Jaymo & Andy George chat Hump & Grind

“Hard work is not really hard work if you love what you do” says Radio 1’s Jaymo & Andy George as they prepare to drop their single on the darker shaded sister label of Moda, Moda Black. The pair, ever busy with label A&R work, DJing and rocking the radio airwaves, have still managed to pencil in plenty of time for the studio, looking to push themselves harder than ever for 2012. Jaymo & Andy’s Hump & Grind EP is soon to be followed by their debut compilation CD. A mix that certainly follows suit with the new labels ethos. We talk time management, studio sessions and top threes with the duo as they gear up for their second summer at We Love…

You guys have a great relationship on air, how did the bromance come about? We grew up in a small city called Lincoln, just down the road from Nottingham. The alternative music scene was quite small at that time, there was just a really solid core of people listening to underground stuff and so we ended up meeting through a mutual friend. We realised we both had a pretty decent sized group of friends, who were all into the same kinda music as us, and decided to start a party to keep up all our of mischief at the weekends… Moda was born!

2012 sees Moda branch out to Moda Black. Tell us some more about the label and the new sound behind it. We spent a lot of last year working with new artists, either signing them or keeping tabs on guys who were developing, but by the end of it all we realised the potential roster was really quite broad, so we decided to spilt the label into two departments. It's pretty much a light and shade scenario; Moda Music will be brighter stuff, focused more on disco influenced sounds and our live acts, whereas Moda Black will be the darker stuff. Though inevitably there will be times when those lines blur a little - mixing in up is great, but if you're too random it's counter productive. This definitely feels like the right thing to have done!

The second release on Moda Black is another big one from you. The sound of this release sees you moving into a different direction. Is this sound representative of your current DJ sets? It's basically a new old direction - house and disco has always been our first love and yeah, that’s the basis of our DJ sets. I started buying records in the late 90's, stuff like Roule, Crydamoure, King Street, AM:PM, which then lead into City Rockers, 20:20, Junior and stuff like that. I think the stuff you get into when you first fall in love with dance music and DJing inevitable affects and influences you for the rest of your life.

Also coming soon is the debut compilation CD on Moda Black, which sees a number of well-established names as well as some new talent. How did you go about selecting the artists and the tracks for the CD? A lot of the people on there are friends of ours, or have become friends through the label, so it was quite an organic process. We wanted the mix to make sense and flow properly, so we asked the people we thought fitted the bill. Jack Fell Down, for example, make really nice low slung, loopy house, so for them to make the opener made perfect sense - right through to Tim Green closing the CD with some dark 4am vibes. We're extremely happy with the end result - there's some serious heat on there and you won't find it anywhere else!

Of course we must ask about your production set up. What does the studio look like for Jaymo and Andy George?It looks like a fucking mess right now, as I'm currently drying out a box of vinyl that was stored in a shed until recently. So it smells too! I don't like to get too involved with these answers you know, as I know they misled me when I first started learning. I assumed I needed whatever such and such had and to be honest, it slowed the entire process down as I tried to learn a million things at once. I'd just say keep your set up stripped back and simple, all our stuff is made using a small handful of synths and effects plug-ins. Though the key elements that really make things sweet are often from samples - we spend a lot of time hunting through old record shops and second hand stores and making our own sample kits.

With the launch of the label not too far gone how do you guys manage your time between label A&R, gigging and the radio? I'm writing this at 6.30am and I went to sleep at some point past midnight. I want to say 'hard work' but if you love what you do then it's not really hard or work. The funny thing is there's stuff missing off that list - running Moda parties is also something we're still very hands on with too.

This is your second We Love… summer residency Space in Ibiza! Are there any special plans you can fill us in on? I think the highlights will be the Dirtybird party in August and the Chemical Brothers at the We Love birthday. From our set point of view we've been working on new music and special edits entirely with We Love in mind, but as soon as our set is over we stop being DJs and just get in the thick of it. You'll rarely find us leaving before close. The line-ups are so diverse, every party in an opportunity to check out someone new or someone you've not seen in ages - its an institution we've been part of for many years, it's great to finally be DJing there too.

What are your top three tunes of the moment getting regular play in your sets?

1.Mia Dora - Occam's Razor
2.Jesse Perez - Kiss Jesse On The Dick

3.Karmon & NTFO - Nobody Else

 What’s your favourite all time classic summer anthem? Maybe the Nuyorican Soul version of Black Gold Of The Sun - love the old MaW stuff

What does the rest of 2012 hold in store for J&AG and the Moda collective? Inbetween the compilation dropping and all the Ibiza, festival gigs and radio stuff we've set aside as much time as possible for studio work. More than we've ever set aside in the past - we're hitting that hard this year. Moda wise we're doing our compilation launch at Fabric in July - it's gonna be a heavy one!

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