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[Artist Profile] Dirty Channels are two Italian DJ/producers & music lovers named Simone & Leme who have been making quite a bit of noise lately with releases on labels like Hot Waves, Ovum & Culprit. Their track “On the Way feat. Rosina” off the recent Culprit VA release has been in heavy rotation amongst DJs all over the world and our sets here at Mi4L as well. We are very excited for the music these guys are making and decided we should give you a deeper glance into the world that is Dirty Channels with this exclusive interview and Lovecast mix 013.
Exclusive Interview with Dirty Channels:
Where are you from and where do you live now?
Hey guys, it’s a pleasure to be here for you, thanks for nice words! We are from Italy, we both live near Milan.
How was the music scene growing up? How has it influenced your music and shaped you into the producer/dj you are today?
The underground music scene has grown up a lot in the recent years, in particular, have been made many advances towards the Music (vocals, melodies, atmospheres… not only groove). This is very important for us because we always like to play tracks that convey something to the people. These may be techno, house, disco…but they must leave something to the crowd.
How is the music scene where you live today?
Well…. it’s a good moment for Italy in our opinion! There are a lot of “new” and “old” talented djs/producers, such as Tale Of Us, Clockwork, Leon, Flashmob, Lula Circus, Hunter/Game, Pastaboys, Luca Bacchetti, System Of Survival and many others that we don’t remember at the moment (sorry J ). Also lots of great small and big clubs where we love to play, like Take It Easy, Gloss Club (Milan), Black.Box (Ferrara), Nice To Be (Naples), Red Zone (Perugia), Marabù (Catania)… We think that Italy have had an important club story and now it’s coming back to the good old days.
When did music production become a serious part of your life? When did you know that you were going to continue on doing this professionally?
About 5 years ago, when we started to produce music together after a lot of years as resident djs in two different clubs. It’s not easy to live doing this kind of job but if you trust yourself and work hard and professionally, dreams could become true….
Do you prefer to work alone or do you like to do collaborations?
We are really open to collaborate with other producers, singers and musicians!
We do it very often… Sometimes we look for an artist who we’re interested in, some other times we are required from the artists or the labels. You can find a lot of collaborations in our latest releases… We made the EP for Ovum with our good friend Bugsy, the voice of Amina and Pezzner on the remixes. We asked for a song to the canadian’s singer Rosina for the track on Culprit. We made a track with the Italian’s masters Pastaboys and the great voice of Ovasoul7. At the moment we are working on some new projects with our friends Flashmob and other cool singers but we prefer not to talk so much about that. Jk
Maybe it’s time to make a track on our own ahaha
How important is where one lives for a career in music production?
No matter where you live if your mind is open… it could be a limit if you stay bound to your country. But today’s technology allows you to share music and culture very fast, so it really doesn’t matter where you are! We think that today the important thing is to know and be influenced by other cultures but keeping your own style and background.
What advice would you give to aspiring producers?
Trust in yourself and try to communicate with your music
Can you tell us one record or song that has changed your life?
There are too many!! It’s hard to say! Now we remember two of the craziest house tracks we’ve loved: “Lil Louis – Blackout” and “KOT – Finally (Danny Tenaglia’s Return To Paradise Mix)”
What are the best things about being on the road? Worst? Best moment on the road?
We think that the best things are to visit new places, meeting new people who follow our music and share the emotions we feel when we play with them. Last but not least eat good food (when possible)
The worst? There are no times, few sleeping hours and you have to take so many means of transport to get around … but there are more good reasons to do this job!
Maybe the best moment was when we played at Sankeys Manchester alongside with two gurus like Dixon and Ame.
Is there anything special coming up here in the near future that people should know about?
We have just finished a remix for Audiojack’s label Gruuv that will be released next month. As we said, we are working on a track with Flashmob and we are preparing also an EP for Culprit, so stay tuned on the channels!
What is your drink of choice?
It depends day by day… sometimes may be still water (when we decide to be clever) ahahah
Tell us about your mix.
It’s always hard to mix all the music we like in an hour, but we tried to. This mix is like a little journey, where you can listen two of our new tracks (the remix for Gruuv and the last Culprit “On The Way”), plus some great unreleased tracks and some old jams from other artists we follow. Hope you enjoy.
Track List:
01 Tim Toh – He Is a Dancer [Philpot]
02 The M.E.B. – Dead Faces [Let’s Play House]
03 Far East Band – The Call Up (Martin Buttrich Rework) [Four Music]
04 jozif feat. Little Bear – The 508 (Uffe Remix) [Crosstown Rebels]
05 Catz ‘n Dogz & SLG – Loud Sandra [Watergate]
06 Baikal – Why Don’t Ya? [Maeve]
07 White Lamb – Make It Good [White Label]
08 Lee Foss & MK – B5 The Dinks [Hot Creations]
09 JT Donaldson, Cpen – Take U Back (DJ T. Edit) [Get Physical]
10 Deep Future – Let Me Go (Dirty Channels Gruuvy Rework) [Gruuv]
11 George Fitzgerald – Every Inch (Deetron Remix) [Hypercolour]
12 Dirty Channels – On The Way feat. Rosina [Culprit]
-Slow