Athlete Whippet productions are simply encapsulating and their first outing on House of Disco is something a little different for the label. The release also includes remixes by Demjua and Aroop Roy.
From the first track ‘Talk About This Love’ the London/Berlin duo draw you in with dreamy pads and submerged vocals and there’s this wonderful quiet energy that holds you and you don’t want to let go.
Their second original ‘Dreams Of Being Alone’ channels that same moreish energy but with a little more enthusiasm and joy. Skittering and splashy drum programming is offset by the wonderful playfulness of that marimba-esque synth which plants your feet firmly in the sand of some lonely beach.
Shall we talk about the remixes? First up, Demuja takes ‘Dreams Of Being Alone’ and whips you off the beach and onto the dancefloor adding a tougher 4/4 approach with some punchy strings to get you swinging while keeping that marimba front and centre. For the second remix, we have Aroop Roy tackling ‘Talk About This Love’ and as expected this versatile producer has gone his own way adding keys, basslines and just generally doing something totally new and interesting.
You can now listen to the full premiere of Demuja’s remix exclusively on When We Dip. Enjoy!
WWD: Thanks for taking the time to talk. Where are you today and what are you up to?
Not at all, thanks for having us! I’m on holidays actually driving through Spain. Avi is holding down the fort in London.
WWD: How long has Athlete Whippet been kicking around and who are the members?
In the studio it’s Avi and myself. When DJing I’m going solo. We’ve been making different sorts of music together for about 10 years I would say but the first bits we did under Athlete Whippet were in 2017.
WWD: Have got to ask you about the whippet. Who is this canine inspiration, what’s the story on him?
There is a real story actually. We’re both dog enthusiasts for a start. In the US in the 80s dog frisbee throwing was a sport that would fill stadiums and there was a superstar dog cleaning up the trophies called Ashley Whippet.
WWD: How did you both meet and where was that meeting?
It was at uni. We studied music together at Goldsmiths in London and it didn’t take long at all until we starting working on bits together.
WWD: I’m curious to know what you both did before AW musically. Would we know you under any other production monikers?
We went in quite a few different directions working together before AW – experimental electronics, disco, synth pop, downtempo. We both still do work with other artists, but in terms of own monikers the only constants are two projects Avi is involved in called Charlotte Spiral and Dot Never.
WWD: How do you manage the production process with you both in different cities. Aside from the obvious online capabilities, how do you vibe when you’re creating together?
We work quite a lot individually but I also still head over to London every couple months for some focused studio time so we haven’t really found it very difficult at all actually.
WWD: Your release Nogueira EP on Toy Tonics made quite a splash. It’s kind of hard to put you guys in a musical box. Are you happy that it’s hard to genre-ise Athlete Whippet and is that your intention? Is this a characteristic of your productions?
I wouldn’t say it’s something we consciously approach but it just doesn’t really work for us to start making a song with a super clear agenda of what we want it to sound like. We’re both into lots of different kinds of music and we’ve come into this via playing in bands rather than DJing in the first place so there are just too many different musical influences to stick to a specific style and still keep it exciting for ourselves. Usually the outcome is best if we just do whatever sounds and feels right in the moment.
WWD: You’ve remixed a track by 30/70 on the mighty Rhythm Section. Are you pals of Bradley from South London? Tell us of your connections to the South London scene.
South London is where we’ve always lived and practiced music while in London, Avi is still there and I always stay in the area too when I’m in town. So I guess naturally over the years we’ve become part of the scene of other people pushing similar ideas which Rhythm Section are definitely part of. We’ve always admired what they’ve done for the scene and know the crew well. We’ll be putting out another track with them later this year too actually.
WWD: So much great music coming out of Australia that Bradley finds. Were you fans of the brilliant Allysha Joy and Melbourne collective prior to the remix?
Yes of course, always loved what Allysha does solo and also with 30/70. Her voice is so unique and so are her compositions and productions. We’ve actually gone back in the studio with her this year so more is coming!
WWD: What can you tell us about your label Sqaureglass and the ethos behind it?
It’s very much a local community thing in terms of the artists we’ve worked with and it’s also how we learnt to take our first steps in the industry. We started it in the last year of uni when we had music ready that we wanted to release with other projects back then. It was super DIY and we just learnt how to do things on the go but once we started to understand better what we were doing we started also using it as a platform to release music from artists in our direct surroundings. The ethos has always been to push our immediate scene and friends.
WWD: You run a party too right? Where does that happen, how often is it on, what is the vibe?
Yeye, the vibe is always nice 🙂 We started doing them pre Covid in London and have since taken them to Berlin too. It’s always us together with DJs we love, usually again from our scene. Jitwam, Amy Dabbs, Seb Wildblood, Glenn Astro and many others have joined us by now and the next one is with Rebecca Vasmant at Paloma in Berlin on Nov 4.
WWD: What can of vibe can we hope to hear in a AW set?
Of course, it really really varies but in general I try to keep things fun. I usually try to hit the sweet spot between light and energetic but also I don’t like to play stuff that is too functional, of course I want it to work in the moment, but it also needs to be musically stimulating.
WWD: Talk us through the vibe of Talk About This Love EP a little and the remixes/ remixers.
I think it’s actually a really different direction to what we’ve done recently which is exciting. Quite a bit darker and more wonky. As said we don’t really go into the studio with a clear stylistic agenda so this is what happens! We then aimed to spin it back into a more groove based direction with the remixes. Both Demuja and Aroop are people I play out all the time so it’s wonderful to be working with them on this record and I think they both absolutely nailed it.
WWD: What do Athlete Whippet have in the pipeline that we should look out for?
Quite a lot actually! Some nice tour dates across Europe and the UK for the rest of the year including Berlin, Manchester, Rome, Istanbul, Amsterdam. Then also two more single drops before the end of the year with two of our absolute favourite labels Rhythm Section and Tartelet. Then the first thing coming out in 2023 will be a collab EP with the wonderful Amy Dabbs which I’m well pleased with 🙂
Release Date: October 28th, 2022. Buy Here
Demuja: Facebook // SoundCloud
Athlete Whippet: Facebook // SoundCloud
House Of Disco Records: Facebook // SoundCloud