Print
Written by CGNY   
Monday, 04 June 2012 15:16

People say there are no coincidences. After a happy meeting on a flight to Spain that sparked one of technos most well known duos, the boys are back in town this weekend at Sullivan Room with their brand of beautiful, melodic techo. We managed to squeeze in a quick Q&A with Dan Duncan from the group.

CGNY: What got you started in the music world and how did you eventually graduate to making techno?

DD: From an early age we both held a great passion for music. As we grew up into the teenage years we were engulfed by the every growing hype of the warehouse rave scene.

After leaving school we both had jobs in big recording studios working on pop and rock but still felt that urge to nourish our previous musical roots. In downtime in the studio I often practiced trying to produce acid house records with the technologies that were on offer. After leaving the studio job and learning valuable lessons about production, I progressed into loving the feel of crossing sped up hip hop breakbeats with house music and was one of the first to be part of the Drum&Bass movement back in the day when it was written at the same tempo as techno is today. I calibrated ten great years working along side the likes of FABIO and LTJ Bukem with my group Intense.

Igor was at this time building up his passion for vinyl and playing fullmoon parties as well as hotspot clubs in London such as Browns and Icini.

By chance we met on a flight and decided that we should try to create something together.

Then both found ourselves back at our roots and were inspired by that same euphoric, dynamic sounds that we had grown up with in the late 80s - early 90s

CGNY: You’ve had huge releases on a number of labels, including Bedrock and Cocoon and now you have your own “Onolog” label. What made you decide to start your own label and are you looking to promote a different sound on your own label than maybe tracks you release on others?

DD: We closed the label sorry : (

CGNY: Sorry to hear that but onwards with the rest of the music! Where did the nickname Pig come from!! ?

DD: A passion for consumption.

CGNY: What would we be surprised to hear you have on your ipod/listening device?

DD: Ed Sheeren, Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye, the Beatles, Stevie Wonder.

CGNY: You’ve played in New York quite a bit but I think it’s been a year since you’ve been here. First time at SR? (Actually I met one of my good friends Dj and producer Darius Kohanim from Atlanta at a Pig&Dan gig in Cielo maybe 3 years ago!)

DD: We played SR before and it was absolutely off the hook. It has been a while since we've been back, times have been busy and its sometimes hard to get over to this side of the world when the schedule is tight in Europe and in the east. Really looking forward to returning to the Big Apple. I actually grew up there aged 3-11.

CGNY: Oh wonderful! I thought your name didn't sound Spanish!! Are there any aspects of the music industry or the life you lead as djs/producers that you’d like to see change?

DD: Not really, We love that fact that's it's an ever evolving industy with new talent keeping it fresh and keeping everyone on their toes. I mean we love what we do and we are so lucky that we can live for our passion, I wouldn't change that for the world

CGNY: How has the advent of new technology in production/Djing and music distribution changed the business? I haven’t bought a CD for ages – not a physical one!

DD: Well of course the big change for us was the end of most vinyl and the easy access to world wide markets. Before if you got some tracks in let's say Berlin it would be sure that when you played our next gig in the U.K or somewhere else apart from Germany you would have records nobody else had. That separation has gone now and you don't have that special individual touch as everyone can get what you have anywhere on the globe.

Sometimes it feels over saturated as well. I recall entering record shops and the personnel would know what to give me to listen to. I'd walk out with ten tunes I loved in a small amount of time but now when facing on online shop you often daunted by thousands of tracks you might not like. It can turn you off.

CGNY: That's actually a very good point! When you make a track (say for instance Sly Detector one of my faves) and you release it, do you immediately have a sense of it going to do well or be a popular or is it very much throw the dice in the air and see where they fall?

DD: No we are always surprised by the results of the record sales. Often the track you think could do well is a flop and visa versa. There's no telling

CGNY: If you have spare time, what do you like to do?!

DD: Spare time lol never heard of it. : )We happily live and breath music 24/8

Pig and Dan play Sullivan Room, Sat June 9th. Info here:

For more info on Pig and Dan go to http://www.piganddan.com

 

Last Updated on Monday, 04 June 2012 15:57