EXCLUSIVE: Boiler Room's Bicep Stream

Last week, Dazed went down to catch the notorious Bicep boys play a storming set at the Aus night at Boiler Room with labelhead Will Saul, joined by long-time signings Appleblim and Midland. Check out the exclusive premiere of the DJ set from the London-based Irish house & disco duo who have just unleashed their EP 'Stripper' as the first release from Love Fever's eponymous new label here - alongside our chat with them about 90s vocals, body-building and Ibizan megalols...

Dazed Digital: Having been influenced by so much old house, funk and disco etc, how do you maintain a new/modern perspective on your style of productions (if that is what you aim to do)?
Bicep: Yeah essentially we wanna take our love for the past and modernise it in a sense. Lots of old house tracks are pretty hard to play to a modern dancefloor - some just go on for ages and others break into rap or go really ravey… we try and take the elements of tracks we love and make them work as coherent tracks that work on today's dancefloors.

I really think the point of remixing is to bring something totally new to the track... If we think the original shouldn't be touched or if we doubt we can bring something exciting to the mix we might turn it down.

DD: What do you think &/or hope you bring to a track when remixing it?
Bicep: Depends what track, label and artist we are remixing but we try not to have a preconceived idea and like to just start fresh. Our aim is just to be happy with the end result. We do try and put our own stamp on every, we've yet to turn out a remix that isn't a full 180 flip on the original, I really think the point of remixing is to bring something totally new to the track, not just adding a few extra snares and a new set of hats. We are careful with what we remix, if we think the original shouldn't be touched or if we doubt we can bring something exciting to the mix we might turn it down.

DD: Are you planning to work with any vocalists on your tracks? Who would be your dream collaborator(s) alive or dead?
Bicep: Yeah we are working with a number of different vocalists at the moment on some real 90s house tracks. If we could go back to '93 vocalist-wise we would have love to work with Romanthony or Alana who features on quite a few MK tracks. Todd Terry and MAW around that time were unstoppable, working with them around that time would have been unreal.

DD: What do you think you would you be doing if you weren't making/playing music for a living?
Bicep: Pretty sure we would have been professional bodybuilders or wrestlers! But in all seriousness, we're both from design backgrounds and have worked in that sector prior and alongside working in music. They kind of go hand in hand and have certainly helped when it came to working on the website and our whole branding etc (which we do ourselves).

DD: You'll be returning to Space several times this summer, what have been the high & low points of Ibiza for you?
Andy: A low point was missing my boat back to Valencia when I first visited the island. Being broke, stinkingly hungover (from westend €3 vodka Red Bull pints) and baking in 35 degree heat for 6 hours whilst I waited for the next boat was like being in hell.
Matt: A low point was definitely tackling one of the Space residents (who will go unnamed) into a swimming pool at an afterparty, only to discover his iPhone was still in his pockets. Ooops!
Bicep: Every year we go back to Ibiza we love it a little bit more... High point for us both was playing We Love... last year, we have a good family out there now and it was good to party together at what we would consider the island's finest party.

DD: What's one thing you've always wanted to address to the other member that you never have? (no homo)
Andy: The claim that Matt can benchpress 2 females at once (he's already proved he can do one!)