As Tough Love gear up for a summer of music gigs, I got the chance to sit down with Stef and Alex and talked about working with one of their idols, Ibiza and their most embarrassing moment
Can you tell me about your new single ‘Pony Jump on it’?
Yes, it’s a brand new single with Ginuwine called Pony Jump on it. It was originally a edit that we had made two years ago and put out and when we decided to redo the vocals with Ginuwine, it came from a tweet we had actually done, basically when So Freak and Tight was out in its promo stages Alex sent a tweet out finding out that our edit had been in the top 100 of Shazam and Ginuwine replied on twitter saying oh cool and we just got into conversation and a week later we were in the studio together recovering the record and planning it as our next single.
What was it like working with Ginuwine?
It was amazing, it was so good, I think we both grew up listening too his music so we were a little nervous waiting for him in the studio and he came in with 4 entourage but he was supercool and the whole session was done in 90 minutes and we just hung around afterwards had some food and drink and we have become good friends now, we done the video and we talk every week and he is coming back in a few weeks so we are very lucky.
So how did it all begin for tough love?
We were both in the same circuit for a long period of time then we got into the studio together, we had great chemistry when we were working on music and almost instantly hit it off so we decided to form Tough Love after 3-4 studio sessions and that was 2011 so a little while ago now.
What is it like being radio presenters as well as DJ’s?
At first it was really hard for the radio presenter side of things as we are both not the most confident on the microphones but we have been DJ’s for a long time so that comes second nature but radio presenting we got use to it, we’re more comfortable and yeah its good fun now and we are enjoying it a lot more than did initially and its nice and its gives us the chance to play records we wouldn’t necessary play in our own set because when we are playing as Tough Love we play a lot of our own music but there is so much good music out there, especially from British acts that we want to support on Kiss and that gives us a chance to do it now and talk about the artists and showcase their music.
What is it like playing in Ibiza and how is it different from playing a festival?
Ibiza is great, its just a hot sweaty club, real clubbers environment obviously full of holiday makers everyone is enjoying themselves out to party, so the parties get pretty wild, they get a bit crazy and definitely very hot. Festivals are great as well because there are a mass of people, like the crowds are a lot larger than normal club venues and the environment again everybody just wants to party and enjoy themselves but I think Ibiza is different to anywhere else in the world because people are musically intelligent when they are coming to see us at Red-light and they know their music, they know what they want to hear and when you play at festivals it’s a lot more open minded but it’s a real clubbers destination in Ibiza and its tiring as we don’t sleep but its amazing and we are really enjoying it this year.
Who is your biggest music influence?
This is one of the hardest questions we ever get asked, there are so many different factors, we grew up on a abundance of music from Rock to Pop to R&B and Hip-Hop we also loved Motown so we could never pinpoint 1 person to say that they have been out biggest influence but most of our records are R&B influenced so probably something from that era.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a career like yours?
Work very hard, believe in your dreams, your going to get so many knockbacks and you have just got to take it on the chin and keep going even when everyone around you kind of says its not going to happen but I think that most artists that end up having a break through will tell you it happens when you least expect it, it is when you are ready to shut the book and walk away and do something else because your at that point where you cant handle it anymore, you’ve just got to keep fighting through it and you’ve got to remember there are a million of other people that want to do the same job as you’ve got to make yourself better than them, your branding needs to be good , your hunger got to be good, you have got to be nice guys, all the guys we have met are absolute legends and have done it for ages and are lovely people and that’s why they are where they are so that would be my best advise.
Whose got the worst habits?
What out of us, Stef is the worst snorer ever, when we first started touring as Tough Love we couldn’t afford to have separate rooms, so we ended up having a twin bed and if I was really unlucky we would have a double but he is a phantom snorer and so the moment we could afford it I was like I’m out of there right now, that is the worst habit by miles and Alex when he is flying the slightest bump he is like ooohhhh.
What’s been your most embarrassing moments?
What as Tough Love, a few years ago we were playing a festival and there were some girls in the front row and one of them decided to give us a boob flash, it very rarely happens and I choose the worst moment in time to look down, Stef didn’t see it but we played a club gig 18 months later and this girl came up to us and said hey do you recognise me and I was like no sorry should we and then she said maybe your recognise my boobs, it was quite embarrassing, we walked out of there pretty fast.
What else do you have coming up this year?
We got loads of new music from ourselves, we are really focused on our label at the minute, loads of new music from some really good artists after Pony we got a few remixes, we done a remix for Alexa Goddard and another remix for Roger Sanchez, a couple of old garage records we are doing and then we have got a club record that we are going to drop September time called What you need is me and then we will start working towards our next single, so its kind of non stop right now, we’ve got a lot of album material together as well so we are just hitting the studio and just grafting away.
“Pony (Jump On It) (Feat. Ginuwine)” is available to pre-order on iTunes now http://po.st/YTPonyJumpOnIt
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