Reigning Catz n Dogz: We chat to the Polish duo ahead of Circus' Jubilee Party

Hey Guys! Where have we caught you this morning and what are you up to?

After long and exiting weekend it's time to do some really boring stuff, bank transfers, invoices etc. Than some time in the gym and finally get back to eating some healthy food, haha. Usually Monday and Tuesday is pretty relaxing for us after a hectic weekend. We like to chill and catch up on some reading etc.

This weekend sees you make your Circus debut. What do you know about the party and what are your experiences of playing in Liverpool?

We've never played in Liverpool so we are very exited. Everybody we've spoken to has told us that the party is awesome and actually, of late, every party we've played in the UK has been very good. We have couple of new remixes finished and ready to test and also some unreleased stuff from our label so we're sure that the party will be the perfect place to test them out. The line-up is huge and finally we're gonna have some time to hang out with Heidi, who we became good friends with when she was living in Berlin.

We know that your own productions range from blissed out house to booty bass. But how would YOU describe your sound and do you feel that you always get to represent it fully in your DJ sets?

From the very beginning when we first started out as DJs, we discussed what kind of DJs we looking to be and we both agreed that we wanted to be able to play any type of music that we liked. This is actually why we changed the name from 3 Channels to Catz 'n Dogz. Everybody looked at 3 Channels as a 'Minimal' project, and so when we started Catz 'n Dogz we were always trying to make sure that people didn't think of us as just one style or sound. We think that this always allows us to surprise people and gives us the freedom to play new stuff that we are discovering. We literally listen to every possible kind of music... ok, so maybe not Balkan, haha.



Many DJ partnerships have now taken to playing gigs independent of each other, yet still under the artist name. We've never seen you guys do this. Is it important to you that you always play together?

Yes we are always looking to play as a duo. Especially as our name is Catz 'n Dogz. We would have to play under name The Cat or The Dog, haha. We don't think it would be fair for the fans if one of us were to show up alone. Of course there are situations when one of us is sick, but this is very rare.

Your Pets Recordings label is on fire right now and you have a strong core of artists and friends involved. Was this always your plan, to create a tight Pets family?

We are trying to keep a very friendly atmosphere in our label, that's true. Almost 90% of music we release is from our friends or friends of friends. In this way we are always sure that as well as the music, we also like the people that are behind it. Now we feel that the natural way to progress is to start throwing Pets parties. We get more and more requests about them and we're gonna look to start on that arm of the label soon. Over the next year we are working on the identity and context. For us context is always really important, because these days everybody is doing label parties and we wanna do something special. We have already residency at Watergate in Berlin for our label nights so it allows us to invite artists and also back home in Poland we are working on a lot of stuff.

Last summer saw the release of "Entrance Song" by Eats Everything. An EP that went on to soundtrack, not just the rest of the summer, but the whole year, catapulting him into the spotlight. Did the success of that release surprise you guys?

We were really happy that people liked the track so much and so many DJs were playing it. It showed us that even being a small label without a team of 10 employees, you can still release successful, quality music. Another great thing about it is that Dan (Eats Everything) worked so hard for so many years and this really put him into the spotlight. The record was kinda crossed genre too, and this is another reason why it was so successful.

Do you both take the responsibility of A&R'ing of the label, and are you constantly hunting out new signings? Or do you find that they are now coming to you?

It's a very complex subject, on one hand we are just signing people we know but as DJs we are constantly looking for new music. But we have also been chatting with some artists over Skype and email. KiNK is a great example. At the beginning we were just talking about music and exchanging ideas and then he did a remix for one of our releases and now we are working together on a track. So yes, we are both doing the A&R. If it was only one of us, it would all look and sound completely different, haha.

Anything exciting from Catz n Dogz and Pets Recordings that we should be keeping an ear out for over the summer...?

The new Eats Everything "Jagged Elbow" EP was released this week. And for summer we've prepared some exciting new and quite different material. We have some very nice new music from Chmara Winter with remixes and then a big audio-visual project that we are still working on, and after the summer we have a release from A1Bassline. We don't want to get stuck in the monthly release cycle. There is so much music coming out right now that we really believe that keeping the quality is the most important thing. Otherwise people would get bored or lose interest... we have some REALLY interesting music in the pipeline!

Give us a random fact about each other?

Greg: I didn't try a McDonald's until I was 22!
Voitek: Once when I was DJ'ing, somebody told me "I hate your face."

Catz n Dogz play at the Circus Jubilee Special at The Masque on June 3rd. Tickets are available through Skiddle below.

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