An Irish duo based in Waterford, consisting of Davin Coady and Geoff Foley, formed from their mutual passion and love for electronic music. Meeting at local nights, such as RePublik Music, Esoteric and The Club Sessions in Waterford, they instantly clicked and decided to work together.
Starting with a debut EP on RePublik Music Recordings which includes a stunning remix from Innervisions/Maeve artist Aera, and a following EP out on Galaktika Records, the lads have gone on to release music on labels such as, Engrave Ltd the notorious Italian label run by Musumeci & Dodi Palese, No Way Records, Addicted Music, Dance Artifakts & Perce.
We sat down with Between Ourselves to talk about their latest release on Dance Artifakts titled ‘It’s Been A While’.
Electronic Groove: Hi guys and welcome to EG. First of all, we want to congratulate you on your release ‘It’s Been a While’ on Dance Artifakts. What can you tell us about the production and inspiration behind it?
Between Ourselves: Hey guys, thanks very much for having us! We’re super excited for our first release on Dance Artifakts. We are also delighted that you guys wanted to show the music some love. What inspired the tracks was us not making music together for a little while, we both felt a short break was needed. After that, we came back to the studio and ‘It’s Been A While’ the title track from the EP was the product of a short studio jam. We knew straight away we were onto something. We then continued working on some older projects, which were started in 2017 and they evolved into the other tracks ‘She Goes On’ and ‘That’s The Way She Goes’ which we felt balanced the release.
Electronic Groove: The EP has a couple of remixes. Can you elaborate on the artist selection and how they handled the vision of the original tracks?
Between Ourselves: We had sent the tracks around to some close friends for a listen and to try gain some feedback. We were delighted to find out two of our closest pals Wayne Duggan and Anthony Georges Patrice were interested in remixing ‘It’s Been A While’. This is something we were super excited about as they are two amazing producers, we knew they would take it to the next level.
We feel Wayne has taken the original vibe of the track and has brought it to an even darker level, for those moodier settings in the club. And Anthony has totally flipped things around with his beautiful Sonnenallee Groove. We really weren’t expecting his remix to be such a contrast from the original, but we were ecstatic to hear what he had done. Both artists really came through on their part. We cannot thank them enough for their time and support.
Electronic Groove: What do you think is the hardest part of doing a remix?
Between Ourselves: Worrying about what the original artist will think, or what the record label thinks. You want to have people believe in your music, so it’s important that they like what they hear.
“You want to have people believe in your music, so it’s important that they like what they hear”
EG: What would you say are some key techniques to produce a track that has the necessary punch and intensity to become dancefloor hit?
Between Ourselves: This is a tricky question; it depends on the style of music and the crowd that you’re playing to also. For us, our idea of a dancefloor whopper has punchy drums, edgy synths & heavy rolling basslines. You can achieve intensity by using effects, automation, and different mixing techniques too. We just take our own approach like every other artist, we sit together, bounce ideas off each other. If we like the track we’re working on, we will continue to work on it if we feel it has potential or if we just really vibe with it.
EG: How did the connection with Dance Artikafts happen? Did the label play any role in the direction of the EP?
Between Ourselves: We first met Terron (Darby), the label owner in Berlin while visiting our good friends at the Somewhere in The Distance Festival. Neil Flynn played for us at one of our Esoteric parties in Waterford, and asked us would we be interested in opening the festival. We were stoked as this was our first gig outside of Ireland, this opened up many doors for us. It was then we met Terron and his partner Lex. We danced and talked about music and kept in contact with each other afterward.
Terron got in touch with us and was interested in hearing our work. He then released some of Davin’s music as Akari, and asked us to remix Nomad In The Dark’s ‘Hiding Place’ also released on Dance Artifakts. As we solidified our connection with the label, we sent him the tracks we were working on which he loved and wanted to put out. From day one of meeting Terron he has been supporting us and our music and is doing what he can to get our music out there (Much love amigo <3).
EG: Do you have any favorites from the Dance Artifakts catalog?
Between Ourselves: To be honest, every release on the label has been f***ing amazing. All individual artists that have released on the label are super talented and we are glad to be working alongside them. It’s great to see so many of our good friends releasing music on a label that’s close to our hearts.
EG: How about your plans for the coming season? Do you have any gigs you are looking forward to or any new productions to close out the year?
Between Ourselves: As of right now everything is quiet, we have some tracks in the works that we need to finish. The foundations are all there, but the finishing touches have yet to be made. We hope next year to get back on the road and play some gigs, both in Ireland and abroad.
“It’s great to see so many of our good friends releasing music on a label that’s close to our hearts”
EG: Tell us about the state of the scene in your local town. Are there any new clubs of festivals coming out?
Between Ourselves: As of now in our local town Waterford, there are two main clubs running the dance music scene. Altogether Now Festival and Konnect Festival are the most recent festivals to pop up close to our town. They both display a great range of electronic music and more.
EG: As part of the industry, do you like its current state and what would you like to see improvements in the coming years?
Between Ourselves: Like every industry, there are politics involved. We try just to have fun and focus on the music. We try not to get caught up in the social media side too much, in regard to status and popularity. It’s all about the music at the end of the day. Once the music is good, people are dancing and enjoying themselves that’s all that matters
EG: Tell us about working as a duo. How do you complement each other?
Between Ourselves: Davin has been djing and producing music for quite some time now, Geoff has been djing and running events for the last number of years so the experience from both of us combined helps us decide what will work and what won’t work as we are making a track. Over the past 4 years, we have discovered different ways of working together and complementing each other in the studio, learning our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to production or djing. We give each other feedback on everything which helps us support each other as individual artists as well as working together as Between Ourselves.
EG: Can you share with us three of your favorite tracks on rotation?
Between Ourselves: At the moment, these are three tracks we’ve been playing a lot. It’s hard to pick three tracks as there are so many beauties out there to choose from but recently, we’ve been playing these three a lot:
1. Dean Grenier – Flowers,
2. Kev Sheridan – Before The Flood
3. Eagles & Butterflies Ft. Coloray – Can’t Stop
Between Ourselves’ ‘It’s Been A While’ will be out September 20th. Get your copy here.
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