Yesterday we had a quick catch up again with the Manchester based duo Versus. We caught up with them to see what they have been up to whilst being on Lockdown, how they keep their minds active throughout the day, what they have upcoming for the next few months plus so much more. We even got a mix from them too!

Hi boys how you doing?

Hey man, under the circumstances we’re great thanks

What have you been up to daily in the current state we are all in?

Trying to keep busy and active! Everyday feels like groundhog day! we never watch the news but we have it on daily checking if theres any updates on this lockdown and when large public gatherings (raves)  are back open…We have been mixing a lot, collecting new music (we’ve found some sick artists we never heard of before), listening to loads of sets, signing music, sorting remixes out and watching a sh*t load of series boxsets (Thanks Matty)

How do you stop boredom coming on whilst being on lockdown?

Working on Music, Playing Fifa, garden home workouts and face-timing our girlfriends Mollie & Laura.

Do you have any new music coming out in the next 3 months?

We do , we just signed something pretty big today actually, we will announce this very soon….we can not say yet but its big and we’re really excited about it.

Do you have any collaborations this year 

We have a handful this year, we haven’t worked with this ‘person’ and ‘persons’ before but we know them pretty well so the magic is flowing in the studio…we will send you a copy when we can!

From 2019, what was your biggest achievements? 

There’s been a couple….signing music to Armada Music (thanks Ben for lining that up and believing in us) that has been a record label we’ve wanted to sign music to for a while. Errrrr having Gorgon City sign us, they are incredible producers and have achieved so much, we met them backstage at Warehouse Project in their dressing room, they gave us some really good advice. Proper cool guys. There’s been a few but those two stand out

We’ve seen you are now running your own parties, how has that been going? Have the events been busy?

We run a monthly event at a club called Stage and Radio here in Manchester called ‘Vice Versa’, the venue is proper cool and has a really dark underground feel to it with a Funktion1 sound system. When we started out no promoter in Manchester would book us, we asked for sets and bookings and didn’t get a reply, so we know how hard it is for up and coming DJs to play, this is why we started it, to give them a platform to play on, each event we get a new up and coming dj to go on before us. we sell out each event…we’re really happy how the party is going.

Where do you see your parties this time next year?

Who knows…with everything thats happening in the music industry right now we have to plan it all around this and the restrictions.

Any new artist names to look out for for 2020?

There’s so many talented up and coming producers around the globe who send us music every week… Ones who really stand out to us are: Lost On Mars, Cowlin, Eldon, Macca, PagieYourBoy, Emma Knight, Ben Murphy, Decoded, Xereo Trouble, Pach, Alex twitchy, Archie B, Hako, Chapter & Verse, Dissolut, Costello, Sander, Abolengo Club, Flashback, Keef & Sandro, Havoc & Lawn, Benjermaine, Pyralis…f*ck me there’s too many to name! But we love what these lot are doing.

When working on your own productions, what is your favourite plugin to use and why?

We use SubBoom bass a lot, you can make insane basslines on it, also Sylenth is incredible too. If you haven’t got any hardware get these.

How was the Solardo party at the Albert Hall in Manchester?

Can we swear? UN-FUCKING-REAL….It was amazing to see Mark & James sell out the Albert Hall without them announcing any of the other DJs (thats how powerful the Solardo brand is)… It was a really strong lineup with Solardo, Us, Sosa & DEL30…we opened up and within 10 mins the venue was 90% full… The music was insane all night, everyone played amazing!

https://soundcloud.com/versus_music/versus-live-at-solardo-homecoming-show-manchester

What has been an item from the shops you have bought every time you have visited the shops whilst being on lockdown?

100% Biscuits, we have been eating so many biscuits ha ha! We might turn into one soon…

What do you think the best way of getting demo’s to record labels that don’t seem to listen to anything you send them?

Firstly most record labels will have their demo email on their Facebook page, click ‘about’ and 99% of the time you will find the record label demo email here….send them an email, write a little something about yourself with a private Soundcloud link, follow up with an email a couple of weeks later. Most record labels will take a few weeks to listen because they are so busy, be a little patient. Find out who the record label manager/A&R person is and try get a direct contract to them.

You recently played Source Bar right before the lockdown right, how was that? 

It was unreal…it was our first headline show outside of Manchester, we were a little nervous thinking would be busy, did people know who we were kinda thing! And wow it was a complete sell out, it was crazy!! It was our birthday weekend so the owner came into the DJ box half way through our set with a birthday cake and the whole club cheered and whistled… We love playing there and can’t wait to return once this virus has fu*ked off.

https://soundcloud.com/versus_music/versus-source-bar-mainroom