Kevin Murphy and Danny Cullen make up Northern Irish duo Tucandeo. They exploded onto the trance scene when they released their first production in 2009 and since then have been making quite a name for themselves. Their success has gone from strength to strength with an impressive catalogue of releases and remixes already under their belt. They have gained massive support from huge artists like Markus Schulz, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk and Aly & Fila to name but a few.
I recently had to opportunity to catch up with Tucandeo to chat about new releases, their radio show, forthcoming gigs and more……
Hi guys thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for me today for Pumped Audio. How are you?
Hi Charlene. Yes we are great, looking forward to the summer and festival season. Thanks for having us for an interview.
How have things changed for Tucandeo since we last interviewed you in 2010?
Things are great; they feel a little more comfortable now in 2012. I think before we were trying so hard to get where we wanted to be, things were really hectic. Signing up with Audio Religion management was a big help at the beginning of 2011 and took a lot of the pressure off us on the gig front so we could actually concentrate more on the music.
Your music career is going from strength to strength. Your remix of Marc Simz – Forbidden City was featured in 10 Must Hear Trance Tracks on Beatport. Markus Schulz regularly features your tracks in his top 20 on Beatport and on his weekly Global DJ Broadcast show………. That is quite an achievement?
Yeah we were really happy that everyone loved the remix. To see our tracks in the charts is always a great feeling because you know that people are listening and appreciating your sound. The original track was such a big hit in our live sets, we were buzzing when Black Hole asked us to work with the it for the remix package.
Yes indeed the support from Markus (Schulz) is amazing. We think he has supported close to every one of our tracks in either his live sets or on the Global DJ Broadcast which really is a dream come true, we are truly grateful for everything he and the Coldharbour family have done for us.
You are offering a free track when you reach 5000 likes on Facebook. Do you think it is a necessity in today’s society for artists to give away free tracks?
Yes, we have given our fans the chance to receive a copy of an unreleased track of our own which they will have heard in our monthly show “In Sessions”
We think that it would be nice for the people who have shown us support to receive a free track of our own as a small token of appreciation.
You have been busy in the studio recently and have released some amazing tracks & remixes. Can you tell us more about your forthcoming productions? Have you any plans for an album?
At the moment things have been pretty hectic in the studio with lots (and we mean lots) of new exciting projects that we haven’t shared to the world just yet. You can expect at least a couple of exciting vocal projects and big room material as well as some remixes on the menu. We’ve already started to test drive a couple of new ones in the clubs and they are getting some nice reactions which we are really pleased about.
Exclusive Preview of Behind The Sunset – Chameleon (Tucandeo Remix) [Arisa Audio]
I believe there was an interesting story behind the offer to remix ‘Ultraviolet’ by Solarstone?
Oh yeah for sure, It’s a cool story this one. We both are huge fans of Solarstone, of course they are pioneers of the genre with tracks like Seven Cities, The Calling & Solarcoaster from years ago. We had the whole back catalogue of the vinyl releases of their work except one track, “Solarstone – Spektrum” from the “Rain Stars Eternal album”. One of our girlfriends found this out and emailed Solaris Recordings about getting a signed copy of it to complete the collection and when we got it from the Solarstone studio and it was signed we were totally amazed. So we mailed Richard Mowatt (Solarstone) thanking him for the copy and got chatting and he offered remixing duties for the track Ultraviolet on his new Touchstone album which is out now. Its got some great support and been played twice on Markus Schulz’ Global DJ Broadcast which was nice. We’re glad you guys like it.
Tucandeo have released big tracks and remixes on: Armada, Coldharbour, Magic Island, Black Hole and Infrasonic. That’s quite an achievement, tell us what it’s like when you find out that labels as big as these are signing your tracks?
This was really quite a surreal feeling once we managed to reach this point as both of us always had dreams for such things. I also think once we started to get our tracks signed to such labels it really gave us a boost even in the studio since you know that the labels appreciate what your producing and give the track a rightful home.
You have 3 local events coming up – Lush with Ferry Corsten & Aly & Fila on 2nd June, Beach Club, Odyssey Arena alongside W & W on 29th June and the LIPS Jammin’ The Park Festival Live & Loud on 11th August. Can you tell us more about them? In your opinion how do events in N Ireland differ from your UK and International gigs?
Of course we always look forward to playing at home, playing to the Home crowd and it’s amazing because our friends are able to come along to support us. Being from Northern Ireland, playing at home is great as afterwards when people want a chat they are able to understand you. Though when we are abroad sometimes the accent can throw people so we have to talk slower and annunciate more. It’s all good though, after a few post set beers everyone is talking the same language anyway haha!
Really looking forward to the gigs at home in the coming months. We’re just back from headlining a night in Dublin which was cool, we’ve wanted to play there for a while now so it was nice to get some tasty Guinness on the trip.
On the 2nd June we’re playing for a mega night in Lush, Portrush alongside trance legend Ferry Corsten and also Aly & Fila. There’s been a lot of talk about this one with Ferry’s new album WKND out in stores now and its shaping up to be a big night.
Then on the 29th June in the Beach Club, Odyssey Arena we’re on the bill alongside W & W for a recently launched night called Dirty Digital which has been going from strength to strength and is shaping up to be possibly the biggest trance night in Belfast in the coming year so definitely try to get down to this one.
Towards the end of the summer season for our home gigs we are scheduled to play at a festival in Larne called LIPS “Jammin In The Park”. We’re super excited about this as the line up is very diverse with all genres of music catered for, headlining the festival is Hip Hop legend Grand Master Flash so it’s definitely going to be a day/night to remember and all proceeds go to charity which is always a great thing.
Congratulations on the success of your radio show ‘In Sessions’ on After Hours Fm. What is the thinking behind having your own show? Is it to showcase what you play as DJs, or give us a deeper insight into what makes Tucandeo tick?
Thanks very much! We were really excited about starting the show at the beginning of 2011. Getting our sound out there and use it as a platform to showcase our new tracks and tracks that have went down well in the clubs at our gigs. We like to play tracks that we think people may not have heard before and from upcoming artists who we are really digging. We are always on the hunt for new talent & love to support these guys as although we are a relatively new act ourselves we have worked really hard to get a foothold onto the scene and love to help people to get to where we are.
In Sessions is now 1 year old which we are really pleased about. The year has flown in and we have met so many cool people through the station. Recently due to all the requests for extending the show & the support we have gained over the last year, Afterhours granted us a 2 hour show which was nice. So Plans for developing the show are well under way and we have been experimenting over the past couple of months with what we can do & where we can take the show in 2012. We have been introducing some guest mixes from artists that 1. Represent our style and 2. Artists who we really like. Artento Divini ,Eco , Nifra & Basil O’Glue have been the first run of artists that have appeared on the show and we have a lot more lined up for future episodes which we think you guys will like.
You also had the opportunity to feature a special guest mix on Kiss FM Australia. Can you tell us more about it and if this will be regular feature?
Ahh yes we were offered the chance to guest on KissFM in Australia, this was a big honour as we know how well established the station is. In October last year we headlined a couple of gigs in Ukraine and on the first night after much much travelling to get to the first gig we had an interview scheduled for KissFM Ukraine in Kiev, they were very welcoming and a pleasure to work with so we were looking forward to doing some stuff for KissFM Australia.
We get quite a lot of emails from Australian fans so we were thinking there would be a lot of people listening who were after that deep dark Tucandeo sound so we showcased alot of our own material on the guest mix. You can check it out along with all our other guest mixes and full In Sessions on our Mixcloud account at www.mixcloud.com/Tucandeo
In previous interviews you talked about planning to experiment more under your ‘Storyline‘ alias which features more Balearic sounds as well as showing diversity and something different from the sounds of “Tucandeo”. Have you been continuing to produce under this alias or has your attention been more on Tucandeo? Have you any plans for future side projects or has ‘Tucandeo‘ and ‘Storyline‘ been enough to focus on?
We have been keeping the Tucandeo project our priority for now but will be getting back on track with our “Storyline” project shortly again as it’s been quite some time since we have worked on something here but it’s definitely coming, Keep your ears to the ground.
There is currently a Gatecrasher campaign on Facebook by asking “A few weeks ago we asked you what genres of music would you like to see more of at Gatecrasher Birmingham. With House and Trance coming out on top, we now want to know WHO you want to see”. Would this be a dream gig for you? How can readers get involved and vote for you?
I think it would certainly be in our list of places to play as Gatecrasher has always been a much respected organization in the scene. If you would like to see us playing you can vote here and hopefully we’ll catch you up the front https://www.facebook.com/questions/10150979210069517/
You have attended many clubs and festivals in the UK, Ireland and Worldwide both as DJ’s and clubbers. Which club or festival would be your favourite to play at as DJs and also as a clubber and why?
As DJs I think we would probably say that Ministry of Sound in London would be one of the top clubs that we have been to that we would love to play in. The soundsystem is kicking in the main room and it goes on until 6 or 7 am which is always cool. Also heard alot about Zouk Club in Malaysia as it has some amazing decor & the booth looks really nice and has all the top equipment to play with.
For festivals I think we would aspire to play at either Ultra Music Festival or Miami Winter Music Conference (WMC). As clubbers ,hmmm we are fond of an underground rave, dark atmosphere with great music & great people. We played in a club in Leeds, England named Stinkys Peephouse for a club night called Forward and the vibe of the club was great, quite an intimate club with lots of rooms and really friendly people, people you can connect with. Met loads of cool people that night and thats what the scene is all about for us.”
What other artists have been influencing your work this year? Are there any that would surprise us?
We would both listen to all styles of music for inspiration, I think artists such as Pink Floyd, Hans Zimmer, Markus Schulz, Paul Oakenfold, Solarstone and (of course) The Spice Girls have always been a great inspiration
to us.
You are known to produce and remix trance tracks but If you could remix any track from any genre, what track would you choose and why?
This question’s pretty tough to narrow down to one song but tracks from artists like Guns N Roses, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Deftones, Linkin Park and of course Hans Zimmer would be names who we would love to remix.
It’s been a busy year for you this year! Is it all work and no play? When was the last time you had a weekend off from DJing / production & how did you spend your time off?
Yes of course, we are both very active people , we are busy most of the time working of things but when we do have some free time we do different things such as swimming, going to the gym etc. At home in Belfast there is a large country park overlooking the city called Cavehill, we both grew up near each other at the foot of this hill and people from the area love to climb it to see the great view of the city, its a nice break from city life and it can be very inspirational.
What would you say has been the best bit of advice given to you since you started your career?
Hmm wow there are lots of good pieces of advice we have been given over the last couple of years, some of the best ones we think would be:
1. Don’t give up – Failure is not an option.
2. Network – With computers & the internet things have very much changed on the dance scene.
3. Always be yourself – Don’t let the industry change you.
4. Enjoy It.
Have you any exclusives that you can tell us at Pumped Audio? Any new releases or big gigs confirmed in the next couple of months?
To our Russian fans, we look forward to seeing you soon.
What can we expect from Tucandeo in 2012?
Our plans for 2012 , there are many! We would like to continue on the track that we are on at the moment more tracks, more gigs & everything in between. Check out our website and follow us on all the networking sites for updates and recent goings on, maybe some free tracks on our Facebook Page in due course & we hope you can tune in to In Sessions the first Monday of every month on Afterhours.fm to see what we are currently playing.
Do you have a message for your fans?
We would like to say a huge thank you to our fans & family for the support over the past couple of years it’s been really amazing. It blows us away the lengths that some of them travel to see us, you guys know who you are. Also a thank you for all the supportive emails and messages everyone sends in, it’s nice to know people out there are listening and enjoying the music with us. We hope to see you guys soon.
Finally, do you have anything forthcoming that you would like to tell Pumped Audio readers about?
Thanks for having us. Yeah a couple of things: make sure you listen out for our track:-
“In A Moment” which will be coming very soon on Infrasonic Recordings complete with remixes from a big favourite of ours Eco and also Andy Tau so it is going to be a very nice package altogether. The track has been licensed from the Danny Boyles blockbuster movie 28 Days Later and is set to be abig one for us in the coming months.Also, a reminder that we will be giving away a free track at 5000 likes on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/Tucandeoofficial. We are already over 4000 so not long to go.
We hope to see you all soon and thanks very much for all the continued support we couldn’t be doing it without you.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:-
http://www.myspace.com/Tucandeo
http://www.mixcloud.com/Tucandeo/
http://www.twitter.com/Tucandeo
http://www.Audioreligion.co.uk
You can catch Tucandeo on Afterhours FM 6 year anniversary on 1st June.
