Futureboogie Takeover: Behling & Simpson Interview and MPFree

Introduce yourself in less than 140 characters.
Behling & Simpson – jacking slow house from Bristol.

Bristol has been a massive source for great upcoming innovative dance music over the past few years. Why do you think that is?
The heritage here goes back through dubstep to jungle, trip hop, back to The Wild Bunch, reggae Sound Systems and beyond. That’s a pretty solid base to build on.

What is it about Futureboogie that sets it apart from other dance labels?
It’s early days, but so far it would appear to be run by people who are not complete cunts. However, this is the music industry so you can never be sure. No, Steve and Dave are genuinely enthusiastic about the music they present to the public, plus they work incredibly hard to present it the right way.

In your opinion who have been the great pioneers in UK dance and how have they affected the way you make music?
All junglists. Jungle was ridiculously innovative home-grown music that focused on amazing drums and sound-system-friendly subs, and it still sounds like nothing else out there. Although what we do as Behling & Simpson is stylistically a long way from jungle, I think we have naturally absorbed that focus on percussive interest and bass-led grooves.

What makes British dance music different to that of, say, Chicago, New York or Berlin?
The ongoing mixture of black and white, Caribbean and British cultures. That melting pot is what makes our shit unique and exciting – as witnessed by both jungle, and the music scene in Bristol over the last 20 years.

I think festivals have overtaken club nights in terms of popularity. Would you agree?
I don’t run a festival or a club night so I couldn’t comment on popularity, but I think it’s almost a mistake to compare them. The ideal club for me would involve 300 people in a small dark room with a proper system and a quality set of residents; the ideal festival would be on a beach, in the sunshine. So it’s a pretty different kettle of fish. Having said that, you could say that some of the bigger club nights are almost reaching the levels of ‘festivals in clubs’ – sometimes the line-ups at a single club like Motion, or Fabric, could be spread across a whole weekend and still be ridiculously impressive.

How have you seen the club scene change over the past ten years?
The biggest change would be the smoking ban. It’s great as a DJ to be able to go on tour and not come back with all your clothes stank up and your throat razor bladed – but it has changed the vibe massively. More recently, I think the rise of YouTube and instantly accessible music has led to people tending to see DJs even more as personal jukeboxes – they’re so used to being able to hear exactly what they want when they want that they can get quite offended when you don’t cater perfectly to their personal taste in the club.

Are you purists when it comes to DJing? Is using iPods or CDs cheating?
We both still buy and love vinyl, but we tend to DJ with Serato and CDs. Although we always bring a bag of wax with us still, ‘cause it feels a bit like we’re not making the effort if we don’t. Plus a weekend without back pain isn’t really a weekend DJing.

Do you solely play the music that you love or do you cater more to the crowd’s tastes depending on which context you’re in?
The key is to do both. I would never play a tune I didn’t love, but sometimes a particular tune you love isn’t the right one for that time. So pick a different tune you love in that case.

What have you got planned for 2012?
Another EP on Futureboogie, a 12″ for Applepips, an EP for Off Recordings from Berlin, and hopefully some more edits.

http://www.facebook.com/behlingsimpson

Download Behling & Simpson – Little Bird here, or listen below.