“We have a genuine love for what we do and really enjoy our jobs. Not a lot of people can say that. We also make music because of the appreciation we have for it and the feeling that goes into our production.”
Pascal & Pearce, affectionately known as ‘P&P’, are two of the hottest rising Electro House DJ stars to bump off Cape Town shores in recent months. They signed to leading independent label, Just Music Records, in May and in a few short years have catapulted into the limelight, filling up their résumé with remixes of artists such as Flash Republic, Locnville, Goldfish, Zebra & Giraffe and Roger Sanchez.
I caught up with them a few short weeks before the release date of their very first and highly anticipated double disc studio album titled, Passport. Arriving at Dave Pearce’s home (and home-studio) I turn left from the entrance and into a room where… an ‘Irie Beanie’ man hangs from the door knob sporting an easy-happy grin, giving off a warm and welcome vibe. I smirk right back as I turn the handle. We sit down in their cosy Sea Point studio that is totally ‘P&P’d’ out. A graphic of their laughing faces hangs aboard a framed poster sitting on the front wall. Tilting my head I see in the background a picture of none other than The Beatles in their glory days. The aura of the room strikes me as somewhat eclectic as I poise myself on their comfy pink couch, settling down for what turns out to be a fun hour…
The Pascal & Pearce Sound
Their sound has been described since their early days in ’07 as fresh, filthy and wobbly influenced by Brazilian rhythms and percussion. They have in fact grown since then and now describe their sound as…
“Uplifting Progressive Driving Electro Filth… We have changed completely but for the better. Our understanding of the use of the tools we work on have improved. Technically our quality is so much better,” explains Pascal [Ellinas].
Dave [Pearce] studied contemporary music and this experience he says laid a foundation for the appreciation of genre differentiation.
He elaborates, “to say we are Fusion doesn’t even come close to describing what it is we do when we make music. I got tastes early on of different genres such as Hip Hop, Jazz, Rock and Country and with that my thinking just broadened on what great production can entail. And that’s what I bring when producing and so does Pascal.”
“Some people come up to us and will say… ‘I could tell that was your track it sounds just like you,’ and we will be like okay we didn’t realize that our sound was that specific because we keep mixing it up. But it’s great if someone can listen to our music like that. It also shows you that people perceive music differently,” adds Pascal, thoughtfully.
Hit Track ‘Disko… Biskit’
“We were stoked with the success of Disko… Biskit. It did really well in Amsterdam and the USA surprisingly enough. I think that also just shows how much the Dance scene is growing and coming back globally. It’s a great episode and time to be a part of” smiles Pearce.
The experience since signing to ‘Just Music’
“It’s been coming on for the past year and since we signed it has been ‘out-of-this-world’ great. We got to work with amazingly talented and down to earth artists like Tamara Dey, Louise Carver, Roger Sanchez and the Locnville Boys. Karl Anderson [Just Music head honcho] has helped open up a lot of doors for us and it’s definitely a great platform for us to be on. They handle everything from promotion to the distribution of our album which will be available at Look & Listen and Musica outlets countrywide,” Pearce enthuses.
What fans can expect from the upcoming album ‘Passport’
“It’s a double disc CD set with the first being all of our own original tracks and the second disc will be all of our remixes of other artist tracks. From what we know this is the first SA release of its kind with all the work being original and then a remix disc too,” they tell me.
Pascal adds “It‘s going to be a showcase of what we are capable of.” He pauses, considering his statement, “Because we make a lot more stuff than we actually put out. When you listen to it you will find that each song is a little different from the other, proving once again our take on diversity in production. Everyone always takes away what they interpret from music, whether that was the intended message or not. The idea is to make an impact and I believe you make that impact when you put real soul and passion into your music.”
Separating P&P from other Cape Town DJ’s… “We have a genuine love for what we do and really enjoy our jobs. Not a lot of people can say that. We also make music because of the appreciation we have for it and the feeling that goes into our production. Aside from that; hey… nothing else separates us from other Cape Town DJs” adds Pascal humbly.
Pre-DJ Rituals
“Hmmm…we actually don’t have any really… Well I would say that we have that ‘sink in moment’ feeling before a performance. In that instance before we go up and play, we kinda look up at the powers that be and just feel so grateful. We get to do what we love for a living. Yeah… I’d say gratitude is definitely a pre-DJ set ritual for us.” says Pearce.
Downtime with P&P includes…
“We love what we do and not a lot of people are able to truly say that, so most of our energy goes into producing and deejaying. We dig soccer, table tennis and X-box. When we get the chance we will hang out at spots like Trinity and Sapphire depending on the night of course.”
Pascal & Pearce have forged a well built and passion fuelled foundation of fans that now have a palette for their flavour of music in South Africa. They plan to take their onslaught global after the release of their debut album – Passport – you can take it from me, it’s music worth checking out. Catch them this summer too burning up the decks across the country.
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WIN 1 of 5 Autographed copies of Passport by Pascal & Pearce + a Just Music hamper valued @ R1200 including:
Roger Goode – Saturday Surgery 7, Sander Van Doorn, Above & Beyond, Example, Flash Republic, Goodluck, Ministry Of Sound- Club Nation, Roger Sanchez- Release Yourself 11
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