‘Fun’ is always a word that comes up when people discuss any of your music. Do you ever want to make darker stuff?
EE: Personally I think records like ‘Vertigo’ are pretty dark records. I’d say half mine are dark, half are quite fun.
Is that mood dependent?
EE: For me, no. If I’m in a bad mood I run out of the studio fast as I can and smash stuff up on the way out.
V: That’s why I think actually Catz Eats Dogz works out so well when playing together. We add more darkness to the sound, and sometimes deeper, but Dan adds more funk. Alone we’re not as funky as Dan, he plays really jacking and groovy and we go more into Innervisions kind of sound – deeper and wider pads – so when we play together we don’t compromise but all influence each other, especially when we play longer than three hours and can really go outside the usual box.
EE: In Miami we played four and half hours back to back and it was one of the best gigs ever. I was playing stuff I’ve never played in a club and people went crazy. That opened my eyes and was the first step to me changing how I do things to a certain degree. Not changing but adapting to a wider spectrum, and that’s thanks to Catz ‘N Dogz I’ve been able to do that really.
V&G: Awwwww!
If I’m in a bad mood I run out of the studio fast as I can and smash stuff up on the way out.
And have Catz ‘N Dogz learnt anything from Eats Everything?
V: No, nothing.
[Laughter.]
V: Dan is really good at selecting hits but not obvious hits. Sometimes we exchange records and he says it will work and I’m unsure about it, but somehow he knows that records you didn’t think will work, do work, some times three times more than you expected.
I always wonder… are you the European answer to Dirtybird?
V: That’s a tough question and one we don’t like to answer. We all know each other so well and we all released on Dirtybird, but on the other hand we release totally different music too.
EE: I’d say me and Catz ‘N Dogz play more European than those guys. They play more breakbeat stuff.
V: We rarely would play hip-hop or drum and bass, but Justin and Claude play hip-hop edits very often. We play more hypnotic I would say.
So the label just turned three years old, does that mean it’s time to re-assess and evaluate things in any way?
G: Right now we are re-designing the graphics and the website and the covers, and will do more Pets nights in 2014, at BPM in Mexico, at WMC, during Sonar and some other places. We have some nice new music coming soon too. There’s a lot of things happening and we are starting a new sub-label, Step – it’s Pets backwards – which is going to be vinyl and darker than Pets.
Because you answered, Greg, are you mainly the label guy?
EE: He’s just cleverer than everyone else.
V: He knows the dates and what’s up, where as us two, we don’t know what we’re doing.
G: Me and Voitek have a good split, we know what each does, we know our own place.
We play more European than Dirtybird. They play more breakbeat stuff.
But who wears the trousers, who wears the skirt?
EE: Voitek wears both.
V: It depends on the gig.
[More laughter]
Sorry to bring the mood down, but I wanted to ask about Martin Dawson, with whom you all had worked a lot before his sad passing.
V: Yeah, all friends of Pets knew him so him dying was a big thing for several months. It changed our perspective on things. Next month it will be a year anniversary so now we have a different perspective. It’s cheesy to say, but after it happened we stopped planning stuff so much. Coincidentally, a week before Martin died we were talking about how you shouldn’t plan too much.
G: It definitely changed things. He was doing a lot of stuff for us, and mastering for the label, so we had many plans. We wanted to do a live show and…
V: For me it was even worse, he was my real buddy and we lived in the same neighbourhood and went to the gym together and stuff like that. It’s more than just losing a good producer. I lost one of my best friends.
He collaborated with many people. Why do you think he was so good at that?
V: Yeah, same thing as with Dan. When you are in the studio and someone asks you how you did it, you don’t know, it just happens. We had this kind of language that someone sitting next to us wouldn’t understand, but in the end it really worked for us.
Moving on, Dan, tell us about your Edible brand.
EE: Basically it’s to broaden my horizons, put on events, put out records if I want to. I just wanted an outlet that was for something other than me being a DJ. Everyone wants to do different stuff and make more of their career. At the moment it’s fledgling, but we want to try and build it over the next years and make it different to anything else out there.
Like doing pop-up burger vans?
EE: Funny you should say that! Basically, yeah, that kinda shit. Just something no one has done before, which is hard to find.
Musically, will it be surprising to your fans or in line with what you do?
EE: Like Pets I’m trying to find new Bristolian talent. Problem is that Futureboogie snap up every fucker as soon as they appear. Write that in, highlight it in bold. (And put in brackets that Dave Harvey is a wanker!) They are a popular label and we’re all into the same kinda music so those guys seem to get the pick of the people so I’m trying to be sneaky and find some people they haven’t found. I’ve got my eye on a couple of kids but I’m not gonna say ’cause Futureboogie are probably reading this and will try and nab them. But yeah, I want to get a gang together. Dance music’s about having fun so that is my ethos, not to take it too seriously.
Catz Eats Dogz’ Stinky Lollipop EP is out now on Pets Recordings. Find them all over the place on their many social media accounts.