Celebrating their latest release “Dolla Gang”, the UK duo Versus has stopped by to chat with us.
Versus’ sound is based in classic house and rave culture, with tracks ranging from hypnotic warehouse rollers like 2019’s Lick It to soaring mainroom anthems like 2020’s Afraid in collaboration with Dissolut and Nicola Green, which have all been well received by tastemakers and music enthusiasts. They have already released music on world-class labels such as Ultra, Repopulate Mars, Under No Illusion, SOLA, and Realm.
Repopulate Mars snatched up their track Red Light in a flash, claiming it as one of the most hyped house tracks of 2021 and going on to become one of the label’s biggest-selling singles ever.
Hello, guys how are you doing? What’s your current mood?
We’re good thanks, just in our studio in Manchester working on new material, our current mood is upbeat & vibey like this new track we’re working on.
As we are speaking, could you introduce yourself to the people who are not familiar with Versus?
We’re a DJ/production duo from Manchester, we make underground house music that people dance to in dark, sweaty nightclubs with flashing lights!
Congratulations on your latest release ‘Dolla Gang’! How did you come up with the main idea?
Thanks! The idea of this track was a nod to the classic “Lil Louis – French Kiss” which is one of our favourite tracks! We wanted to make a track that sounded similar, but with the Versus sound. We were jamming and Scott came up with that infectious Stab, the track was built around that, and we found the catchy Dolla Gang vocal. it was made pretty quick.
You have released music on excellent labels such as Ultra, Repopulate Mars, Sola, and Realm to name a few. How difficult it is to get signed on top labels?
Hmmm we would say it’s easy obviously, you need to make good music, and we have found making relationships with the camps helps get you into the door with that particular record label like Kye & Matt (Gorgon City / Realm) we have bumped into these guys a few times backstage at events and exchanged emails, we always send them our new stuff. You have to put the networking work in and ask for emails, we always say “if you can walk up to a girl/guy in a bar and ask for their phone number, you can walk up to Carl Cox, Jamie Jones and ask for their email address”.
There is a saying “Two are better than one”, but many times your opinion does not match. How do you guys manage to work together as a duo?
We have never bickered or rowed. We’re always in sync, it’s weird! We both love the same vibe and sound. Our opinions match all the time.
In every release of yours, there’s a punchy kick and a strong low-end. What are your favourite ways to achieve this result?
We have our favourite kick samples we used, and we have processed and tweaked them over time. Making sure the kick and the bass is working together is the key really, check there are no phase issues between the two, and plenty of side chain on the bass to achieve that PUMP! Also, running the bass through analog modeling plugins also helps with the warmth on the low-end.
There are quite a few remixes that you guys did. What do you look for when picking to remix a song?
We like to remix old classics, ones that everybody loves and instantly knows the second you play them. We did a bootleg remix of “Benny Benassi – Satisfaction” because we loved the original when it was released (mainly because of the music video haha!), if we like something from the past we will see what we can do, remix it, and give it away as a free download on our SoundCloud
Finally, you already have released music on top-notch labels and received huge support from Solardo, Bingo Players, Danny Howard, Gorgon City, and Sonny Fodera to name a few. Could you please tell your fans what to expect from Versus in the future?
Lots of good music, lots of hangovers, and lots of late nights!
Thank you for a nice chat guys, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for chatting with us, we really appreciate it!
Stream Versus – Dolla Gang on Spotify:
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