Comprising of Stef Brien and Alex Love, it’s likely that you’re already acquainted with Tough Love as the duo responsible for the infectious poolside anthem ‘So Freakin’ Tight’.
They’re set to play at The Warehouse Project on New Years Eve alongside the like of MK, Catz ‘N Dogz and Miguel Campbell. We caught up with the boys to see how the tour was going and to find out what we can expect at the Store Street NYE party…
Hi guys, how’s everything going at the moment? You seem to be doing pretty well for yourselves right now?
Its been a good year, a lot of hard work, far more than anyone on the outside could ever realise. We work around the clock on Tough Love & Get Twisted
Records so its been literally all work no play, which is exactly why we’re both taking a much needed holiday next week. How did Tough Love come around?
We were both involved in music prior to Tough Love and met playing the same circuit back in 2009. We talked many times about getting in the studio, eventually after 2 years we did. Tough Love was born after our 3rd studio session together. Our first couple of releases did pretty well, tracks like “The Night Is Calling” & “Everything Hurts” received huge support and as the scene progressed so did we. Your track So Freakin Tight has been a huge success,
Did you expect it to be as big as it was?
Never! But we did always know the track had something about it. We’d been playing it in our sets for 2 years before we finally decided to put it out. The reaction was always amazing. Neither of us really thought it would chart or that we’d be hanging disks on our walls when we made it. It was just a fun club record that we enjoyed playing out & people enjoyed signing along to.
Do you both have similar tastes in music?
We do yeah, as you can probably tell we both love our RnB, but our tastes are much broader. Its healthy to not become to obsessive with dance music. When we’re on the road we have spotify on & play everything from Rock to Blues to Hip Hop to Pop. Good music is exactly that & we appreciate all genres.
What do you think have been the stand out tracks of this year?
There’s been a lot of solid music this year so its really hard but there are probably a couple of records that really opened up audiences. The Claptone Remix of Gregory Porter ‘Liquid Spirit’ had a big impact this year and touched an audience that wouldn’t necessarily listen to house music. Jonas Rathsman ‘Wolfsbane’ was played by almost everyone so has to be up there. More recently it looks like ‘Prok & Fitch’ are having a moment which is great because these are 2 of the nicest guys you will meet on the circuit who have been working tirelessly so its nice to see them get the recognition they deserve.
Who would you most like to collaborate with in the future?
We only recently came across Kiiara, she is definitely on our list for 2016. We’ve talked with MNEK about getting in the studio for a while now, so that has to be a must do next year. Missy Elliot is back with a bang and you know we already worked with Ginuwine …. so we can dream!
You’re due to play WHP on New Years Eve, what can we expect from your set? How would your set on NYE differ?
Yeah we cant wait for Warehouse Project. We never really pre plan but we normally do a little bit of studio prep for NYE, so we’ll have a bag full of edits & dubs to play to make sure the dancefloor pumping.
What have you got lined up for 2016?
We’ve got some new material coming and of course our next single on Get Twisted / Island is dropping early next year, we’re pretty excited about this one, but we’ll let the music do the talking. After that we’ll be looking at our album, the continued growth of Get Twisted which we’ll be taking back on tour again in 2016.
