With the new schedule in place I got to catch the end of Miami Horror’s set. They still don’t impress me live. Despite absolutely loving their album, it just doesn’t come across, Moontheory, Holiday and Sometimes weren’t quite right. Lead singer Josh Moriarty spat the dummy after their ‘second-last’ song, as it was soon known that was their last. Classic rock star angry exit.

I was keen to see Boys Noize as he absolutely killed it last year at Future music. Difference was he was on at 9pm, not 4. His set was just at the wrong time, banging electro and techno doesn’t fit outside midday, the heat steals your dancing ability. I thought it’d be good to see some slower beats and see if that suited the day a little more so we crossed over to Aeroplane. His set was awesome, going through plenty of his remixes including his amped up rework of Breakbot’s Baby I’m Yours and the equally impressive rework of Chromeo’s Don’t Turn The Lights On. However, the 10 person crowd was hardly inspiring. Not sure how that happened really, but it was a shame so many people missed out on such a good set.

We thought we’d go join the masses and watch a little of N*E*R*D, which was pretty cool, and I’m pretty sure there were plenty of young ladies who were impressed with Pharell, if you measured ‘level of impressed-ness’ by boob flashing then it would have been off the scale.

I’d seen enough boob for one day so I thought I’d go back and see some Breakbot, once again the crowd was minuscule (maybe 200 people). He’d work a little more of a crowd toward the end of his set by picking up the tempo and playing a few electro-orientated tracks. His set flowed very well onto Nervo’s who just tore up the crowd with some serious noisy stuff, the crowd loved it and it created a great party vibe under the big top. I wandered out to see a little of Claude Von Stroke, and it was most definitely worth it. He’s a genius dj who worked the (small) crowd really well. Everyone in front of stage was dancing and looked like they were having a great time.

I’d be pining to see Chromeo all day, and they didn’t fail to deliver. They are exceptionally cool on stage and an easy crowd pleaser with their hits. Working through hits from all three albums they were by far my standout act of the day. When they play tracks like Night by Night, Fancy Footwork, Bonafied Lovin’ you can understand why they won my heart so easily.

Without really caring for Armin Van Buuren or David Guetta I only caught parts of their sets to see some awesome visuals from both and those crazy stilt walking robots. Instead I went straight back to Erol Alkan to hear some more techno/electro. At that time of the day it was perfect and it really highlighted the misplacement of artists like Boys Noize. I finished off my day with a quick viewing of Art vs. Science, crowd was going crazy, but yeah enough said.

Even with those little niggly things going wrong I had an awesome day. All the festival ingredients were there, you just need to make the most of what’s important to yourself. I know plenty of other people who had a good day too. Although I am curious about one young lady whose youtube fame is probably more of a mixed blessing…

Congratulations on Business Casual man how’s it feel to get it out there?

We’re still in that period you know where we’re kinda waiting to see what the reactions are. It’s still early stages yet to get a reaction.

Have you been playing the new stuff out much yet?

We’ve been playing night by night for a bit, we just incorporated three new songs over summer before the album came out and so it was pretty much everybody’s first time hearing them at the shows.

Have you listened to the album much yourselves?

When it’s done I try to forget about it a bit. Then a couple of months later when it actually comes out I have a fresh perspective to listen to it. While we’re doing the album you know the songs by heart so it’s hard to form an opinion and be subjective.

How long were you working on it?

We’ve worked about a year and a half on the ablum on and off. It took us that long to finish it but with a big push on it earlier this year.

And what did Phillipe (Zdar, Cassius) bring on mixing duties?

It was really important for us after he did Fancy Footwork. Basically you know he’s a key to our sound because he puts his own touch on the mixes and the sound. So Phillipe became part of our sound and it was really important to get him to work on the album.

How do you write songs?

We were in different cities so we send each other demos on mp3s. And once we choose all the demos we want to keep and try to get together as much as we can and work on ideas and guitars and different parts and stuff like that. So it’s like a balance of working on it individually and together.

Do you find it’s a fine line between making your own version of the ‘80s sound and just re-hashing it?

We like when people compare us to our influences you know. We don’t really copy or sample, we just recreate that sound. We listen to that stuff so much that it’s become like a reflex to just re-create that vibe and feeling on the early ‘80s sounds. Just trying to capture the same energy. It’s never explicit. We never copy licks or lines or melodies we just try immerse ourselves in that sound and so anything that pops out of our head is generally very ‘80s sounding. I mean it depends on the song were working on but it’s never a copy.

And are you going for a distinct ‘Chromeo’ sound?

Yeah after the second album and working on the third we were doing demos here and there and some we didn’t keep ‘cause we were like this doesn’t sound like Chromeo you know. We’ve kind of achieved a certain sound that is realy typical to us and we are now just starting to understadn what makes a Chromeo song.

And how important still is the internet for you guys?

Yeah certainly we don’t get a lot of radio love and we don’t have the big budgets to make it happen so the internet is like our own billboard chart. Everything we do happens on the internet. All the blogs and the online stores know about us, it’s our biggest asset.

So you need to explore other avenues for income like touring etc?

Yeah you know the touring is of course for revenue it allows us to re-invest that money. You know for our videos we pay for that out of our pocket. We don’t have the biggest budgets in the world. It’s really improtant for us to re-invest that money for videos or more lights for the shows to have better shows. We re-invest everything to make it more interesting for us and the band.

Do you ever get tired of each other?

On tour there’s bad days, but we get along pretty good. We’ve known each other for 17 years so we’ve found out ways to deal with each other. You never really get sick of each other though.

And what can we look forward to for your Summadayze sets?

We’re gonna have a lot more lighting stuff. And the legs on the keys do some funky things. I have more synthesisers on stage and lots of songs from the new album.

Cool, thanks man looking forward to it.

No worries, thanks.

So, get ready for a piping hot new experience this summer as the nation’s premier dance music celebration unveils its fresh new vibe, exciting new musical direction and mind-blowing new event experience.

Now in its 12th stunning year, Summadayze 2011 will take Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast by storm once again as a fresh, exciting lineup of the world’s biggest electronic hitters join the infamous sonic juggernaut for a non-stop, hands-in-the-air party around the nation.

For starters, in news that’s guaranteed to cause a veritable frenzy, the world’s reigning Number One DJ, Armin Van Buuren, will be bringing his inimitable world-class, genre-defining Trance sounds to the main stages in Perth and the Gold Coast. Hot on the heels of a highly anticipated new album release and his epic debut of Armin Only – Mirage in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve, Queenslanders and West Australian fans are in for a serious summer treat …

Next up, after rocking tens of thousands of screaming faces on the Future Music Festival tour in 2009, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo’s infamous N*E*R*D are bringing their sublime rock-funking hip hop goodness to the new-look Summadayze for what’s guaranteed to be a show of epic proportions. With new album “Nothing” set for release on September 7, N*E*R*D fever is set to spread quickly!

Then, the biggest name in global House music and Grammy Award-winning international producer du jour, David Guetta, is returning to the Summadayze main stage to drop his unique brand of heart-pumping grooves, infectious melodies and party-time vocals on his die-hard fans and a whole new generation of dance lovers.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, the iconic likes of Bob Sinclar, Chromeo, Erol Alkan, Rivastarr, Miami Horror, Yuksek, Aeroplane, Zombie Disco Squad and many, many more will all be on hand to make the all-new Summadayze a tasty summertime treat to remember for years to come

It’s a new season and a new summa, and Future Entertainment and Mellen Events’ Summadayze 2011 is on its way to heat things up, ON A SATURDAY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! Stay tuned for more details next week …

Carl Cox
2manydjs (DJ set)
Sharam (Deep Dish)
Eddie Halliwell
Infected Mushroom (Live)
Josh Wink
LCD Soundsystem (DJ Set)
Danny Howells
Mark Knight
Nic Fanciulli
Tom Novy
Don Diablo
Krafty Kuts
Sinden
Fake Blood
Sebastien Leger
The Shapeshifters
The Ian Carey Project
Menno De Jong
Riton
The Juan MacLean
Treasure Fingers
Evil Nine
Technotronic

plus more to be announced!