I’m a simple person. I have simple needs, simple dreams and simple pleasures. One of them is to go to a cracking party and dance to cracking music. Such a simple thing. What could be easier in a city where parties and DJs abound? Ah, but you, and I, know both are often but simple dreams blowing across smoggy city rooftops. Thank goodness then that Party Proactive have the sense to book DJs who’ll keep your toes twinkling and your body gyrating wildly for as long as could ask for. Enter 2 Phunked Up – Baltazar and The Greg - Blissed & Twisted House Music aficionados with a passion for all things groovy and a penchant for outrageous clothing (although not so much these days I have to admit – hmmm, will interrogate them about this in the interview - long live Top Hats!). Having played across the capitals best clubs from main stage Koko for Paul Van Dyke’s album tour to intimate parties with Sebastian Leger. From Turnmills, The End, Brixton Academy and Egg with D Ramirez, Deepgroove, King Roc, Mike Monday to Heat in Ibiza and ESP in their native Johannesburg. Having taken their DJing to the next level by developing their own night Comfortably Numbed & Elek2ronik, debuting on their new CN Digital label with 5 Nights Around (remix courtesy of Portamento Records Head Honcho, Nino Anthony), things are beginning to look very interesting indeed. In all, these guys are a party-in-a-box with beatific smiles and a box of beautiful beats, which is why Party Proactive have invited them to play at their 5th Birthday Party on the 2nd May following their PP debut at Turnmills two years ago!

Hello you two, how have you been in the two years since we saw you rock it at PP?!

Hello, word, wazzzzzuuuuuuuup and all that!

We’ve been great the past two years – the final stage of the scrotalinium reversal went really well so we’re reall…. Ooohhhhhh, so sorry, you mean how have we been in general… Yeah, pretty good actually… And you can leave that whole scrotalinium reversal thing out right…

It’s awesome to have been invited back to play for PP and on such a grand occasion. We’re so pumped for this party!

Congratulations on the success of your debut release last year. Did you engineer it yourselves?

Thank you Mr Jack, it was a good milestone for us and it feels good having something of ours out there. It was our first shot and maybe not quite where we are now with our music but great all the same. Nino Anthony’s remix stirred up some good waves among the electro house fans and it was entertaining to hear Balt’s voice churning through a club system with the words “5 Nights Round”! We didn’t engineer it ourselves, it was engineered by a Cat… more specifically, Dan Cat from the Cheshire Catz of yester year. He is brilliant and we have a lot to thank him for in helping us to get more cosy in the studio. He’s also now back writing/producing and DJing after a long break so we’re really excited to hear his new stuff. Keep an ear out for Catz Muzik!

Who does what in the production relationship?!

[Greg:] Balt is a natural –he’s pretty inspirational in the studio and his creativity is flowing more than ever recently. He’s had a good 6 months off to focus his energy on making music and it’s really showing. I know what I like to hear and what sounds excite me but I’m yet to get to the stage where I’m rolling with the feelings that certain sounds bring about.

[Balt:] Greg keeps the tea and biscuits flowing as well as constantly distracting me with arb pieces of information about the price of eggs in Japan or some such which disturbs our workflow… But his distractions are actually welcomed otherwise I zone out and go off on tangents, he keeps bringing me back to reality… He also knows how to pick out really great sounds and has a pretty fine tuned ear which lends itself well to the mixdowns… I’ve really got comfortable with the software and equipment and it’s awesome to finally be able to put something down as I want to hear it. I have a lot of great tracks half finished which will all get properly finished off over the next few months and released. I’m looking forward to lots of time behind the monitors.

How did you come about starting your own label?

Comfortably Numbed Digital spawned itself from a promotion that we launched a few years ago to throw some parties and events in London and play host to some of our favourite DJ’s. We run it together with our partner, Jon Fynn, and throw the occasional event to promote certain releases etc… In the same way we started the promotion to host events and invite some of our favourite DJ’s to play alongside us, the label is a platform for us to share our music and promote some of our favourite artists in a similar light.

Is it just digital?

Yes.

How’s it going???

It's going well, [enter infomercial pitch here] the latest Ep “Drop” from our Swedish friend, Ludwig S, is out this month and the Filth & Splendour remix has been steadily climbing the tech house charts. [exit infomercial pitch]. We haven't put as much time as we would have liked to this year, but we've had some great artists on our releases so far and we’ll continue to sign as and when we find guys or they find us. At the moment though - it’s all about getting loads of our own material together.

How is it working so closely with someone for so many years? Are you As One, with creative ideas flowing in harmonious waves or do you bicker like a couple of old fish wives…?

It’s like a 2nd Marriage… so there is definitely some of that old fish wives’ soup brewing! It’s always been awesome having 2 of us to psych each other up and when one of us has a lot going on with certain responsibilities to tend to, the other fuels the machine to maintain for both of us. All that aside, when both of us are on song and our energy is in sync – things seem to reach a whole new level of game on. We’ve never done anything for any other reason than to have a good time ourselves – People can see this from our events, hear it in our music and the way we put it forward.

If you had to describe each other what would you say?

[Greg:] Someone mentioned the words Bert & Ernie the other day… but in one line and in my best Chris Tucker voice, “my brother my blood!”

[Balt] Seriously – Have you seen how long Greg’s limbs are… I’d describe him as long… OH!!! And how could I forget, actually there is only one word to describe Greg… LATE!!!! Always late – for everything… Although I must say, he has been making the effort and has been on time the past while so Gregory I salute you!!!
[Greg:] Thank you Sire… that salute was your ‘get out of the subject of size for free’ card!

How does your DJ partnership work – if we did a blind hearing test could we tell who was playing when?

hahaha! Yep – we both pretty much play an equal part musically but if there are any sweaty mixes going down, it’s usually Greg like a deer in the headlights while Balt rectifies the situation!

How did you make the leap from Sunny Side Up in 2003 in South Africa to London?

Kitchen's have a way of cooking up all kinds of philosophical phenomena... but it all started with the Roach Looking Alien Dude in the movie "Men in Black", then the house parties when the parent's were away, [refer to kitchen reference above] and then ideas of living it up in London 6 years back... We used to throw crazy house parties at Greg’s folks place while they were on holiday, there was a time when they were away for about a month and we did parties at their place for like four weekends in a row!

We never DJ’d back then, but we were fully into all things party and going to all the big “raves”, we must have trainspotted every international headliner that played in SA no matter what style of music they were playing so coming to London and doing the soundtrack to our own parties was the natural progression. When we came to the UK, we decided to throw the type of events we would like to attend ourselves and through that built up our brand by doing what we thought was the right way to go about it. People dug our sound and the parties we threw so it just grew.

You’ve started your own night, label and things are looking rosy – what are your plans for the foreseeable and not so seeable future?!

We’re gonna be holding off on our own nights as well as the now infamous Comfortably Numbed boat parties for the rest of the year to seriously concentrate and focus our time in the studio. We’ve tried doing it before but never got down to it fully due to personal life taking over – This year everything is settled, we’re confident and happy with what we’ve achieved over the past 4 years and best of all – We’re now comfortable enough in the studio to really get some quality music together and released.

We love throwing events and gigging, it’s what has driven us the past 4 years -But as you no doubt know this more than most of us Mr Jack, as awesome as it is to bring people together for a good night out, it’s pretty much a full time job in itself to ensure the continued success of each event and it takes a lot of energy, energy we now want to shift into our own music and we’re so amped for it!

Please finish off these sentences:

Life’s a…. Hop, skip and a jump around the bend of the never never land ranch that lies between the surface of the juxtaposed linear movement which in turn is locked in time with the trifector of the root that begins at x!

Music is… the Answer! (Bet you didn’t see that one coming!)

2 Phunked Up and Party Proactive are musical synergy of momentous proportions because…. They know how to show the boys and girls a damn good time!

And finally…as PP’s motto is Come Colourful, Courageous and Ready to Party (and baring in mind your dapper history!) will you be?!

We weren’t going to do anything as we don’t do the dress up thing anymore since becoming uber cool serious DJ types. We were just going to be in our standard converse high tops, super tight jeans (Balt looks especially attractive in those) and oxfam hand me down jumpers… We were even toying with the idea of putting our hands in the air every now and then – You know, to really push the boat out at this one!

But then we though hey, it’s Party Proactive, so we’ll make a special effort. ;-p

Thanks guys. I think a night of muchos fun is in order on the 2 May! x x x

Full Concur with your assessment Mr Jack! ;->