Interview: D-Nox and Beckers on the new album and Halcyon Summer Ball

Award-winning German house and techno duo D-Nox & Beckers will be performing live at the Halcyon Summer ball on July 8th, at London’s Proud2.

Here they take some time out from their busy touring and production schedule to speak to us about their forthcoming UK performance, their new album ‘Distance’ and future plans…

So, you will be playing a special live show at Halcyon on Friday 8th July. Can you tell us some more about your ‘live’ show and how it differs from your DJ sets?
This will be the first big event where we’ll perform D-Nox & Beckers live and show some of our new material and current music. We are going to play 100% D-Nox & Beckers tracks and this is how it differs from our DJ sets as it will be 100% us! We have played in UK several times previously and really enjoy it there. However, the last time we played as D-Nox & Beckers was in 2009 at the Lightbox, but before this I have played as D-Nox in various locations. Also, Beckers has already played for a Halcyon event before.

What do you most enjoy most about touring?
We tour the world because we love to play. The playing/performing part is what it is all about and you can’t beat the feeling of playing your music to a packed club that’s going off.

Where are your favourite places in the world to perform and why?
Brazil, Japan, Israel, Portugal, Australia, Argentina, these are the countries where we work best, where people respect us and support us the most.

Recently you’ve released your new artist album ‘Distance’ on Christian Smith’s Tronic imprint, which features killer tracks such as ‘Sunner’, ‘My Voice’, ‘Little’, ‘Follow Me’ and ‘Jacaranda’. The album sits beautifully between House and Techno, what was it like to make the album and how does it differ from your previous album ‘Left Behind’? 
Most of the tracks we did even before we knew we were going to make another album, doing it this way really gave us the freedom and space to write and compose. However, writing an album together when one of us lives in another city was quite a challenge. This is why the album is called ‘Distance’, as there’s 500km between us so we took our time to complete this album. Yes, the album is different than the first one and wouldn’t it be a pity if not? We have a deeper and more clubby sound on this record, but it was a natural process as we just write what we feel. We never really think about genres or style, we combine all and like to cross borders.

You have also collaborated with several different artists on the album such as Gabe, Leif Hatfield, B.A and MYGOD. What was it like to work with them and who would you most like to work with in the future?
Gabe and Leif are old friends of ours. We sometimes sit together and share ideas, to credit their ideas we have featured both. In this case we have used Gabe’s studio to write the track ‘Follow Me’ and Leif gave his voice for the track "My Voice". MYGOD is another friend from Argentina who likes to write songs and sing - we thought he would work well with us and yes he does, we are already working on new tracks with him.
 
‘My Voice’ was released as the lead single from ‘Distance’ with Christian Smith providing a solid remix of the peak-time Techno offering. Is this your favourite track on the album?
We like all the tracks. All 10 tracks have their time and moments. ‘My Voice’ is definitely a dance floor beast and it’s the right tune for a dark Techno club at 5am with strobe lighting! However, the tracks we play out most from our album are ‘You Are’ and ‘Castor’.

You received a DJ Award at Pacha, Ibiza, alongside dance legend Sasha last year for ‘Best Progressive House Act’,  beating off competition from the likes of Eric Prydz, Hernan Cattaneo, John Dahlback, John Digweed, Lee Burridge, Nick Warren and Sander Kleinenberg. What was it like winning the award and did it come as a surprise?
Yes, it was quite a surprise. We have been nominated for the last four years but in the same category as Eric Prydz, Hernan Cattaneo, John Dahlback, John Digweed, Lee Burridge, Nick Warren and Sander Kleinenberg and thought we would never win. Well, now we have won and it was sooo cool of course to be there at Pacha, Ibiza, to receive the award. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

You recently provided a guest mix on the well known ‘Transitions’ radio show for the legendry DJ John Digweed (listen here). Is he a DJ who you both admire - if so, why?
Yes, we respect him a lot for what he has done and he stands behind his music like no other, he is 100% Digweed and for this we respect him. As a DJ we think he should be more connected to the audience and show emotion, but he lets his music talk and with his fame you can do that. It was a big dream for us to be part of his radio show, thanks John!

What other DJs do you admire and why?
As we’re constantly touring we almost never have the time or the chance to see other DJs. Mostly, we get to see the warm up DJ. The best warm up DJs are from Argentina, and Facundo Mohrr is one of the better DJ´s from Buenos Aires. When I (D-Nox) was younger I used to follow Laurent Garnier, he has great skills and style. Another wicked DJ is DJ Three from New York.

What does the near future hold for D-Nox and Beckers, what do you have coming up?
We have a remix album coming up. Eight remixes of our album tracks. We are working on new tracks in the meanwhile and trying to find new grooves and sounds. We have done remixes for Tom Novy, another for Gigolo Records, plus we are always touring and we will be in Brazil and Argentina again in July.

Catch D-Nox and Beckers live at Halcyon on July 8th with Son Kite and Ticon. Tickets are available below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event