Slowburn are Phil Long and David Hargadon, an up-and-coming Irish duo with a love for all things house. Two fine producers in their own right, the boys’ take on classic sounds has already led them to esteemed outposts such as the vinyl only label, Appian Sounds and Lakuti’s always on-point Uzuri imprint. Their latest release sees them do the business for Irish label Lunar Disko, itself a vehicle for high-spec, clued-in house music. Featuring two Slowburn originals and a solo outing from both Dave and Phil, it’s a tantalizing effort that showcases their talents with some esteem. We caught up with the lads recently to find out what’s what. Expect to hear much more from Slowburn soon…
How’s everything in life for you guys right now?
Phil: Everything is going great at the minute. I recently moved back into to my dad’s house and into my old room again and I’m most of the way there in terms of getting my studio equipment set up. Apart from that I’ve just been enjoying the Irish summer.
Dave: Yeah, all is good for me too. I’m in the process of moving house at the moment so things are hectic with that. I’ve totally outgrown my small studio room though so I’m looking forward to having more space in the new place.
Obvious question – but how did you guys meet one another?
Phil: I actually warmed up for Dave many, many years ago at a party called Acii Disco in Dublin, which was a weekly club night in a venue called Switch. We got along really well from the get-go and stayed in touch after that.
Dave: Yeah, that party was about eight or nine years ago now and after that night I’d constantly be bumping into Phil at other parties around Dublin. We’d be burning the ears off each other about music-related stuff so it wasn’t long before we became really good mates. All that then developed into putting on parties and playing at different things along with some more of our mutual mates.
And how did the idea for Slowburn come about?
Phil: I remember Dave had a Nord lead 2 and Ableton in his house and he used to talk to me about the idea of trying to get some stuff down. It took me a while to actually give it a go as back then I was happy enough just playing records. When I did, it opened up a new window into sound and putting them together into a composition.
Dave: Yeah…I had decided to try and get into that side of things and bought a couple of bits of hardware and Ableton Live etc. I was having a lot of fun messing around with it and I started telling Phil he needed to start getting into it. That soon turned into the two of us just jamming and after some weeks of doing that it just developed into something and we had loads of finished music.
And how do your tastes compliment one another?
Phil: We usually take turns doing drum-programming versus putting the main hooks down, and I’d say we would have different approaches to both. I suppose that’s the beauty of having two people as you can grab ideas from the other person.
Dave: When we work together our approaches meet somewhere in the middle and we both feed off each other in a way. We never really sit down and try and write a particular sort of track; it’s more just sitting down and seeing what happens when you’re making stuff and so we’re both always just happy to go with whatever way it may go.
Who have been the biggest influences on your sounds?
Phil: Everything from the west-end disco stuff to NYC garage, then the sounds of Chicago house and Detroit techno and even electro. Everything has a place.
Dave: I’m pretty much the same as Phil there. The biggest influence would obviously be the Chicago/Detroit stuff, but electronic music wise, disco, Italo and electro would all be amongst my influences.
Is the scene in Dublin every bit as exciting as it’s ever been for you? Do you still get to play out much?
Phil: To be honest, I wouldn’t really venture out too much at the moment as there’s a bit of a lack of small venues in Dublin that host the more intimate parties. There’s still interesting stuff going on like the Out to Lunch parties, but they’re just not on that regularly. We used to do a party called Gary’s Gang with a load of our friends which was really great. We’d take turns so everyone got a chance to play, and you’d always hear much better music down there compared to what was happening elsewhere!
Dave: Dublin’s going back to a phase of bigger clubs and bigger parties with bigger names, so yeah, there is unfortunately a limited supply of smaller intimate parties, which would be more up my street. There is still some good stuff being put on by the Out to Lunch guys – which Phil mentioned – and the Breakfast Club. Those gigs are always worth going to.
A lot’s been made of the closure of the Twisted Pepper. Was this a venue that you’d a real affinity with?
Phil: In the early days we used to go there religiously when it first opened up, although I guess over the last few years we might not have been in there as frequently – maybe only for some of the one off specials like Jeff Mills or someone like that.
What do you think the closure symbolizes for the scene as a whole?
Phil: I’m not really sure to be honest. There’s still a load of clubs in Dublin where you can go out and have a good night. Maybe it’s a transition period to the next thing. Who knows?
Dave: It’s all cycles I suppose. Nothing lasts forever, but as Phil said there’s still loads of parties going on now in the city and the fact that they’re bigger capacity venues shows that the ‘scene’ is probably stronger now than it was a few years ago. If Twisted Pepper closed five or six years ago then there would have been nothing really else to take its place.
Have you ever held a residency? How have you residencies impacted you as a DJ?
Phil: Just at the Gary’s Gang party that I mentioned before. It’s always nice to go down and do warm ups as it gives you a chance play some stuff a bit more leftfield. I use to love going down to clubs early and watch the warm up DJ play. The selections always seem a lot more personal when there aren’t so many people there.
Dave: Yeah I was also a resident of Gary’s Gang and was a resident of the acii disco night back some years ago, I suppose on the residents nights at both parties it was nice getting the opportunity to do longer sets, it was nice getting to see the other residents play longer sets too cause they’re all really good DJs.
So tell us a bit about the latest Lunar Disko release – what’s he vibe with it and how did it come about?
Phil: There are two Slowburn tracks on one side, then two solo jams from Dave and myself on the other. Overall I think it’s a bit more banging then some of the previous releases.
Dave: [Laughs] Yeah, it possibly is more banging than some of the other releases, the ‘Gritty’ track in particular I think may be suited for the dark basement rooms. It’s cool that it contains some stuff we did together and some of our solo stuff all together on the one record.
What’s your relationship like with the label?
Phil: Andy and Barry are very close friends of ours. We have known them for a good few years now and they have always been very supportive of music coming out of Ireland in general, especially from the likes of guys like Automatic Tasty.
Dave: As Phil said, the lads would be good mates at this stage. They’ve always been supportive of the stuff we’ve been making and they’re extremely passionate about what they do too so it’s a privilege for us to be doing stuff with them.
How happy were you with the end product and can you describe your thinking behind the tracks? Was the finished product just like you imagined it’d be?
Phil: We’re definitely happy with the way it turned out. We just sat down and had a jam like we usually do, and after a while of messing about can get a good feel for the track. Then we just laid it down. I remember when we were doing ‘Gritty’, we ran the out from the 808 through the mpc60, the circuits in the mpc kinda scuffed the sound up a bit so that’s where we got the name for that one.
Dave: Its always quite hard to judge a track after you’ve made it because you’ve already listened to it so many times, so it’s always good to get someone else’s feedback so it’s cool that the lads wanted these ones. It’s hard to say if the finished product is how I’d imagined it to be as I didn’t have anything in particular in mind when these were being written, but I’m happy with how they turned out, for sure.
How do you stay motivated musically? What’s influencing you a lot these days?
Phil: Usually just hanging about with lads listening to music together, mixes or tracks or whatever. Just going with the flow and enjoying everything.
Dave: I’m motivated by the want to be better at making stuff and continually improving/learning. If I finish something then I want the next thing I write to be better and so on.
What do you think the best thing is about the modern day house music scene? And the worst?
Phil: I like the way a lot of the manufacturers are doing reissues or making it affordable for producers to pick up bits of analogue gear, it’s good to get back into the mind set of hands on music making. I don’t really have an opinion on the worst stuff – we hear all these things online on a daily basis already so there better left not talked about, let get back to having fun and not complaining.
Dave: I think its great that there is so much good music being made and released the last couple of years. A lot of producers are putting their own stamp on things. There seems to be a lot of new labels coming out too releasing really cool music so hopefully that continues and the quality remains. I tend not to pay much attention to the negative things, I experience very little negativity within the scene in general myself so it would be hard for me to pick something out.
What’s next for you guys that’s really exciting you?
Phil: getting hold of an sh101
Dave: More releases in the pipeline both as Slowburn and some solo stuff in the next few months.
Slowburn’s LDRX2 is out soon on Lunar Disko. In the meantime check out the spotlight mix they recently undertook for us below.