From DJing and producing, to owning Australian nightclubs and having their own reality show, The Stafford Brothers are taking the EDM scene by force. The Aussie brothers have kept extremely busy over the past few years with releases on labels like Stealth and Cr2, in the midst of touring and filming two seasons of their very own self-titled reality show. We caught up with Matt and Chris Stafford when they were in New York to talk about their Las Vegas residency, their TV show possibly coming to America, and everything else they have planned for the rest of the year.
Nicole: So how has 2012 been so far? What have you guys been up to?
Stafford Brothers: Well we moved to America, so that was pretty big. That’s the big news I guess for us. It’s been exciting. It’s been a real breath of fresh air I feel. It’s just so many new things happening for us. A lot of new music, a whole new country to live in, a new house, a new car. So yeah, maybe we’ll get a new dog! But we’d never be there to feed it. Actually, we moved into the house fully furnished, and there was an iguana! And they said “Do you guys want to keep it?” [We said] “No, no we can’t keep this year. You know, we’re not going to feed it.”
Nicole: You mean, you don’t like reptiles?
Stafford Brothers: No, no. I’ve been in that house four days this month, so that iguana would be starving. I think a camel can go for ages, you know what I mean. I think an iguana dies, if you’re not feeding it. Crocodiles can last a while, but we don’t want any crocodiles. We left them in Australia.
Nicole: So you have a new deal with the Tao Group. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Stafford Brothers: It’s definitely awesome. It’s great to be involved. We’ve played Marquee in Las Vegas, we’ve played Lavo in Las Vegas, we just played Lavo here [New York] on the weekend – which was rocking, the one in Sydney. It’s just great to be involved with an awesome group. And every venue is so good. You couldn’t ask for anything more to be honest, so we’re just stoked to be part of it, and yeah every gig has been rocking. It’s brought a good culture to Sydney as well. The club there is in the casino, and no one used to really go to the casino to the clubs there, and now it’s a destination. It’s packed every week. It’s good to see for Australia. Definitely.
Nicole: And you guys have your own reality show. How is that?
Stafford Brothers: Yeah, the second season just finished in Australia. So it’s actually in 21 countries around the world right now, but it’s not in America. So we’re just in the process of trying to get that to happen. So fingers crossed, it looks like it will. Apparently we’re big in Brazil right now. We were just told today. Our agent was telling us we’re big in Brazil. We were like, “Brilliant! Awesome!”
Nicole: Can you watch it online?
Stafford Brothers: You can’t, because it’s all territory locked. You can watch little clips and behind the scenes stuff, but the full episodes, yeah it’s all territory locked. If you go to YouTube Stafford TV, youtube.com/staffordtv, you can watch parts of it and television ads and stuff, but you’ll never get a whole episode. You can get an idea of what it’s about though I guess.
Nicole: I want to see this!
Stafford Brothers: It’s not just about us too. It is us, but then there’s like my girlfriend, our business partner, we own a few nightclubs back in Australia. So our partner is a pretty crazy Italian guy. He’s a brilliant character, and everyone says to us “Is he acting?” That’s just who he is, he’s a fiery guy. He runs all the clubs and he does it well you know. And we need him because we’re in America.
Nicole: I was going to say, how do you owning nightclubs and then your career?
Stafford Brothers: Thanks to him. Thanks to Joey. Joey Lamattina. There’s a little plug for him.
Nicole: What has been your favorite track you every produced?
Stafford Brothers: I guess one of our biggest would be “Wherever” with the Hoxton Whores, and it’s the theme song of the TV show. So that’s a pretty big song I guess for us. I like our last track that came out called “Pressure”; I mean we got a new single out today on Beatport. But “Pressure” for me was just more of our current vibe. It’s got New York rappers on it, you know and we’re definitely trying to collaborate with American artists. That’s why we moved to America. So yeah, “Pressure” is good.
Nicole: Who has been your favorite person you’ve ever worked with?
Stafford Brothers: Tom Neville. He’s a good man. He does a lot of stuff with Ke$ha and stuff. He’s just a good bloke. He’s an English gentleman, but get him a few drinks and he changes! [laughing] He’s a great guy and he’s really successful. And he’s making it over here, doing all the pop sort of stuff working on Ke$ha’s album. Nervo girls are another one. On the track “Falling” they wrote the lyrics. So yeah, I mean everyone, I guess, we work with we become friends with, because we don’t work with people we don’t like. You usually know within a day of being in the studio whether things are going to work out. So yeah, when you see a track with our name and somebody else’s name, we’re definitely friends. It’s worked out good.
Nicole: That’s awesome. It’s great to work with friends. Have you not had the chance to work with anyone that you really wanted to work with?
Stafford Brothers: Yeah, I guess there are a lot of artists over here, which is the reason why we came over. Definitely want to work with rappers, like Lil Wayne, that sort of thing. I think it would be great. Even like, Pharrell, somebody like that. I’d love to work with him.
Nicole: Are you big fans of hip-hop?
Stafford Brothers: Yeah, I am. I mean used to love the NWA and stuff. So it’s crossing over that genre of house, and that’s your American culture is that hip-hop and stuff. You know, I think Calvin Harris has done it brilliantly, with Rihanna and stuff. I like his sound and the way he’s done it. The good thing is every DJ plays his stuff, and it’s on the radio, but the DJs are playing it as well. And I think he’s bridged that gap of what’s cool and pop. I really think he’s nailed it. So I think that’s a big of a bench mark to hit.
Nicole: Definitely. So would he be a big musical influence for you guys? Who have been your biggest influences?
Stafford Brothers: It’s for me, more like Swedish House Mafia. But not really as the Swedish House Mafia, like them individually. Like Axwell, Steve Angello, I love what he does and I love his DJ sets as well. I love Axwell’s DJ sets, and Ingrosso. So, I mean we’ve done a lot this year. We did the tour with Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex – you know Skrillex, man he’s awesome! I don’t make dubstep, but I love everything he does. Just watching him jump around, like the crowd was there to see him. We played before him and after him. You know, it’s pretty impressive. He had fire going off behind, him we didn’t, he had an advantage [laughing].
Nicole: What’s your favorite place to play?
Stafford Brothers: I love Ibiza, [but] we were just in Mykonos at Paradise club. It is so good. Greece is awesome. Mykonos we’ve done several times. At the club, there’s like a hill. So you’re Djing, it’s a big dance floor, big swimming pool, the beach is right there, and then the sun comes up over the hill and like you’re still DJing and its daylight. That’s a good club, it’s rockin’.
Nicole: Definitely, if I make it to Greece next year, that’s where I’m going! Is there anywhere that you haven’t played that you would really like to?
Stafford Brothers: In Ibiza, Pacha. Yeah, I want to play Pacha Ibiza. More of South America, like we’ve done Brazil, but I’d love to go to all of South America. Peru. Argentina, just to see the world. You know what, Japan. I want to go to Japan, because I’ve never been to Japan. I want to go snowboarding in Japan, and I want to buy shoes in Japan. And I want to eat some food in Japan. I love Japanese food. So Japan.
Nicole: What do you guys have planned for the rest of 2012? What secrets can you tell me?
Stafford Brothers: What secrets? We have a big record coming out soon with some pretty big American acts, but we can’t drop that yet. I think that’s going to be pretty massive for us.
Nicole: Is it an artist album?
Stafford Brothers: No, it’s a single. We do everything by singles really. We have a tour, we’re going to South America again, we’re going to Europe. You know what, we want to spend more time in LA, in our house. We’ve got a lot of new music coming. Yeah we’ll be over here until at least the end of November and then back to Australia. And then hopefully the third season of the show gets picked up for the States, and I think it will. Everyone’s really positive about it, everyone’s really into what we’re doing. And I think, it’s sort of different too. They haven’t actually had a DJ show, that’s a reality show, there isn’t one. We’ve been doing it for a couple of years already, so this would be our third season and America’s the right place to do it. The scene’s right, right now.
Nicole: Definitely, it’s definitely growing, so I think a lot of people would be really into it.
Stafford Brothers: And also because we’re Aussies, you know, we don’t know what we’re doing half the time, don’t know where we’re going. You know we’re just hopping in cabs. And I just couldn’t get a cab, and the other people were like “You should just get one like that”, and I was like “What, is my hand not right?” And just the people we’re meeting, they are just characters here. They’re just ideal for the show, you know what I mean, so. We’ve got the secret Nicki Minaj concert tonight. So yeah, I mean it’s just exciting, it’s an exciting time.
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