Gorge aka Pit Waldmann, answers to Melissa Jane Frost ahead of his performance at Rhythmatic at Cargo on the 30th July.

Q. Now firstly, your name is Pit Waldmann, Where does your DJ name Gorge come from?

A. I’m doing windsurfing for a long time and a lot of my inspiration for music came through this sport.There’s a beautiful surf spot in the USA called “Columbia river gorge” and i thought this name would fit perfect. So this was born in 1996 and still stayed

Q. The “8bit” label that yourself and Nick Curly run together recently celebrated its 5 year birthday, many happy returns! How does it feel to be 5 years old and still going strong?

A. First of all we never thought the label might get that known and have this support from all over the world. I think one of the reasons why we’re still successful is our open mind for all styles of electronic music. We’re always looking for the best quality of original productions and don’t build the label on remixer names. We put out a variety from deep to tech house but always not too up-tempo as Nick and I normally play between 122 and 124 bpm. The most important thing for us is the groove and something that makes a production special and shows the talent of the artist. It’s always hard to explain producers what sound we’re looking for. We always tell them: “it must be special and not heard 20 times before”. They should not produce for the sound of the label and play different music in the clubs. The profile of the artist should fit although with his dj or live sound.

Q. So what’s next for the label? Do you have any exciting projects or signings coming up that you can tell us about?

A. We just released a 4 track ep by Dave Pezzner and the next release is a summer vocal track from 2 guys calling themselves “Bunte Bummler”. Next releases will be by the italian “Giuseppe Cennamo” who already appeared on a various artist ep 2 years ago. In fall we planned another ep by myself and 2 or 3 other ep’s.

Q. What is your favourite club or place in the world to play at?

A. One of my favourites is definitely D-Edge in Sao Paulo. The vibe is great and people go crazy the whole night.

Q. I noticed that you played in Chile and Brazil recently – how was that? Is there a big demand for the “Gorge” sound in South America?

A. Well, South America is very big, but at all there’s not so many underground clubs and the scene especially in Brazil is more traditional and commercial. For example Rio has only 1 underground club which is very small and most of the parties are more commercial. The best scene is Sao Paulo. I’m going to Brazil 2 or 3 times a year and there are a couple of clubs booking me the last 2 years. I’m planning the next tour at the moment for November or January as we already have some requests again.

Q. Which country is throwing the best parties at the moment?

A. There’s no specific country with the best parties. Every country has his own scene and spots and every party is special in a way. The country where people definitely know the most things about the artist and the music he plays is the UK.I had good parties all over the world and can’t decide which was the best

Q. You’re a very prolific producer, but as well as your own productions you do a lot of remixes for people e.g. Ray Okpara, Milton Jackson etc, what do you prefer doing?

A. Well, i love remixing other artists when the original production is good. When i have a good original with inspiring parts or vocals i’m working fast and find a catchy line very quickly. The problem is there’s too many labels thinking a good producer can do “Gold out of shit” for money, but this is not possible and i stopped taking too many requests and concentrate more on original stuff. For the future i’ll do something like 5 or 6 remixes a year and around 3 ep’s and singles.

Q. You’re playing for the Rhythmatic boys on the 30th of this month.. When was the last time you played here in London?

A. Last time i played was the Jaded after hour at Cable i think. Great party with nice people. Now I’m really looking forward to Rhythmatic as the last time at the Egg was great!

Thanks again for you time and we’ll see you down the front on the 30th!

Interview by Melissa Jane Frost

On sitting down in a café in Spitalfields, it’s immediately hard not to be charmed by Kiri and Kostas Poulos. Brothers, twins and rock solid friends, the duo also go by the name of Double Trouble Productions and are the team behind the international Rhythmatic nights too. With over ten years experience, the boys have worked with everyone from Armand Van Helden to Carl Cox and are rapidly approaching the third anniversary of their Rhythmatic pseudonym, where non-other than Italy’s finest tech export Marco Carola tips the bill.

Tonight, in the heart of the east end, and despite it being a dark drizzly Monday evening, the boys are bursting with energy (where do they get it from?) so naturally, Tinker Tailor & One More Sailor were keen to find out exactly what it is that makes them tick. Here, the twins give insight into running one of London’s most forward-thinking production agencies and parties, plus share the secret to their endless energy…

Tell me a little about the history of Double Trouble and Rhythmatic. How did it all start?
Kiri: The whole thing started about three years ago but our first business was Magpi Events in Newcastle about 10 years ago. I was living in Newcastle and I seemed to be quite popular with people there. As a result of the dance scene there, one day I decided that Magpi Events wasn’t working for me so I decided to pack everything in and stop. The business ran for about four to five years in Newcastle and included some things in Greece, but things didn’t work out as we hoped so we took a break. Kostas: I had been living in Greece and Cyprus because of my medicine, but I wasn’t very happy with what I was doing so I said to my brother “Listen, I want to come to Newcastle, and maybe move to London one day.” So that’s what we did. We didn’t move to London to do events, we moved to try something different.

Kiri:In the second year of living in London, we decided to go to Miami during the winter Music conference, but purely to party, not on the premise that we would go back to business. Having said that, while we were there we met some wicked people, plus with our contacts from the past, we met up with a lot of DJs too. When we got back to the UK, we had new connections and we were so excited that we thought we should do something about it. A good friend of mine, Tommy, introduced me to one of his close friends Silky who eventually became one of our residents. We all went out and at one point he said “what about if you and your brother manage us?’ At the time we were thirty years old and we said, “It’s either now, or never.” We also had a night out with one of our best friends, DJ Satoshi Tomiie, who invited us to his night at The Cross. He then introduced us to his friend Stathis Lazarides. Kostas: With all these things happening we thought, “you know what, we’ve got Stathis and Silky – we should do something about it”, so we met up with an energy drink company and arranged a party.

Why did you choose the names ‘Double Trouble Productions’, and the less obvious, ‘Rhythmatic’?

Kiri:About three of four years ago, we used to go out a lot so all the clubs used to know my brother and I. People used to always say “Oh, the twins, the twins, the twins, the doubles, who are you, who are you?” Kiri: No-one knew us by our names but they knew us as ‘The Twins’ so Double Trouble Productions made sense. Wherever we used to go, people loved our presence and we created a really good buzz so it was only natural to call the company something similar to ourselves.

After we established our name as a production company [Double Trouble], we sat down with Stathis and Silky to talk about all sorts of silly things, playing with words. We wanted to give a name to our brand that would give it a specific identity. We didn’t want something lame like ‘Dirty, Dirty, Dirty’; we wanted something that’d cover house across the board. I was thinking ‘rhythm, rhythm, rhythm’ and Rhythmatic just came naturally.

You’ll soon be into year three of Rhythmatic. Looking back, is where you are now and what you’re doing different to what you expected?

Kostas:Three years has passed very quickly, I can’t believe I’m sitting here discussing that in a couple of weeks we [Double Trouble] are already three years old. It’s an inspiration, yet we haven’t tried very hard to get here.

Kiri:Things just happen for us, we never push our brand more than our capability as we don’t want to do that. For example, people said to us when we started doing events in London “You’ve got to get out of EGG and The White House”, and EGG, as much as people don’t like it, was where everything started for us. Now, after only three years, we’re working with Marco Carola – it’s a dream come true. We always book DJs who are good for our brand, but to have him on our third birthday is quite spectacular. In an environment like London where it’s so competitive – big DJs, big promoters – it’s about being known. A lot of people who are established here have roots, Kostas and I don’t. When we did events way back, we used to work with people like Felix da Housecat, Arman Van Helden and Sister Bliss (Faithless). It was different, but consider the names we booked back then – they were huge and everyone was saying “How the hell did you book them?” With Marco Carola, with the new wave of DJs, they’re a natural fit for us, still Marco and Carl Cox [who DT secured in the summer of 2010] are big bookings for us.

Kiri: We know the business; my day job is very similar. It’s only a matter of time to grow even bigger as Rhythmatic and obviously, you want to do things naturally – you don’t want to become too big too quickly.

Kostas: We keep it like family. Teenager, adult, then more mature.

Kiri:Even when we were grew up as teenagers, we never went “Oh my god, let’s go clubbing, do drugs, alcohol”. No, we did things organically – as we grew up, as we were ready. We never rush things and for us, we think that’s the key to success. We do things when they need to be done.

You once said in an interview, in reference to what other aspects have helped your success, that “travelling and meeting people over the last few years led us to meet some really wonderful friends…who gave us their all”. Who were you referring to and how did they help?

Stathis, Emily Stephens who helped with networking, and Silky who unfortunately is not with us anymore, [he's managed under another agency]. In addition, Betoko who’s another very good friend of mine, people like Low & Murphy and of course, Rico Novo with his great support since day one – for believing in us. Our PR lady Lauren Fenner has always been three for us too, with her solid personality and writing skills. Kostas: We didn’t know anything about London; a few of them took us out and showed us what it was all about.

Kiri:They helped to establish us, helped us to find our feet.

What goes into organising something like your upcoming third anniversary party?
Kostas:Well, uh… Kiri: Nightmare. However, the key to success with something like this is how precise and accurate you are with everything. Thank god my brother’s a doctor – for him, precision is everything. I’m an Events Organiser, so we know that organising something to this scale takes many, many, many hours. There’s a great English phrase; ‘military precision’… Kostas: It’s a serious commitment. Kostas: It’s not just about booking a DJ like Marco Carola, Carl Cox… Kiri: [finishes Kostas sentence]…and dumping pile a stack of speakers into one room on the night… Kostas: No. It’s the hospitality, it’s the venue, and it’s the production. Kiri: With our events you will see the best thing that London has seen in terms of production, facilities and everything else that comes in-between.

So how do you manage it all alongside a full-time job?

Kostas:It’s a hard game, but we are very good at managing our time. It’s 24 hours in the game, eh? Kiri: The warehouse for example is a six-month project from the day we put down the plan to the final thing. Plus, it’s not just getting everything together and get other people to do it, we go there, we set up the club, we take it all down, we clean. We do everything – we give everything to everything.

You must be completely knackered?

Kostas: No. We love it! Kiri: If Kostas and I don’t work, we’re miserable inside. Kostas: Stress gives me drive. Good stress, yeah? Kiri: I work every day for about sixteen hours non-stop. I cannot do without work.

A workaholic?

Love-a-holic.

How did booking Marco Carola come about?
Kiri: We had a long talk about our birthday with our team and Marco Carola’s name came up. At the time we thought it would have been tricky but we said why not? After sending the details from our last party with Matthias [Tanzmann] and Davide [Squillace] he really wanted to do it, even against Cocoon.

How are you feeling about going head-to-head with Sven Väth and Cocoon at Fabric on the 27th November?

Kostas:I think there’s work for everyone in London. When you go against something you have to be very careful, it’s competition, but if you’re good…[pauses] people will appreciate that we have Marco Carola and System of Survival playing for us. Kiri: The fact is that as a promoter, regardless of when you do an event, you will always have a good couple of nights against you. However, for us, going against Sven Väth, we see it as healthy competition and what I mean by healthy is that it gives us even more reason to keep pushing our brand. We did it a couple of years ago, going head-to-head with Richie Hawtin at his last night at The End which was even bigger than the one that Sven Väth is doing now – we still managed to pack out the EGG. Obviously yes, it’d be nice to go against a smaller night, but I’m not concerned, I know my strengths – I’ve got Marco Carola and I’ve got a great team. I think people will appreciate us and respect us even more when we go against the big boys. We’re taking the risk and I can assure you that on 27th, it will be a good night.

You’ve met and worked with some big stars over your career so far, particularly Carl Cox and Sister Bliss of Faithless. Who have your personal favourites been, and whom would you like to secure?

Kiri: We don’t have personal favourites. As Rhythmatic, we do not operate on the basis of ‘book this guy, book that guy’. I know it’s a diplomatic answer, but what’s important for Rhythmatic is not the DJ, but what they play. Before I choose DJs, I don’t know them. For example, with Wesley Razzy, I checked him out as someone told me to check his mix. I was so impressed that we booked him. Kostas: We don’t like to have barriers – we are open to every single person.

What are you most looking forward to in 2011?

Kiri: Six big warehouse parties in London! Starting from February, all the way to November, which will be our fourth big anniversary at a 2,500 capacity warehouse in London. Plus, we’re planning some things abroad that have still to be confirmed – Ibiza, Amsterdam, South Africa, Greece. We can assure you our six warehouse parties are going to be pretty special. Come December/January we’ll be doing a press release so things will be revealed then.

Having grown up in Greece and lived in Newcastle and now London, you’re no strangers to travelling. Where in the world is your favourite place to party?

Kiri: I think everywhere and anywhere so long as you’ve got a good vibe, good friends and good music. It can even be in your house – anywhere and everywhere. If you have the right people around you, and good music – fantastic.

That’s kind of what Rhythmatic is all about, right?

Kiri: Actually, Rhythmatic is like this. When we put our night on in a specific club, in a small place, a big place, in no-where, in everywhere, the vibe is exactly how we feel and exactly what we want to do.

Other than dance music, what ticks your boxes?

Kiri: Recently I’ve been listening to Stathis Lazarides mix [laughs] and Ekkohaus from Moon Harbour.

So is it always house music?

Kiri: No, noooo. Actually, my favourite piece of music which I do love is Boléro, [Ravel's Boléro] it’s classical, [start humming the tune]. It was one of the first pieces of music I listened to thought you know what, music is good. Back in the day, we used to basically destroy our sister’s music as we never loved it. Until I was 16/17, I wasn’t into music and then I got into it.

The last few remaining tickets to Rhythmatic’s 3rd birthday party on 27th November are available on Resident Advisor – buy them here before they’re gone.

Words by claire Scot

full interview details please click here

So how much trouble is ‘Double Trouble’?
Kiri & Kostas: Depending on the mood, very, that’s why we named our company Double Trouble Productions! When we used to go out before we started our business, we used to create quite a stir wherever we went. And if you come to our warehouse/club parties you’ll see why.

What did you want to be when you were young? Was making people dance anywhere on the list?
Kiri: A footballer, but then I had an accident on both knees so after that I wanted to become either a journalist or to study fashion marketing
Kostas: A computer geek!

Kiri: We didn’t start listening to music properly until we were sixteen or seventeen. When we were young we were very into sports. Our family then sent me to study Engineering in Newcastle and Kostas off to Bulgaria to study Medicine.

What would you say are the five essential ingredients for a good party?
Kiri & Kostas: Music. Sound System. Atmosphere. Crowd. Production.

What’s been your favourite venue in London so far?
Kiri: Paramount Bar
Kostas: Cable

How important is it for you to support up-and-coming UK artists as opposed to bringing in big names?Kiri & Kostas: Very important and we always have done. The UK has some of the most talented up-and-coming artists and we feel this is vital for our events. We never seem to compare DJs that way – the DJs we book from the warm-up set through to the final set we see as equally important.

It’s an easy assumption to make that a promoter’s life is just one big party. Is it?Kiri & Kostas: People who say things like this haven’t organised parties before! If a person was to observe us on the night of our parties, that would probably appear to be the best way to describe the life of the promoter. But to get to that point, the hours we put in, the sleepless nights you have… a promoter’s life is definitely not so rock and roll. It takes a ridiculous amount of commitment and many hours of works to get to that point.

How did you get sucked into the promoting world?
Kiri: When I moved to Newcastle to study, I spent my weekends going out and partying at a club called Foundation where Shindig was hosting their weekly parties. After going out to the same place for around three years and knowing more or less every person there, I decided to throw a summer goodbye party to thank all my Geordie and non-Geordie friends. On a Thursday night I hosted the back room at Foundation and it was completely sold out… and that’s where the journey began!

And what does the future hold?
Kiri & Kostas: For Double Trouble Productions as a company, we’ll be looking to extend into more fields, corporate events (something I do already), a DJ agency, which we plan to set up this year, and very importantly, the development of our Rhythmatic night. To be honest with you, we don’t look that far; for us it is important to work on short terms.

What’s your take on the party scene at the moment?
Kiri & Kostas: The party scene in London has changed quite a lot the last few months. Most of the trends are taken from the Berlin scene – the basement parties, warehouse parties, the way people are dressing up etc. Also, I don’t like the fact that because ‘warehouse’ is such trendy term at the moment, every promoter who is putting on a party outside a club setting suddenly calls it a warehouse party! But I guess people really buy into that kind of stuff. Still though, there are some great promoters in London who do it for the passion of music… Rhythmatic is one of those parties for sure.

full interview click here

Double Trouble brothers Kiri and Kostas Poulos are deep into their preparations for 2011 for their impressive Rhythmatic night. 2010 was a resounding success for the burgeoning night, taking in appearances from the likes of Matthias Tanzmann, Marco Carola and Davide Squillace. Always paying real attention to detail with their events, the Greek brothers have been looking for a way to raise the bar even more in the next twelve months and beyond. Kicking off their 2011 campaign, the boys will be taking on a Shoreditch warehouse space on Saturday February 12th to deliver an extra special night of live performances. All three headliners will be playing live, offering London’s clubbers the unique chance to catch Guillaume & The Couto Dumont, Damian Schwartz and Lemos all playing live on the same night. Of course, the support will be supplied by charismatic Rhythmatic residents, Stathis Lazarides and Wesley Razzy.

I Voice caught up with the promoters to find out a little bit more about their future plans and how they see themselves fitting in to a dance culture that is highly saturated in London.

How exactly are you taking your Rhythmatic concept in a new direction this year apart from the artists on the opening party playing live?
Kiri - Rhythmatic is not just about the headliners we book or the way we programme our events, we give a lot of attention to our production, decoration and presentation, whilst still maintaining the warehouse/underground feel. We have also teamed up with leading professional sound supplier Flare Audio, to provide us with the unbelievable quality of the Stealth Array system. Everybody that attended the 3rd anniversary will definitely remember the power and clarity of the PA…..Overall, we try very hard to be on the forefront of technology when it comes down to sound, lighting, visuals, and live shows.

Kostas - bringing all this together as one this year, we believe is going to be a very rewarding experience for everyone who comes to our shows.

Do you think that Rhythmatic does actually stand out from other nights? It seems most parties use the same few ‘secret warehouse venues.’ Will you actually be doing anything different?
Kostas - The competition is massive and when we started 3 years ago, there were a lot of promoters and clubs, but throughout the years a lot of these nights and clubs have died out. The reason why we have managed to survive is because we are always pushing the boundaries and that’s why we have managed to stand out from a lot of rival nights. Last year we were the first people to bring together Matthias Tanzmann and Davide Squillace playing a 4 hour set B2B, and we had Marco Carola playing 4 hours set. You have to always keep trying new things, that’s one of the keys to success and of course to have a good team is always very, very important!!

Kiri – What we do that other night/warehouse parties don’t is invest hugely in production. The Label and club Showcases we have confirmed in association with Rhythmatic, Moon Harbour, Cavo Paradiso, Hideout, Weplayminimal and of course the first ever Live showcase, which is live on the 12th Feb, are our pride and joy.

Why did you want the artists to perform live rather than DJ? What is so special about a live show?
Kiri – We are always trying different approaches to keep our guests entertained and on the dance floor. You give the freedom to the artists to perform a very personal set and bring that to an underground audience, and so having all acts performing live, is an exciting thing to experience. Personally I don’t mind if the DJs play live or a DJ set, the result is what is important and to us the music is what matters most. When you have the dance floor buzzing right up the last track of the night, then you know you have done something right.

Kostas - I love the way they perform as it brings you closer to the elements and the sounds coming out of the speakers, live performance can manipulate sounds, put in new sounds and elements and it keeps you on a different level than someone who plays a DJ set – no offence hahahaha,

In what way was Rhythmatic so successful in 2010?
Kiri & Kostas - I guess the fact that after spending 2 years in clubs we decided to move out from our regular spots and comfort zone to do something that we would have never dreamed of a year ago, organising big warehouse productions and being successful when we didn’t really have any experience in that side of the business. Hosting the first ever 4 hours B2B set with Matthias Tanzmann & Davide Squillace in the UK, having Marco Carola on our 3rd Bday in our final Warehouse for 2010 and of course our summer Greek adventure with Carl Cox, was such a great achievement for us. And then after all that hard work having MixMag quoting us as “one of the most exciting underground raves, Nov 2010″ and Marco Carola praising our night and listing us as being one of his best gigs for 2010 alongside Amnesia, is a very happy, exciting and rewarding thing for us. Special praise has to go to our long serving residents Wesley Razzy, who has brought some new fresh sound that Rhythmatic is always looking for, and Stathis Lazarides, with his impressive and extensive knowledge of music and the industry as a whole, who has been so influential shaping and forming the sound of Rhythmatic.

Which was your favourite party last year?
Kiri - Definitely our 3rd Anniversary Party with Marco Carola. He was a DJ that I had always wanted to see playing for us, and so having him on the decks doing a 4 hour set, has to be the highlight of our career so far. As someone said of the night, ‘one freezing amazing night, over 1000 people stayed until the early hours hearing Marco thumping our Warehouse Party for 4 hours’ and seeing Stathis after an impressive warm up set dancing in front of Marco Carola with a huge Glitter Ball on his arms.. Moments like these are priceless

Kostas – Ohhhh memories, memories, our first warehouse Party where we hosted Matthias Tazmann B2B Davide Squillace playing for Rhythmatic annual collaboration with Cavo Paradiso World Tour for 4 hours, and having the whole warehouse staying there until the very last second.

How would you describe your booking / programming policy?
Kiri & Kostas – Well we don’t have a policy as such; we choose DJs based on the quality of the music they play and whether we feel that they represent our brand Rhythmatic

Why have you chosen London to throw your parties?
Kostas – Good question, London is where all it happens, it’s like Pandora’s box, there is always something to surprise you… it’s a long story, we were separated for a few years, and one day I decided to make a move and visit my brother in Newcastle. We had a few problems with our last business and I was missing my brother, so I asked Kiri what he thinks about moving to the big smoke? And he said let’s do it. Well it wasn’t very easy at the beginning, we found it very hard, leaving everything behind and moving to a big city where we knew nobody, but with our determination and commitment, we started gradually to find our feet… we still do but now it feels like home, and hosting our events in London is a result of that.

Kiri – But we are not limiting the brand to the UK, watch this space for our summer 2011 Mediterranean adventures ; )

Words by Tom Jones

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