Exclusive Interview: Walker & Royce

Sam Walker & Gavin Royce are a House Music duo out of Brooklyn, New York. They have been producing music together for a few years and have put tracks out on many impressive labels such as Moda Black, Pets Recordings, Crosstown Rebels, Glasgow Underground among many others. Today, they’ve released their latest EP Over, which features Steven Klavier, on Safer At Night Records. In addition to their latest release, they are heading to the UK on tour in May where they will preform at notable venues such as Lost Villiage Music Fest, Ministry of Sound London, Gottwood Fest, and Movement @ Edge. Needless to say, we are extremely excited to have these guys headline our weekly event Afterlife @ Grandbar Chicago this Saturday, February 28th. We were also lucky enough to get a chance to sit down and have a little chat with Walker and Royce, read the full interview below.

If you would like to RSVP for Walker & Royce @ Afterlife (February 28th) text REVOLUTION to (312) 756-0326

 

Tell us a little bit about Walker & Royce. How did you guys meet?
Sam: We met at an internship at Studio Distribution in NYC.

Gavin: We both interned there, through that we had a bunch of mutual friends and use to all go to parties and club nights together.

How did you start djing/producing together?
Sam: A few years ago Gavin needed to do a remix and I helped him with it. The partnership worked!

Gavin: It was very late into our friendship that we actually decided to work on music together, however I think it was the right time.

Who is your biggest influence(s)?
Gavin: In my younger years I always liked R&B, I was obsessed with Prince and Michael Jackson. Then once I was going out to raves it was Doc Martin that made me realize I wanted to DJ.

Sam: It was at a Sasha & John Digweed show where I said “this is what I want to do”.

What’s your favorite record of all time?
Sam: Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me

Gavin: Always a hard question, this time I’m going with my favorite party starter…Erotic City by Prince.

What was your favorite party of all time that you have played?
Gavin: As W&R we have had some really great gigs…. One that stands out was our recent show at Le Bain in NYC. Its a club at the top of the Standard Hotel and has an incredible view of the city. It was our first gig in NYC for a few months so a lot of our friends came out and the vibe was perfect. We collaborated on a few tracks with vocalist Steven Klavier, he came and performed them live that night as well, it was amazing!

What’s the most embarrassing thing thats happened to you at a show?
Sam: Gavin accidentally turned off one of the CDJ’s at U Street Music Hall in DC….

Gavin: That did happen and it was a huge mistake, it haunts my dreams to this day.

What do you like to do when you’re not working on music/DJing?
Sam: sleep.

Gavin: We are also both movie nerds and spend a lot of time on IMDB. We are really good at remembering all the movies that random character actors are in.

What is your opinion on the current EDM scene?
Sam: I don’t judge it. I mean, a lot of it is crap, sure. But a lot of it always was. I think the thing to remember is, good music isn’t hard to find, especially these days. If you don’t like what you hear, listen to something else.

Gavin: I would hope that peoples taste and knowledge of what dance music is generally about would mature like it has in Europe, but we will have to see.

What do you think will be the next big thing in EDM?
Sam: Have DJs tried literally shooting bolts of lightning at the audience yet? That might work, I think someone should try that.

Gavin: I think that some “deeper” and “techier” sounds are pushing through and getting more attention, you can see it on the big festival lineups. However bolts of lightning would be really cool.

What do you think about all these “frauds” in the EDM scene using ghost producers, buying likes and purchasing their own tracks on Beatport?
Sam: I wouldn’t go so far as to call ghost producers frauds, but it does seem disingenuous for acts to just buy their music from someone else. As for acts buying likes and other social manipulation, the real culprit is promoters who base their bookings on how many likes an act has instead of how good they are or how many people they’ll bring out. If that didn’t happen then there’d be no point to having artificially inflated numbers.

Gavin: The people who get big off of tactics like this usually fall hard because they don’t have the talent to back up the hype.Karma’s a bitch…

Is there any upcoming releases/shows we should keep an eye out for?
Gavin: We just released another EP on Brooklyn label Safer At Night. We have a follow up to our Sister EP called My Dream coming out next month on Moda Black. We have remixed Groover Armada, also on Moda Black also a remix of Worthy. Then later this year we are doing an EP with Catz n’ Dogz’s Pets Recordings….

Walker & Royce – Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud | Instagram | Beatport

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Buy Walker & Royce – Over EP

Buy Worthy – Luna (Walker & Royce Remix)