It’s Untidy Friday yet again and this week we speak to the second winner of the Boogie Monster remix competition, Undergroove, on the day of it’s release. Like fellow winner Fletcher Kerr, they hail from Bonnie Scotland…
You’ve managed to do something that Scottish Football hasn’t achieved in a long time, and that is achieve a double… How does it feel to have been one of the Boogie Monster competition winners, with fellow Scot Fletcher Kerr?
Ha… With the Scottish Football team adopting the “Yes Sir I can Boogie” anthem for the Euro’s and a Scottish double on Sams Boogie Monster it’s like all the stars aligned and it was meant to be. That’s Sam an honorable Jock now.
When did you guys meet and form Undergroove?
We met a long time ago! We’ve known each other from the early/mid 90s rave days and been mates since. At the start of 2021 Sam had released the Fractal album on Untidy and we instantly loved that sound so we went into the studio and produced two tracks and named them “Untidy Tracks 1 & 2” and they sat on the computer for months waiting for the right time to send the label. The “Bassix” album got announced and Sam was looking for new material for it so we sent those two tracks for consideration and he signed them both – Undergroove was born!
Describe your sound…
We love what Sam has done since the return of Untidy with the sound he’s created and named “The Harder Sound of House” so in essence we would put us under that same Umbrella of Harder House we also like to keep it a bit rough and ready. When writing we take many elements from Garage to Techno and even our old school Hardcore roots while our sets can range from slower darker Tech House through to Harder House/Ravey House and banging Techno.
How did you get into producing and what do you produce with?
It wasnt until 2017 when we found our love for Hard House again we got together and started The Hoover Jocks and decided to start writing our own tracks. Our first ever track we actually entered another remix competition for Hot Box Digital and won that which got us our first release. Right now we are using FL Studio & Ableton but mostly FL at this point and all soft synths.
Do you prefer soft synths over hardware?
The only hardware we have purchased so far are midi keyboards, a TD-3 and Roland TB-3 which have sat gathering dust but at least they make the studio look more professional right? haha
You had a a release on Sam Townend’s Bassix album. Where else has your work been released?
Under Undergroove so far that is our only release to date but we have alot more to come! We have a number of Harder House tracks in the arsenal ready to get fired out as well as recently finished a few Tech House tracks which are ready to send out to labels. Also free tracks will be getting released regulary on our Soundcloud page infact one might of dropped by the time this interview goes out! Go check it out!
How did you discover Untidy Trax?
We have been playing Untidy trax since the late 90s. Back in the days when hard house at the front of the scene that one track that got us into it was Bed and Bondage – (House Rockers remix) that grabbed our attention first! Then all the colours eps and disposable disco dubs were great. We loved that tough chunky funky groove!
Tell us how you put your mark on the remix?
We wanted to do a nod to the OG Untidy sound and Sam had created a loop that let us do that perfectly to run through alot of the track and we funked it up with added percussion and simplified the bassline to create a more energetic off beat. Its got that old school Untidy sound but its also sounding bang up to date!
What was the most challenging part of the remix?
Everything flowed so well that really the most challenging part would of been the decison to keep Sams riff identical in the break rather than changing it up as sometimes with remixes you can change just 1 note and it totally wrecks the full track. So glad we kept it the same.
How did you think you would do in the competition?
We had that much fun doing the remix and bouncing about to it in the studio we were pretty confident it would do well. If your dancing before the tracks even nearly finished you know its going to be a banger.
Does this mean there will be more to come from you on Untidy?
YES! Right now things are in the pipeline as we speak 🙂
Do you guys also play out and if so where can we see you play?
We were playing Hard House out as The Hoover Jocks then covid hit then Undergroove started now clubs are back open hopefully we’l be coming to clubs near you soon!
Where do things go from here… what can we expect from you in the future?
We are fairly new into the production game so we want to learn progress and get better, Hopefully be a mainstay in the Untidy releases with a steady flow of releases on various labels and with that getting the Undergroove name out there and booked for club shows.
Can we give Fletcher Kerr a shout out! We absolutely loved his take on Boogie Monster and shout out to Untidy head honcho Sam who has helped us and gave us great advice since starting Undergroove!
Download & Stream this release here: https://untidy.fanlink.to/BoogieMonst…
