This Weeks Interview & Mix comes from Mao Ra Sun
Selector Afterdark – Mao Ra Sun by The Selector on Mixcloud
Introduce yourself and tell us about the part of the UK you’re from?
We are P.P & T.B, an soulful electronic duo from Brighton. We’ve both lived here for a long time but are originally from Bournemouth & York respectively, Brighton is definitely our home though & we couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the UK.
Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve been working on recently?
We’ve been busy in the studio writing the twelve singles we’ll be releasing in 2015, we wanted to do things a little differently so we thought we’d get them all written up front to free us up to work on other things like remixes & club tracks. We’ve also just finished a remix for Laurel & are currently remixing Champs next single as well as working on our live show.
And can you talk us through the mix?
We focused on the more club-based side of what we do .We like playing tracks, which blur the genre lines. I guess you could call the majority of this mix house and techno but like much british music today, these tracks borrow from the culture that surrounds them, featuring elements from drum n bass, hip hop, dancehall, soul, shoegaze and more. Equal parts uplifting and melancholic because we like our happiness tinged with regret. We like to think that we’ve given a little insight into what we’re about, happy/sad, soulful music with a touch of gnarl that’ll make you nod your head.
Nice, give us a taste of some of your favourite British artists at the moment?
Well its got two remixes from us on it, our most recent couple in fact. Marquis Hawkes, we only just become aware of him but his beats are dope and the rolling analogue line on this track complements his vocal so nice. James Welsh next, strong melodic synths and solid kicks, his tracks are on the moodier tip these days but we like to juxtapose a bit of light with dark. Then Trevino , this guy is Marcus Intalex formerly from the drum n bass world, he encapsulates what we’re talking about, bringing flavors over from his former production life into the realms of house and techno. This man is on a roll. So much good music coming out of Britain right now, almost too much to mention. The scene is pretty fucking healthy!
Cool, tell us about some of your British DJ Heroes and influences in general?
DJ EZ is a nice guy and pretty good at mixing. Carl Cox was a prominent influence growing up. Love Four Tet for his shabby eclectic joi de vivre. Jackmaster can throw together a sturdy selection.
And what’s on the cards in the immediate future?
In 2015 we’ll be releasing a single every month, which is providing us with more than an adequate amount of excitement, in a way it’s like an album split up over the year. We’ll start touring our live show as well which we think will be very special, alongside that we’ll be playing DJ shows which also have a live element to them rather than being straight up DJ’ing. We’ve also been producing for other UK artists, some of which feature on our ‘album which isn’t an album’.
And finally, where is the best place in the world you have DJ’d and why?
Japan, Sushi