Thugfucker Interview/Pulse Podcast

An unlikely musical, geographical journey that took place in Reyjavic, New York and Rome is what lead to Thugfucker, two of the rising stars of the new wave of underground house and techno. Alex Fish spoke to Greg and Holmar about Sonar, BPM and Panorama.

This mix was made at BPM in Mexico this year at The Life and Death showcase, from the sound of things it sounds like it was a great time-can you tell us a little about the mix and how it felt to play it at your label's own event?  It was really an amazing day/night overall.. We had just arrived the night before for our first time at BPM and our first time in Playa. We rolled in with our good friends the PillowTalk crew and as soon as we arrived we got to perfecting all those arrangements for the party that can't really be done from a distance.. A couple of last minute changes to the timing (we really wanted PillowTalk to be hitting the peak of their set during the amazing Mexican sunset!) and then once things started it was just like, BAM, here we goooo!

It was so much fun with all our friends there, the Life and Death crew and Scissors & Thread crew who we did the party with, the other artists and people in the industry of course but also just lots of the amazing people who we've been seeing more and more at the various shows over the last year or two.. Really cool party people who we've been pleased to get to know as we've been traveling. And of course, the venue was super dope. Playing on the beach in front of a beautiful and smiling crowd who really know their music and are all gathered there for good times and nothing else... perfect.

Just thinking about it now and we're starting to get goofy smiles on our faces. And then as the energy built there was this moment when our good friend Navid jumped in front of the crowd, winding everyone up as we played something he's been working on lately.. and really his energy just helped shoot things into the stratosphere. Along with his dope music! It was one of the many memorable moments that day. Was a great start to the year.. and we're already working on next year's BPM party now!

You just held your Life and Death & Visionquest go to Sonar party in Barcelona how was it?  Who do you think stole the show?  Wow, who stole the show? Hard to say.. everyone was amazing and with a lineup like that it'd be hard to pick out one artist for sure. Sammy D from PillowTalk played a great warm up set and then when he started singing live the place went from busy to full in an instant. But if we had to pick an artist to mention it'd be Manu Le Tough who we'd never seen DJ before.. so it wasn't that he stole the show per se, but as we never had seen him play he definitely impressed us. We really love his productions but that doesn't always mean the DJ set will impress you equally. But in his case, it really did. Wicked.

What really stole the show though was just the general vibe. Which was great. We were sad to have to fly out and leave Sonar behind the next day... Even if we were going very nice places!

We've been hearing about the Life and Death Live show which debuted at Demf?  How did that go and what can we expect for the future from this project?  It went great! It was a work in progress and something we've been putting together, slowly, for a little while and we have big plans for it in the future. But for now we just wanted to try it out, test the waters, and see how that would go. It was a bit nerve wracking and we were finalizing things really just up until the night before, adding & subtracting bits, trying to hone it down but once we were a few minutes into the actual show everything else just faded away and we were just in it. So it was really a success for us. Especially as I know that the show at DEMF was just a starting point and not a final thing at all. More to come on that front in the future...

Following the rabid success of the Life & Death and Thugfucker tattoos, how many times have you reordered them?  Twice so far. Now the tattoo guys are starting to know us actually. But the first time we ordered the Thugfucker tattoos we got a phone call saying "Hey, we're not really sure we should be printing this sort of thing up..."  We had to have a funny discussion explaining that we weren't actually pornograpahers but just a bunch of silly, tongue in cheek musicians!

They were really good sports about it, thankfully [Laughs]

What's your favorite city to fall in love?  Every city is a good city to fall in love! If only people were falling in love more often the world would be a better place. Not just falling in love with lovers but with friends, with experiences, with music, with food, with the moment. Just as long as it's not gluttonous love but the real, from the deepest part of your heart love.. Without jealousy, without expectations. Just love. Goddamnit we need more of that! Of course, NYC being our much loved hometown we'd have to pick it as our favorite place to fall in love. But any place is a good one for love!

You guys just played Panorama Bar recently for the first time... how did that go?  Holy oh my god, sweet mother of pearl inlaid on a hope chest of pure awesomeness... That was by far the highlight of our adult lives so far. Or at least one of them! We ended up playing almost 6 hours straight in that amazing place with that amazing crowd and serious sound system.. and basically as far as we've seen, that club really is the one that reminds us of what clubs used to be like back in the day in NYC when were first going out there. With a protective feeling of both the DJ's, the music and the crowd, where all involved can really have the freedom to do whatever they want as long as they don't hassle anybody else around them.

So yeah.. it was super stellar. Tale of Us murdered it that night and then when they were done slaughtering the place, we played a set that managed to cross pretty much every genre of dance music that we love and drawing some lines between eras that you just don't usually get a chance to do. I remember one of the many highlights was playing Blaze's "Elevation" at about 11:30 in the morning on Sunday and the place went crazy. Which was incredibly meaningful as that was a record that I fell in love with on the dancefloor at Body & Soul back in the day. We're already looking forward to the next one. Just can't say enough nice things about it.

Any other clubs you'd like to mention from this recent Europe tour?  Well, so many good parties, good nights and really good clubs but one worth calling out is the Bob Beaman club in Munich. David Muallem and his crew have really put together something special there. A club built around music and DJs and good times. They should be really proud of it and it was really something special to play there.

We have heard that you guys are living the pizza lifestyle. What is that all about?  I guess it started for us on the road few years ago, though it has always been one of our favorite foods.  It began as a simple set of discussions with friends in Vancouver and San Francisco about how pizza is such an amazing and versatile food. One with a storied history and respectable past, worldwide. But from there it turned into a shared obsession and communal group think as well as just a good way to share some good times with friends worldwide. Whether it's eating pizza together, sending pictures of pizza back and forth or just talking about pizza (which is sometimes just enough when we're not able to squeeze in some proper exercise on the road!), pizza is always something which somehow manages to bring positivity to any situation. And what started off as a small group of obsessed pizza lovers (Solar & Galen from the Sunset crew, Justin Martin, Lopazz and more) has quickly grown into a pizza loving army. Give us an opportunity to talk about pizza and any of us could chew your ear off for hours on the subject.. But in the interest of space maybe we'll save some of our further thoughts on this important topic for another interview. But suffice it to say, when it comes to the subject of pizza... we like it.

So 2012 has been a pretty big year for you.. care to comment?  Well, it certainly has been. And for the world outside of Thugfucker as well... Not really sure what's in store for the rest of the year.. we've got lots of stuff on the schedule but we've also got a sneaking suspicion there's gonna be lots of good surprises down the line. Greg's hoping that he'll finally get the unicorn he's always wanted for his birthday in December and Holmar got this amazing invitation to a Mayan bris where some aliens are going to be performing the circumcision ceremony to a newly born galaxy at the far end of the visible universe. We're trying to work out travel plans to make it there and still get back in time for our Saturday gig but it's gonna be a tight one. Here's hoping we can work it out!

Check out Thugfucker at Spybar this Friday, June 29 in Chicago.

Listen to Thugfucker on Pulse Radio