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Tucandeo Interview with Miss Spent Youth
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| AudioReligion |
We’ve been hoping for a while to interview this Northern Irish Duo. Belfast based producers/DJ’s Kevin Murphy and Daniel Cullen are the fresh and innovative outfit who have been blazing a trail of EDM distinction on our very own doorstep.
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Having cemented their friendship in 2006 at Northern Ireland’s leading dance musical festival, Planetlove, Danny and Kevin’s mutual love of dance music and clubbing led them to embark on a career in the dance industry as producing/DJ duo Tucandeo.
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In the four short years since their meeting, Danny and Kevin have worked hard to fine tune their production and DJ’ing skills, playing smaller gigs on the local club scene and learning as much about music production as possible. In 2009 their first track was signed paving the way for a string of successful releases and remixes. Whilst only a short time since their first signing, the boys have chocked up a varying and impressive discography, with releases on labels including Coldharbour Recordings, Infrasonic Recordings and Armada and support coming from huge names in the industry such as Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Markus Schulz, Agnelli & Nelson, Stoneface & Terminal, Matt Darey and the list goes on …..
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2010 has seen Tucandeo play Northern Irelands own Superclub ‘Lush’ as well as the festival where they originally met, ‘Planetlove’. Exciting news about future gigs include a slot opening the main stage at the Luminosity Before the Energy event in Amsterdam in February as well as supporting one of the worlds top DJ’s Sander van Doorn at Lush on the biggest gig of the year! New Years Eve.
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If 2010 has been anything to go by we can expect to hear big things from Tucandeo in the months and years to come. Illustrating that home-grown talent can conquer and flourish and acting as an inspiration to budding young DJ’s and producers in Northern Ireland, an exemplary precedent has been set by these guys.
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We had a chance to talk to Kevin and Danny about their sound, career and just what we can expect to hear from them in the next few months.
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Q: Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us. Like W&W, you met at a dance festival. We understand that your shared musical interests sparked the idea to form a production/DJ duo. Had either of you been involved in DJ’ing or music production before this?
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Kevin
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No problem at all, happy to answer some questions, we love your site. Yes we were both big into EDM (Electronic Dance Music) before we formed Tucandeo. I was into the djing side of things always wanting to get into production and Dan was the opposite, he was into production always wanting to get into Djing. So we came up with the crazy idea of forming a DJ/Producer Duo to learn each others skills and create our own sound.
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Q: Your first track was signed in 2009, tell us what you had been doing up until this point in your career and some of the steps you had taken to develop/polish your productions skills?
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Danny
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Up until we had our first track signed we both had a huge interest in dance music, working 9 – 5 jobs, living for the weekend with dreams of becoming a DJ/Producer one day but thinking it would probably never happen lol. With our production techniques we try and to use as many real sounds as possible, real bass, real piano, real acoustic and electric guitars etc. We feel this creates more atmosphere in a track if you use them effectively.
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Q: You have a substantial discography considering your first signing was only last year! Is it all work, work, work or do you get time to enjoy the local club scene?
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Kevin
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Yea there is alot of work involved, but there are 2 of us that are 110% dedicated so that helps us greatly, especially when there are deadlines to meet for labels, radio dates etc. When we arent gigging or have deadlines to meet, we like to get out to support the local nights that have supported us in the past couple of years and made everything possible for us. Big thank you’s go to Col & Chris at the mighty Lush/Portrush, Eddie & Judith at Planet Love Promotions and Colin & Nikki at Questhouse/Belfast.
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Q: What kind of gigs did you like to attend when you first met up?
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Danny
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Hmm , when we first met , I remember we attended the same kind of gigs that we are now playing at so its really surreal, nearly all trance nights supporting the local promoters. One of the first gigs we went to was a night hosted by Chris Duncan founder of Audio Religion, the night was held in Club 4M , he had Daniel Kandi over from Denmark headlining the night and the atmosphere was great in the club. Another night was Markus Schulz & Blake jarrell at the Beach Club in the Oddysey which was hosted by Planet Love Promotions. A few weeks after that we hit a charity night in a club called Event Horizon which had a great lineup of Andy Duguid, Super 8 & Tab and Irish siren, Orla Feeney, we were just back from England that day and were really tired but as soon as we hit the club it was packed out and the atmosphere was electric and it was a brilliant night !!
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Q: How would you describe your sound?
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Kevin
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Our sound is varied and we try to keep things as fresh as possible. The Tucandeo sound is dark, moody and melodic and of course this is our main project but we also have a side project which is exclusive to Armada Music on Rogar Shahs’ Magic Island Recordings. The alias is called “Storyline” and this is for us to explore and experiment our more Balearic side. The thinking behind “Storyline” is that we can have a progression telling a story with tracks that people can relate to. The first two tracks under this alias were big vocal tracks called “Unarmoured Love” & “Crystal sky” feat vocalists Anthya and Jennifer Hershman which picked up support from many of the industries top names including Markus Schulz, Gareth Emery, Rogar Shah, Dash Berlin and M.I.K.E to name just a few. If you listen to the songs and lyrics we hope you can take something from them. We have already started working on new tracks for this project which we are starting to get very very excited about so keep an ear out.
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Q: Your tracks and remixes have featured heavily on Markus Schulz’s influential and massively successful Global DJ Broadcast. This is phenomenal support from a big player in the EDM industry. Has he offered you any guidance or additional advice with regard to your career?
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Kevin
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Markus is a great guy and a great boss lol, he knows exactly what he wants for his label which is brilliant. If there is something that needs changed on a track like a bassline, vocal work or even down to a small percussion change coming in sooner or later he will let us know and give some pointers on how to achieve it. He has helped us massively in our career so far and we are very greatful to him for everything and the Coldharbour fans who have welcomed us into the family and for making our tracks Global Selection Winners on the show on numerous occasions. We are very proud to be flying the Coldharbour flag at all of our gig bookings throughout Ireland, The UK and beyond.
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Q: You’ve played Coldharbour Day, Planetlove & launched several impressive tracks and remixes this year, what’s been your highlight of 2010?
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Danny
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Wow it really has been a whirlwind, the past few months we have just been realising what has been happening lol. Coldharbour Day was a brilliant day, we played our set and got some really positive reactions from people so were very pleased, then Markus himself played I think 3 or 4 tracks of ours in his set later in the day and we were completely blown away. Releasing all our tracks and making friends with so many nice people throughout the year has been so much fun for both of us. We played at Lush, Portrush in July which was an unbelievable event and the crowd gave us a great welcoming which was a really nice feeling, but I must say that playing at the Planetlove Festival in September was probably the highlight for both of us as we both met there only a few years before and to be one day playing there to our home crowd and doing interviews for BBC Radio 1 was only a dream at one stage.
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Q: You’re opening the mainstage at Luminosity – Before the Energy next year. This is big! Did you ever dream you’d be playing gigs like this when you first went into production?
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Kevin
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Yea this is going to be some experience. I suppose we never really thought we would actually get to do gigs this big so soon but of course we always hoped it would happen. Everyone has been so supportive at home of what we are trying to do for the Northern Ireland dance scene so it is a great feeling to be having our Netherlands (NL) debut at such a prestigious event in undoubtedly the home of trance music.
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We are really looking forward to playing to a dutch crowd who we have partied with at lots of the big dance events in NL so its really exciting to see what the reaction is going to be following in many Irish artists footsteps such as Agnelli & Nelson, John O’Callaghan, Simon Patterson and Paul Webster who have seen phenomenal reactions from the crowd to over there. Hope to see you on the dancefloor for this one!
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Q: DJ’ing or producing? Which do you prefer?
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Kevin
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Tough one , I’d say producing though.
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Q: What’s the gig you would most love to play?
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Danny
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There are loads we would love to play at in the future a few being, Sunrise Festival , Mysteryland , Dance Valley, Creamfields , Global Gathering, Winter Music Conference in Miami and ADE in the Netherlands ofcourse;-) but if I was to name one i think we would love to play the notorious Trance Energy or recently re-named Energy in the Netherlands as the production on the show is unbelievable and the crowd is always up for it
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Q: What do you think of the Northern Ireland dance scene at the moment? Could we better support
our emerging talent?
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Kevin
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I think the Northern Ireland dance scene is flourishing at the moment. There are so many fresh faces coming up and there really must be something in the water here lol. We must support our homegrown talent and i think the club promoters know this too because its great to see fresh faces on the club line-ups with a new generation of clubbers coming through. Some names that we have seen doing really well are Sneijder, Stuart Millar, Sean Murphy and of course Orla Feeney is on fire too. We would love to get a Northern Ireland collaboration in the works at some stage in the future which would be a lot of fun to do .
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Q: Supporters for your productions include Armin, Markus Schulz, Aly & Fila, Stoneface & Terminal
and Paul van Dyk… Is there anyone in particular you would really love to work with?
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Danny
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Yes of course, we would really like to work Markus himself as we have both followed his career from day one. Armin would be a dream come true of course being voted by the people as Number 1 Dj. We have quite a few collaborations in the works which we cant really talk about at the moment. One of note that we can talk about is one with Robert Vadney from Paul Oakenfolds Perfecto Records, the track is sounding massive and we have had some very positive feedback from established artists on first listens.Other artists we would love to work with would be , ATB, Paul Van Dyk, Max Graham and would love to work with DJ ECO on on another track after the success of our track “Layla” for which he did a stunning a remix and received lots of support.
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Q: What advice can you offer to young people in Northern Ireland interested in making it as a DJ/producer?
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Danny
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Dont give up ! And build good relationships with people, is what i think would be the only way to sum things up, well this has what we have found works for us. There is some serious talent in N.Ireland for Electronic Dance Music and its going to be really nice to see alot of new acts rise through the ranks in the coming years.
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Q: Which of the tracks you have produced so far do you feel most connected with?
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Danny
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Oh i think this is an easy one , we definitely feel most connected with a track that was released on Infrasonic Recordings as part of our Meridian EP, the track title is “Tir Na Nog” which translates roughly as “Land Of Youth”. The first draft of the track was at 138 bpm but we weren’t 100 percent happy with it. So we came back and reworked it as with many of the tracks and added extra guitar lines and the melody really hit us hard. Reminding us of a fairy tale or something mystical and wanting to incorporate Northern Ireland into it somehow we started brainstorming for a title when we came across Tir Na Nog which is considered a place beyond the edges of the map so we thought it fit perfect.
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Q: What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
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Danny
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Maybe both of us should answer this one , Mortal Kombat Theme tune .
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Kevin
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I'm never going to live this down, Kylie Minogue lol
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Q: Finally, what can we expect from Tucandeo in the next few months?
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Kevin
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We just signed with Audio Religion Artist Management Agency as our exclusive dj booking agent, so we are very excited about the coming months and what 2011 has to offer. In November we will be in the Spotlight on leading trance radio station Afterhours.fm and are also guesting on their End Of Year show alongside many of the top names in the industry, last year it hosted 300 DJs including Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz, Aly & Fila, Cosmic Gate and many more. Our very own radio show will be starting up soon which will be a basis for us to test out our new tracks and and play some of our favourite tracks that are hot at the time.
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We have many tracks still to be released on various labels which we hope you like. One big one we are very excited about is a vocal track feat Jennifer Hershman called “Only We Know”, remixes including Passive Progressive and a huge bomb of a remix by Estiva. Theres another track featuring Manon Palore who we made “Waiting For The Sun” with, the new track is called “Unfolding” so keep an ear out. Theres also have a huge remix of a very well established name in the industry coming out but cant say much more than that at the moment:-P
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As far as gigs go , Luminosity – Before The Energy in Amsterdam will be happening in Feb and we are also playing at the mighty Lush, Portrush alongside Sander Van Doorn on undoubtly the biggest club night of the year , New Years Eve. Hope to see you up the front;-)
http://www.tucandeo.com
http://www.audioreligion.co.uk
http://www.missspentyouth.co.uk/2010...deo-interview/ |
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| Rodri Santos |
Tucandeo are possibly the producers that most have impressed me in 2010.
Check:
- Benya - Prometheus (Tucandeo Remix)
- Tucandeo - Lockdown
Real class sounds and so deep, this guys will overcome Markus Schulz with some luck, and if they work so hard as Markus in their sets ofc. |
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