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Interview: DUBBS Plans To Show Electro-House Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Jeremy Singer — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:43:32 +0000

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Don’t say you’ve seen an electro-group perform live, until you’ve seen DUBBS.

It’s only fair really.

Instead of going up on stage like most groups only to then just press a play button on a laptop, DUBBS re-creates every aspect of the beat-pumping tune with a variety of equipment- giving the audience the most real-live dynamic electro-concert experience possible.

The three-man Canadian team consists of brothers Alex (Vocals) and Chris (Drums) Van Den Hoeff, and Ottawa producer Martin Sinotte, who hope to make a name for themselves with their revolutionary club-bopping tracks and unique live sound-experience.

“Most DJ’s just turn knobs to play a hit song. That’s it,” says Sinotte. “But then you have us who play the song with a live beat pad, live keyboard, live everything. You have Alex singing, Chris on drums. It gets wild.”

Adds Alex, “It’s a poppy-techno sound with a twist. We call it a new age of electro-house.”

The recognition so far has been a small fraction of what the unsigned group can do in less than a year: over 130,000 MySpace views, winners of MuchMusic’s disBAND Audition Tour competition, an upcoming gig performing alonside Canadian Pop singer Danny Fernandes, and an invitation to play at the COCA showcase festival this summer.

“It’s honestly been crazy,” says Alex. “But we’ve been working 24/7 over the past few months, just networking, planning the next steps, so we’re just really psyched to show people our potential.”

One of the reasons for their success so far is their uncanny bro-manship and the credentials that each of them brings to the table.

At 13-years-old, Alex and Chris began working with Canadian producers such as Steve Rizun (Illscarlett, Alexisonfire), and Mitch Hall and Martin Davis Kinack (Brocken Social Scene, Stars, Feist). Over the next few years they would release their first demo and full length album which brought hundreds of live performances and radio air-play.

The up-and-coming duo then ended up being introduced to on-the-rise Canadian producer Sinotte, known throughout Ottawa as the “Beat Chemist.” Sinotte’s well-rounded 15-year background experience in the production scene was a perfect match, as he’s worked/recorded with Juno Award Winning artist Belly, Capital Prophets Records artist Danny Fernandes, and D12′s Bzarre- to name a few.

The trio hit it off immediately, and went to work in Sinotte’s brand new recording studio that he opened up in his house a year ago.

“The first night we met, we wrote a hit song,” says Chris. “We were just messing around until four in the morning.

“Ever since then, when we crash at his place, we wake up, go downstairs into the beat chemist’s ‘laboratory,’ and start recording stuff. And the best thing is that we have a relationship where if one of us has a beat that doesn’t really fly well, we’ll just be like ‘nah, scratch it man,’ but we’ll understand.”

As they anxiously await for the release of their debut album in the summer, the group agrees that it’ll be a contagious array of party-rocking tunes- modeling after artists like DeadMau 5, Black Eyed Peas and David Geutta.

“It’ll have a pop radio friendly vibe,” says Alex, “something that will get people partying for sure. It’s also got a few instrumental stuff for DJ’s to mess with and a few upcoming hip-hop artists featured too.

“Even though we wanted to get that house sound, we wanted to also incorporate a hip-hop vibe too.”

It’ll boast their raging singles so far like Here We Go Again, Generation Party, And We Don’t Stop, and Dance Bitch. Add in the music video that they hope to release at the same time too, and the group hopes that it’ll set them on course to eventually take on the international scene.

“Worldwide recognition man,” says Sinote.

Adds Alex, “we’re just starting out, but we feel like we have so much to show everyone, just non-stop tunes to get the crowd wild. I know we can do it.”

Check out all DUBBS info at www.dubbslive.com for new songs and all their upcoming shows:

May 27, 2010, 8:00 p.m, Rockpile Nightclub- Shock Thursday’s Party Night, Toronto, ON

May 28, 2010, 8:00 p.m, Private Yacht Party, Toronto, ON

June 16, 2010, 8:00 p.m, Nightlife with Danny Fernades, Sault Ste. Marie, CA

June 24, 2010, 8:15 p.m, COCA Showcase 2010, London, ON

June 25, 2010, 4:00 p.m, COCA Showcase 2010, London, ON

July 9, 2010, 10:00 p.m, Mansion Nightclub, Ottawa, ON

August 27, 2010, 1:00 p.m, North Bay Festival, North Bay, ON

Eminem Provides a Deeper Look into Relapse 2

Stephen Baldwin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:35:22 +0000

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Eminem’s new album will be much more “emotionally driven” than the first Relapse, MTV news reports.

“[The album] is gonna be a lot different than people expect,” Eminem said in an interview on his Shade 45 satellite-radio station, “The last record I made, I think I was concentrating more on spitting. On this album, I feel like there’s some of that, but I went back to songs with [feelings] to them as opposed to just rap records.”

Eminem said in the interview that he’s working with artists Just Blaze and D12’s Mr. Porter. Just Blaze is known more famously as a major DJ in the music industry, but is reportedly rapping on several tracks on Relapse 2.

“We are working on Relapse 2 pretty heavily. As of yesterday, we’ve done about six or seven records,” Blaze said in an interview with Distortion 2 Static.

Eminem also addressed rumours of an upcoming tour: “It just kind of worked out this way, where I wanted to fall back from live performances for right now and concentrate on making the best music I could make. After this record comes out, we’ll see what happens from there.”

Eminem’s latest release, Taking my Ball, possesses a similar tone to many of the songs on the first relapse album, but the leaked track Low, Down is a refreshing flashback of music from Eminem’s first two studio albums.

Taking my Ball, along with several other tracks, will appear on the video game DJ Hero: Renegade Edition.

Proof of D12 Shot and Killed

Max Whiteside — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 13:15:21 +0000

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Proof, a founding member of D12 and longtime best friend of Eminem, was shot and killed Tuesday morning at a nightclub in Detroit.

Police say an argument started at the CCC nightclub on Eight Mile Road, and one man believed to be Proof was shot in the head and killed. Another man was shot in the head. A publicist at the group?s record label confirmed his death.

Proof, real name Deshaun Holton, often performed alongside Eminem and was a member of Detroit rap group D12. He was the best man at Eminem?s wedding in January and appeared with the rapper in the film 8 Mile, named after the street he was killed on Tuesday.

The members of D12 were known for their controversial ?beefs? with other artists, but in an interview with andPOP in 2004, Proof said he wanted to put an end to their rivalries with other rap artists.

“We don?t even mess with that kind of stuff,” he said.

?We are all newly turned vegetarians.?

Police have not said if they have any suspects yet.