Eskimo Twins Talk

Music

Last week Eskimo Twins stopped by to furnish our ears with an exclusive mix ahead of their new EP soon come on Matt Walsh’s very excellent Clouded Vision label.

This week we had a proper chat to them about Eskimos, ignorance, Fuck Buttons, machine love and influences.

Where are you from, where are you now?

We’re currently in London, although we met and started working together whilst at Uni in Leeds. We grew up in Bingley and Lincoln. (N)

Sure you’re bored of talking about it but I never see you dressed as Eskimos, in fact you’re rather dapper in your appearance. Why prey the twins?

Well that’s very kind of you to say. The concept of being Eskimo Twins is quite abstract so I think it would be a little obvious to dress so literally. But we are a little more dapper than once we were… not that many heavy metal t shirts and ripped jeans anymore – all part of growing up I suppose… Not that were really proper adults yet. Though we certainly wouldn’t be adverse to using huskies as our main mode of transport if Boris would let us. (T)

You say you have a fetish for old gear. Sexual you call it. Pick a piece of old hardware to represent S E X U A L.

The Roland Juno 6 we have is a lovely old beast. Noisy, a little crackly but gorgeous nevertheless. Its really versatile and it finds its way into nearly all of our productions. To look at is not very sexy but the sounds are. (N)

I saw Fuck Buttons at Glastonbury playing to about 200 people as all the other pricks were off watching a tv screen whilst the Stones farted through a car stereo speaker. It was immense! What’s the smallest crowd you’ve ever seen your favourite band in?

Amazing, we absolutely love Fuck Buttons, have heard very good things about their Glastonbury set. As we lived in Leeds for so long we got to see a fair few of our favourite bands in local pubs. Standout gig for me probably has to be Coachwhips in a room above The Fenton pub. The keyboardist was hanging off the walls pouring beer into the mouths of the crowd then she jumped on me and stuck her tongue in down my throat. That one stuck in the old memory! (T)

Slow mo / drug chug is the new acid house / balearia. Discuss.

A lot of stuff is lumped into this Slow Mo / Drug Chug genre. Some of it is the natural offspring of acid house and balearia, some of its just slow techno. There is something very nice about a crowd dancing at sub 120 BPM, much of that stuff relies on groove and musicality for its appeal on the dancefloor and that is a good thing in our book. (N)

Tell us about your Wax:On love affair.

So, when we were at uni and before Eskimo Twins existed, we used to go to Wax:On every month without fail. Thats where we cut our clubbing teeth and it had massive effect on us. When we were asked to be residents it was a pretty big deal! It taught us a lot in a very short amount of time too wed never really DJed before so had to learn the ropes very quickly. Dan, who runs it, used to really enjoy scaring the shit out of us by putting us on before or after our musical heroes in front of fairly large crowds. Were thankful to him now though, once you know you can play the main room after Erol Alkan has just destroyed it and hold your own, any set seems relatively easy after that. (T)

Pick us 10 influences via youtube or vimeo – music or otherwise.

Unkle…

Lightning Bolt…
Crosby Stills, & Nash…

AFX…

Dilute…

Daft Punk – Alive 2007 @ Wireless

Giorgio Moroder

Bob Moog

Dream remix / production alive or dead.

Production: working with Martin Hannett in the studio, for sure.

To remix: Wed love to get our hand on the original parts to Blue Jay Way, an underrated George Harrison masterpiece. (N)

Worst thing anyone’s ever written about you.

We did a remix a couple of years back that prompted one articulate user of a forum to state: Shit. Fuck off. Succinct, I think youll agree! Absolutely loved that one. (T)

Are you a kick drum, a high hat or a snare?

Probably a 909 Kick, but with some tight compression and an extra bit of bite. (N)

Complete the sentence: I’m proper techno because…..

Haha, I dont think we are proper techno! We love it but couldnt claim to be purists in any way so Im not sure thats something youd catch us saying at all Im afraid. Were not really proper anything, just a mongrel mish-mash of guitar and electronic music. (T)

What are you obsessed with at the moment?

Musically it would be Cambodian 60s psych surf rock. Ive been obsessed with it since picking up a comp and then searching out some old cassettes last time I was over there. Pan Ron and Ros Sereysothea are the ones to look up, oh and Jeas Cyclo (Ride Cyclo) by Yol Aularong. (N)

What’s your answer to everything?

Booze. The cause of, and answer to, all of lifes problems can be found at the bottom of a bottle. (T)

If you were a cat, what type would you be?

Id like to think a snow leopard but probably it would be an old tabby tomcat. (N)

Where next for Eskimo Twins.

Geographically; London, Croatia, Manchester and with a bit of luck USA, Canada and a few European dates next year. Musically; weve got another couple of EPs lined up, one of which is a collaboration with our very good friend techno wizard Dimitri Veimar – plus loads of remixes coming out soon and a track on the next Astro Lab compilation. (T)