Please tell our readers who you are and what you do?
(Bates)Brian: my name is Brian Bates I am a DJ / Producer from the last stop on the dart tracks in County Wicklow, Ireland sometimes referred to as greystones and 1 half of of DJ duo string and bates! I have been djing for 11 years and producing with FL studio and various other contraptions since 2010. I have been lucky enough to play across Ireland the UK and also Ibiza in everything from Ice cream vans to Caravans and a swimming pool somewhere in between. In 2011 myself and one of my best mates got together and decided to work on putting together a hybrid live set with ableton and traktor..Initial results were good so we took the show "on the road" so to speak and had the honour of working with some of Ireland and the UK's best promoters in the process (shouts to Martin, Fernando, Neil, Darcy, Ro, Marcus, Yvette, Jack, Ryan, Baller, Lloyd, B.O.N, Reddy, Tim, Conor, Gary, Dean, Al. K, Jay@mutate, Jasper & Ian. H)
(String) Paddy : My name is Paddy Dowdall a DJ / Producer also from Greystones , I started Djing when I was 16 I got a job in the local Nightclub collecting glasses to pay for my mums car which I had just crashed while she was on holiday. Here I bought my first set of decks off the bar man there with a heap of free vinyl , mostly classic trance records, I suppose they were just trance then . I started playing wherever I could at mates birthdays, house parties and anywhere that would let me set them up. Eventually got my first gig and then started organising "raves" with some pals Kelvin and Dougie (that's another story) they were usually after some sort of one day gig, one that stands out would be the one we set up after the very first Electric Picnic 2004 in the infamous Octagon , a church ruin in the middle of a local forest. I lost count of the amount of raves we set up or the ones I helped out at to get a set. The temple theatre in Dublin (which closed it's doors in 2003 after an 8 year run) was where I would have drawn a lot of influence with people like Mauro picotto, Mario piu and Jon chechini playing regular slots. The spirit of the temple theatre still lived on though and in 2012 the keep her lit crew purchased the old club rig which had been lying in storage since the closur, becoming the centre piece and beating heart of the now infamous "keep her lit raves". Recently (as in the last 5 years) the "Keep Her Lit" Raves have been relighting the underground scene. A good friend of mine Luke has been keeping up the tradition of dancing to large sound systems in forests round the country with sound people and quality DJ's, Long story short this is where I found my love for Techno .
How would you describe your style and genre?
Brian: Techno with with a drop of Jameson and the odd classic for the craic
Paddy : Yeah what he said !!
Who are your biggest influences and idols … and why? Do you have any idols? Are you a super fan of anyone? (Dead or alive, musician or non-musician)
Brian: I have been influenced by a lot of things and it could take a while to list them here but I guess earliest influences (musically) would have probably been watching MTV when it used to play music. I used to make my own mix tapes by recording through an amp to the speakers we had setup in the family home, running out on to a tape deck with cassette, stopping the tape at the end of each song and waiting again for another good song to come on until the tape ran out..could probably fit about 10 tracks (radio edits) on each side maximum!! You would have things like "Daft punk – Around the world" and "Mr. Ozio – Flat beat" being played next to "Madonna – Ray of light" and then "Sonique – Higher" or something and then a track by someone like "The Cranberries" coming on so you wouldn't know what the programmer was on sometimes, but sure some days your the bug, some days your the windscreen and it was only 1998, I guess !! I remember starting secondary school and becoming more in to "heavy metal" from picking up acoustic guitar and eventually electric, and listening to bands like Metallica and watching Kerrang on sky digital when all this Nu- metal thing started going on. You would have fred durst from Limpbizkit grabbing his you-know-what, and Eminem on the next channel doing the same…something just didn't click with me here and I was lucky when I was introduced to some electronic music by a friend through the means of "Sasha – Expander" on a white label and so began the weekly pilgrimage to abbey discs in Dublin city, a popular record shop which sadly closed in 2008. It was at this time that I started to discover some decent techno records and purchased a set of decks and literally started listening endless amounts of dj sets and tried to figure out what they were doing. A few years later I began playing gigs (thanks to the names mentioned above) and a few years after this I began attending music college in Bray, Co. Wicklow which would have greatly impacted my music production in a very good way and I would recommend any producers in the area who are serious about music to try it out! Shouts to Ken, Ivan, Artemis & Paddy (for trying to teach an old dog new tricks) and to the class of MJ 2015..You know who you are!
Paddy : Early influences were artists like the Prodigy, the Grid, Mr Spring, Col hamilton and John Cecchini (their Homelands set in 2000 was on repeat for years) Techno wise it was friends of mine that changed things for me, Mic hardy was the first and one of the best DJ's I've had the pleasure of witnessing play techno on a set of decks. The way he put a set together was different gravy and was one of the reasons I swapped trance for techno, Mic and Wes o' leary "Tactikz " who started me off producing on a playstation console (Dance 2000 I think it was called) the rest is history! Richie Hawtin , Carl Cox , Early Adam Bayer, Ricardo ,Villlalobos ,Valentino Kanzyani, the way these guys could change a vibe in a room really inspired me and laid the foundations for my obsession with techno! More recently I've really been digging Rodhad, Len Faki, Octave One, Stranger, Ansome, Paranoid London (this list could go on!) Locally though, Sunil Sharpe has to be one of the finest DJ's on the planet right now and I've been lucky enough to see him perform over the years and he is definitely a huge influence to not just me, but the whole scene here in Ireland him and the likes of Jon Hussey, Fran Hartnett, Defekt and Matador are really showing how its done and are a credit to the scene.
Brian: Artist wise an English DJ Eddie halliwell was a massive influence on me in the earlier stages as he literally came from nowhere and had this incredible mixing style which just blew minds but I was always more interested in Techno. I had a very good friend who sadly left us recently (rip si) who would have had a huge influence on my techno, introducing Chris liebing's "stigmata" album to me around 2005 sometime. The trance thing was big here at the time also but the techno scene was a lot more appealing. I remember listening to Carl cox live at crobar Miami CD around 2003 and thinking what the f*ck is going on here..what is this music and how is he doing this !?? When Dave clarke's "live" album came out that was it…The raving career took full flight and I began travelling with groups of friends all over Europe for the next few years to every Timewarp, Awakenings and Sonar we could get our hands on making it to Robert johnson, Amore festival Rome, Berghain, Ibiza and some ADE's in between.:).It was a great time for just absorbing music and the scene itself as a whole visiting festivals and clubs here at home in Ireland too, ones that really stick out for me at home were Daft punk in Marley park in 2006 which was a massive spectacle and then probably going out on Thursday nights and (crawling in to work the next day after) getting a little carried away in a club called "Traffic" (now Wigwam) which would have promoters "Electric City" host Techno parties every week…bringing over everyone from Richie hawtin to Frequency 7 (Ben sims and Surgeon) and Ricardo villalobos (who would drink a bottle of vodka straight and share shots with people in the front row) and these parties had a profound affect on me..and my day job! On the weekends it was "Tripod" which (sadly) closed it doors in 2012. Two all time favorite moments though (if I had to choose) would have been Valentino kanzyani in a dutch WW2 bunker or a grounded theory label night in a place called Stattbad in Berlin with Henning baer, Surgeon, Sigha and Tommy four seven…all night long until 10 am the next morning, this was no ordinary club either and in true Berlin fashion this was an old sportshalle (sic) and swimming pool converted in to a filthy techno dungeon which would have been featured on several boiler rooms..the club is now closed but this Techno astehtic…crazy venues with huge systems for hours on end would really influence me in a huge way and without this I would not be doing anything I am doing right now. A lot of friends back home started to do there own things locally here too and parties that started from humble beginnings began to take serious shape and this was a big influence on me also, to see these things grow and flourish. Local DJ's here including my partner in crime Patrick and lads like Martin smyth, Davy prior, Clive slevin, Ben glendon, Howie miller, Wes O' Leary Keyth mcloughlin, Mark dockery, Conor feeney, Robbie ryan, Mick hardy, Johnny dillon, Aaron Nolan, Fishy, Mike 515, Nathan jones, Fergal kelly, Kev Heraghty, Ciano, Woodzer, Hoggie, Messy, Ringo, Paddy Fitz, Paddy daire, Erik Santos, Rob le nan, Aaron costelloe, Arte, Frankie, Aleks, Con and Cian, Rob whittle,The daughter, Jono O F, JCIE, Dougmore, Fionn + Ciara, Dan Mac, Reddy, and Rob murphy would have been a big influence and a good collective of good guys to have around who are serious DJ's and also longtime friends so this is also a plus, on a wider Irish scale DJ's like Phil kieran, Donnacha costelloe, Matador, Chymera, Sunil sharpe, John hussey, Giles armstrong, Fran Hartnett, Jamie behan, Will kinsella, Lectrosoul crew, Handsome paddy, Myler, Peter sweeney, Doug cooney, Niall cleary and Saoirse ryan ..thesefolks have killed it for years and continue to do so..showing no signs of stopping.! The main man would always be Ben sims in my mind though, this dude is sick and if you have not seen him spin your missing out! I guess a combination of all this and some seriously varied sleep patterns pretty much sums up my influences to this current day! Cheers for the memories ya bats!
Paddy: Artist wise for me, it has to be Richie Hawtin, I've lost count of the amount of times over the years where I've got lost on a dance floor listening to every little detail of his sets, 7 hours of Richie Hawtin at Timewarp Festival in Manheim is a must for any Techno Fan. His early stuff like " Closer to the Edit" in 2001 would be in my book modern day Mozart. More recently I've been loving everything by Rodhad but, this being music could all change
What´s new right now? What should our readers know about that is coming up from you?
Brian: 45 pints..I only heard it the other day 🙂 Borito box Greystones…seriously try it! Footwerk music, Grounded podcast (waan gilly) The durtburds, The hosey brothers, Frost, Sick note, Froggy, Luke kelly, Chris hayes, Aidan burke, Ross, Prowl, Eavan and Georgia tbilisi (up the Wexford crew) serious Irish talent to be watching out for and I have some tracks of my own coming out on Fassade records, Stuttgart in late 2017 so watch out for them! Also you can catch myself and Paddy b2b at Fuinneamh festival (17th-19th September) and Scrobarnach Festival (August 11th – 13th) check out the websites below for more info…Hope to see you on the dancefloor'(s) (TOP LEFT!)
Paddy: New live set on the way and lots of new machines added to an ever expanding live set up …watch this space 🙂
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What was the biggest mistake you made when you started making music and what would be the number one tip you could give to a newcomer musician?
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How do you get gigs? Can you share any tips?
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What has been your biggest challenge right now? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
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How do you promote yourself? Do you have any specific promotion tips for other musicians?
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We meet again in one year. What has changed?
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