Hailing from Southern France, Amine Edge & DANCE, mining the musical spectrum and taking inspiration from early House, Philli Funk, 80’s Hip-House and everything in between, Amine Edge & DANCE bring their own cross-genre blend of Tech and House to clubs and festivals across the globe. Having enjoyed a meteoric rise, the CUFF label bosses have now cemented themselves as the leaders of their genre and the go-to guys for the best dressed parties in town!
Not content with just being DJs, the duo are also skilled producers and can regularly be found riding high in the the top charts. Their undeniable ear for a catchy hook and a knack of crafting moody, future-facing club edits is evident in their versions of Frank Ocean’s ‘Lost’ and the Notorious B.I.G-sampling ‘Going To Heaven With The Goodie-Goodies‘ – two tracks that show the breadth of their musical influences and their biggest ‘hands-in-the-air’ hits to date. With a slew of new releases being lined up and their label, CUFF – a collective of artists much more talented than most – going from strength to strength and making its mark as a musical movement all of its own.
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Audio Bullys - first new music in 12 yearsI caught up briefly with the duo whilst on their way to Miami Music Week as well as their forthcoming show at SW4 Festival
Thanks guys for taking time out of your busy schedule, how have you been?
Very good! Thanks for having us. As we speak we’re answering these questions on a flight from Paris to Miami – it’s going to be hectic there as we have 7 gigs!
The 2019 season is really starting to take off now that winter has past, is there anything you are looking forward to this year?
Of course SW4, but also Warung in Brazil, Studio 338 in April, the Defected Festival, our residency at Eden Ibiza, Hideout and our first Argentinian tour.
Amine, you come from a house background and Dance, you come from more of a Hip Hop background, how did you both meet and was it always with the intention of merging both your passions to create (and be champions) of G House?
We’ve been friends for more than 18 years now and just started making music together one day for fun. It was incredible and we’ve never stopped since that day. G-House was a brand that we created with pure innocence, it’s more à joke than anything else. We weren’t happy about having our music in Deep House or Indie Dance categories so we came up with the name Gangsta House haha.
My first time I came across you both was by chance at Fusion Festival (Germany) in 2013 where I got to hear you both play, the similarities to 2ManyDJs or Stanton Warriors was uncanny, a blend of samples, breaks, funk, house rolled into one. How do you find your sound has developed or matured since then?
We believe that the receipt is still the same and that means that we have no strategy – we make beats and we try to make music that moves us in the studio, which can sometimes confuse our fans because we make all types of music, while other producers focus on one type and try to rock it. We have releases on Desolat and Defected and we also produce Hip Hop for rappers! We can’t choose, it’s like food, we can’t eat the same thing over and over again, there’s so much good food out there.
With the (thankful) demise of EDM, how has your sound been received in the US?
Well for the underground community EDM was a drama and now people says it’s falling apart, but it’s just evolving to another sub genre with less trance synths but still the same energy. Their vlal is House but we don’t agree – that’s just a normal evolution. A genre can’t stay on top forever, our music had become a bit more underground and more loopy and groovy and some people love our evolution and some don’t and we’re OK with that. They still call our music G-House no matter what we do!
You both have a great relationship with Defected Records, a funny story once of Sam Divine quite drunk on stage with you asking to play Good Time every minute then when you played it, she was in the toilet, how is it to be embraced by such a family like Defected and Simon Dunmore?
You are totally right when you say a family, it really is a family and they have adopted us with big love and we’re so grateful. Simon is a legend and it’s always inspiring to have a chat with him and see how he is handling such a big label, as we are also label owners – we have lot to learn from him. They trust us and we trust them it’s a team work! We also love the fact that they make DJs play anywhere in the time table, opening, closing etc, and as eclectic DJs, for us it’s very important to play different times of a set. We’re not interested in doing the same thing over and over again and at Defected we are all equal and that’s amazing and how it should be everywhere.
You both are label owners yourself with CUFF, how do you find the stresses of touring and managing a label? Do you have a team to work with or is it something you find yourselves completely hands on?
It takes time to find the right people to work with, our A&R is also DJ called LORAN is the doppest guy ever, smart and hard worker we can count on him to navigate the bot while we on tour, and our Art Director Benjamin Dorado is the sickest as well, as you can see that art work and posters on CUFF are the doppest of all the labels haha so yes we have a very good time with us 4.
Is there an artist on your label we should be looking out for? (without playing favourites of course)
Classmatic is one of them, he is a beast and Chicks Luv Us. Recently we got some big names trusting our vibe, so you will see DJ Slugo, DJ Deeon, Jimmy Edgar, Matt Sassari and many more joining the label.
I just wanted to jump back to France for a bit and talk about the house music scene there. In previous interviews with French artists on Decoded Magazine, there has been a mixed reaction to the nightlife scene, with most eye’ing the south of France as the next hot spot, what are your feelings on this, is there a healthy scene or is in a state of finding its own path?
In the South of France we are friends with all of the promoters, as they are really hard working and bring diversity. In Paris the scene is not what it was – lucky we found a dope club where we can express ourselves freely it’s called The Key, it’s dope. France is one of the countries that suffer from social networks and fame and people only want to see the big techno star and smaller DJs struggle to sell tickets, it’s a worldwide problem now.
You have done an incredible guest mix for us, can you talk us through it?
Thanks a lot, we just played what we think is dope ass music haha.
Thanks guys for your time, we wish you a successful 2019, is there any last thing you would like to let our readers know?
Thanks for having us it means a lot, and as for the readers, keep reading haha!
Amine Edge & Dance will play South West Four Festival, taking place across Saturday 24th – Sunday 25th August in Clapham. Tickets are available here.
