Thursday 31 March 2011

The TFM Interview - The Loops of Fury


Electro-Techno stalwarts, The Loops of Fury have been blowing up of late, with a brand new single, We Unfold hitting Beatport this week complete with massive remix from The Plump DJs. The list of supporters is truly A-List and the range of their appeal can be clearly seen when they can include the likes of Carl Cox, John Digweed, Bloody Beetroots and Annie Nightingale amongst their supporters.


They also have a brand new mixset they put together for our friends at Radio Clubfoot which you can grab from HERE.

1.) Would you say you were studio boffins at heart, or are you more excited about the live & DJ sets? Tell us a bit about your background & the path you've taken musically to get to where you are right now?

Jimi: Working the studio and playing shows are both pretty fun things to do, I'm not sure if I have a favorite! There is a certain satisfaction in writing music locked up in the studio, where you are not sure how what you are doing will be received and the music only really exists in that room. It's when you take it out and play it in a DJ set or see someone else play it that the music really comes alive, and that is definitely the most exciting thing for me. So I guess the DJ sets are where it's at!

We've always really walked down the line between the two, we've been writing tunes together for a really long time as well as playing live and DJing on the side. We started out as an electro/jazz fusion act in a Battle Of The Bands competition while we were at school, all hardware mind you - we ran the whole thing off a Kawai K5000 and an MPC2000XL. At the time we were listening to a lot of Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Air, Josh Abrahams and Adam F, hence the weird combo!

 2.) You guys have been making exciting strides recently with remixes for DIm Mak & Grand Hotel amongst others. Who would be your dream artists to remix?

Jimi: Ahh so many! The glaringly obvious one would be The Chemical Brothers, due to their massive influence on our formative years and ability to consistently put out amazing music. Day dreaming aside, I would love to be doing some club mixes for bands, tunes with proper vocals and interesting guitar and synth stuff to chop up. Like the Tame Impala rework Erol Alkan did, that is really really cool. There's loads of awesome dance producers I'd love to get into as well, people like Boys Noize, The Subs, Tai... Guys like Jan Driver and Ado are on fire at the moment!

Max: Personally, if we found ourselves in a studio with The Chems, I'd be like Johnny Depp in Blow where he's watching his daughter being born. You know, shaking, convulsing, and then finally collapsing on the ground.

3.) I noticed that your amazing remix for Rabbit in the Moon seemed to disappear from sale after a day or two. Don't tell me you sold out of digital copies - seriously though, what was the scoop with that as it was a great bit of work, and is there anywhere people can download it or hear it?

Max: It was all very odd and annoying, but the official word is that the label that put it out had to change names or something and it's been gone ever since. We did a little give away to promote our iPhone app last week... Maybe it'll surface again in a more official sense further down the track?

4.) The music industry is for ever shifting the goalposts as people's buying patterns and format choices evolve and change. How are you seeing this affect you & what positive steps do you take to reach out to your fanbase, given it's easier than ever to do that (whilst being harder to earn money from sales).

Jimi: That's the beauty of the internet really, people are getting used to having ready access to new music immediately and often they don't want to pay for it. Which is why it's so important to go to shows and see the DJs you like play! We try to put out mixes as often as we can with our new tunes and other stuff we like in it. We love to hang around and party when we play too, it's always good to meet people that dig music. There's also a secret project that we're working on at the moment, we're putting together a little radio show but I can't really say more than that for the time being.......

 5.) Institubes announced they were ceasing trading last week as a result of terminally declining sales & a devaluing of music to the point where people see it should be a free resource. Can you see more & more labels going the same way, or do you see them adapting & changing to the new world order?

Max: That is really sad news, Institubes put out some incredible music. Surkin and Siriusmo are personal favourites and influences. I really hope other inspiring labels don't follow suit. Before this happened I thought the industry was at the tail end of the internet shake up and people were finally adapting and taking advantage of the internet world, but sadly it looks like we're still in a state of flux.

6.) I see you also design iPhone Apps & I notice you just launched your Loops of Fury Ap, which is an excellent tool by the way. Tell us a little about that.

Max: Yep, that's my day job :) It's basically a way of getting news, updates and tracks on your iPhone from us, as and when they come out. With Soundcloud alone, this becomes a really cool app for the punter. All of our DJ sets and track previews are on there whenever you want, and you can just plug your phone into a stereo and play a set. I'm making these apps for other peeps, so stay tuned!

7.) You smashed it last summer with 'Rack Em' on U&A - what was the biggest thrill from that whole release ... for example I noticed Sacha played it at the opening of Space in Ibiza. Big buzz right?

Jimi: Yeah man, massive! We've got friends in Australia sending us footage from him playing it in his shows right round the country, which is amazing. It's funny, he's played a few of our tunes but he is not really an obvious person to be getting into them. Our music is generally pretty high energy and intensity, and normally on an electro house tip, which you wouldn't necessarily think of when you think of a dude like Sasha. We seem to attract support from a fairly broad selection of people and DJs, which is pretty cool!

Max: We just found out that Carl Cox played Unfold at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami last weekend as well. It's amazing really, we've got old tapes of sets of his recorded from the radio that are worn out from being played so much. It's an absolute honour that these DJs are supporting our music.




8.) What's in the pipeline from the Loops then ... what's getting you excited about the months ahead?

Max: Quite a bit of stuff! We've got remixes for Felix Luker on U&A and Hunter Vaughan on the new Death Proof Recordings coming out really soon. The latter is quite Fury. And some new originals on U&A further down the line, one of which is a hark back to our early days making uplifting jungle on Amiga computers in the mid 90s. We've always been into the PLUR side of jungle, and we've been wanting to get that influence into our stuff for a while now so we had a great time making this one!

Show wise we've got KOKO in London on April 21st and we're working with the Play For Japan guys so stay tuned on that one, they're announcing dates shortly at a number of clubs across London! And there are rumours of some Australian shows later in the year, but we can neither confirm/deny at this stage...


9.) Could you tell us what the 5 hottest tracks in the box are, and then I'll let you go. Thanks from all the readers.

Steve Strip & Jan Driver - Calcium
The Loops Of Fury - We Unfold
NT89 - Persian
The Subs - Face Of The Planet (Ado's Norp mix)
Mustard Pimp - Money Shot (The Loops Of Fury mix)

We Unfold is out this week on Beatport.
GET IT HERE
THE LOOPS ON FACEBOOK

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