It’s Friday, just after midnight, and the club is packed, happy and bordering on either exhaustion or boredom. As you mill about trying to figure out whether to stay or go, the DJ drops an electro assault to make the ears bleed and the feet pleased. The track is of course ‘Flaunt It’, the first original composition for that electrifying, label-owning production duo TV Rock, made up of Ivan Gough and Grant Smillie. Now as the indomitable duo ride high on their recent success and work hard on following the club smash up with something equally as blistering, ITM’s Vocal Assault managed to catch up with Ivan Gough as he layed back on the studio lounge and took five to talk about remixes, live shows and their future plans.
Until now, we’ve only tasted their well-versed remixing craft, as they cut, pasted and shook around an amazingly-vast range of tracks, by the likes of Andy Van, Moguai, Sander Kleinenberg, Paris Avenue, Freemasons, Rogue Traders and Dirty South. As the duo released remix after breath-taking remix, they worked to a strict formula to remix as many artists as they possibly could to put their name too. “We’re kinda pretty keen to back off a little on the remix front now. We’re more keen to accept tracks that we know we can do a good job with. Last year we spent a lot of time doing as many remixes as possible to get our name out there, it was a very specific plan we had to do as many remixes as we could get our hands on. We’re happy with all of those remixes we did, don’t get me wrong, but now that we’ve got our name out there and we want to concentrate more on our own material a little more,” explains Gough of their very precise approach.
The conception of ‘Flaunt It’ however wasn’t so precisely designed, it was more one thing leading to another, that eventually turned into the club monster it is today, much like the band’s initial conception. After running circles round eachother in the dance music industry for years and sharing many a bill together, it became apparent one night in a club, after a few brews that they should get together in the studio to work on a remix for Gough’s ‘Guiding Light’ release. From that moment on, one day turned into three days, turned into four and then eventually became an ongoing project, needing a name. “It was one of those things, where things just took off much better than either of us could have expected. Once in the studio, the flow of ideas seemed like it was never going to end, and still now, it feels that way. It was meant to be, we’re happy with everything that’s eventuated since that first discussion at the club,” laughs Gough proudly.
The crossover success of ‘Flaunt It’ may seem to be coming out at the same time as, the same styled tracks by the likes of fellow Aussie acts Rogue Traders and Vandalism, but that wasn’t at all what the duo were after, what it turned into was as much of a surprise to them as it was to us. “Yeah, well we didn’t really set out to write it as a crossover record. We just came up with a retro tune and put Seany B’s rapping vocal over the top. I must say the first time I heard the track with his vocals, I got quite excited and thought it would do alright, but I didn’t expect this, that’s for sure!” he laughs about the unbelievable amount of attention they’ve been receiving in the track’s wake, with the single having even scored the #1 position on the ARIA mainstream charts recently. “When we were making it, I thought ‘If we put a vocal on this, something might happen’ and with the addition of Seany B, that was it. That was the x-factor missing from the record.”
The collaboration with Seany B, again arose from circumstance. After finishing the track off and deciding that a top-line vocal was what it was in need of, stemming from a few live bills the two acts shared. “I knew him [Seany] from around the traps, from doing the live house thing with Dirty Laundry. But it wasn’t until Grant did a gig with them one night that we connected the dots and decided to try to get him to come into the studio with us. We thought he already raps over house music, so why not see if he’d come in and try adding some vocals to one of our records.” For fans of the fusion, there’s good news still, as they’re now working on a few more tracks together for the new album and possibly for single release. “He’s a great vocalist to work with, his ideas are strong and his flow is good, so we’re excited about the other stuff on the boil with him” explains Gough, before elaborating on their ‘casting couch’ writing process. Usually when we write we’ll make a song and then pick the best vocalist to collaborate with on the track, one that’d suit their style and compliment their voice.”
A possible future collaboration that’s bound to turn out surprisingly glistening results, is a track they’re working on with ex-Icehouse frontman Iva Davies. A working relationship which has been on the boil for a few years now, since Gough completed a remix for the Icehouse ‘Meltdown’ compilation a few years back. “He was so thrilled with the remix I did for ‘Don’t Believe Anymore’ that we’ve been talking about hooking up to work on something together, ever since. So he actually has a track of mine at the moment which he’s working on some lyrics for, it just depends when we’ve both got time, cause he’s busy with film soundtracks and we’re busy remixing and writing for TV Rock.”
Their debut album is one thing that’s solidly remained on their minds since the single’s steady rise on the charts, it’s something that they’ve started writing for, but with recent major label developments it’s something that’s still up in the air as far as a release date is concerned. One of the more important things on their agenda for now is expanding their live powerhouse from a DJ set with live vocal set up, which they’re currently taking the club scene by storm with, into a more of a live band set up. “Lately we’ve been doing the DJ sets with Seany B doing the vocals live, but in the future when we’ve got a few more records down and we’ve got a few more singles out then we’re going to be keen to do a full live show of some sort. But I don’t want to go out and do a half-baked one, I’m a bit concerned that if we go out there and do something mediocre, it’s not going to be received quite as well. So we want to make sure that when we do the live thing, it might cost people a little more to book it, but we want to make it all that it potentially can be and make it a sight to see. That’s why we want to take our time with it,” reveals Gough.
‘Flaunt It’ is out now through Bimbo Rock/Sony BMG.
