British drum and bass duo DC Breaks only know about Whistler secondhand so they are looking forward to experiencing the real thing and checking out a bit of snow this weekend.
"It's our first time in Whistler, can't wait, we've heard so many good things... following fellow DJs on Twitter, they always say good things about you guys," says Dan Havers in an interview from London, U.K.
"This time last year we were playing in Calgary where it was -20C. We flew from there via London to Kiev in the Ukraine where it was -15C, and then two days later landed in Perth, Australia, for a NYE festival where it was +40C! We had parkas and boardies in the same bag."
This time they are staying with the winter clothing. Havers says he and the other half of DC Breaks, Chris Page, have made Whistler their only Canadian stop on a short North American tour that will also take in Baltimore, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
They play at Tommy Africa's on Sunday, Dec. 1, the first outfit of the season brought in by drum and bass music collective, Whistler Junglists.
"It's gonna be a bit crazy! I think the whole trip is 10 nights, most of them performing," Havers says.
"That said, we've never done a bad show in Canada because the crowds are always full of energy and knowledgeable. That's important for us as we tend to dig through the crates when DJing and pull out a few obscure or old, classic tunes, which only those who really follow the scene will know."
With a bass beat so low it can make a heart beat faster without the body's assistance, Havers says DC Breaks mixes "pretty quickly so don't miss a second" of air.
"We have a huge amount of new material from ourselves which we are road-testing, which is because we have an album due next year, so expect a lot of previously unheard music, you lucky people," he adds.
The visit will be sweet, Havers adds, but also very short.
Their as-yet-unnamed album has taken up all their time of late. Look to the DC Breaks's Facebook page for pending information on its the release date. Their label, Ram Records, loved the new music and has given it the green light.
"So now we're in full swing of creating the best tracks we can," Havers says. "We've had a great year this year with big releases such as "Shaman," "Swag" and "Gambino," which only just came out this week. We seem to be in a rich vein of form, creatively. We've never been happier with our output."
Previously, DC Breaks built a following through their remixes of work by Tinie Tempah, Paloma Faith, Example and Rox, and with their work as hosts of BBC Radio 1Xtra's D&B mix show.
"Remixes are great fun because you already have some material or parts to work with and draw inspiration from, whether it's a vocal part or a synth part. When doing remixes for major record labels you normally have to use a fair amount of the original vocal, so its sounds like a remix, but doing mixes for EDM acts you get a bit more creative freedom," Havers says.
"The process normally revolves around combining elements of the original track with elements of your signature production, merging the two flavours, basically."
