Australians are well-known workaholics. Not only is our average working week longer than in most developed nations, but we are also reluctant to take time off. But what about those who dodge the nine-to-five path and pursue a career in the arts? Surely they’re able to circumvent the hard-working compulsion?
Right now, Gold Coast DJs Matt and Chris Stafford – better known as Stafford Brothers – are flying the flag of Australian electronic music around the world. As well as DJing three to four nights a week, the brothers have been making a serious impact on the charts since relocating to Los Angeles last year. It’s easy to picture Matt and Chris enjoying a fairly breezy LA life, involving plenty of Tuesday afternoon spas and Wednesday morning Bloody Marys. We can’t deny this is the case, but staying ahead of the pack in the music biz requires constant effort.
“We work generally on the weekends, but we work every day,” says Matt. “Monday to Friday you’re doing everything else, from music production to running the business side of things to looking at other opportunities. We pretty much work 24/7. I was reading someone who said, ‘My job is my life, but I love my life.’ That’s pretty much how I feel about it, too.”
Successfully deviating from the straight and narrow is a mighty achievement that comes with an enviable spread of perks. But purveyors of entertainment are often obliged to work on occasions that even the most rigorous workaholics would find unreasonable. A chief example is New Year’s Eve – when just about the whole planet seeks some form of entertainment. This New Year’s Eve, Stafford Brothers will headline Harbour Party at Sydney’s Luna Park. Going to work on this international night of mischief is nothing new, says Matt.
“I don’t know really the last time when I didn’t DJ. I was probably in school. I also think, this is what you do, so that’s a big night of the year. If you aren’t booked on New Year’s Eve, maybe your career’s not doing what you want it to be doing.
“To be honest, I actually like DJing,” he adds. “It’s not a job, so if someone says, ‘Do you just want to go and party, or do you want to DJ and then party?’ I would definitely say, ‘DJ and then party,’ because it’s fun for us. Especially something like this gig. We’ve never done it – I’ve seen it so many times, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and all that; it’s pretty iconic. So we’re pretty stoked to be doing this show.”
Stafford Brothers have been established touring DJs for the last decade, but it’s only recently that their original productions have started to gather attention. In 2012 they inked a deal with US label Cash Money Records (home to the likes of Drake, Nicki Minaj and Soulja Boy), which led to last year’s triple-platinum single ‘Hello’, featuring Lil Wayne and Christina Milian. In mid-2014, ‘Hello’ was followed by another high-profile EDM collaboration, ‘This Girl’ featuring Eva Simons and T.I.
The brothers are currently working on a new bunch of material, which is likely to see the light of day early in the New Year. “It’s definitely a fresher sound,” says Matt. “It’s a bit more aggressive. It’s got elements of drum’n’bass, some dubstep in there. It’s a total different sort of sound. We have a lot of new records that are in a new vibe. I guess it’s a new chapter.”
The chief motivator for this stylistic shift was Stafford Brothers’ new home. “Being in America, trap music’s really big here and that sort of stuff,” explains Matt. “We’re working with a lot of hip hop guys as well, and they work with sometimes different beats. So for us, that has definitely been the inspiration. Also, it’s what we love. We’re definitely enjoying listening to that style of music.”
After the hefty success of ‘Hello’ and ‘This Girl’, it might seem imprudent for Stafford Brothers to implement a conspicuous sonic makeover. But Matt disregards any inclination to adhere to mainstream uniformity.
“I think you’ve just got to do what you love,” he says. “Just make what you like and if it works, great, and if it doesn’t, well at least you’re enjoying it. We had triple-platinum success with ‘Hello’ but before that we’d pretty much never been on the radio – and we’d been DJing for over ten years and had a career in touring around the world. You want the record to work on the dancefloor primarily. That’s what’s most important to us.”
Indeed, Stafford Brothers’ main distinction is their authoritative command of hotly stuffed dancefloors, so it’s no surprise this has a significant bearing on their creative decisions. The fact that manning the decks is a year-round engagement also means it doesn’t take long to work out whether or not a new tune is hitting the mark.
“We’re always putting on songs that we’ve made or recently tweaked and you just see what the reaction is and how it works – and if it works. That comes down to even the sound of the song in a club – is it banging out there? Is it sounding how you think it sounds? That’s definitely something that we’re in a good position to be able to do. I guess [with] bands, they go and write stuff in the studio and they release an album, then go tour it. We’re making the stuff, playing it out a lot and then releasing it.”
It might be less than two years since Stafford Brothers got their commercial breakthrough, but they aren’t production amateurs by any means. The siblings are relentlessly working away at a range of originals, collaborations, remixes and mash-ups. Understandably, this is what they prefer to fill their DJ sets with.
“People often say, ‘Do you know what you’re going to play?’ It’s like, ‘I know our opening songs and then we’ll go from there.’ You obviously have songs that you always play – all of those are our own songs.
“There’s just so much music being released,” Matt continues. “We go through music – literally every day you’re getting new stuff and at least once a week new songs are added to the SD cards. We’re constantly adding new stuff. I think you have to. You’ve got to stay fresh.”
As the saying goes, all work and no play makes Matt and Chris dull boys. Luckily, their job places them in hedonistic surrounds – and they’re not the types to pass up an opportunity to get a bit wild.
“We party a lot,” says Matt. “We’re known for partying. In saying that, I just ran the Tough Mudder event. It’s a ten-mile race, 20 obstacles. So while I’ll party on the weekends, Monday to Friday I’m in the gym and staying fit and healthy. I just think life’s about balance, but at the same time I’m always down for a good time. You’ve got to enjoy life.”
They’ll be playingHarbour Party NYE 2014 alongsideThe Potbelleez, Wave Racer, Ganz, Wax Motif, Cosmo’s Midnight, Basenji and more atLuna Park onWednesday December 31, tickets online.
