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When two longtime friends team up to make techno even though they no longer live in the same country, you know something special is happening. Both members of Night Movers were brought up in Toronto, but at some point the pull of the Big Apple was too much for one of them to deny. While the other stayed behind, they continued their friendship and eventually began making music together.

Their brand of techno is exactly what you’d expect to hear in a downtown warehouse at 4am. Thick, heavy percussion, dark, throbbing basslines and nasty synth stabs are all common themes in their music, the kind of stuff that makes you forget that the world outside even exists. This is the kind of music that keeps your head bobbing long after the party has ended.

They have both spent many years in the industry, having committed themselves to a life of creating, spinning and promoting underground music. While techno is part of the foundation of electronic music, it doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. Night Movers have arrived to make sure that the newest generation of ravers and clubbers are well aware that, before the glitz and glamour of the mainstage, there was techno—and it’s still good.

What are your goals for 2016?
Creating a unique experience with our productions and sets is very important, and we are constantly educating and exposing ourselves to all types of music and production techniques. In fact, this year is special for us, because we are launching a new brand and our own record label. “Night Movers” initially began as a project—an experiment, rather—one that allowed us to produce a different style of music than we were used to making. We wanted to dive deep into the dark and groovy sound that we had been listening to. The experiment went very well, and the response to what we were doing under the Night Movers brand was fantastic and inspired us to keep going and push our limits further, until we really honed our sound and had productions we were happy with. Because of that, we have decided to launch a label and our new brand, which we cannot disclose just yet. We are hoping to officially launch and announce it early 2016. We are very excited to share some of the newest tracks we have been working on, so keep and eye and an ear out for the announcements that are sure to come over the next month or so.

What is your favorite track right now?
It’s a very difficult task for us to pick one song specifically to label our favorite. There is simply an abundance of great music coming out. We have been thoroughly enjoying the track “They Say Nothing” by Chus & Ceballos. It’s really exceptional and has worked very well in the clubs. Really groovy and sexy.

What are your favorite things to use the studio?
Some of our preferred VSTs have been Massive by Native Instruments, as well as Sylenth from Lennar Digital—great go-to VSTs to get some of our early ideas down quick, due to the saved presets we build and experiment with. We have also been sampling drums from Roland’s TR-8. It’s a very cool drum machine combining Roland’s legendary 808 and 909.

What is your dream label to work with?
This year, our goal is to work with Intec Digital. We read an article about Intec, and they really like to let the artists they sign create a unique and different style. Intec isn’t a sound-specific label; you can’t really pin them to any one sound. They do not have a specific mold records must conform to in order to work with them, but of course the tracks have to be of great quality and work. But the fact that they are so versatile and really allow the artist to fully express their ideas is very appealing to us. Intec’s releases are highly anticipated by us and many others for this reason, we believe.

If you could be sponsored by any company, who would it be?
Native Instruments. We have been huge fans of what that company is doing for a long, long time, and we have also had the pleasure of buying and using many of their products in our music, from hardware to software. Those guys are up to some really cool stuff at NI, and we are always in a state of anticipation of what they will do next. Educating ourselves on the products they offer is exciting and rewarding, and that’s why we feel so strongly about that company. We feel they are continually shaping the way DJs do what they do.

What has been the biggest factor that has propelled your career thus far?
Of course, playing at Electric Forest in 2015 was great for us. It was the biggest festival we have played in the two years working together as Night Movers. Also, we got hooked up with the record label Funk’n Deep. They signed a lot of our music in 2015 and really helped expose some of the new experimental tracks we were making. We also released a track on Hi-Bias, Canada’s biggest dance music label. It did quite well on the Traxsource and Beatport charts. We were in the top 20 and remained on the chart in the 20s for quite some time, which also helped with exposure.

Is there a specific person you show your tracks to before they hit the market?
When we have some new tracks finished, we generally let our friends hear them when we are all in the studio together. We love to have many people over to our studio in Long Island, NY, to hang out, talk music and showcase the new stuff we are making at the time. From there, we will test them out in a set or a podcast.

At what point did you realize this was more than just a hobby?
We realized music wasn’t a hobby for us quite quickly, but at different times. George has been playing in Toronto nightclubs and touring in Greece since his early 20s, and I began my musical journey in Toronto in 2006 when I started spinning classic hip-hop and house on vinyl for my friends at house parties and local clubs. After that, I started listening to techno and tech house and was really impressed with where those styles were going. I began producing tech house records myself and really devoted myself to developing my music. I even packed up my stuff in Toronto and moved to NYC and studied music production at Dubspot, a fantastic school in Manhattan specializing in modern music education. Although George and I weren’t working together during this time, we were still making music successfully and took it seriously. George is also the former owner of a Toronto-based record label called 6N7 Music, and he in fact signed some of my first records way back. We became great friends and became label partners eventually. This is when we began to develop a new sound together and formed the underground duo Night Movers to share our new ideas and tracks with people.

What has been your most memorable gig?
Electric Forest. We sent in one of our new tracks along with a studio set we played, and we got invited to come and play. It was exciting for us, because the event was the biggest we had been a part of. The experience was first-class. We were treated very well, and the crowd was one of the best we had the pleasure of playing for. They really enjoyed the show, and so did we.

Club show, underground rave, or festival—choose one.
If we had to choose between a club, festival or underground rave, I think we would choose the club; some clubs have incredible sound, vibes, and dedicated patrons. We have always enjoyed playing in some of the legendary clubs found in many great cities across the globe—sadly, some that no longer stand, but the memories and experiences we had there last a lifetime!

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