided to try and make something that got rid of that old idea of genres.
Andi: Since we launched we’ve moved on from our monthly home to host events in Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh and a regular party at the Ministry of Sound in London.. and of course of weekly Ibiza gigs in the Music Box at Privilege.
How does the music policy of The Electrik Playground compares with that of the main room hosted by Tiesto? How do you see them working together?
Nick: Hopefully the 2 will compliment each other just right.. when we warm up for Tiesto we play a chunky tech-house kind of set with a few cheeky elements of the melodic stuff thrown in to wet peoples appetite, then when Tiesto comes on we head next door to the Music Box and do much more of an diverse session – anything from Herve and Fake Blood to Steve Angello, The Prodigy and Ladyhawke.
Andi: We’ve got a great selection of hot new UK talent booked in to play as well, like Juan Kidd, Heavy Feet, Tim Weeks and Sharooz – alongside DJs from Russia and Spain.
Tell us which tune you definitely won’t be leaving behind in the UK when you head over to Ibiza?
Andi: Dean Newton – “Amnesia” or Lake & Lys “Violins” Like us, they’re both a bit genre-less. We’ve played both of those tracks in nearly all of our sets recently, and they’ve gone off every time – from the London fashionistas at the Ministry of Sound to the ravers at Coloursfest in Scotland. Big tunes!
In your personal experience, is there much difference between playing UK clubs and Ibiza clubs?
Andi: The crowds tend to be more up for having a party in Ibiza. Obviously when you’re on holiday you let loose, but with Ibiza (maybe because of the history) you sort of feel it’s your duty to just let go and enjoy yourself. It’s a cliché, but there’s definitely something special about that island.
Nick: That said, the UK still has one of the best club scenes in the world. Despite some of our problems over the years, British people still tend to make the most noise and party harder than a lot of nations!
The island is great for partying and chilling out alike, but where’s your favourite place to chill out on the Island?
Andi: I’ve spent a lot of time with my girlfriend and family in a little village called San Jose between Ibiza Town and San Antonio. It’s very traditional with some nice places to eat. It’s good to get away from all the madness and see some real Ibizan culture. I even took my mum and Dad!
Nick: When we’re not Djing we tend to take it easy – nice chilled bars, restaurants etc. One of our favourites is Bambuddha grove, its just like being in Goa – a complete getaway
What your ultimate chill out tune for Ibiza 2009?
Andi: I think being a sunset DJ in Ibiza is one of the best jobs in the world. Playing beautiful emotional music to beautiful people in a beautiful setting every night.. what a life! Last year we played the sunset every week at Kanya and my favourite was either “Josephine” by Chris Rea or The Sabres Of Paradise – “Smokebelch II” (Beatless mix)
Nick: The beloved “Sweet Harmony” I absolutely love it, I could listen to it round and round for hours
So bringing it back to you two, how do you see things progressing for you over the next few years?
Nick: We have lots of exciting things we are working on at the moment, one in particular is an exciting new studio project called Backyard Orchestra which is more of a live act with lots of real musicians and proper band. The Electrik Playground label is going from strength to strength with a wide range of Djs supporting our tracks, keep an eye out for forthcoming releases this summer form Gabriel Ben and Adam Sheridan. Its difficult to predict what the future holds, I would definitely hope we are still doing what we are doing for many years to come.
Andi: We’re also really commited to our radio shows on Galaxy in the UK. We’re lucky enough to be given free reign to do what we want on our programs, and over the last 3 years we’ve scored some nice Sony Awards for the studio mantelpiece.
Where else can we find you hitting the decks this summer?
Nick: We had a great time at Coloursfest in June, we played on the outdoor stage in the sunshine and it went off big time! The Scottish really know how to have a good party. Other summer highlights include a tour of Asia which is without a doubt one of our favourite places to play and also our Electrik Playground residency at the Ministry of Sound in London.
What have you been up to in the studio recently? Who have you been collaborating with? What forthcoming releases can we expect for 2009?
Nick: We have just finished a collaboration with Juan Kidd called “Da Bass” which will be coming out on CR2 very soon and I think we’ll do a couple more tracks together before the end of the year as well. We have been spending a lot of time remixing recently, our mix of Blue Pearl “Naked In The Rain” is coming out on Big Life in the coming weeks and our mix of “T-10 Seconds” by Rob Marmott is about to be released on Newstate. We are also just putting the finishing touches together on our 2nd Riley & Durrant producer loop pack forthcoming on Loopmasters.
Andi: Our main focus at the moment is the new Backyard Orchestra project.. which will be arriving on a big UK label by the end of the summer.
Are there any up and coming DJ’s and producers which are really doing it for you at the moment?
Andi: Having the radio shows means we are in the privileged position of being sent many styles of music and that opens our ears up to artists, labels and producers that we would of probably not have usually come across.
