With their brand new album ‘Synergy’ released a week or so back, Australian duo Slop Rock are at an exciting point in their careers. First beginning to produce back in 2009, they have seen both their original tracks and remixes since that time regularly feature highly in the Aussie dance charts. Now that their explorative eleven-track LP has dropped on VELCRO, their profiles as both producers and DJs will undoubtedly be raised even further. We had a chat with Slop Rock to get to know them a little better.
Hey guys! First things first, what is your current studio set up at the moment?
We don’t play too much with fancy gear. Most of our tunes are written in bed or on the couch on the laptop and a set of headphones. We do take it to the studio to mix down but it’s all pretty much done with a home setup at Tomy’s place which is running some yam HS80’s, RNC and a few synths. It’s crazy the amount you can do these days with plug ins on your laptop!
Do you both write tracks individually or work on everything together?
We write separately and then flick the projects back and forth over dropbox. We hardly ever end up in the studio together as it normally ends up in a massive drinking binge. Not much gets done… haha. We both write better alone and in the zone so that’s the best thing that works for us.
If you could both name a dance track that continues to inspire you, what would they be?
Mitch: Lifelike & Kris Menace – ‘Discopolis’
Tomy: Digitalism – ‘Zdarlight’
How long did ‘Synergy’ take to create?
We worked on this album for about 6 months. It probably took another 3 to get the mix downs right and piece it all together. We really wanted people to listen the whole way through without getting bored and it take them on a bit of a journey, as well as being able to listen in the car or at home, so we didn’t want “bangers” all the way through. It was really challenging piecing everything together to make it all flow, but was super fun as well and good to explore something outside the world of “Club Tracks”. It has certainly helped us find our sound and point us in the right direction of where we want to go in the future.
How would you sum up the album in three words?
Melody, Wine, Vibes.
Any particular tracks you’re most proud of?
‘Synergy‘ & ‘No Place Like Home‘ are our favorites. We had so much fun doing these tracks as they are not your normal Slop Rock sounds. We feel so good exploring different bass lines and tempos so we hold these tracks a bit closer to us now, being that they are so different for us and turned out decent is something we are really proud of.
How is your gig schedule at the moment? What else is coming up before summer ends?
We are coming to the end of the ‘Synergy’ tour where we played all around Australia for 2 months. Gigs are already filling back up though so we will be flying out again in the next couple of weeks to play some more shows! It’s getting close to festival season too, so looking forward to playing a few of those again this year.
Any plans for the next album?
Not at this stage. Although we loved making ‘Synergy’ we think we might churn out a few club style singles before we move onto another project like this. It’s really good to have content there for radio and have an album that people can listen to at home but we also love feeding the club goers with the bangers too!
Pick up a copy of ‘Synergy’ here.
