Anëk 'We Never Planned To Be DJs'

Image: Anëk 

Best friends since childhood and ripping up Ibiza with the VIVa Warriors - who wouldn't want that? Well that's the reality for Anëk, two of the meanest female tech house selectors on the circuit that bear a chemistry behind the decks to suggest they both possess some sort of telepathic superpowers.

Karina and Denise, the awesome duo who perform under the guise are also nifty in the confines of the studio, recently dropping the Go Down Low EP (below) earning them significant attention including that of Matthias Tanzmann who gave them mass airplay in Ibiza this year. 

With the Ibiza season sadly coming to a close and the VIVa Warriors now steam rolling all over the UK we dropped Anëk and line, and got on the subject of their stand out summer in Ibiza, and what the future holds amongst other business. 

Hi guys, thanks for chatting to us. You've had a pretty mental summer in Ibiza with VIVa warriors, how was that, what were some of your highlights? 

Hi. Thanks for having us. Yes it's been such a busy and great summer for us, playing almost every Sunday for VIVa Warriors at Sankeys Ibiza.

It actually feels like the whole summer was one big highlight haha. No, but honestly each and every party had a special vibe.

If we have to point out a highlight, the VIVa Warriors closing party was incredible. Even though people are tired at the end of the season, everyone is giving that last bit left in them. We warmed up for Detlef played this great back to back set the last hour, it was amazing. The room was packed to the very end. 

VIVa Warriors returns to the UK over the winter, will you be approaching your sets in the UK differently to Ibiza? What can we look forward to from your upcoming appearances? (Listen to their Fabric Promo mix below). 

It is a little different to play the VIVa Warriors parties outside Ibiza, as the venues change each time, but we always try to bring that special energy there is at the VIVa Warriors parties in Ibiza!

We will approach our sets in the UK with the same excitement as we have during the summer, we think that the VIVa Warriors stand for quality music and parties of a high level, so many people are happy to be able to experience that after the summer and it will be great to see some of the same faces we've met at the VIVa Warriors parties this season. The next couple of months we will be joining the VIVa Warriors parties in London, Leeds and Birmingham!

It must be crazy with you being best friends since childhood. How did you two begin DJing together, and could you ever have envisaged that the two of you together would become such a DJing force? 

It's amazing to be able to do what you love with your best friend. We have always loved electronic music and would go out to underground warehouse techno parties in Copenhagen. We slowly got more in to house music and that's also why we ended up going to Ibiza for the first time in 2001.

We never planned to be DJs, but because we loved the music we heard in Ibiza so much, we bought a few vinyls to bring back to Denmark. A friend had a company who rented out Technics 1210, and asked if we wanted to borrow it for a while. We set it up in Karina’s room at her parents house, and ended up starting to learn to mix.

Quite quickly we got a few small bar gigs in Copenhagen, we would buy more vinyl, and things just started from there. Its been a fantastic journey. We always had a lot of dreams about where would like to play but not sure we would ever have envisaged this journey we are on now.

When playing, do you find yourselves on the same wavelength, or do you each bring different elements to your sets? How would you describe your respective roles in both DJing and producing?

We are actually really equal in everything. It might surprise some, but maybe its because we started out together and have evolved together. Sometimes we even seem to amaze ourselves as we don’t share music but always end up having a lot of the same tracks.

We each dig through tracks and when playing we have our separate music, but it just fits perfectly, luckily, as we always play one track each back to back. It gets a little more complicated when we produce because we don’t live close to each other, but thanks to the internet everything is possible. Either one of us starts on a track and sends its on to the other one and so on. Or we do see each other all the time and then get to sit together to work on stuff.  

You've been working together for some thirteen years now, how has your sound changed since you started out? And how have you found being a female duo in a male dominated arena?

We have always loved house music, and when people ask what we play, we always say just house music. There has been so many sub genres during the years, and we have definitely been inspired and played many of them. Our sound has of course changed, but when we hear some of our old mixes from back when we started, the elements of what we love now is still there 

It's never been an issue for us being female DJs, we have never really thought too much about it.. If you are male or female DJ doesn't really make a difference, as it all about the music. We think that people probably pay extra attention to female DJs is because there is still less than males in the industry. We compare it to being a female pilot, something like that.

We’re big fans of your recent Go Down Low EP, was the record influenced from your time in Ibiza this year? We’ve noticed that tech house has made a triumphant return to the island this year, so the reaction to it must have been pretty awesome?

Thanks! The thing in this business is that music doesn't always get released just when its made, so this EP we actually produced before the summer, but yeah we are always inspired by Ibiza anyway! We get really happy and grateful when we see all those great reactions. For instance, we went by DC10 when Matthias Tanzmann was playing and he said, Oh you just missed that I was playing your track!

Along with Miguel Campbell , you put together the mix for VIVa Warriors Season 3, how did you go about putting a mix CD together, did you manage to get all the records you wanted licensed for it? 

It was so great and a big honour to compile the VIVa Warriors Season 3 CD with Miguel Campell (Catch them both below). We were very lucky that all the tracks we wanted on the CD were easily licensed.

We chose tracks that we have been playing a lot this summer, and something that we thought would reflect the VIVa Warriors vibe.

Can we look forward to a follow up to Go Down Low any time soon? What new material is on the horizon from yourselves?

Yeah we are always working on new music of course! We have finished a couple of remixes that will be out soon and then some new original tracks you will have to keep an ear out for.

Find out where Anëk are heading with the VIVa Warriors crew below, or here.

22nd November - VIVa Warriors at Sankeys London

6th December - VIVa Warriors at The Warehouse, Leeds

27th December - The Portal presents VIVa Warriors at The Rainbow Venues, Birmingham