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Arguably best known for his work with Rick Smith and Karl Hyde, Darren joined Underworld when he was 18 years old. The band released three albums: ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’, ‘Second Toughest in the Infants’ and ‘Beaucoup Fish’. Underworld have sold over a million albums worldwide, featured two tracks on Danny Boyles Oscar nominated classic “Trainspotting” and are renowned for their stunning and unpredictable live shows. The hits include Cowgirl, Rez, Dark and Long and Born Slippy – all classics.

2000 saw Emerson leave Underworld and go solo. Although the band had been his passion for 10 years, it was time to branch out, concentrate on his record label and work with different producers. The first collaboration saw Emerson and DJ cohort Sasha produce the Ibiza classic ‘Scorchio’. Two

Global Underground compilations soon followed; ‘Uruguay’ and ‘Singapore’ and the hugely successful Underwater Episodes. Darren has also remixed tracks for everyone from The Prodigy to Everything But The Girl and Gus Gus.

Darren is also the founder of record label Underwater, which releases material from artists such as Tim Deluxe and D.Ramirez. More recently Underwater has become home for remixes from New Zealand heavyweights Dick Johnson and Greg Churchill.

Darren is a true pioneering DJ and producer, make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to see him at Nite:Life – The Experience.

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We are a duo based out of both the UK and USA.

I (Slade) live in the USA near Kansas City (midwest) currently. I have lived in both Seattle and London in the past. It is good to see different places around the globe and really settle in an area for a bit, you grab a lot of inspiration that way. I also run two record labels with Shab Ruffcut called Dandy Kid Records (http://www.myspace.com/dandykidrecords) and It_tizz Recordings (http://www.myspace.com/ittizz .

2.The most obvious question is how did you come up with the name Defunct?

We originally were going to call ourselves Def Cunt (same letters, different name)… which would be a bit harder to market that type of name… Defunct! came alive and we needed a zing, so we hitched it with our notorious “!” at the end. “Defunct” means coming to an end, and we wanted to bring a whole new vibe to the dance scene, so out with the old and in with the new!

3.You are playing in Auckland on March 20th, What can the crowd expect from you? Describe your sound to us…

Jackin, Funky, Dirty chunky beats! I break away from the single mold and range from that hard jacking flare to the more in your face “nu-rave” tunes that just throw you against the wall. We like to mash it up a bit and rinse it from all angles really.

4.Tell us, what is happening in the US Dance scene at the moment…

In the US, it really seems we are hitting a new market with the jackin flare that use to be reknown for the Chicago scene. It is coming back ten-fold into the techier side of things… as far as the electro markets, people are molding to the party vibe a lot more and starting to get “hip” to the idea of loving their basslines.

5.When did you know you first wanted to make/play music? Who inspired you to get into it…

My father. I was raised purely on electronic music ranging from Enigma or Enya to Tangerine Dream or Jean Michel Jarre. Lots of European and German influences as far as the synth rock went.

6.You are involved with Dandy Kids records, tell us a bit about that, how did that come about?

I own Dandy Kid Records label with Shab Ruffcut. We also just started a sister label called “It_tizz Recordings”. We wanted to cut a new path into the dance scene and kick the box genres to the curb and bring everything we liked to the table. We really focus just as much energy on our brand as far as artwork, film, image and versatility when it comes to our multimedia approach, as we do our music. Nothing is better than a work horse of quality music paired up with a proper backbone of image and design.

7.Being a DJ means you get to travel to some amazing places, what have been some of your most memorable gigs? Why?

Ive been to the UK, South Africa, America (14 states), Canada, and now Australia and New Zealand… South Africa was amazing. We had a lot of fun with some really great people. My first tour to Canada was probably my most memorable just because it was my first out of country gig and with my good friend Jon Belliveau. There are some really amazing people and promoters in the dance scene, I really respect that.

8.Who would you like to collaborate with / work in Future projects with?

We are down to work with anyone we feel is comfortable and on the same level. On our debut full length album, we already are featuring Monster Squad (Whiskey Pete, Jae Stylus, Andre Parnell), Messinian, Sporty-O, Ze!, Mr Eyez, Freeflow, Loc E, & General Levy (he just finished a tune for Dandy Kid with Shab Ruffcut), We love to collab with other great artists.

9.What would you class as your biggest achievement as a DJ/Producer?

I dont like taking anything for granted, so anything that happens in our favor we put forth as an achievement, but I would have to say running with some of the big players in the game and pushing a whole new concept to a whole new crowd is definitely an achievement in itself.

10.Who is a producer / DJ you think we should watch out for in 2010?

Kyle Watson is still on the uprise and same with Bill Eff… both have huge potential in front of them… but there are so many more! MadKids are really going to bring in a whole new level to the scene, as is Mele. With Shab and I’s label Dandy Kid, we put a lot of effort into finding those gems in the rough and bring them out to the masses.

11.What are you working on at the moment?

We are finishing up our Full Length album right now, due out in early summer on Dandy Kid Records along with LOADS of awesome remixes coming up for some great artists and labels!

Im also currently finishing up a couple other production projects for some people and I also do a project for a Darkwave/industrial outting called Velox Music that we just finished writing our album for. I also just recently had a double disc album drop with an older project of mine with producer mastermind Dean Garcia (of Sinead O’ Connor, SPC ECO, Mick Jagger, The Eurythmics, Curve) called The Chronologic that we have been working on and of from a few years back… it is very electronica with an “Underworld” feel, very cool.

12.Top 5 tracks:

Of all time i’d say probably:

Depeche Mode – Its No Good

Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round

Underworld – Pearls Girl

Gary Numan – Hybrid (and old stuff)

Depeche Mode – Precious

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Tom / Will

I met tom at primary school, all through the years he was always the guy with all the girlfriends, fame and fortune. When we were about 7 or 8 our school was under renovation and there was construction gear and building materials lying around so one day I decided to do something about Tom. I found myself a nice small 2 by 4, I was young so I couldn’t carry anything too heavy. I hid it in this bush at the top of a steep bank where we always hung out at lunch time. At lunch that day we were all sitting up there like normal, it was a nice day, summer. It was time to carry out my plan. I called a game of fox but this time me and Tom would both be it, everyone else ran away leaving me and Tom standing alone at the top of the bank. As pre the rules of fox, Tom was standing with his eyes closed counting down from 100. I picked up my weapon and without a word brought it down on the back of his head. He didn’t make a sound but just tumbled forwards down the bank, coming to a rest about 3m below. I ran… We have been best friends ever since.

Rhys / Will

I met Will the first day I started my course at SAE up here. This dude rolled up to me and started rabbiting on about some mix I’d done at a gig back in Welly and how it was forking fantastic. Figured it’d be good to keep some dude around that thought I was awesome. He gives me more sh*t these days than anything else ha ha.

Rhys / Tom

I first met Tom when he came up for Pendulum at Logan Campbell. Very messy night, he ended up getting lost for about an hour, we finally found him handing out flyers for a hard house gig… When he moved up to do study at SAE and moved in with Will it didn’t really change much. We were on the piss most weekends before heading out to some form of dnb gig.

How’d Echo Company start out?

It’s all come about real quickly really. It started off with us moving into our Parnell flat. Was quite nice to get into a flat where it wasn’t electro at 120dB from 5-9 every night! We did a few dnb tracks, then we stumbled across the autofilter in Logic and that’s when it changed to dubstep. With it being such a new genre it kinda gives you more freedom to try different things (as long as you stick to 140bpm haha). Really though I think we just like anything that has sick bass.

Describe your sound?

Hmm tough one, don’t really have one yet. We kinda just mess around with sh*t until we find a cool noise or sample and build around that. I remember one track that was started when we thought it’d be a laugh to load up a synth and put heaps of different fx on the channel strip before even pressing a key. The prediction of course was for rubbish, but it’s actually turned out to be this epic bass sound. Never finished it though, mainly coz Tom lost the project file.

So there’s quite a few unfinished bits floating about?

Heaps, there’d be more as well if the neighbours upstairs would stop complaining to our landlord about the noise, I mean really how hard is it to come down and ask for it to be turned down a little?

What’s coming up in the next wee while for you guys?

Loads. We’re making our debut at Wheel this month which we’re really looking forward to. Easter Weekender is going to be sick and we’re playing both the Auckland and Welly dates which is dope. Our EP entitled Taxidermia is due out on Monkey Dub soon which we’re stoked about. They’ve been real supportive of our stuff so far. We’re also working on a strictly NZ Dubstep mix that will hopefully be out the same time as the EP.

Where can we hear your stuff?

Jump on our soundcloud to listen to most of our tracks. We’re also around on Youtube if you search Echo Company. Raspberry can be downloaded from the Monkey Dub website in the goodies section. We’ve also got our Facebook page which we try to keep updated daily with what’s going on. We’re going to start up a podcast which will hopefully be fortnightly and then there’s the radio show on Boosh FM Wednesday nights.

http://soundcloud.com/echocompany

http://www.myspace.com/echocompanymusic

http://www.monkeydub.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Echo-Company/211245647145?ref=ts

http://www.youtube.com/user/EchoCompanyNZ

echocompanymusic@gmail.com

http://www.boosh.fm/

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So how long have the two of you been Djing?
Chris: We’ve been DJing for over 7 years now, since we were about 14. Doesn’t seem like that long!

What got you started?
Sebastian: I’ve always had a passion for dance music; I’ve literally never really listened to anything else. My mum found that I always like the more upbeat music playing on the radio. She then brought me ‘Strictly Techno 3’ when I was about six as my first CD! I never really looked back. Then I met Chris when I started high school when I was about 13, he also had interest dance music and the rest is history.

Chris: Well we had both been friends since about 12 or 13 and had developed a mutual love of dance music. We used to mix mp3’s using a computer program as a hobby and I bought a couple of bits of vinyl on impulse but didn’t really have anything to do with them. At around Christmas 2003 I met Shea (Now Mr Squatch, formerly Focus from the Nitrate days) who had just bought a pair of broken down old Technics belt drives and a ‘well-loved’ Numark mixer. I took Seb around to Shea’s for a mix one day, we all got along really well and learned to play together over that summer along with our other friend Luke (Skywalka, son of Christchurch Trance legend Defender). I remember we used to get together and mix records badly for hours on end, I don’t know how our parents put up with it! Bless.

How long until you were playing out and about regularly?
Chris: From that point onwards we pretty much lived at a local record store called Asylum where we bought our tunes and talked the owner into giving us the occasional go on their 1210’s and Pioneer 600 (We didn’t know what to do with ourselves!). After about 6 months we were spotted having a mix by the owner of a local club called Base where we were regular little trainspotters at their all ages NRG nights and asked to play guest sets; we couldn’t believe it. We were asked back a few times which turned into a residency as the gigs became more frequent.

Sebastian: What he said, except me being me and never settling for anything less than perfect (I simply wanted a better set time!) I decided to do my own night called “Area 51” at a local coffee shop turn club by night. I remember selling a grand total of 0 tickets on the day and thinking, “Shit, this didn’t work”, then on the night a surprisingly large amount of people turned up and helped fill the venue nicely! I did one more event then got Chris involved to help run them, we were then playing regularly at those events as well.

I hear Sebastian’s DJ name used to be “Disorder” many years ago. What was your favorite b2b set when you played as Crisis b2b Disorder?

Chris: Hahaha cringe worthy. I guess that sort of thing is forgiveable when you’re 15. Not so sure about now though, I’ve kind of grown into my alias somehow while Seb’s shed his for something more “professional,” But how professional can you really be with a last name like Wild? Haha.

Favourite b2b set from the old days would have to be the first time we played in Wellington for new all ages promoters R-One (Co-Managed by a young Kyle Bourke!). We were driven up the country in a rickety van with no seats in the back and no idea what to expect from the gig. We turned up to a packed out and rowdy as Subnine and smashed out a 2 hour set of some of the biggest anthems of the time, the atmosphere was incredible. The crowd had no idea what had hit them, it was maaaagical.

Sebastian: I concur, that night was pretty epic. It was the first gig I decided to stand on top of the desk to wind the crowd up and I could barely see the back of the club as it was so packed! I also remember getting topless for a grief second as the crowd were getting a bit “wild” and people were throwing water everywhere, some got on the mixer and I freaked out so I threw my t-shirt on it. The ladies shouldn’t get too excited; it got thrown hastily back on!

Haha, contrary to Chris’s belief I shed the name as a way of ditching my harder alias when my sound matured. Plus Sebastian Wild sounded far cooler than Disorder!

What styles of music do you play?
Chris: I’m a little bit forked in terms of my musical stylings. The main sound that I push can be loosely classified as Trance and Hard Dance with massive influence taken from Psy Trance and Techno to spice things up. I also play a wide range of Electro, House and Breaks from more commercial stuff to deep underground moodiness. I guess the common denominators would be that I play innovative, exciting and accessible dance music, adapted on the fly for every crowd I play to. Especially when it comes to the harder styles I strive to really play an interesting sound and go out of my way to source great tracks that are technically outside of the genre boundaries but that I can use to create really exciting and memorable sets.

I’ve also been producing for about 4 years. I had my first release as a collaboration in 2006 and have been quiet on the release front since; but I try to be in the studio as much as I can, and will be looking to get a lot more of my material into the public eye in 2010. You can check out my productions at www.soundcloud.com/djcrisisnz.

Sebastian:

I consider myself to be one of the more diverse DJ’s in the country. I have spent year’s meticulously hand-selecting tunes for my CD wallet across everything from house, breaks, electro, progressive, techno, trance, I’ve even had a few drum’n’bass tracks slip in there recently! I pride myself on having the tunes to please an extremely diverse audience. I love using tunes from different genres to try and spice up a set so you don’t get 2hrs of me playing the same stuff. Every set I play is unique and tailored to the crowd I’m playing to at the time so never expect the same set twice. I really enjoy tailoring my sound to each event I play, it keeps Djing interesting and I think having influences from everywhere is what can give you an edge.

For the past probably 3 years I now I’ve also utilize the Mixed in Key software designed to musically key each of your tunes. Being such a diverse DJ this software has turned into one of my most powerful tools as it allows you to blend tracks together across genres that you would of never thought would of worked, yet when in key can produce simply incredible results. On the flipside of that though I’ve learnt not to get anally retentive about it, if you know the next tune in hand will rock the party and you need a floor filler hurry up & play it!

Together you’ve been business partners running successful events since you were teenagers. How did this begin and how have your events developed?

Chris: As I mentioned earlier, Seb and I got quite used to playing out regularly when we were still only about 15 and didn’t have a lot of opportunity to do so. Base’s NRG and subsequent Club NRG gigs were a great starting point for us but they eventually lost momentum and we noticed a gap in the market for professional, consistent, high quality All Ages events in Christchurch that we decided to fill ourselves. It started with Seb and a couple of others running a range of small club nights, which fared from moderately successful to appalingly dead. After a couple of events Seb approached me to help him run the second official Nitrate event and we went from there! Beginnings were somewhat rocky but over the course of 4 years we managed to grow Nitrate into one of New Zealand’s largest All Ages events. We consistently filled some of the biggest venues in Christchurch, organised a self-managed tour of all NZ’s main centres at the age of 16 and contributed to what I feel was a real youth movement for a few years. It was a great thing to be a part of.

Sebastian: Haha, what he said. I did a couple events myself before getting Chris onboard. One of which I’m sure Nick Collings will tell you seriously bombed! As a 15 year old I took a fairly significant blow to the pocket, but for some ungodly reason decided to do it again. I figured out what was wrong and approached Chris and tried again! I’ve always been an extremely entrepreneurial type of person, it just didn’t seem right to give up and I guess that’s the way I approach everything, including DJing.

I actually ran my first event because I wasn’t getting a peak-time sets at the NRG parties (having been Djing all of about 10 minutes), so I thought f*ck it I’ll do it myself! Nitrate has defiantly been one of my largest achievements so far. We really did manage to create a movement and educate literarily thousands of youngsters. I love running into some of these guys that attended Nitrate at proper dance events now and have them tell me how much they loved the parties and how it got them into dance music, it’s a really awesome feeling and something I’m really proud to of created.

What makes each of you stand out as DJ’s?

Chris: I think technical consistency and careful innovation coupled with an immense enthusiasm for performance and for the music I play. Also I’d like to think that the ridiculous hours I spend trawling through music and writing my own help me to express myself better and stand out; I can’t stand the thought that there’s music out there that I would love to pieces but might not have heard or written!

Sebastian: I think there are three things that really stand out for me; diversity of music, pushing technical boundaries and providing not just a DJ set but a performance.

On the technical side of things I’ve decided to go all out. I saw Eddie Halliwell for the first time about four years ago and saw him thrashing the Pioneer EFX1000 and was absolutely blown away. It took me about 6 months after then before I got my hands on one and started playing with it. On request I now play what some people have called “decks’n’efx” sets, where I utilize basically all the pioneer gear, a DJM800, EFX1000, extra CDJs and mid last year also began incorporating Traktor Scratch Pro as an additional tool. I really enjoy the chance to play these sets as it allows me to add a personal touch to each tune and use these tools to blend and cut up sets in a really unique way. As far as I’m aware I’m one of the only DJs in the country that combine all this software and hardware for a singular performance. The thing I love most about my chosen tools is that it still allows me to DJ as I always have, that’s really important to me even as we become further immersed in technology.

DJing isn’t just about the music it’s also about providing entertainment. When there’s a rammed club and room of thousands of people in front of you you’ve gota step it up. There’s nothing worse than watching a DJ just stand there and go through the motions, especially if the gig is busy. If the crowd are up for it so am I. I love interacting with the audience and actually being seen as enthusiastic about the music I’m playing. I also travel with a microphone in my record bag for most larger gigs now. Its always great having an extra tool to help that interaction and I think small infrequent communication with the crowd really helps take it to that next level. I also added a custom-made visuals show – created exclusively for me – to my performances mid last year, which is a real icing on the cake and adds something further unique and a personal touch.

How do you combat rumours that the two of you are boyfriends?

Chris: I don’t do perms for a start haha. Seb has a tendency to get a little fresh after a couple of red wines but I wouldn’t want to ruin the friendship. Also I can’t say the lack of girl parts doesn’t bother me, despite first appearances he is definitely male and that’s just not my sport!

Sebastian: We’ll start by announcing here that WERE NOT. NEVER HAVE, NEVER WILL BE. I must add my girl friend has a better rack than him so I don’t see why I’d waste my time!

What made the two of you want to move to Auckland?

Chris: There are a lot of reasons; I can’t speak for Seb but for me living in Christchurch all my life has definitely given me itchy feet. The scene down here can be great but it’s not really conducive to success in the way that I envision it, and Auckland is a great city with a great scene and some great people. Basically I’m ready for a change and Auckland looks like it’s going to be good for me.

Sebastian: I have to say I concur with Chris; we’ve literarily done all we can in Christchurch. It’s time to move on. I also get to finish my degree up here which is great!

What else do you do with your days?

Chris: I’m about halfway through a marketing degree I guess is the big one. I also work as a bartender/barista part time and keep as active a social life as I possibly can. I try to spend as much time as possible writing original music also but it’s never as much as I’d like!

Sebastian: As mentioned before, I’m currently studying. Finishing up my degree in marketing / management in the next six months and will probably look at going back to do post-graduate work of some description after that.

Are you looking forward to moving to the big smoke?
Chris: Definitely; it’s going to be a great environment for a productive and fun 2010 and beyond J

Sebastian: I’m already here and so far so good! It’s been great to already get out and about and meet new people. I’m looking forward to an exciting yet serious year here. Bring it on!

For more information on Sebastian Wild and Crisis check out:

www.sebastianwild.com

www.crisismusic.co.nz

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Auckland really turned it up last Wednesday and the talent took the roof off. With the judges torn over who was their favourite they agreedto put 2 DJs through to the finals on the 31st of March.

Rowan Smith aka Audiosmith was out of this world. With a 40 minute set dropping over 30 tunes. From dubstep – electro – trance – drum n bass this was one set that did not have any down time.

Ben Davies aka Dosage ripped up an incredible jump up drum n bass set that had the crowd going crazy! Some highly skilled mixing and great stage presence saw him make his way to the final.

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