Cally & Juice - My Year In Hard Dance

What's been your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting booked by Q-Dance to play to 10,000 on the main stage of Qontinent in Belgium last summer. It was absolutely awesome!

What moments will you never forget?

It has to be playing Qontinent again. Our set was in the middle of the day, the main stage was outdoor and it was raining so we wern't sure how our set was going to go down. As it turned out it was one of our favourite sets of all time. The crowd were bloody amazing and packed out the main stage for the whole set. We were having so much fun there, we actually turned down the ride to our beautiful 4 star hotel and camped out in the pouring rain with a bunch of lads who had driven 12 hours from Wales and the South West to come and see us play. Best laugh ever!

Who's been your favourite newcomer of the year?

This has got to be down to two DJ’s. Firstly D-Grove. He is not only the nicest bloke in the world.com, but he’s also a friggin’ genius on the decks. Darren doesn’t copy anyone with his musical style. His excellent music production ensures that a D-Grove set doesn’t sound like anyone else, thanks in the main to his excellent music writing skills. Remember the name, you’ll be hearing a lot more of it. The second person we have to mention is Toxic. Co-writer of 'Bomb the Bass', ‘nuff said! Paul is a full on lover of Hardstyle, with a wicked sense of humour and a genuinely fantastic personality. It’s really difficult to break into a scene at the moment but, if anyone can, Paul Toxic can. Good luck amigo!

Who's been the artist of the year for you?

It has to be Frisky. She has accompanied us to almost every gig for the past 9 years and has watched and learned the whole time. She is an awesome DJ and probably the most naturally talented we’ve ever seen. In 9 years of watching her play we’ve never seen her make a single mistake. In fact, one time, when her headphones packed in during the middle of a mix she went to her record bag to fetch a new pair of headphones, whilst still keeping the mix going, chopping and filtering all the way through. For almost a minute she was without headphones and still kept the mix going. That demonstrates a ridiculous level of skill. If you’ve ever DJ’d you know how almost impossible that is. Respect to you Frisky, you’re a bloody legend!!!

What's been your favourite label of the year?

We're ashamed to say we don't know, lol. We get many promos direct from the DJs/producers, and unlike the days of vinyl where the label was all important, now when we're sent promos via a download link, there is rarely artwork or full details of the label. However this year we have been very proud of the releases on our 'Ourstyle' label, not just our own but releases we've hand-picked from some very talented artists, both big and up and coming. Bionic Digital has also been up there with the best of them, being very consistent and releasing some amazing tracks that we've supported in our sets. You can guarantee that both these labels will continue to leave their mark on the scene in 2012.

What do you think has been the best track of the year?

It's always hard to pick out 1 single track as our favourite of the year, as we've had many we've loved and heavily supported. If we had to choose 1 then we could say it was Francesco Zeta 'Superstyle'. We'd also say Francesco has been one of our favourite producers this year. Not only is his 'Superstyle' track completely original, but the style of it is very different and has paved the way for many other producers to write similar hardstyle that's not as hard as the rest. Although we love the harder sound, this year more than any, in our opinion the music has had a much broader range, with producers daring to be different rather than all follow the same sound. This has had a huge impact on the variety of music on offer, and for us has probably meant it's been one of the strongest years musically for hardstyle.

What's been your favourite event of the year?

It would have to be Qontinent (read our first 3 answers above). For the best club event we'd have to say Bionic. Not any particular Bionic event one, absolutely any one of them. This is still the best clubbing night out the UK has to offer and the atmosphere at every single event is completely off the hook!

What's the funniest thing that's happened to you?

This is a tough one to narrow down. We’re very lucky because unlike most DJs who have to spend the weekends on their own driving up and down the country, we have the advantage of being a duo with Shocker, Natski and often Frisky Along for the ride. As we’ve all been friends for so many years, we all have one hell of a laugh most weekends. If we have to choose one funny moment, we’d have to say, once again, Qontinent in Belgium, although there was no single funny moment in particular, once we'd played our set, it was just one funny moment after another. It was such a compliment to have people travel all the way from the UK to support us and spending the night drinking in a lop-sided tent with the UK contingency (Bickiford, Lee Mushrooms, Rats and the rest of the crew), it was a bloody brilliant weekend. They will remain our friends for life.

What do you have planned for the next year?

This year we've spent a lot of time in the studio, not just writing but improving our sound. We are definitely going to continue working harder than ever for the next 12 months learning more so we can get our productions to a new higher level. Expect lots more releases from us, and from other great artists on our Ourstyle label. We'll also continue giving 110% in every DJ set so if you get the opportunity, come check us out.

« Back