AN INTERVIEW WITH . . . CALLY & JUICE

It is impossible to mention Hard Dance in the UK without bringing Cally & Juice into the conversation.
Their clever and unorthodox style behind the decks has won them many admirers around the globe and their constant re-writing of the rules keeps people flocking to the front of the decks to see what they’ll be doing next. Whether it’s frantic scratching over drum & bass or hip hop beats, scratching with feet, blindfolded scratching or even hand-spins on the decks, you can guarantee these boys will keep you entertained.

In the UK they keep one of the busiest DJ diaries, and average around 3-4 gigs per weekend, with as many as 6 gigs some weekends. They play for the likes of Creamfields, Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, Slammin’ Vinyl, Frantic, Tidy, Helter Skelter, Dreamscape, Slinky and Polysexual to name but a few. Overseas they have played for events such as Defqon.1 (Q Dance, NL), Impulz (NL), Eden (Ibiza), Manumission (Ibiza), Esparadis (Ibiza), Beachbop (NL), Masterdome (LA, USA), The Tunnel Club (Germany)The Nile (Phoenix, Arizona), and have toured Taiwan.

They have also just been signed to Steve Hills prestigious Masif DJ’s agency with tours planned for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada in the very near future.

On the production front, since parting company with Nukleuz two years ago, the boys have launched their own label to push their unique sound, which they simply describe as “our own fusion of hard trance and hardstyle with elements of drum & bass, old skool, hip hop, and any other genre that influence us thrown in for good measure”. The label, aptly named ‘Ourstyle’ completely sums up not just their production ideas but also everything they’re trying to contribute to the scene. Their first three releases, “Do It Like That”, “Serotonin Rush” and “Jam Master” have enjoyed very good sales but more importantly for the boys, critical acclaim from DJ’s and clubbers alike. 2008 will see the boys concentrating on their label a lot more with the next 2 or 3 releases all ready lined up – watch this space!

In the past the boys have also collaborated with the like of Activator and The Trance Generators. These very successful collaborations are set to continue. They have all ready joined forces with Steve Hill on two tunes which are set to prove to the World that they are serious producers as well as DJ’s. Their interpretations of “Insane” by Dark Monks and “(I just wanna call you my) Bitch” by are ripping it up big time on the Worlds dance floors and are due for release on Masif records in late 2007/early 2008. Further collaboration are also in the pipeline with Germany’s finest Sam Punk.

Bionic & Breathe events: On top of all this they still find the time to run their own events. Cally runs the internationally renowned Bionic with co-promoter and resident Brian M and Juice runs West Wales no.1 hard dance event Breathe both of which are into their 7th year. Their highlights of promoting have being hosting arenas for the likes of Escape Into The Park, Godskitchen, the Metro Weekender and the 10,000 capacity ‘WestFest’ event run by Slammin’ Vinyl.

With all that under their belts the boys show no sign of slowing down. Their passion and hunger for their work is stronger now that it was when first started playing back to back 10 years ago. If you’ve seen them playing out recently you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen them out recently, make it a priority – You won’t regret it!!!

First of all Guys lets start with a few Questions about you......

Q.) were and how did it all start for each of u?

Cally: I used to collect records before having an interest in DJing. A friend of mine was having a house party while his parents were away, he’d hired decks and his mate who was meant to be DJing was ill. I said I could bring my records over, and by the end of the night I was already beat matching records. I was instantly hooked.
Juice: We used to produce records under the name GSI and as my brother was the engineer and Cally was the DJ I felt like a spare wheel, so to try make myself more involved with the boys I decided to start DJ’ing too. Cally & I bought our first set of Technics each in 1995 and we haven’t looked back since (best £700 I’ve ever spent!)

Q.) when was ya first gig and have u always played back to back, if not then whats the story behind it?

C&J: We both started separate DJ careers
Cally: My first gig was an illegal warehouse rave back in ’93
Juice: My first gig was on a Sunday evening in room 3 of a club in Llanelli called Storm. I think it was 1995. There were only about 10 people there but I was so nervous I shook all the way though the set.

C&J: After DJ’ing for several years individually, as we progressed we soon realised were competing for the same gigs. Promoters who booked one of us wouldn’t book the other as we were both playing very similar to each other. One day Cally was asked to play Dreamscape back to back with a female DJ he’d never heard of. He said if he was going to play a back to back set he’d rather it be with Juice as we both played a similar style. Within 2 records we saw our arena go from 300 to 3,000 people that night and the reaction was the best we’d ever had. We both said we’d have to do it again and haven’t looked back since

Q.) How did the now famouse name come about Cally & Juice?

C&J: We both DJ’d separately to begin with so both names were chosen individually.
Cally: Several weeks after my first play on a set of decks, I was asked if I wanted to play an illegal warehouse rave. They asked for my name for the flyer and I said Ian. They told me I had to have a ‘proper’ DJ name. I told them to put anything down, I didn’t care at that point about being a DJ, I just wanted to play my records to the crowd at that party. That’s what they came up with and I never asked them why (though I guess it was after the pills by the same name, lol!). 500 people turned up and everyone was asking who I was, so the name stuck immediately.
Juice: When I started DJ’ing I kept coming up with crapy names for myself. Then my girlfriend at the time came up with Juice. It didn’t sound too cheesy and had a nice ring to it so I kept it. When I asked her later where the idea came from she said it came from a carton of Just Juice in the fridge.

Q.) What artists have inspired you in terms of DJ'ing and production over the years?

Cally: I was writing music before I started DJ’ing and have always taken influences from all genres of music (not just dance music). I couldn’t possibly pick just a few names out of the hundreds that have inspired me.
Juice: As Cally says that’s a tough one but I’d have to say that the DJ’s that really impress me are the DMC style DJ’s. There’s no specific one. I still watch DMC mixing championship finals now and it blows me away. As far as production, I’d have to say the Prodigy. They were light years ahead of their time.

Q.) What is your fav instrument in your studio?

Cally & Juice: The PC, we couldn’t be without it. It wasn’t like that previously, you had to have so much kit to write a tune, or hire a big studio for the day, but now you can do it all on a PC from start to finish. However we’ve recently bought a Virus Ti which we’re looking forward to using
Juice: Yes, as Cally said, the PC. We make all our music on a little laptop (nothing else!). It still amazes me when you think this tiny little thing on your desk can make all those tunes. When we first started in ’94 we were using an Atari computer and we had to buy a sampler to use with it. It was called and Akai S1100 and it cost us £2000 second hand. It’s hard to believe isn’t it?

Q.) Is there any artists that you would really like to work with in the studio?

Cally: Not particularly, there’s already 2 of us, and I think if too many people are involved in a track and you’re each trying to go in your own direction it wouldn’t necessarily make things better. Saying that there are probably a few artists who if they offered us we wouldn’t turn down. Also there are quite a few artists we’d like to do remix swaps with
Juice: Well we’ve recently collaborated with Steve Hill on a couple of tracks and we’d gladly work with him again. He’s very easy going and really knows what he’s talking about but as Cally says, if there’s too many of you in the studio you all tend to pull in slightly different direction and it doesn’t often result in a better tunes. When we work together we both often have exactly the same idea’s or we each know what the other is good at so let them get on with those particular parts, safe in the knowledge that it’ll come out just right. We’re also not afraid to say if we think something isn’t right and that, ultimately results in a better tune.

Q.)What DJ's and producers are you injoying at the moment where it be hardstyle or hardtrance??

Cally & Juice: We don’t think there’s one particular artist who stands out so consistently that we play all their tunes, our music collection is wide and varied and across many genres so we just tend to listen to all sorts and play what I like

Q.)Westfest Main Stage! i have to admit guys i was one of the thousands of stompin loneys in the crowd it was pretty sensational.did u guys injoy it? and would u do it again tommarow?

Cally: Um…er…I’m not sure, it depends what we’ve got on tomorrow, hahaha! Are you kidding me? That was probably our favourite all-time set. The only other set right up there with that is playing to our home crowd at Swansea’s Escape Into The Park festival. It’s an absolute privilege to play at an event of that scale, especially in the main room. It kind of makes you stand back and just realise how much you’ve achieved. It was a very proud moment.
Juice: I completely agree, we worked hard writing and remixing a lot of material for that set because we knew you don’t get many opportunities to play to a crowd that big in the UK. Also we were slightly apprehensive before hand as Hard Dance is about 30 bpm slower that Hardcore or D ‘n’ B so we really hoped we’d go down well with the crowd. Once the first tune kicked in and we saw and heard the crowds reaction we turned and smiled at each other as if to say “This one’s gonna be special”. I’ll never forget that set as long as I live. The only one gutting thing is that I approached the film crew to ask if we could have a DVD of the set and they said that they wanted to record our set in the Bionic arena instead so they switched their camera’s off – I nearly wept when I heard that = (

Q.)What do you guys have planned for the future, anything that we should look out for over the next few months?

C&J: This year we’ve been busy in the studio but as yet have only just had our first release out this year, titled Jam Master, released on our relatively new Ourstyle label, so we have lots of tracks we’ve finished that we’ve been playing in our sets which are all due for release. Aside from our releases, hopefully you’ll see us playing abroad more. This year we’ve become good friends with Steve Hill, who after hearing our tracks and playing at our events has decided he wants to work closely with us. Luckily for us this means he’s helping us with his contacts abroad, so we should be touring Australia, South Africa, Canada, Asia, plus more next year, god bless Steve Hill! Also the last 6 months we’ve played in more new areas and venues than ever before, so if we haven’t been to your town or city yet, then there’s a good chance that next year we’ll be visiting ;)

Q.)Fav all time tracks?

Cally: Too many to mention
Juice: Yeah, too many to mention but, off the top of my head, if I had to name one I’d say “Fire Starter” – Prodigy. If it comes on the radio even now it gives me goose bumps.

Now a few from the fans....

Q.)whos idea was it to start wearing mascara?

Juice:Lol, that’ll be me then. Basically we were starting to get into our darker image with a few chains and black T-Shirts and stuff and I’d had the idea in my head for a few weeks but didn’t have the bottle to mention it to anyone. Then, one Friday, before Bionic I mentioned it to my girlfriend (DJ Frisky) and she was like “Oh wow, wicked idea! Let’s do it now!” She loved it so I sent a mobile phone pic of it to Cally and he said keep it on a wear it to Bionic tonight – I was really nervous walking into the club but everyone that it looked pretty cool so I kept it on and the rest, as they say, is history.

Q.)hard trance or hardstyle?

Cally: Hard trance
Juice: Hard Trance. I loved the older Hardstyle but I’m not a fan at all of the Dutch “Jump Style” sound.

Q.)what other body parts can you scratch with apart from hands and feet?

Juice: I can’t tell you that, you’ll have to ask Frisky ; )

Q.)first track baught?

Cally: First dance music track was ‘Hardcore Uproar’ by Together
Juice: First Track? “Ant Music” by Adam and the Ants (now you know where the make-up idea’s came from lol)

Q.)cds or vinyl?

Cally: I’m still a lover of vinyl, mainly because it’s a more visual format and also a lot more versatile for scratching. However without the use of CD’s it wouldn’t be so easy to finish writing a tune then take it out the same day to try out in a club. Then you can go back, edit it, and the following night be playing a different version, something that just wouldn’t have been possible when people had to rely on acetates (dubplates), so I guess I’d have to say both
Juice: I never thought I’d say it but CD’s, everything I play is either written or remixed by us so it would just prove too expensive to put it all on Vinyl. In fact, this year is the first time some promoters have asked if we even need turntables. I didn’t think that would happen for a long time.

and finally quik fire round......

Q.)mcdonalds or burger king?

C: BK
J: BK – Chicken Royale Mmmm

Q.)beer or spirits?

C: Spirits
J: Beer (like a man Grrrr!)

Q.)Fav woman?

C: My gorgeous girlfriend
J: DJ Frisky (my girlfriend)

Q.)Fav film?

C: Recently…V For Vendetta
J: This is where we differ, I thought V for Vendetta was complete shit (You see, we don’t agree on everything). I’d say Old School –Brilliant film

Q.)playstation or xbox?

C: PS (as don’t have an X-Box…yet)
J: As above

Q.)football teams?

C: None
J: As above

Q.)italian or dutch?

C: Italian
J: Italian

Thanks for the interview guys.u can catch Cally & juice along side mc shocker at Resistance @ the Lounge,dorchester This saturday 24th november cya There!