Terminal V Podcast 073 || Disfreq

Disfreq is a brotherly duo that loves acid, hardware and raw drums. Whether making  dark techno or harder styles they bring inescapable energy to all they do. The pair hails from Donegal in Ireland but have made a global mark with their diverse releases on the likes of Diynamic, Turbo Recordings and Siamese and bring an innate understanding of the dance floor to whichever DJ booths they play in.

Their underground sounds have topped plenty of charts and picked up millions of streams but Disfreq admit here that they would always rather innovate than repeat themselves. They also speak about their love of studio gear, Ireland’s reputation for going hard and reveal details of their own new label.

 

 

How and when did you first meet and why did you decide to work together?

We’re brothers and because of our shared passion for electronic music and production, growing up in the same house hold it made sense that we work together!

Who does what? Does each of you bring a different skill set to the partnership or are you both of similar tastes and skills?

This can vary from each track to the next, sometimes one of us can come up with a melody, sometimes one can find a vocal sample or lay down a drum sequence, luckily our taste and opinions on how the tracks should sound and be laid out are usually the same, it’s very rare that we are in disagreement about a track.

And when you DJ, how does it work? Strictly one each back-to-back or?

We play strictly back to back each set, for us that’s the most fun experience!

How long did it take for you to really understand each other in the booth?

This came very naturally being brothers we can basically communicate by looking at each other at this point.

Irish crowds and parties have a reputation for going harder than most. Is that fair, and why do you think that is?

Irish crowds are great and really up for it, I think the harder stuff is more popular at the minute in Ireland, but people do like all genres of electronic music here, be it house, tech house, techno or hard techno. I do believe that all genres go here in Ireland!

You’ve had chart-topping singles, high profile support from big-name DJs and picked up over a million streams for some of your singles. Does that success feedback into the creative process? Does it mean you find yourselves having to repeat the trick or would you rather try and innovate and serve up something different even if it wasn’t as well received?

We always try and innovate and try not to get too bogged down on what worked for us in the past. We always try to do us no matter what is in style or what is in fashion regarding genres. It’s a longer road but it’s ours! Having your music be played all over the world definitely helps motivate us even more in the studio it’s amazing to see.

Tell us about your mix, the aim you had with it, and what you wanted it to say.

This mix is Disfreq in its purest form, mainly all of our own tracks released and unreleased. The aim is to spread awareness of our sound and hope that people enjoy listening to it as much as we love making it.

What gear did you use, is that important to you in any way whether in the booth or studio?

As you know we are studio heads so the gear we use is very important to us, we are kind of obsessed with sound design and it has served us well. In the beginning we would spend so much time layering weak sounds together to try make them sound strong. Now days we spend a few hours making 1 sound exactly the way we want it.

What are you working on now and for the rest of the year, what have you got coming up that’s exciting you?

We are very excited to announce we’re starting our own label this October. It’s something we both feel very passionate about and can’t wait to debut the first EP on the label! Other than that we have some very special collabs coming up also!

 

Interview by Kristan Caryl