When you first got in contact with SOURCE we didn’t know what you did. You sort of promote yourselves a bit like a band.
Al: Yeah I guess, because bands are massively cooler and have that gravitas. DJs are never taken as seriously.
M: I’ve never thought of us as a band.
A: I don’t think anyone’s ever mistaken us for a band because we’ve never used that word but I think it’s a fair point. We promote ourselves as any other musical source.
R: I think there’s a lot less talent to what we do than even the shittest band. Effectively we press the play button or songs that someone else has written. It’s not like we’re saying, ‘We’re incredible, we press play, look at us!’
You must be good at something though?
M: We’re good at finding the songs.
A: That’s a gift from god. It’s like archaeology.
R: I like to think of it as palaeontology – archaeology can only go back 4,000 years.
M: I don’t go past the 1950s personally.
What do you think makes a good DJ?
M: If you’re a Detroit techno DJ part of it is skilfully mixing a hypnotic set, but for what we do – the eclectic, expansive kind of thing – it’s about having good records. Trying to balance a bit of humour with gritty music.
R: The ability to know what to play when. Being able to know how to up the ante without causing a big flop. Unless it’s such a monumental flop that it’s actually funny.
A: If you can play a whole set with your tongue firmly in cheek, put it across that you’re not trying to make out you’re Erol Alkan or something. We don’t focus on the technical side. It is quite shambolic.
R: Sometimes I miss the buttons.
What made you want to DJ together?
M: You were playing at the Northern Tavern and were thinking about giving it up cos no one was there. I thought I come along and either take it over or join forces. Because no one was there we could play any old shit that we wanted to.
A: We called it The Lab because we could cobble stuff together and see what worked. Because I knew Russell from putting his band on at the Albert and other places I said he should come down, first socially and then that he should bring some records.
R: Gradually he woo-ed me.
A: Eventually I got my man.
Would you say that you’re obscurists?
R: We are in the fact that we like playing weird stuff but there’s got to be that familiarity to it. If it is something weird people have to recognise it or it has to be sandwiched between tracks that people know. It’s not like we only play weird stuff.
A: We don’t play particularly heavy music so because it’s upbeat and cheery, you less likely to close off and more likely to think, ‘Ooh, it’s got a flute – I like this!’
M: I play mainly obscure stuff because I get bored quite easily.
A: You go to certain nights and they’re playing the same songs on a loop. It’s like a lot of nights share the same music. There’s nothing worse than going somewhere where every song is from a magazine best 50 tracks of the last ten years. I could do that at home. The whole point of going out is that you experience new things.
R: I think most DJs play stuff that they know people will like but we play stuff that we hope people will like.
FYI
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Panda Bear, Noise Attack: Every Sat, Grand Central
Club Foot: Fri 19th, Penthouse
