Adriatique are two self-proclaimed brothers from Zurich who found a musical connection back in 2008 when they were still working as solo artists. Their musical bond grew fast and led them to release on esteemed labels as Diynamic, Culprit LA, Hive Audio and Cityfox. Their remix of ‘Honey’ became one of the summer anthems of 2011 and slowly hurled them into international fame. Slowly indeed, because Adrian and Adrian aren’t about exploding onto the scene like others do. They slowly creep upon the public with effortlessly cool and well-timed releases, gradually building a long-lasting place in the upper regions of the DJ aristocracy. Their 2014 release ‘Midnight Walking’, with its chilling groove and and melodic beauty solidified their presence for some time to come. They have regularly played in Amsterdam this summer and aren’t done quite yet.
They have an all-nighter planned at Chicago Social Club and have a gig at Groningen’s Nazomeren festival. We had a chat with the Adrians on these events, their cool-off in Antartica and their upcoming releases.
Your biography on RA claims your sets are ‘almost poetic, comparable with an exciting story’. Is that what you go for while preparing a gig?
To be honest that’s a very old BIO but that quote is still true I guess. Nowadays a lot of DJ sets have no time to develop, which means you have to be on point all the time. It’s nice if you have a longer set time to go on that journey.
So how does your collaboration exactly work? Are both of you in charge of specific tasks, or is it more of a synergistic approach?
It is a mixture of both. We split up on different tasks. Adrian Blond spends more time in the studio than me while I take care of other stuff like the administration part or press. But all our decisions are made together.
Your monthly event Moving Around Us tries to create a meeting point for local and international creatives in the music and art industry. Could you tell us a little bit more about it? What drove you to start this project?
Actually the project was born before we started touring on this scale. It went off our radar for quite some time and we had another night going on at the Zukunft Club. But now we came back to that and will do these events at Zukunft as well as at the Nordstern Club in Basel. Two absolutely stunning venues in Switzerland. The idea was to build something with our own hands and with friends from our environment. We always have artists with us which we admire or we got to know on the road while doing what we love. We are gonna invest more time again in this project…
How do you promote the event next to the names you bring on the flyer? Are you guys doing this yourself or together with a team?
Actually we do most of the things ourself. As we don’t play that much in Zurich anymore, it’s always something special when we play or host our thing in our Hometown. Meaning we have a specific crowd which is still growing and shows up at our parties.
As part of the Diynamic Showcases, you’ve been playing at Ibiza a lot, and this year the shows are at Cova Santa and Destino. What do you think of Ibiza? Can it lay claim to its name as the nightlife capital of the world?
It can. It’s a very own world there. I think everybody has to make their own experience about the island. There is so much more that just these very famous clubs. It’s a wonderful island, which you should explore if you haven’t done so yet.
What is your favorite place to go to, or thing to do next to playing there?
That’s a hard question as a lot of good thing are coming up. We still have some nice shows in Ibiza. We gonna have the first Australian Tour, all night long sets like at Chicago Social Club on September 5th. ADE is coming again, Diynamic & Cityfox Show in New York….
Next to the Ibiza shows, the Diynamic shows in Amsterdam, are amongst the most successful. How was the experience of the last Diynamic Festival in the forrest?
It was incredible. The Location, the production, it was totally sold out too. It’s rare that a Label has the chance to do their very own festivals, especially this big. We can’t wait for the next one.
We’re all patiently awaiting some highly anticipated releases, such as your Cityfox release and the Flowers and Sea Creatures remix. What else do you guys have in store for us the coming months?
Soon there is also our Remix coming along with a Stimming remix for Thyladomid’s “Real Thing”. A Teaser EP for his upcoming Album on Diynamic. We are also on the way to finish a new Diynamic EP which will feature the track “Rollox”. Toward the end of the year we also gonna release a remix for Ane Brun.
The Cityfox events always seem to be on point and very special. Also for an outsider, you can sense this. What is it that makes Cityfox so special?
It is called “The Cityfox Experience” and that’s what it is. The production and love for detail in every sense make these parties so special. The motivation to raise the bar with every upcoming party too. A trip to New York is always worth it, why not combine it with this?
Most other organizations are doing things completely different than Cityfox. Is there anything in the music world that worries you guys at the moment?
There is always something to worry about but if you look at what is going on in the world elsewhere, these are the things we should worry about and do what we can.
The coming weeks our readers might catch you in Amsterdam at the special Adriatique All-Nighter in Chicago Social Club or Nazomeren Festival in Groningen. What are a couple of signature tracks you guys played out recently?
By this time we will have also some new stuff of ours which we want to try out.
On Friday September 5th you guys play a 6-hour set in Amsterdam. If you get a request to play somewhere and get offered longer play time on one of the events for that day, is this important to you to decide in between two gigs?
We do like to play longer set times of course. It’s mostly not in our hands to decide over our set times of course, and there are a lot of factors at play regarding this. But when we do have the opportunity to play like four hours, we absolutely love it!
Apparently you guys are preparing for a serious cooling off, the day after your all-nighter in Amsterdam. Any attractions in particular you will definitely be visiting in Antarctica?
Haha nice one, actually I think that the system of Diynamic which quotes it like that if you have a day off. We will be in Hamburg on that day for a wedding (not playing at the wedding though).
