{"id":5750,"date":"2014-08-01T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T09:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouselondon.com\/?p=5750"},"modified":"2015-05-14T14:10:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T12:10:24","slug":"exclusive-interview-tough-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/exclusive-interview-tough-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview: Tough Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Tough Love first appeared on our radar a couple of years with the excellent &#8216;Can&#8217;t Find The Words&#8217; on one of our favourite young labels, Love Not Money. Fast forward to 2014 and they&#8217;re traveling all over the UK playing high-profile gigs and releasing one hot EP after another. Most recently they had the storming &#8216;Dreams&#8217; on Toolroom and next up is a seriously fresh collaboration with friends of Deep House London, Amine Edge &amp; DANCE, which you can check out below. With all this in mind we thought it was high time we had a chat with the guys and here&#8217;s the result&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fthump%2Famine-edge-dance-vs-tough-love-perfect-love-part-01&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>So guys, how\u2019s everything going at the moment? You seem to be doing pretty well for yourselves right now\u2026?<\/strong><br \/>\nThank you, yeah we\u2019re really enjoying ourselves at the moment. When you\u2019re doing what you love for a job everyday it\u2019s pretty amazing. We\u2019re very thankful to be in this position, but there\u2019s so much more we want to achieve so we\u2019re not letting up any time soon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there a point over the last few years that would define as your \u2018big break\u2019? Or a moment when you really felt like things were starting to work for you?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe\u2019re both highly ambitious so we\u2019re still working towards that big break. There were some key releases early on in our career as Tough Love. Tracks like \u201cThe Night Is Calling\u201d grabbed people\u2019s attention but traction has definitely started to pick up in the last 12 months, most probably due to a combination of successful releases on solid labels and also playing at some great events.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When you first got started with DJing and production, what style of music were you focused on?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe\u2019ve both always loved house music and any associated genres and sub-genres. That was surely the sound that kickstarted our DJ careers but between us we\u2019ve played everything from jungle, garage, Motown and disco to RnB and hip hop. We still have love for that classic hip hop sound, Alex purely for his own pleasure but Stef Produced and played RnB and hip hop for many years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How would you say your tastes and musical style has evolved since those early days?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe\u2019re more creative than ever before. We still listen and gain influence from all sorts of genres and by dissecting music and choosing elements that we like, we try to mould and merge those sounds into our productions.<\/p>\n<p>[youtube id=&#8221;RS13BlQzzHM&#8221; width=&#8221;620&#8243; height=&#8221;360&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you guys link up with Amine Edge &amp; DANCE?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe first met about two and a half years ago. It was when Amine &amp; DANCE had first started producing together but Amine was still gigging solo. Amine got in touch with us about our record \u201cThe Night Is Calling\u201d and he quickly became one if its biggest supporters. Over a short period of time the four of us have become good friends. We signed our track \u201cThe Fun Train To Reno\u201d to his label and eventually decided to do a collaborative effort on ours. When we\u2019re in the same city we\u2019ll meet up and grab some food, which usually ends up in an argument about who the current best hip hop artists or producers are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We hear it\u2019s taken a couple of years to get the EP completed, why did it take so long?<\/strong><br \/>\nOne track alone can take time but a five track EP is a lot of work, especially with both of our schedules and our different styles in music. To build something that represents us both, and that all parties involved are happy with, is a process that couldn\u2019t really be rushed.<\/p>\n<p>Perfect Love (Part 1) was a track that Amine &amp; DANCE started a couple years back. Over time we developed the record together and tried to create that classic timeless sound which hopefully stands the test of time. More recently we wanted to give the track a darker, more bass-driven twist, which is where (Part 2) was born.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Heels In A House Rave\u2019 is a track that we had started with our boy Nastaly, but knew that the guys would be perfect in helping us give it a new life and identity. \u2018The Eight, The 0, The Mother Fuckin\u2019 Eight\u2019 is for us, a bit of a hidden gem that has been forgotten because it\u2019s less obvious than some of their other productions, so we asked the boys if we could sign it and remix it. In the end we decided to put all these tracks together to create The Perfect Love EP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What was it like working with two other people? Is four collaborators a difficult dynamic to handle?<\/strong><br \/>\nNo not at all, the only real difficulty came from our schedules slowing down the process. We\u2019re all very creative and each has our own style. Everyone involved had a great understanding of what was trying to be achieved. We\u2019re all honest and if we don\u2019t like something we say so.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you have to delegate who was doing what from the start, or did you all just work it out as you went along?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe threw a bunch of tracks back and forth and the ones that stood out we decided to work on, so it was just a case of building around the initial ideas which meant sending lots of project files and rough edits to each other until we were all happy.<\/p>\n<p>[youtube id=&#8221;gB90y-rDh2w&#8221; width=&#8221;620&#8243; height=&#8221;360&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>What would you say both duos have brought to the EP in terms of musical style?<\/strong><br \/>\nA characteristic we both share is the love for tracks made for the dance floor, with the intent to get people moving and this was definitely a focal point with this project. Even though Our DJ and production styles are quite different, we tried to incorporate the best of both worlds. Something that many probably underestimate is both of ours and the guys love for classic house. We all talk about hip hop, which is heavily present in a lot of our productions, but there are probably a lot more classic house elements within this EP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who parties harder, you guys or the Frenchies?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe\u2019re actually quite similar, both duos have one T-Total, while the other is almost always found with a drink, although DANCE has an endless supply of champagne to hand which makes him much more \u201cG\u201d than Alex who will normally just have a beer. We definitely get more animated behind the decks and if those fFenchies try to say otherwise we\u2019ll just have to have a dance off at the next event we get to play together.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When you guys play together who\u2019s more likely to get drunk and need looking after?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe have no idea what you mean, we\u2019re the epitome of professionalism. Hahaha, here\u2019s not been any occasions to date that we can think of where any of us have been in that state, but the French boys always seem to have plenty of nurses around to look after them if they do decide to carry the party on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who\u2019s the better dancer and what\u2019s his signature move?<\/strong><br \/>\nHahahaha. There\u2019s another excuse for a dance off. We recently had this conversation talking about Alex\u2019s signature move called the helicopter, and no it\u2019s not with his dangly bits. Also anyone who\u2019s seen us play will notice Alex often starts hip thrusting the decks while Stef awkwardly tries to avoid him. Stef has the handclap and finger point on lock, just give him a beat and he\u2019ll hand clap and finger point the shit out of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What else do you guys have coming up before the end of the year?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe\u2019ve just finished off a load of remixes for the likes of Sigma, Shift K3Y, Borgeous, Ill Blu and Jessica Wilde, which should all be available before the year is out. We\u2019ve also got a couple more singles and a compilation album coming on the mighty Toolroom Records, which will include some brand new and original material from ourselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Finish the sentence, without house music we would\u2026<\/strong><br \/>\nProbably get a lot more sleep\u2026.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"button small\" style=\"background:#E40045;\"><a style=\"color:#FFFFFF;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/toughlovemusic\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Artist Page<\/a><\/span><span class=\"button small\" style=\"background:#E40045;\"><a style=\"color:#FFFFFF;\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/toughlovemusic\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Soundcloud<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tough Love first appeared on our radar a couple of years with the excellent &#8216;Can&#8217;t Find The Words&#8217; on one of our favourite young labels, Love Not Money. Fast forward to 2014 and they&#8217;re traveling all over the UK playing high-profile gigs and releasing one hot EP after another. Most recently they had the storming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3971],"tags":[4721,4060,4150],"class_list":["post-5750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews-london","tag-amine-edge-dance-london-2","tag-toolroom","tag-tough-love","post_format-post-format-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}