Quickie with a DJ: The Killabits + Premiere of Engine-Earz Ft. Lena Cullen “Reach You” The Killabits Remix

If you could have one superhero power, what would it be?

Biz: Calling a time time out like Zack Morris on Saved By The Bell.
Sam: Avicii's superpower, the power to print money.

First job you ever had?

Biz: Worked at a grocery store but quit when they wouldn't give me the weekend off to go to a rave. After that there was no looking back.

Sam: Me an Biz used to work at this pool supply company, it was a 4 person operation that was responsible for shipping all the life guard equipment to all of North America. Biz was up front doing computer stuff and I was only employee in the whole warehouse. I used to sit shirtless under a hot tin roof, smoking cigarettes, blasting the same Mobb Deep cd over and over, and packing and shipping every single box myself. The boss who was so crazy, snapped and fired everyone at once. Wasn't the first but definitely one of the most interesting.

Favorite candy / snack?

Sam & Biz:

Favorite Sneakers?

Biz: Anything Purple.
Sam: Jordan 5's for sure, but you'll almost never see me rock em when we play, I keep those joints clean!

Favorite fashion brand?

Sam: So lately I'm really liking what the Anchorsand guys are doing. They're clearly insane and have a real DGAF attitude that I can def get down with. Also seriously LOVE Flying Coffin, they are super rad and you'll often see me rep their stuff at shows. Always loved the homies over at Mishka too.

Biz: Voleurz is killing it hard right now, love their stuff this season, plus you'll usually see me with one of my Pyramid Scheme hats, strictly custom of course, and something from The Hundreds.

If you had one night left to live, how would you spend it?

Sam: Attempting to eat 500 cheeseburgers.
Biz: Playing a Show with friends, nothing better.

Favorite video game?

Sam: NBA JAM TE. I'm also currently killing Final Fantasy II for iPhone on flights, passes time like crazy.
Biz: Street Fighter all day, with some Metal Slug on the side.

Can't leave home without?

Sam: Feeding my cat.

First DJ you ever saw live?

Sam: Hometown heroes; Marcus Visionary, Mystical Influence, and DJ Spinz. They all used to play weekly at this really seedy club and I went every week. No offense to Marcus or Pat, but I was kind of obsessed with Spinz when I was coming up, I wore my Selection Dark cassette out till it wouldn't play.

First big act intl act's that changed everything for me was def seeing Dillinja & Lemon D play in Toronto on the Valve Sound System. I had never heard bass or music in general sound like that and it really guided what I wanted to do.

Biz: A Toronto local named Medicine Muffin back in 98, walking into a crusty club in Chinatown and hearing old-school Jungle live for the first time changed my life. 1st international DJ? Hallucinogen (B.K.A Shpongle), pounding Psychadelic Trance was huge back then and it blew me away.

How would you describe your style?

Sam: So originally we used the term 'ClubStep' and we really focused on taking songs we love and remixing them into club playable very danceable songs, lots of good vocals, poppy, clean-ish synths, and just a lot of fun. We progressed into making darker stuff like our bootleg of Kosheen "Hide You" and our official of Zeds Dead and Omar Linx "Rudeboy". We then took a harder turn on We Have a Crisis which was very aggro while still sticking with a lot of elements of scifi movie music and darker feeling synths that we've been influenced by since we met as teens. If you can imagine it, we're trying to incorporate that entire progression into our new music and really bring it back to where we started but with a little bit of a darker edge. I think our work specifically on "Reach You" (as well as our other forthcoming remixes) and an ep we're currently drafting ideas for will really showcase that. Everyone seems to be making stuff that all sounds the same and we just want to get away from all that and write songs that mean something to us wether they "fit the mould" or not.

What are your thoughts on the dance music culture right now?

Biz: I think it's better than it's ever been, with the explosion of "EDM" there's also an audience in North America that is really into hearing different sounds, the venues are bigger and safer from when we were playing in dirty warehouses and the Internet has changed everything... no more waiting 12 months for Dubplates to be released, SoundCloud and YouTube make everything available anywhere and the technology for production has changed so much since we started with Samplers and Floppy Disks and MIDI cables everywhere. And I don't miss having 100lbs of Vinyl to carry everywhere that's for sure!

Sam: I want to add that in the producer culture it seems like a lot of people are all just doing the same thing. A sound or genre gets hot and suddenly there's 1000 identical tracks. There's so much room for evolution and unique styles with the scene being on such a large world stage right now, it seems like a lot of people are missing that, we've even been guilty ourselves at times. I never in a million years envisioned it getting this big, its really a beautiful thing that so many people all over the world are connected by it.

Favorite track to play?

Sam: We just finished up this remix we can't announce just yet, but I wrote it for someone special and it's my fav of the moment because it means so much to me. There's so much emotion in it its just great to share that with the audience and see them feel everything I put into it.

Fav track thats NOT one of ours is def Dr. Ozi's Bootleg of "Calling" by Ingrosso and Alesso. Its a great boot, people never see it coming, and it just gets the club so buck! Def check those guys out if you haven't.

Biz: Literally every set I play something by our homie Dream, and of our own music I always gotta play "Oh Hai", pure party starter! But I think we both agree out favourite tracks to play are always our new material. Its always fun to test stuff out and see peoples reaction, such a great feeling.

What DJ do you want to:

Hug?

Biz: Gigantor seems like he'd give a pretty good hug.

Party With?

Sam: DJ Jazzy Jeff in the 90's

Biz: The DJ from Zoolander.

DJ alongside live?

Sam: We've kind of been lucky enough to share the stage with almost everyone we have really ever wanted to. Most of the people I can think of off the top are not the same genre or style and would make for super awkward programming for a night.

Check out the WORLD PREMIERE of Engine-Earz Ft. Lena Cullen "Reach You" The Killabits Remix above. It will be made available as a FREE DL this Friday via The Killabits Facebook page.

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