If you’ve ever wondered what DJs do, I am about to tell you. If you think it requires no talent and all they do is push some buttons, you have been misinformed.
Very popular DJ duo, the EC Twins, who are in fact real twins, are known for spinning house music. Hailing from the UK, Allister and Marc Blackham have been living in the US since 2005. Marc is the younger brother with a panty-dropper smile; Allister is the older wise-cracking spokesman of the two. EC stands for Eye Candy, a name of the club they worked at in Scotland as flyer boys at age 16. Bantering with a keen sense of humor, I’m still not sure if their story of doing odd jobs off Craigslist and Home Depot when first moving to LA is true.
Hit songs include: remixes of Adele, Enrique Iglesias, and LMFAO. Typically the twins alternate between producing one original song and one remix. When remixing a song, they don’t need permission. However they won’t get paid royalties, even if it’s a huge hit. “Every time they [Sirius] played [our remix of Adele’s “Someone like you”], she got paid, not us,” Marc chimes in.
Not motivated by money or girls, their loftiest goal is to “make electronic music huge and be recognized and given respect that we worked our asses off.”
“That’s the difference between us and a lot of other DJs. A lot of other DJs who are amazing sort of know their set before they get to the club. But we don’t even know the first song we’re gonna play!”Allister proudly touts.
First they survey the crowd.
“Well if you have a lot of girls, and I think our shows are fairly girl heavy, then you’re probably gonna have to play more vocals.”
“Reading the crowd, connecting with the crowd– that’s the art. We see what they react to.”
“If you play too dumb, then you bore the crowd, it’s like listening to the radio. If you play too clever, you’ll lose the crowd. It all just starts to sound like beats to them.”
“You’ve weirded them out. Just when you hit the stage that it’s too weird, drop a big one. You start to clear your dance floor, if it’s too hard for them, or if it’s something that we know is gonna be a hit, but they’re not with it yet. If we see gaps coming on the dance floor, then we fill the gap. When the gap’s full, we push them [off the dance floor] again.”
Easily filling huge Vegas venues that hold a wide audience spectrum, they walk a “tightrope.” There’s the crowd paying for high dollar tables who may want to hear accessible stuff [mainstream, radio] and the crowd on the dance floor who may want to hear underground [obscure, independent]. Making everyone happy is a skill. It’s their art.
Perfectionism persists, when asked how they measure their own performances. I’m surprised to hear their reply in twin-sync unison: “we always feel horrible. There’s so much more in my head. The people that hire us need to be happy, the crowd needs to be happy. We don’t need to be happy.”
EC Twins perform January 19, 10 p.m. at Sangria, Hermosa Beach.
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