Exclusive Interview with Stanton Warriors
Since bursting onto the scene with their multi award-winning compilation “The Stanton Sessions” back in 2001, the Stanton Warriors’ irresistible and inimitable sound has consistently remained the soundtrack to some of the world’s biggest and best parties over the past thirteen years; from East London warehouses, Miami boat parties and illegal Detroit raves, to the stages of Glastonbury, Exit, Burning Man, Ultra and Coachella, selling out global tours and topping DJ lists along the way. In 2013 alone, the Stanton Warriors topped the Beatport charts (again), inspired Disclosure’s Grammy-nominated album Settle, got Annie Mac dancing on her living room carpet, opened London’s 3k capacity Building Six club, saw their podcast shoot to No. 3 in the iTunes chart and smashed the stages of Coachella, Ultra and Glastonbury. In 2014, the Stanton Warriors typically show no sign of slowing down, with sold-out Stanton Sessions tours across the USA and UK and main stage slots at London’s SW4 and Miami’s Ultra festivals and a slew of exciting releases on their own tastemaker label Punks.
Siam2nite had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with Stanton Warriors, shortly before their performance at KU DÉ TA Bangkok on 7th June.
You breakthrough was in 2001 with the multi award-winning compilation “The Stanton Sessions”. Since then you received countless awards, amongst others “Top 50 Best Remixers Of All Time” by DJ Magazine, “Top 50 Compilations Of All Time” by DJ Magazine and “Best DJs” at Breakspoll. How did you guys get in touch with electronic dance music in the first place, how did you meet and what made you team up?
I was working as A & R at an early garage label called 51st recordings and Mark was the in house engineer. I had some ideas and we went in the studio there one night and Stanton warriors was born! It was always our intention to have our own sound and from 1997 to today we still strive to keep that ethos.
Generally speaking, you make sophisticated Bass Music. Disclosure praised your track “Bring Me Down” as the “perfect garage beat”. How would you describe your own music in just a few words?
Stanton Warriors music! We leave the descriptions down to others but generally speaking it’s a form of bass music.
Besides “Bring Me Down”, what other tracks would you recommend to someone that is not yet familiar with your music?
'Loving Me Wrong’, 'Get Up' and ‘Good Vibrations' all available on YouTube! Also you can download a load of free Live DJ Mixes from our Soundcloud page to get a taste for what we are about.
So far, 2014 has seen you taking main stage slots at London’s SW4 and Miami’s Ultra festivals and releasing “Falling” and “Jerk That”. What’s next on your agenda and what are you currently and focusing working on?
We have an album of new music set to be released later this years, numerous collaborations and endless tours. 2014 has been a busy but fun year!
What was the best and the worst gig you ever played and what was the funniest thing ever occurred during any of your performances?
Best gig in recent memory was burning man a few years back with a huge crowd of people going crazy in the Nevada desert. The worst has to be a festival in Australia where someone stole my record bag from the back stage dressing room!
You were born and live in London. What can you tell us about clubbing and nightlife in there? Do you have any nightlife related suggestions for first-time visitors?
There is literally so much to do in London. There's no one definitive place to go but i would suggest checking out whats going on via the internet to discover the best one off warehouse parties and festivals
You have been to Thailand several times and performed at Bed Supperclub in 2009, 2011 and 2012. On 7th June you will return to Thailand for an exclusive performance KU DÉ TA Bangkok. Did you keep the previous Bangkok shows in good memory? What can we expect of your upcoming performance?
We love Bangkok! We always have a great time and the parties never not go off. For this show we have a lot of new exclusive new music which we are looking forwards to smashing up Ku De Ta with!