Causing total chaos in the electronic dance music scene are a duo by the name of Botnek. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, the two met in 2008. Their weird, quirky take on dutch-house, electronic sounds are sprinkled all over their productions, and makes them distinct from today’s upcoming talents. Their latest efforts were showcased on their “Plonk” EP through the help of “Discobelle” Records. The release was fire, and caught serious attention from names, such as Annie Mac, Kissy Sellout and AC Slater. The boys recently got back from a massive European tour and had the chance to play alongside Jack Beats, Style Of Eye and many others. Getting the chance to remix the likes of AC Slater and, of recent, the Crookers, has helped increase the boys’ exposure. With a heavy load of remix duties in the work, the boys were kind enough to catch up with us at YFH and talk about what’s going on in the next little while.
So I’ve had a love affair with you guys since I heard your bootleg remix of LA Riot’s “The Drop”. Since then.. you guys have been getting loads of attention from DJ’s all around. DJ’s like Jaymo & Andy George, Kissy Sellout and AC Slater are captivated by your sound. How does it feel getting so much love and attention from big names like that?
It’s crazy to think of some of the people who are supporting our stuff, those names specifically are all people we’ve respected and followed for years before we even started Botnek. So to think of now being connected to some huge taste-makers like that is totally flattering. And it’s something we really value, because when we started with Botnek our goal wasn’t to start by building local hype by throwing dope parties, it was to stay in and focus on getting our music good enough that we impressed the big names we were influenced by.
How did you both meet and formulate this awesome group?
We both met at a party in Halifax and were nerding out talking about Ableton. We never initially had any intentions of forming a duo, we were just in touch at first and sharing feedback on each other’s productions at the time. Eventually we were helping each other out on tracks, to the point we were working on all of our jams equally. For fun we entered a remix competition for Felix Cartal, and he chose us as his favorite, so we took that as a sign we were doing something right!
Crookers – “Hummus” (Botnek Remix) [Mad Decent/Southern Fried] by Botnek
Your influences are peppered all through your productions. Genres like dutch-house, raggae, moombahton are self-evident in your music. What is your biggest X and Y factor when getting underway in the studio?
The only thing we set out to do when making music is to make something that makes us laugh because it sounds different or weird. We like the idea of dance music having left field twists that you dont expect. If its too plain, or sounds like a worse version of something that already exists, we’ll get bored and not finish it.
I find Montreal is home to some of the finest upcoming DJ’s/Producers around the world. Guys like LOL Boys, Dooze Jackers, Marc Remillard and of course you both are paving ways for others who aspire to get where you all are now. How do you feel about the scene over here and how has it helped you both in your young careers?
Montreal is a cool city because there’s a lot of creative people who all support each other. We love being able to feed off of other producers and get feedback from people in the scene. Another thing that’s been good about Montreal is just being able to see international acts you’re into, and be inspired by their sets. We’re both originally from Halifax, which is not really known for being a hotspot for touring DJs, so it has inspired us on entirely different levels by being here and surrounded by the scene.
Few months back you guys dropped your “Plonk” EP on Discobelle Records. No doubt one of my favorite EP’s that I’ve purchased this year and is constantly playing on the Itunes player. What was the idea and Influence behind it?
There really wasn’t a plan at all, we just made the song “Plonk” and just sent it out to a tonne of labels we liked. Discobelle wrote back pretty quickly and were down to do an EP. We never really had any vision, only just sent them what were our five best songs at the time, but we’d like to think it sounds like a cohesive record. For our next EP we’re taking the opposite approach and have been incredibly careful to progress our sound and to sound more focused.
The Sound (Original Mix) by Botnek
You guys just came back from your European tour, how was that experience?
We just back a few weeks ago, and it was incredible. We hit up Glasgow, London, Reading, Barcelona, Bologna, Rome, Milan, Berlin and Cologne in a couple of weeks. Depending on the party, and whether or not we were headlining or opening, we tended to focus our sets differently. Opening slots we were respectful to the headliner, playing our more groovy jams, and for example, not playing any Jack Beats when you’re opening for Jack Beats (we almost did by accident!). And for headlining slots we just played out the entire Botnek catalogue. The plan is to head back to Europe/UK in March now!
Finally, What delicious goodies do you have in-store for us fans in the coming months? Collaborations? Remixes? Upcoming productions?
Right now we’re finishing up a tonne of remixes for some very cool artists we like. Still got our EP to finish, and a very, very cool collaboration with heros of ours… that’s all I’m gonna say for now 😉
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