Spirit Catcher Interveiw

This article is about Just the One? @ Deep Blue in London (UK), Sat 08 Sep 2007

On Saturday 8th September Just the One? will returning to their roots in the lavish and understated Deep Blue Rooms, Weston Street, SE1. For this date they bring you a small, intimate party for those who want to keep the Just the One? vibe going until the next themed party in October. For this night we have the outstanding duo Spirit Catcher - LIVE - who promise to deliver their trademark future disco sound. They will be joined by the first lady of dance music Lisa Loud, residents Kriss Darang vs Jnr J, Tee-J and Steve Spectrum, Ben de la Pena and a special one off set from Brown Sugar.

Spirit Catcher manage to take some time out of their hectic schedule to tell me more about themselves, belgium life, belgium chocolate, private jets and custom built houses in LA...

Did you guys meet like how it's portrayed in your Biography? Or is there a different story?

Yeah, the biography is romanced... In fact we met in a sound engineer school. Our first collaboration were practice works for school.

From the pictures on your MySpace I can see that you aren't both DJs. What does your live act consist of?

We have two different versions. We have a version where we play both live. We call it full live (of course ;-) and we’re on stage with lot of gears and play only Spirit Catcher tracks. And we have another version where Jean is dj’ing and I add keyboards and FX’s on the tracks. With this version we can be more flexible and react to the people on the dancefloor. It’s an interesting experience as it is much improvisated. Each set is 100% different from the previous one.

You've performed all over the world from Russia to Canada, Tokyo to the UK. What have been your best experiences to date and why? And which moments would you rather forget?

There are really too many good experiences to mention only one but the best experiences are more linked to the people we meet than the location. Each culture has his own personality and it’s very exciting to discover them thanks to music.
The one we’d rather forget was in Rio during last Christmas. In last minute the promoter didn’t have the authorisation from the firemen to do the party in the beautifull venue he expected… So the party happened in a old studio of cinema made of concrete walls, 6 seconds reverb and the most shitty soundsystem we’ve ever heard in our life… It was more than 40°c inside full humidity and under attack of thousand starving mosquitoes… At a moment, during our set, everything shut down and they never fixed the problem. At the end of the night we discovered our juno 106 was totally broken… He was strangely flashing as if he was trying to send an ultimate desperate SOS… It would have been better to stay home with our family. Luckily the day before we were playing in Pacha/Sao Paulo and the gig was awesome. It was really a “Merry Christmas” ;-)

We know you're both huge fans of Funk and Disco. Is this a sound to generally tend to stick to when both producing and performing?

Yes, we love this music. And it’s not like we tend to stick, it’s totally inlaid !! Sometimes it’s even the invert… We try to go away from it… just a little. It’s an indelible mark.

You've recently released your 'Nigh Vision' Album. The first pressing was sold out in a month. Did you ever anticipate such a great success?

Of course !!! We already ordered the private jet and our house in Los Angeles was under construction a long time before the release ;-). No seriously, we didn’t expected that much success. On the contrary at the beginning we were not so conviced that making an album was a good plan for Spirit Catcher. The Album format is not the easiest media to work on in the electronic music market. In only few months you can hear radical changes into the kind of sound and for a producer and the label it’s a part of the game to be a “real time” actor of the scene. The album process is too slow to enter the race in comparison with the high speed of digital releases… So it’s important that the label who wants to work on CD’s develop his profile in a totally different way for albums than for the fast tracker’s releases.
So when Ralph Lawson (2020Vision’s label Manager) launched the idea of a SC album. And as they really want to involve their label into the CD albums we finally were convinced and we dashed into the adventure.

How long does it take you to produce a track? Did the album take you very long?

It’s difficult to estimate as we were working on many other project at the same time. Remixes, gigs etc… But from the first day in the studio until the last one, there was almost 1 year with a lot of very intense periods.

How did you know when it was finished?

We finished it when we found all the ingredients we wanted to include in it. And the very last step was when Ralph found the perfect tracklist.

You've done a tonne of remixing work for the likes of Shawn Ward, Satin Dealers and ABL. Do you prefer producing your own music or adapting somebody else's creation?

We like both. For remix we work like if it was for our own tracks. It’s the inspiration source which changes.

From what I can see you're crazily busy for the rest of the year with gigs, here there and everywhere. What are your plans for 2008? Will it be as hectic as this year or are you planning taking time out for other projects?

That's a big question, We can talk about that during one full day! But the main thing is that we would like to keep the same way of working. Doing it with the heart and with pleasure. Always trying to involve a little bit the music environment. That's a big deal !!

Do you hold any residencies at present? If you could hold a residency at any club in the world which one would it be?

Yes, Jean has a DJ residency in a Belgian club called Café Capital in Antwerp. And we would be very pleased to have a residency at Just the one :-) or at the Sub Club in Glasgow !

What can we expect from you when you play live at Just the One?

Full gears, live playing… I mean, it’s not a laptop live.

Catch Spirit Catcher at Just the One? Up close and Intimate
Saturday 8th September
@ Deep Blue, Weston Street, SE1

Just the One?
Spirit Catcher - Live
Lisa Loud
Kriss Darang vs Jnr J
Ben de la Pena

PUMPdaPHUNK
Steve Spectrum
Tee-J
Brown Sugar

Click 'I'll be there'

For More Info:
www.justtheonelondon.com
(t) 020 7407 1617 / 07801 337 333
(e) Marcus@justtheonelondon.com
(e) Kriss@justtheonelondon.com

Advance tickets on sale from:
www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08700 600 100
www.clubtickets.com / 0870 246 2050

Times: 22:00 - 07:00
Entry: £8 Advance / £12 on the door
Weston Street, London Bridge, SE1
Nearest Tube: London Bridge
23 Hour Licence

Article by Melenski, viewed 308 times

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Comments

Kriss-Darang

Budz in for this def worth checking out.

Reply Quote
Posted Mon 03 Sep 2007

Jnr-J

NICE !!!! cant wait to hear them live =) and as its a more intamate party the vibe will be purfect for them =) bring it on. budz in

Reply Quote
Posted Mon 03 Sep 2007
Edited Mon 03 Sep 2007

Lofty

nice to hear what these guys are up to, I love their music and what they are about, the gig at MoS was amazing.

Really gutted I can't be there for this.

Reply Quote
Posted Tue 04 Sep 2007