Designer Drugs

How did you guys get started/ come up with the name?

Well we knew each other for a while and we were both into music, and making music. When we started this project, I remember reading a book when I was like in high school or something, it was like an anti-drug book, and there was a chapter on designer drugs and I thought it sounded catchy… so we just ended up going with it.

What kind of musical background do you guys have?

Theo, he’s classically trained, piano player, and I mean I can play piano, but not as good as him. But, we’ve just always been into music. I think the first [time] we were in bands when we were real little, like punk rock bands and stuff like that, but then when we were like, maybe, 16 we got into electronic music and wanted to do that sort of stuff.

Has the punk sound or heaviness of it influenced your sound at all?

Yeah definitely. I feel like now that’s kind of what people want, you know? Just cause of the economy or something, everybody’s kind of pissed off, so they like the aggressive music.

Do you and Theo put in the same amount of time as far as writing goes?

Well, it’s tough because he’s in med-school, so I end up having to do a lot of the stuff. But, I mean, when it comes to the album, I think he probably wrote half the songs and I wrote half the songs too. We both share the writing and I end up doing most of the mixing and mastering, that stuff. But, you know, some songs I write, some songs he writes– you never know what’s going to happen. Some songs we write together, too. It’s one of the three. It’s either he wrote it, I wrote it, or we both wrote it.

How big of an impact has Theo’s med-school had on Designer Drugs in general?

The biggest problem is that he doesn’t have a lot of time to write music, that’s the biggest thing. Right now, he’s studying for his board exam, so he hasn’t really written any music too much with in the past two to three months. But that’s the thing, if he’s too busy, I’ll just do it myself. It’s fine. But it’s unfortunate. You know? If he had as much time as me, we’d probably be making twice as many songs.

Are your tracks the products of meticulously thought out plans or do you guys just play around with stuff until you hear something that sounds good?

It’s a little bit of both. Sometimes we’ll think about it and say, “We want to make something kind of like this.” But you know, it’s usually just like… it just happens. You know what I mean? Even if we have a plan to do something, it usually ends up being the total opposite, you know? Cause that’s the thing, you just sit down and then you start writing something and then you like it and you just go with it pretty much. Sometimes it’s a bit more planned though, especially with the remixes. Cause with a remix you can hear the original and know what you want to do, but when it comes to writing originals, and you have a blank canvas… you just kind of, I don’t know, just play some music and when you find some notes you like, just go with like that.

When you guys put together a Datamix, do you just throw a handful of tracks together that you’ve been having fun playing around with, or do you go in with a specific idea for how you want it to sound?

I don’t think we have a specific idea for how we want them to sound. But overall we kind of do, you know what I mean? Like, I know what type of songs I like and I’ve always like songs that have specific elements. And I feel like most of the songs I pick for the mixes have those elements that I’ve always liked, you know what I mean? So, I’m partial to those songs. But usually what I’ll do is, I get a lot of promos and I’ll just load up a folder of promo material, and once I have a ton of songs I just go through and pick out my favorite ones, and then make the mix. And then about that time too, when I sort through all the new promos and make the mix, I start DJing those tracks. So like once a month or something I’ll go through a few hundred tracks and find the ones I really like, and then I’ll just start playing them in the club, but then I’ll also put them in the mix. But sometimes we put more stuff into the mix that we don’t play in the club, which is nice. Like on the new one, there’s a bunch of songs at the end that like I wouldn’t necessarily play out, but they’re such good songs they’re good for [putting] in the mix.

Like on, I think it was, [Datamix] 7, where you have Uffie at the end?

Yeah, yeah.

What’s your opinion on laptop DJs? Do you think they’re taking the easy way out/cutting corners or do you think it’s a completely different way at looking at the art of DJing?

Well, it all depends on what you’re using. I mean, if you use Serato, it’s pretty much just like DJing with CDJs or DJing with vinyl. That’s what we do. I grew up DJing vinyl and then moved to CDs, about, in like, 2000. And then, I don’t know, maybe 2007 started using Serato, or something like that. I don’t know. Like, I wouldn’t want to do it. I’d be bored as hell if I wasn’t beat matching. But I mean, you know, to each their own. Whatever, you know? I won’t advocate it, but I’m not going to hate on them for doing it haha.

What’s your typical live set up? Do you guys ever experiment with different rigs?

No, typically we use the CDJ 1000 MK2′s or MK3′s or whatever, I forget what the exact mall number is, and then the Pioneer DJM800 mixer with Serato, and I have a MacBook Pro– it’s all tweaked out pretty good. All through Serato.

Do you guys have a favorite city to play? New York probably?

Yeah, I think I like playing in New York, just because I can hang out with my friends too haha. I have a lot of friends so I think I like playing in New York. But at the same time, I don’t know. I’m kind of a nomad; I like going wherever and playing. Like last night was awesome man. Fucking club was great.

When you threw down that dub step track…

Oh yeah!

and then immediately afterwards into warp… oh my God…

Yeah hahaha

That was like a punch in the face!

Yeah, yeah that was fun hah! I just thought of that on the spot, like I never did that before. And I looked at Marcio, [Alvin Risk], and was like, “This is gonna be fun…” and he was like, “What’re you talking about?” And I pointed to the screen and he saw what I was going to play… I thought that was the only way to make it even more insane.

Yeahh, there was a guy standing next to me, just chilling on a beer, and soon as you started warp over again, he was just like, “Oh… My… God…”

Haha yeah that was nuts.

Who do you guys enjoy playing with?

Well, we usually don’t play with too many people. We’ve played with Deadmau5 recently. But, normally we end up just headlining. So we don’t play with anyone too regularly. It’s nice playing with Marcio, Alvin Risk, and I like DJing with John Redden in Philly. He and I used to do a regular party there. It’s real nice DJing in Philly too. Actually, I think Philly might be one of my favorite places to DJ actually. I have a lot of friends there too, cause I lived there for a while. It’s fun because since I know everybody, I’ll end up sitting there drinking all night, talking to everybody and then I’m like, “Fuck.. I’ve gotta DJ.” We’ll all just be chilling and stuff.

What’s your whiskey of choice? I know you guys are big fans of whiskey.

I think Jameson; I think Jameson’s the best. I do like Jim Beam. It’s pretty inexpensive and I think it’s definitely one of the best whiskeys. But Jameson is really good too. Johnny Walker: Black, I like too.

Say you’re stranded on a ship at sea with no chance of rescue, and only had 3 albums and 2 random things in your bag. What would they be and why?

Haha, it would probably be My Bloody Valentine- Loveless. Definitely. Beethoven- 7th Symphony, and maybe Moon Safari by Air? I don’t know, that’s a tough question. I’m sure there’s so many good albums that I’m forgetting about, but I think… yeah, those are pretty fucking good. And three things in my bag? or 2 things in my bag?

Two random things, yeah.

Hopefully the bag will be big enough to put a piano in there. That’s pretty much all I would need; if I had a piano and like, I don’t know, like a gun? haha

Who’ve you been listening to recently that’s been killing it this year so far?

Crystal Castles’ album is fucking amazing. I love it. I think it’s the best, best fucking album I’ve heard in a while. Definitely.

**KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR DESIGNER DRUGS’ UPCOMING ALBUM IN SEPT/OCT!!**