A Sit Down With DJ Scndl

Coming from down under, SCNDL are conquering the world with their energetic beats. As part of the Melbourne Bounce revolution, the duo of Tom Grant and Adam Amuso brings unique elements such as trap, dubstep, and melodic breaks to the ubiquitous bassline. Their string of massive remixes (Flo Rida, MAKJ, TJR, TI) and collaborations bang dancefloors around the world.

 

“The actual elements in our tracks aren’t really reliant on any one genre for inspiration we love a lot of different genres and try to incorporate as many into our tracks as possible – hence the Dubstep and other obscure influences you may hear in them.”

 

You are one of the most renowned figures of the up-and-coming Melbourne Bounce sound, signed on Ministry Of Sound Australia and ranked #11 at the inthemix Australia Top 50 of 2015. How did each of you get in touch with electronic dance music in the first place, how did you get into DJing and music production, how did you meet and what made you team up?

We both listened to a lot of Hardstyle when we were younger and that was probably our first experience with dance music, we fell in love with it then and it’s been a journey ever since! We met at an after party, we were both DJing separately, got drunk and decided we’d give writing music together a crack, so we spent countless hours watching YouTube tutorials on music production and I guess the rest is history!

What is the story behind alias and how did you two meet each other?

We met at an after party about two and a half years ago, got drunk together and the rest is history. I wish I could tell you some fancy story behind the name but to be honest we just thought the word “scandal” sounded cool and decided to take out the vowels. Vowels are pretty mainstream.

Where do you see the music going in Australia and as you tour?

I think the way that the music industry is at the moment is that everything is kind of joined together. Dubstep is kind of coming back now with a bit more happy vibe and bounce has moved from very minimal roots with just a baseline and a couple synths to now incorporating elements of EDM and Dubstep. I think that the music is going to keep adding little influences from this and that. I don’t think there are really any rules of where it is going to go and it is going to keep going the way it has. It has changed so much since we started doing bounce and really everything has pretty much changed since we started doing this.

You play and produce Electro House & Melbourne Bounce. How would you describe your own music in just a few words?

High energy dance music! We love incorporating as many influences from other genre’s as we can, we focus heavily on the melodic elements and we write the music we love!

What is each other’s most annoying habit whilst on tour?

We’ve never been away for this long together so I guess you’ll have to check back with us in a month! Haha I’m sure we’ll have a few more habits to criticize then.

What were the best and the worst gigs you ever played and what were the funniest things ever occurred during any of your performances?

We’ve definitely had our fair share of both of these haha! We once had this show in the middle of the Australian desert, when we landed there was nothing for MILES… The gig was more like a hall birthday party than a club haha. On the flipside of that, we played to 10,000 people in Canada a few months ago across 2 massive festivals! That was one of the most unreal experiences we’ve ever had, the love they had for our music was very humbling!

If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be and why?

Showtek for SURE! They’re the best in the business in our eyes and they have really shaped our sound and our drive in this industry.

Another tune that is getting the EDM community wetting themselves at the moment is your Remix of TJR & Vinai ‘Bounce Generation’. Martin Garrix and W&W are all over it, the tune is out on Spinnin next week, talk us through your approach to this mix…

We definitely approached this remix with the intent to put our own spin on it, and because the original is SUCH a great record we needed to find what it was missing, so we started with a new breakdown and from there everything just worked…we’re so proud of the mix and humbled Spinnin are releasing it!

If you could go back and talk to yourself when you were 18 years old what advice would you give yourself?

Go to the after party and meet Adam. Just do exactly what you are doing right now and everything is alright, you aren’t doing too bad don’t be too hard on yourself.

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