Elektro Exclusive Q&A with Hard Rock Sofa: “We try to behave on tour… no crazy sex orgies”

Elektro sat down with Hard Rock Sofa, the hot rising stars from Russia fresh off their new 2012 single "Quasar," being spun at the historic Swedish House Mafia show at Madison Square Garden.

How did the three of you get together and form Hard Rock Sofa?

All  of us are from the same town, Smolensk. In the beginning there were only two of us (Alex and Denis), both DJs at local clubs. In 2005, we started producing music together and invited a lead singer from the local band Sergey to do the vocal parts for us. He also started writing music for us. This was the beginning of Hard Rock Sofa.

What does Hard Rock Sofa mean? Where did the name come from?

We can't even remember anymore where the name came from. It goes back to a time when we thought it was a good one for some reason.

Who were your biggest influences musically?

Our biggest influences were many electronic musicians and bands from the 80’s. From the more recent house music producers we can point out there is Daft Punk, Cassius, Groove Armada, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and others. We don’t want to use the word "influence" but at present we really like the music of such artists as: Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Fedde Le Grand, Dirty South, Alesso, Third Party, Arno Cost, Norman Doray and many others.

What are your thoughts on the nightlife scene in the United States compared to Russia?

We enjoy playing in the American clubs as much as in Russia. We're just happy to get love and support from all the audience that comes to see our shows and to listen to our music. And we are also very happy that we are getting more recognized and popular in the US.

How would you describe your musical style?

We wouldn’t want to confine our music to a particular style, let our listeners and critics do that. All we can say is that we are trying to make good quality house music with different elements of other style.

When did Axwell first take notice of you guys? Did you send him your music?

In 2010 we made a track called ‘Blow Up’. We thought it sounded quite original and sent it to Axwell with the proposal to release it on his label Axtone Records, which he did. Next year Axtone Records is releasing our new track ,‘Quasar’. We are happy to get support from such a well-known label and that famous artists play our music in their sets.

Your single “Blow Up” garnered the attention of the EDM world. How did this song come about?

‘Blow Up’ is our collab with St. Brothers, our friends literally from around the block. They had some new ideas and we had some new drafts, which eventually came out as the ‘Blow Up’.

You guys work a lot with Swanky Tunes. How did this collaboration come about?

Swanky Tunes are our good friends, we’ve known each other for a long time. Our studios are really close to each other so we meet up a lot, work together at the studio and so on and so forth. We shot our first video for our collab, "I Wanna Be Your Dog," with them.

You recently played with Swanky Tunes in Miami at Amnesia. How was this experience?

The show at Amnesia was great. Great sound, great and hospitable audience, nice weather too! Hope to play there again.

If you could pick 3 artists that you would like to get into the studio with right now, who would they be?

It’s a very difficult question, there’s a bunch of great producers around the world but in our humble opinion those three would be Axwell, Fedde Le Grand, Dirty South.

Do you have any crazy stories from touring?

Nothing outstandingly crazy… No tearing up hotel rooms into pieces, no crazy sex orgies.  Just normal after party drinks and stuff… we try to behave ourselves.

What was the first job the three of you each had?

The first job for Denis and Alex was a DJ at a Night Club and the first job for Sergey was DJ on a radio station.

What do you guys look to accomplish in 2012?

As many other artists we are looking forward to bigger popularity, more fame, great shows, releases on big labels and other stuff that is coming out of all of this.

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