Introduce yourself? Pronouns? Where do you currently reside? 1 fun fact about yourself?
SV: Hey hey I’m Sangre Voss (he/him), I live in SE London and I’m apparently somehow related to Hamlet so I think that must make me kind of weird.
WH: Hello! Thanks so much for having us Sasha!! My name is Will – my pronouns are he/him and I am also currently living in London, luckily not too far from Mr Voss!
Not related to Hamlet, but I am in the background of an episode of Home & Away, although I sadly can’t remember which one
Who/what currently inspires you music-wise that has nothing to do with music?
SV: My friend gave me a bubble machine as a house warming gift and when the sun hits right, I’ll put it on and sit underneath it. I’m not quite sure how this inspires me musically, but it feels so great that I think it must permeate through somehow.
WH: I’m looking after my parents cat atm and she’s so cute, definitely been a source of some kind of inspiration. It could be the early wake ups, or maybe I’m just jealous and wish I was allowed to sleep as much as her lol. She’d probably love to play with the bubble machine.
Favorite sound in nature? Describe how it makes you feel.
SV: Difficult to choose but ice has a lot to offer. The sound of pebbles thrown on a frozen lake is definitely a favourite. Makes me want to tilt my head to the side and raise my eyebrows a bit.
WH: Ooh I like the icey sounds, that’s a good shout. Mine feels like a slightly more boring answer, but probably a stream or waves lapping at a shore. Pretty tough not to feel peaceful while hearing that 😇
Dream line-up?
WH: Ducklings!
SV: yeh Will puts on the best nights
Favorite DJ mixing trick?
SV: Not sure if it’s a trick but our friend Lloyd made this mad delay FX pedal with intense LFO routed to everything. Good for splintering tracks into dusty noise so you can build them back out again. Apart from that – everything on WIDE.
WH: Love that pedal! For me it’s gotta be the ol’ reliable panic backspin.
If you had to trade your USB with one DJ, who would it be and why?
WH: DJ Sotofett I reckon – the man’s a genius. Check this out if you’re a non-believer. Actually he mostly plays vinyl I think so maybe that’s not such a good answer. Ben UFO then, obvs.
SV: I saw Piggybankshoe pull out some chunky euphoria the other night from this totemic 3D-printed USB he’d made – modelled off the night’s beautiful artwork. I so dearly want this little statuette.
How do you typically prepare a mix?
SV: I try and dig free from purposes/motives – just following what I want to listen to at that point in time. I’ll normally review recent finds and try to let the tracks dictate how the mix should play out. I might create a few anchor tracks of places I’d like to be, the challenge is then charting some kind of sensible (or not) path between them!
WH: Similar to Jim, when I’m looking for music I’ll just try to follow my nose and trust my gut a bit, but I approach prepping mixes a bit differently, often with a lot of overthinking! On a more practical level, I find it useful to go into it knowing what I want it to be more or less (dance-y, not clubby, etc etc), and then just try stuff out in Rekordbox and on my set up at home. Sometimes I have an idea of a track or two that will be a good start, but not always. I’m still trying to find a good method tbh!
How do you avoid burnout?
WH: I’ll let you know when I find out lol, but as my day job is also in music (which I’m very very lucky to do!) I just try to do stuff that’s completely non music related to relax really.
SV: Non-music stuff is key yeah, but I’ve also been trying this thing recently where I screen record the looped GIF preview from random videos on youtube and then try and produce a 30 second track over them, sound-to-picture style. There’s something about staring at the same loop of someone taking a mundane object out of a box for an hour that really takes me away from whatever creative situation I was stuck in.
Favorite thing to cook currently?
WH: Passing this one to Sangre for the pi pi pie!
SV: When Will came round to record this mix I had an urge to make a quiche (call it a pi? 😏) to mark the occasion. Recipe as I remember it below:
Sangre’s Leek & Mushroom pi pi pie (quiche)
Ingredients (quantities very much by eye):
- Short crust pastry (sometimes I panic and get puff pastry instead – unconventional but can confirm that it still just about works)
- Leek(s)
- Mushrooms (I guess they were button)
- Curly parsley (because it’s left over)
- Eggs
- Cheddar (xtra mature)
Method:
- Cut up them leeks and mushrooms quite large and sautée with butter or something
- While (unbeknownst to you) the leeks are starting to burn, unroll that pastry and struggle fitting it into a cake tin lined with some baking paper and butter. There will obviously be tears so try your best to patch them up by applying pressure with a pinching action to rejoin. You’ll be left with a lot of overhang, remove some of this but leave most for the homely aesthetics.
- At this point you think for a moment about prebaking your pastry but decide against it because Will is arriving in 10 and it’s already quite late.
- Moving on, you beat up the eggs, just about remember to season them, and then mix them up with the (now quite burnt) leek and mushroom mix and the parsley (you aren’t so sure about this) and pour into your pastry tin. The egg will leak through the cracks that you didn’t quite manage to patch up properly before. Leave the cheddar on the side because you have forgotten to add this.
- Put it in the oven at 200°C (everything cooks at this temperature), but it’s probably more like 206°C because your oven runs hot. Leave timer-less and hope that your hunger reminds you to take it out in time.
- Meanwhile, open the front door for Will, welcome him in and allow him to suggest you use the remaining pastry scraps to fashion three Greek symbols on the surface of your pi pi pie. Make sure you scrape off the remaining egg mixture onto these for that professional glow.
- Probably boil up some seasonal veg on the side. Remove pi pi pie from the oven once your hunger has successfully reminded you to, only to replace with a slice removed because the egg is still raw.
- Finally, only once you can stand it no longer, remove and remember to pose for picture.
Who would DJ your wedding… who would DJ your funeral?
SV: A chaotic Spotify shuffle for the wedding. Probably Aphex Twin for the funeral, but maybe just playing ABBA covers on the organ.
WH: DJ Pauly D for both.
What is the theme song of your life?
SV:
DJ Goal?
WH: To play to a room of people who are open, happy, and, if I’m lucky, interested!
SV: to play a set that my Gran and music nerd friends can simultaneously get down to
If you had to go back in time music wise what era would it be and why?
SV: Probably Britain in the middle ages so I could go to a pub, play medieval folk and drink mead all day.
WH: Sounds great, can I come too?
Let’s play a pipipi game… I give you a situation & you give me a track.
90s in NYC just left a diner with nowhere to go
WH: Is Tom’s Diner too obvious?
SV:
Underwater with all of your friends but you can breathe for longer than expected
SV:
WH:
In a taxi hour 6
WH:
If you had to describe yourself as an beverage, what would it be and why?
WH: Passiona – Aussie classic! Super delicious but a bit much sometimes.
SV: Buckfast abbey of Buckfast Tonic Wine fame isn’t far from where I grew up in Devon (UK) so it’s the (un)natural choice. I’m also sickly sweet and full of energy(?) so it works on a few levels.
What is your favorite party/collective where you reside and why?
WH: Always have to shout out Co-Select, although we’re a bit biased. Very recently went to a great party at a venue called Spanners and hope to go back there again soon, lovely 80 cap space with great sound. Lots of love for the Cheeky Soundsystem guys, and of course the Rye Wax crew (please come back soon)!
So many around really, and loads of great new parties and crews seem to be springing up all the time here and I can’t wait to check them all out.
SV: I normally end up discovering Will on the dfloor when I’m out so not much to add here – I’ve been to a couple of Sagome events recently that I’ve really liked too though!
What was your best moment on the dance floor?
WH: I once cried during a Villalobos set at 9am once, but not sure that was the best lol. Another biased answer, but I have lots of fond memories of Joe playing all night at a party I booked him for just before the pandemic hit. I also always love watching friends playing at places when they’ve been booked, always great moments and feel very proud!
SV: my birthday this year when my friend tried to lift me up so I could hang her coat on a nail on the wall. Turned out the nail didn’t exist and she also dropped me in a drink puddle.
Longest you’ve stayed up and why?
WH: Not sure on the exact time of either, but it’s between a stupid ‘see how long you can go with no sleep’ challenge I did when I was a kid, or maybe this New Years Eve just gone where I stayed out way too long into NYD and definitely embarrassed myself. Apologies to any and all whose path I crossed!!
SV: Not sure, but I waited 1-4am for a pizza delivery the other night, mindlessly scrolling on my phone because I was too hungry to fall asleep. That felt like it might have been the longest.
What is your most recent favorite DJ mix and why?
SV: Nicolazic – 10 Février 2022 – Rinse France – mainly for that tripped out sitar Nirvana cover.
WH: Big up Nico! I really loved Inner Totality’s Trushmix recently 🙂
Track that makes you think about falling in love…
WH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buvYKzOihf0
Dream DJ gig?
WH: See the answer to DJ Goal 😀
SV: My dreams involving DJing normally turn out to be nightmares so it’d probably feature a large crowd, lots of technical difficulties and prolonged silences between one track ending and me managing to cue up the next.
What was your first gig? How did it go?
SV: Student Union – pulled out the previous DJ’s USB early and emergency looped my way into the first track 😎
WH: Aha, the good old emergency loop. When I was around 14 or 15 I think, maybe younger, I used to make music on these Gameboy cartridges called Nanoloop and LSDJ. Inexplicably me and a friend were asked to play at a Bar Mitzvah and played 5 tracks of this funny Gameboy music. From memory it went quite well and they seemed to like it actually lol
Any advice to upcoming DJs?
WH: ‘Have nothing in your house collection that you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful’
SV: Amen
Track for summer 2022?
WH: Check out Daft Punk’s new single “Get Lucky” if you get the chance. Sound of the summer. In all seriousness this reissue is v summer-y: https://coldblowrecords.bandcamp.com/track/hit-the-vibe
SV: OK I feel like last summer was an Amapiano summer but hopefully this one is too so probably something big like this?
What would you like to see in the future for the dance community?
WH: I feel like I’m seeing really good efforts towards inclusive & diverse lineups which is great, but of course there’s always room for that to be better, especially on “bigger” lineups.
I’d also like to see less aggro on the internet / in the industry in general. We’re all in it together! Let’s be friendly 🙂
SV: yes yes and more genre-diverse nights are always welcome for me!