Housekeeping are a collective of businessmen who turned their passion for music into a real success. After a summer residency at Blue Marlin in Ibiza and a hugely successful party at One Embankment in London this Winter, this ambitious collaboration looks set to continue their rise to prominence.
Tomorrowaudio's Naomi Campbell put a few questions to Housekeeping's Jacobi and found out more about the group's origins and what's in store next after such a successful year.
Well first things first I want to know who came up with the genius name, it’s seems so effortless yet well thought about that I just have to ask. HOUSEKEEPING, it’s exactly what you guys do with your music; you keep the House in-tact, the good old House music we know and love with your indulgent synths and dreamy bass. But what’s great about you is you don’t stick just to House and House only as you show your expertise in your funk mixes withsensational drum loops and deep, rhythmic bass lines we can hearin FUNK MIX 2 on your Soundcloud for example. You prove you can go from ‘deep’ house, intense, trance-like and enrapturing to more tech and lively with the flick of a fader.
The name was a collaborative effort, it came to us on a whim. When we started out, we didn’t have the ambition of getting Housekeeping quite to where it is, we’d all DJ’d and had a passion for it, but didn’t have the drive to take it forward. We wanted to throw a night to play the music that we loved to our friends; no one was really playing our style at the time. We invited 300 people and 1000 turned up, and things just moved up and up from there – before long we were reaching capacity at Koko.
You describe your music events as deep, funky, soulful tech and techno, with a sole goal of creating hedonistic vibes.’ How do you usually achieve this distinct sound? What are some of the main characteristics you can hear from your productions, being that there is any repetition in your style at all, of course.
We all spend a huge amount of time on our music, we sit around and play our music and are very critical of each other and are very blunt, I think that’s really great to pull each other back when we go off on a tangent
As’ high-flying businessmen’ coming together through your passion for deep house, do you share the same skills and passions when it comes to your music or do you all have a specific role in your production methods?
We have different tastes and influences, Seb is into his Drum ‘n’ Bass and R&N, that often comes through, Taylor has high energy with a soulful sound behind it, I’m [Jacobi] into the deeper tech house and minimal house and Waxy’s vibe is more melodic – he loves a certain structure to the music he plays and the music he produces
It’s all very collaborative, we’re close, old friends, and we can be very blunt and honest
With such impressive and distinctskills that are apparent between all four of you, who are some of your shared and/or individual influences? Do you all have a shared history in the world of DJ’ing?
We were all DJ’ing individually originally, we all had out own passions but we came together. I [Jacobi] have the longest history of going to Ibiza and listening to house music, Taylor was brought up in the US so his influencers are very different, but still complementary
Congratulations on your summer residency at Blue Marlin – Ibiza, which we hear attracted the biggest crowd of the whole summer! Having only been together for two years this comes across as a significant achievement, don’t you think?
We were very proud with how it went; we brought a new energy back to Blue Marlin, a lot of that was off the back of our successful shows at Koko. We also got a lot of coverage in Spanish press about what we were doing; it’s a small island so word spreads pretty quickly, it also helped that we played with the likes of the Martinez brothers, who are on top of their game
Now you know what to expect will you be doing anything differently or making any changes to your sound to spice things up for next year?
Our sound will keep developing and advancing with time, this will be see in the music we will release next year – we’re spending a lot of time in the studio creating exciting new material
How much of an impact did this feedback and response from Ibiza make on you and your future as HOUSEKEEPING, as you mention on your Bio information that it was your ‘mission to create a new and vibrant anti-pole to the static nightclub landscape of present day- spreading its unique vibe to the rest of Europe and beyond.’ Do you feel like you fulfilled this ambition?
Ibiza created great momentum for us, coming back to London for our show at One Embankment in November, the response we had was unprecedented from anything we’ve ever felt before. There are much bigger things to come, we feel like we’re just at the beginning of it
You’ve now had your share of experiences in two of the hottest locations for House music, London and Ibiza. How does playing in the summer heat to thousands of holiday'ers and House music cravers differ to playing on home turf, is there a preference?
Playing in Ibiza is the pinnacle of House music, playing outside in the sun with people who understand the music is what it’s all about; that said, playing in London is equally exciting to us as our following is growing and growing
What did it mean to you to be featured in MIXMAG? A magazine which I’m sure has featured some of your own influences in the past?
It was great, Duncan Dick has been a huge supporter of ours, so it’s a great honour, which we really appreciate, Duncan’s been along to our parties and it’s brilliant to be in the bible of our industry, we always had aspirations to be in there
What have you got planned for us back here in the UK for this winter? You have an event coming up in London in collaboration with the production team of DC10, do you enjoy working in the footsteps of locally well-known DJs in residencies such as these or is there somewhere you are really craving to bring your unique sound and charisma to?
Following on from our November show which was a huge success, the next big show will be at Koko in February. In the meantime, we’re flying to Cape Town over the New Year period and have residencies in the offing
This year you re-created the 7 deadly sins with your run of shows in Koko- Camden, what was the inspiration for such elaborate, imaginative creations? Are themes in the pipeline for the future of your music and production?
The music is the most important thing to us, but second to that is the show itself - it was a concert a hedonistic vibe that we wanted to create. We don’t tend to go with themes in our music, it’s more of an organic process
You seem to differ from most current, mainstream DJs with yourspectacles, if you like. Featuring lazers, smoke bombs, CO2 cannons, girls dressed in latex maid costumes, swinging from giant disco balls in the ceiling or in huge martini glasses, your events have been said to be ‘utterly memorizing’. Personally I find that your ideas and creative touches are fabulouslyindulgent, is this passion for large scale events a side-line or something youall have an equal interest in?
It’s important for us to create a show and give that extra layer to the Housekeeping experience. We love the creative side of what we do, putting on the big shows - we have plans for 2015 to go even bigger!
You also claim in your bio ‘debauchery and mischief are top of the menu’ for you, so after a summer in Ibiza, to finish the questions why don’t you share with us some of the mischief you got up to there?
Our villa parties became slightly infamous over the summer, between us and the Martinez brothers, it was 7 days of non-stop music and mayhem!
Make sure you head on over to Housekeeping's Soundcloud to check out some of their great new music.
