RB Exclusive Interview: Gettoblaster

Gettoblasters are a unique house and tech DJ group from the midwest who have been pioneering the “ghetto house” genre for years. They’ve been releasing music since 2014 and have made a name for themselves through their many releases on prominent labels, including their own label, We Jack.

We had the chance to chat with Gettoblaster ahead of their upcoming performance in Tempe, Arizona. Check it out below!

Approaching nearly a decade of making music, I’m sure you guys have seen many changes within the industry. What do you miss about your early days, and where do you think the future of dance music is heading?

With our style of music we make, we have always strived to make music that has long shelf life. A “Timeless” approach. Our mentors are the early producers of House music and Techno music. We are very lucky to have our own sound, we don’t sound like anyone else with our production. With that said a lot of the music sounds the same these days. We prefer making our records to go with what’s going on, versus trying to mimic a fad. 

How do you think your backgrounds in Chicago and Detroit have helped shape your career so far?

We take a very “Warehouse Esk” approach to our music. We are truly a sound that falls between “House Music” and “Techno” I wouldn’t call it “Tech House” but somewhere in the middle. I (Paul) am from Chicago , so I tend to want to go funkier groovier. (Zach) growing up in Detroit, tends to bring a tougher dubier sound to our music. So the two cities bring a lot of influence to what we do. Growing up in these two cities, the amount of friends we have that are legends in the dance music community really help us with advice and direction most wouldn’t have. We are lucky to be where we are from. It plays a huge roll in who we are.  

You recently started a Radio show, Aliens on Mushrooms. Can you tell us a little about it?

During the pandemic we realized how important music is in everyone’s lives, so we promised our selves when we started out new record label “Aliens On Mushrooms” that we would create a radio show to go with it. As we all know everyone can’t come to the shows we play every weekend, but now you can tune in to a radio show of us weekly. Some times we record live in the studio, other shows coming up will be live recorded from some of our shows on the road. We do a little commentating in the beginning of every show telling people what we have coming up musically and Gig wise. We will be syndicating our show on Radio Fg in France along with a few other stations as well.

You’ve released tracks on a number of incredible labels over the years. How important are these ongoing relationships? 

For us we started with our own label, from there we made a lot of noise and people started requesting us to send them music to their labels. A couple of examples , when we met The A & R from Dirtybird Records, it turned out they had known our work, and requested us to send them something. We a few weeks later signed a record, and later played for the art Dirtybird Campout. Another example is we noticed Patrick Topping early in our career started buying and playing our early Gettoblaster music. Then we finally meet in person, He mentioned to us he was starting a label called “Trick” and really wanted something from us. We sent him something, and hadn’t heard back from him. Then we were reading an artical in Mixmag of Pat starting his label and mention the people who were on the label. We were one of the names. We looked at each other and we’re like “I guess wev are signed” lol. The importance of being on so many labels in our opinion is we have spread a little “Gettoblaster” in each camp. Some of labels we are on, Shiba San’s “Basement Leak” , Chris Lake’s  “Black Book Records”, Claude Vonstroke’s “Dirtybird”, Patirck’s “Trick”, “Defected, DFTD, Glitterbox” , Elrow, Carlo Lio & Nathan Borato’s “Rawthentic”, Tchami’s “Confession” and many many others. 

Gettoblaster remixes are always a treat! What do you guys think makes a great remix? 

For us when we do remixes, we strive to really make it different from the original. When we did the remix earlier this year for Our friend Claptone, he had been a huge fan of our hit record “H O U S E” featuring Missy, so we wanted to capture the essence of that tune, but with the vocals of “Claptones” record by Mayer Hawthorn. So the goal was a hint of Gettoblaster & a hint of Claptone. I think we achieved what we were going for. So all in all make the tune represent both artists but with our touch to it so our fan base likes the tune.

We’re excited to have you guys in Tempe later this week! What should fans expect from your set? What are you most looking forward to? 

There is always something special about being in a college town, we feel we can be edgier with our set. So expect a lot of new music. Unreleased edits of ours, and a hint of things you know. You never know when that Missy Eliot unreleased Gettoblaster edit May pop into our set. With a rockin baseline, techno / house edge. Can’t wait to see you all we are pumped!!! Let’s get it AZ!!!! Let’s go!!!!!!

We’re excited to have Gettoblaster in Tempe this Saturday, October 1st. Grab tickets here!

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