RS: Where do you see the music going right now?
Larry Granite: I see the music going a little away from this crazy
electro, but taking some of the electro elements and getting back to a
little more tech-y, groovy stuff.
John Phunk: Yes, and vocals. Vocals will always been around. I think
the electro sound is getting a bad rap now because everybody was doing
it. Here lately, even some of the stuff that we do, people still say
that it sounds very electro. It's so far from there, it just doesn't
sound like that at all. It's like anything that might have a
particular sound, people are lumping it in with electro. Well, what
can you do?
RS: So do you think the electro sound has come and gone?
John Phunk: Oh by far, yes.
Larry Granite: I think it's come and gone as far as what everyone was
talking about. It's still there, and it's always going to be here
because any seventeen year-old can do a track now in Reason, and have
those same elements and sounds. It's always distinct. But when it was
big, as far as it being talked about all the time, everyone had to
have that sound.
RS: Speaking of Reason - what do you work in, for your software?
John Phunk: We use Cubase mainly, but to get a quiet idea, we do use
Reason. It's good, to get a simple palette down.
RS: Are you inside the computer, using outboard gear?
Larry Granite: We use outboard gear a lot as well. A lot of our sound
comes from being very live-based. We record it all in, and then just
go back to the copy we've cut and see what we like.
RS: You just mentioned the seventeen year-olds doing their own
tracks. Why do you think your stuff shines up above all the stuff
that's out there?
Larry Granite: Does it shine out? I don't know.
John Phunk: I think it does. Our tracks – there's a lot of melody
involved. It's not just a simple bassline and some things. There's a
lot of intricate chords and stuff going on, if you listen.
Larry Granite: Yes, we have a unique sound from where we are in
America, coming over here to Europe. That's what I think got us
noticed in the beginning, and I think that's why we've been able to
stay in the game so long with our name. A lot of names have come and
gone, and yet, we're still here. We do this unique blend of their
sound and our sound. It doesn't always sound as great as we would
like, but it keeps us in it, so we keep doing it.
RS: Every city in America has its own sound – Miami is known for
bass, New York is known for tribal, the West Coast is the Om scene.
What's the Texas sound?
John Phunk: A blend of all of them.
Larry Granite: It's right in the middle.
John Phunk: Yes, there's nothing that's too favorable to any of
those. Although for a long time, there were the breaks in the 90s and
early 2000s. The West Coast moved in a bit. But now everybody seems to
be playing the Miami type stuff, Steve Angelo and everybody like that.
It's been nice to see, but they're still far away from where they
needed to be for us to stay there.
RS: When you DJ out, do you play your own records or where do you
find the records you DJ with?
John Phunk: Pretty much we play what we made and what they send us,
through the online buying and Beatport and stuff like that. We have so
much stuff sent to us, we just go from there and use that.
RS: Who are some of your favorite producers, whose records you play?
Larry Granite: I would say Kurd Maverick, Fedde Le Grand, Funkerman,
Sucker DJs...
John Phunk: Yes, just a lot of Euro guys. Those are our main influences.
Larry Granite: There's also Dirty South.
John Phunk: Yes, we could name a lot. It's just whoever we like
during that week.
RS: Are there any vocalists you'd like to work with, who you
haven't worked with yet?
Larry Granite: Ida Corr and Camille Jones would be great. They're
maybe out of our league at the moment, but we'd love to work with
them.
