Well since it’s so close to Christmas and we’ve been pushing the interviews so hard lately I thought I’d give you something special today, an interview with Jesse Rose’s Made To Play and Mowgli’s Deadfish favourite, Round Table Knights.

Round Table Knights – Say What?! feat. Ogris Debris

I caught up with Biru and Marc last week at the Lock Tavern, where they were playing a set on a Sunday night at Casper C’s Blogger’s Delight. Big up Casper for letting us use his office for the interview!

TRPD: Hey guys! Can you introduce yourselves to us in a few words please?

Biru: Hi, I’m Biru  Bee from Round Table Knights

Marc: I’m Marc from Round Table Knights

Biru: We’re DJs and producers from Bern, Switzerland, releasing music on Deadfish and Made To Play, now more and more we’re playing all over the world and yeah it’s amazing.

TRPD: So how did you manage to get a name like Round Table Knights then?

Marc: It’s a really stupid story, we’ve DJed together for 10 years and we were a scratch team and really needed a name for a gig we were playing. We had a acapella vinyl of this underground hip hop crew, they rapped and said Round Table Knights, so we decided to use it and we haven’t changed it since! It’s been such a long time that we don’t even think about it even more.

TRPD: Did you guys take the scratching thing very seriously?

BIru: We used to have all these scratch videos and stuff, even entered competitions. We actually came to the DMC finals a few years ago as guests though, not playing.

Marc: Actually it was because of Dj Shadow or Beat Junkies that we started the whole Round Table Knights thing. At the beginning we had four members. Over the years the other guys did other stuff and we got more and more into producing, and stopped scratching.

TRPD: That’s cool so how did you get into producing House Music then?

Marc: I started producing about 5 years ago and 3 years ago more seriously, I was never really a technical freak and didn’t really have all the equipment, so about one and a half years ago we started working with Benfay, he’s now practically the third member of Round Table Knights. He’s probably in the studio right now in Bern.

TRPD: Oh, so, you guys just lock him in the studio whilst you’re touring the world?!

Marc: Haha, he’s really happy in there! He also does mastering for different DJs and bands, at first we went to him for mixing down and mastering and now we go over abou 3 times a week and produce with him at the studio.

TRPD: Are you guys currently doing anything else? Or just full time Round Table Knights stuff?

Biru: Just the bookings at Club Bonsoir, which I am part owner of, with a few friends. We also have a night there which we invite our friends from Deadfish and Made To Play, also the producers we like. I used to work in an insurance office, it was horrible and I never wanna go back.

Marc: I also play the guitar in a rockband, I’m not only doing electronic music. I used to work in record shops for about 4 or 5 years, a few of them actually. All of them closed down when I started working. Now there’s only one record shop in Switzerland which a shame because 10 years ago there were many good stores.

TRPD: Now a lot of its gone to mp3 now, with serato and all the technology not many uses vinyl anymore.

Marc: yes of course, but I like the fact that you can shop and home, in 1 minute you can have everything that you want.

TRPD: Are there a lot of DJs and producers coming out of Switzerland at the moment?

Biru: Yeah, Mercury, Wildlife and D-tron.

Marc: Greenlight, yeah there’s quite a lot actually, it’s a small scene so everybody knows each other.

TRPD: Who would you say are the up and coming artists at the moment? We interviewed Solo not long ago and he said you guys!

Marc: Homework, they’re really good and they will be doing a remix of our new track on made to play. Also like we said earlier Mercury. Of course James Blake, I think he’ll really blow up after his album gets released.

TRPD: Do you guys have a top tune for 2010?

Biru: Hmmmmm… good question, I can’t really think of one at the moment though!

Marc: Calypso (jokingly). Maybe Sun by Caribou, I really like the Midland Edit. It’s really hard to say when I don’t have my CD case.

TRPD: Is Calypso your most memorable release so far then?

Marc: I would say it was. We actually had it released one year before it came out on made to play. It was for another label in the US, which they just released as a limited edition EP. You would get a CD with the remixes and a T-shirt. Jesse Rose heard it by accident when we played a warm up set for him and it was the last track we played, so we gave him a CD with the EP on it. After one phone conversation with the other US label Jesse was able to license and re release it on Made To Play. It was great how different DJs were playing that track from Techno DJs to Minimal DJs, everyone was playing it!

TRPD: We think that your remix of Coma Cat was also great!

Marc: haha, it’s amazing that Pete Tong made it the essential tune of the week. It was great, I never expected such a great feedback!

TRPD: What can we expect from you guys in the future?

Biru: We have our album coming up next year in February on Made To Play, which we are really excited about. On the 20^th December the album sampler will be out with two tracks, the remixes will also be coming out. We’re really excited about it we’ll see what happens. We’ll also be doing our first Asia/Australasia tour next week, we’re going to Australia and new Zealand for three weeks, then bali for 4 days, then Beijing and Singapore.

Marc: We also have some remixes coming out soon!

TRPD: Finally, what are the best and worst gigs you’ve ever played? You don’t need to name the promoters!

Biru: Sonar, Barcelona this year was crazy, Made to Play nights at Panorama bar are always amazing. I think it’s always important that you have amazing gigs and sometimes you have shitty gigs because you’ll be looking forward to the next one. If you always have a good time and amazing gigs it’ll probably get boring. Of course it happens sometimes there’s not many people or the host is not good but that’s just the way it goes.

Marc: There’s only one thing that I don’t like, which doesn’t happen a lot but sometimes the promoters book you and don’t really know what you play or what you’re about. They just download a really old biography from the internet and put it on the flyer. When the information is wrong people get there and expect something else.

TRPD: From what you’re saying it sounds like you’re still getting requests!

Biru: Yes actually, when people request a song they no one ever thinks yeah it’s a great idea, usually it’s just silly. For us it’s usually after the first song where people come and ask us for Calypso, I mean we’ve just started playing of course it’s not going to be our first song! Although it’s great that they want to come to see us play the track!

TRPD: Well thanks guys! Anything you want to say to the fans before we leave you?

Marc: I’m really bad at these things so I’m gonna leave it to Biru

Biru: It’s great when people come to our shows and say hello we really appreciate it when people come and speak to us personally. It’s always nice to meet people from other cities and thanks for the support!

MORE ON ROUND TABLE KNIGHTS:

- SOUNDCLOUD – TWITTER – BEATPORT -

-HUAKAI-

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