The latest collab coming from the EC Twins involves a remix of LMFAO’s hot hit “Champagne Showers” with Remy le Duc. The two (Three) talented performers gather together to put on a show-stopping good time at Hollywood Playhouse, playing Friday’s Dirty Sexy House, a sellout show.
ALLISTER: Right now I’m pissed off at my brother for taking shitty streets on the way here and making us late. Usually I drive, but today he drove and we ended up late.
MARK: Don’t worry about time because it’s a late set anyway.
ALLISTER: It took us like 40 minutes to get up Hollywood Blvd. Did you see all the people out in the fucking street?
MARK: It’s dead in there isn’t it!?
[we all have a good laugh at this]
Mark and Allister, the EC Twins. Last time we spoke was in Las Vegas at Tao Beach and we learned your backstory and all of this great stuff What have you guys been up to since then besides a lot of touring?
ALLISTER: Yeah, a lot of touring. That was the day of EDC, wasn’t it?
Yeah, the day you opened the second stage.
ALLISTER: What have we been up to since then? Nonstop touring and really, really busy in the studio, which is hard when you are touring so much. Even next week we have Monday and Tuesday in the studio, then we are off to Canada and then Vegas, then I think San Francisco. We have two days in the studio… Do you know who BT is?
Of course! I had a lunch interview with him a few years back. The man is quite talented.
ALLISTER: He is! And he is supposed to be a musical genius. He likes our tunes, and we haven’t had that much communication with him beyond twitter, which is flattering. Black Hole, which is his record label, well BT really insists on having one of our songs on him new album. We we’re like, okay, we will try and put something together. So we were in the studio under a certain amount of pressure to deliver 5 to 7 recordings for him in two days. It’s going to be hard work.
MARK: We just got back from Vancouver, where we shot a pricey music video for our song coming our “Resurrection”, which will hopefully come out in October. After that was the LMFAO remix and the Adelle remix which comes out soon. That has been getting us a lot of attention. Not only remixing major artists, but also concentrating on our own stuff. We have some really strong stuff we are in the final stages of mastering before they are released. Production-wise we have been doing really well and as for the touring we have been on a great streak, gradually getting busier. I don’t think we’ve had a bad show in years, but I think our shows keep getting stronger and stronger. From New York to Chicago, Las Vegas, of course LA and Dallas – some places you don’t even expect us to pop up at, like El Paso, Texas, where we felt like everyone in El Paso was there [at our show].
ALLISTER: Just today we resigned our contract with Tao and Marquee, so we are going to be in Las Vegas a lot.
Are you doing a residency there?
ALLISTER: Yeah, the contract came up for renewal. I think it was 12 shows in a year. 12 in 2011 and 12 in 2012. It wasn’t a tough decision.
Yeah, those are some of the best venues in Vegas. Because you are traveling so much, how do you deal with the jet lag?
MARK: It’s not easy. I wonder how the other guys deal with that. There is just no easy way.
ALLISTER: So, Monday and Tuesday we will be in the studio, and they will be long, hard nights because we have a lot to do. Then we have an early flight to Toronto the following day.
MARK: We will probably get a shower in and then head to the airport, and then it’s back to Vegas to do Marquee. We don’t really know.
I see these tour dates coming up for you guys on facebook and it is just insane the distances you travel in such a short time to play nightly shows. You got the hustle for sure.
ALLISTER: We were talking about that on the way here, and then he [Mark] fell asleep for like 2 hours on the way here.
You’ve got to get it where you can.
ALLISTER: Yeah, you’ve got to get any sleep in where you can! Also, because of the nature of how things have happened for us, we’ve not been able to structure it linearly and end up traveling all around the world in the course of a week. Not that I’m complaining.
MARK: It’s the life we signed up for. I used to watch people do this and think they were so lucky that they get to travel the world and perform. The only downside is the lack of sleep.
And now that you’re on the other side of the fence, do you think it is a major difference?
ALLISTER: You know, you hear a lot of people say, “You see this job, and you think it’s glamorous, but when you do it it’s not so glamorous!” Well, it is!
MARK: Even if I weren’t paid, you couldn’t stop me from going in that studio Monday and Tuesday. I wake up in the morning and I want to make music. I don’t want to leave the studio but I have to leave the studio because at a certain point I have to get sleep!
ALLISTER: The lack of sleep is one thing, but thank god we don’t drink!
MARK: Sometimes we will bring our assistant with us and after two days he acts like he has double pneumonia!
ALLISTER: He does two days with us and he will throw in the towel after the third day. I’ve been doing this for four years. But how have you been doing?
I’ve been doing brilliantly, thanks for asking. So many great writing gigs and so many great music shows.
ALLISTER: Great, well we will be at Sunset Junction on Sunday.
How long are you guys in Los Angeles?
ALLISTER: Until Tuesday.
And what studio do you record in?
ALLISTER: We have two studios. One in West LA, which is this real big, high end studio.
MARK: The way to describe the one in West LA is like, Equinox, it had the big vocal booth and sound boards and it is a beautiful place to work. However, we have another one in Glendale, which is like a torn out work space.
ALLISTER: There is a bunch of great equipment there and a bunch of people use it, but some people aren’t comfortable working in that environment. Sometimes it just feels like a waste of money, so it’s very nice to have this big studio.
MARK: In reality we could probably do it from our laptop. I mean, our studio still have everything we need, but it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to drive to [Glendale] everyday.
ALLISTER: Now we’ve moved our booker, our assistant, our sound engineer, our manager out to Glendale, so they are all together now.
MARK: Before we had the management on one side and the production team on the other side, so we would be in Santa Monica during the day and in Glendale at night. At that hour it’s like an hour and a half journey., a nightmare drive.
You guys have a home here in LA, right?
ALLISTER: Yeah, we are over in West Hollywood.
Does it feel good to be home even though you don’t have any free time?
MARK: Yeah, well, uh, our apartment is a couch… and that’s about it.
ALLISTER: My bed has even fallen to pieces. I had this good mattress, and now when I try and lay on the bed it collapses!
MARK: It’s more like a hotel, though, because we are there tonight, and then we are back on the road.
What do you guys like about playing here at Playhouse in Hollywood?
MARK: Playhouse, to be honest, is one of the strongest venues in LA. It’s built for DJs like us – it’s got the great stage, the LED screen and a bumping sound system.
ALLISTER: It was the first venue in Hollywood other than the Avalon’s and Vanguard’s that appeal to the hot Hollywood crowd and to take itself seriously. And the great thing is the proper stage and the proper sound system, where you can bring in proper dance music with the sound that people are used to and the space that people are used to.
MARK: We’ve played the launch years ago, and other than that the only times we’ve played have been the Monday Night Socials, which is the more underground night, bringing all of the legitimate new and established dance music acts.
ALLISTER: We never really ask for much money from them, we do it because we just love the crowd. Tonight being a Friday night we will have to see how it does.
That line outside is insane. They are all here to see you guys.
MARK: Crazy.
Is there anything else you wanted to add?
ALLISTER: The next thing we are looking forward to is the “Resurrection” release, which should take us to the next level as producers, and then we have some big announcements about a residency in Miami very soon.
Beautiful. Thanks for chatting with me as always and I am looking forward to the show.