The McMash Clan are a genre-busting trio set out to prove that electronic music certainly isn’t one-dimensional. Recently signed to Flux Pavilion’s esteemed Circus Records label, the boys are growing from strength to strength and are starting to turn heads in the industry, with the likes of Borgore and Doctor P taking note of their dancefloor slaying tracks and incredibly versatile live shows.
“We got into DJing through going out together and seeing people mix,” Chris, one third of the trio explains. “We decided that if we combined all of our different record collections and DJing skills together, then we could make sets that would have a lot more impact than just one person, and from that we grew to love the amount of power that dance music can have.”
You might think having to share a studio – and a set of decks – with two other people is a logistical nightmare. According to Chris, that is indeed sometimes the case.
“On occasion it can really work between us and we’ll all agree on an idea. But sometimes there is definitely a conflict of ideas and we do argue! There always has to be a certain amount of compromise when working in a group, but I think we’ve come to live with it now.”
They’ve been honing their skills for over 10 years, and if you’ve been lucky enough to catch them live, you’ll have definitely noticed this impeccability they possess.
“We just kind of bounce off each other really well because we’ve worked together for so long,” says Chris. “We know if someone’s about to do a massive double drop it will most probably work, and we know if someone is about to bring in a different track, it’ll usually go off big time!”
We’re pretty certain that if you haven’t heard of the highly talented trio yet, you soon will. But for now, here are three facts about the McMash Clan that may surprise you…
We hired the World Gurning Champion to play at one of our shows.
“I have no idea how we thought of this, but we’re glad we did! He was a bloke who lived in Scotland and he sure knew how to pull some weird faces. He’s a legend within the gurning community – he’s won the title three times! He’d been touring with Aphex Twin and that’s how we heard about his talents. We hired him for the intro to our set, which are notoriously elaborate, and yeah, it was just really bizarre! People in the crowd started trying to out-gurn him… needless to say, they didn’t win.”
Our track ‘Swing Break’ has been used in loads of dance routines around the world.
“It got flagged up to us that loads of dance groups around the world were using this track for everything from flash-mobs in shopping malls to b-boy dance-offs in random parts of the world to Zumba classes! Even though this track was designed for big sound systems in clubs, it’s still amazing to see that people in loads of different countries are appreciating our music and want to dance to it. It’s also pretty hilarious watching people who aren’t that good at Zumba trying to keep up with it…”
A leather jacket nearly stopped us from being where we are today.
“We all went to school in St. Albans, which is where we first met. Dudgy (another member of the clan) had some savings and had to decide between buying a leather jacket or a pair of decks – luckily he chose the decks! That was a really fateful decision because I then bought decks and so did Kooms (the final member). We then became fiercely competitive and started to see who could make the best mixes and who had the most exclusive vinyl. We each went our separate ways to uni where we learnt to produce and brought our skills together as a group when we all met up again afterwards – the rest is history! We’re all really glad he didn’t choose the jacket…”
Their new EP, Birds Sing, is out now on Circus Records. iTunes download here.
