We welcome the northern duo to the interview series, Truth Be Told.

We spoke about how they first met, what we can expect from their music in the next coming months, how they motivate themselves when they are in the studio plus more!

Lets start with with talking about how you two met and how long have you two been a duo together? 

We’ve been making music since we where 16, 9 years ago! Back then we were really into UK Hardcore and Hard House and then onto Dutch House and finally matured into the Techno and House side of things.

I think it’s natural to go from one extreme to another and to dabble in different genres, We know loads of people who’ve taken the same path!

You’ve recently played alongside house legend Marshall Jefferson in Manchester. How did this make you two feel playing alongside someone so well established in the scene? 

It was a surreal moment to be fair, at first we thought it wouldn’t work. But looking and listening back to our music, the style all stems from the Jefferson era. Sampling and cutting sounds, chopping up vocals and bass-lines, its all relative! It’s what house music is!

We finally met Marshall on the night and he knew who we were before we’d even introduced ourselves. It left us speechless!

What can we expect to hear for your productions in the next couple of months? 

We have a remix out on Elrow Music for our good friend Jacky. That’s out next week (15th February.) Really excited about that one, the remix package is amazing!

On March (14th) we have a 4 track EP out on Resonance again with remixes from Jacky and the Vibe Killers, two acts who are absolutely smashing it at the minute! We’re currently finalising a date for a 3 track EP on Roush! Due for release around July!

Your stage name is ‘Truth Be Told’. Is there any hidden messages behind this and how did you decide on naming yourselves this?

There was a period where we was making tracks that didn’t quite fit the style of our last alias as we’d been attending nights that were strictly Techno and House.

We went about a year without an alias, going backwards and forwards with names and making these tracks that where really bass-line heavy. Back then there was a third member also called Tom.

With the initials of all of our names it spelt out T-B-T, an acronym for the saying ‘Truth Be Told.’ We found this very fitting as the music we were making was very true to us, as it felt we could do anything we wanted and not have to fit into a style or genre or having to use a certain high pitched, detuned saw sound.

What does your music production set up consist of?

Currently we have a pair of Yamaha monitors and a load of software. We have played with the idea on getting some hardware but once we’ve moved to a bigger space. We swear by our Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro headphones! These babies translate so well between the set-ups! They’re semi-open so every man and his dog can hear what you’re doing but, oh well!

Your debut EP received support from artists such as Richie Hawtin, Josh Butler and Bontan. What a way of breaking into the scene, but how did you get these tracks over to these well established artists? 

Bruce: Funny story actually, the artists picked these tracks up solely from Carpé Diem Musica’s promo pool. I was attending a festival in Croatia at the time, where Richie Hawtin was ending the week, last set of the festival. Tommy, who was at home

had noticed he’d given the usual, ‘downloaded for R-Hawtin’ on the promo feedback which was oblivious to me as I had zero internet connection. Next thing, I hear the intro of the track coming in on the b-side of the release. My mind went, 7 days with hardly any sleep (you can imagine my reaction)!

Josh Butler later picked up the release and supported it immediately and since then we’ve kept in touch, meeting up whenever we can!

Bontan then heard it from Josh and the story goes on. Its still getting plays to this day! Ministry of Sound recently released it on their Underground compilation which was crazy for us!

Early last year you released your track ‘Sonnen’ on Sante’s Avotre imprint. This track reached no.15 in the Beatport tech house charts, gaining support from artists such as Sidney Charles, Josh Butler, Bontan, Dale Howard, Raffa Fl, Max Chapman to name just a few… 

How did the link up with Sante take place? 

It was Sidney Charles who we met first at a gig we both played at in Chatham, Kent. We got speaking, exchanged emails and a few weeks later we’d sent it over. The promoter of the night attended a night Sidney was playing a few weeks later and the day after sending it over to Sidney he dropped it and it got a very large reaction! After that the guys wanted to sign it for their next VA release!

How does it make you two feel that your track reached no.15 in the charts from the whole of the world? 

It’s absolutely mental to think that! We’ve just found out it reached no. 2 best selling on the whole label on Beatport! It’s still getting plays to this day!

Any more recent talks with Sante for future releases in the pipeline? 

Yes, we’ve kept in touch with Santé and he’s eager for an EP off us, we’re currently working on some stuff at the moment!

When you get into the studio, the first thing you both do is… 

We get up Soundcloud and rummage through our likes. When we’re not together we listen to so much stuff online making sure we ‘like’ stuff we’re really into to listen to later. When we get together we have about a half an hour to an hour listening session and get some ideas and inspiration going! We think that’s a must before opening anything up on your computer!