We are Hooks & DC of Zeds Dead. A us A.

I just got back from Electric Forest, you guys FUCKING ROCKED IT. So glad I was able to see you guys. I'm sitting at work now wishing I could go back to the forest, but I have your EP on repeat right now so I've got that bit of salvation going on for me!

I guess my question would be... What was your guys favorite moments from Electric Forest this weekend? Did you guys get to hang out and enjoy it some?

Thanks for BLASTING MY FACE OFF!

I got lost in the forest for a while...

That's pretty sweet. Did people notice who you were, or were you able to relax?

got recognized a lot but it was chill. made new friends

Electric Forest was incredible! For sure one of the best shows we've ever played! Other than the show, we shot a Coffee Break episode with Dirtyphonics and got to roam around and party. We we're wishing we could have stayed the whole weekend. That festival is a great time! It was pretty funny doing the question and answer thing there too. We had no idea what to expect, nobody told us anything, they just brought us over there and there were all these people waiting.

Upvote party for Electric Forest

Favorite set of the entire weekend!! Would love of it was downloadable somewhere but so far looking I haven't had any luck :(

i dont know if it was recorded. nobody told us it would be so i have no idea

[deleted]

ya that would be cool to do some time! we learned a lot of synth basics early on from youtube videos so it would be cool to have it come full circle and us show some tips.

How many times have you gotten confused for Zedd? Any funny stories?

One time at EDC New York we played the main stage and they projected Zedd's visuals on stage for the first 20 min of our set. Probably the pinnacle of our confusion.

we did a Coffee Break episode with Zedd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdDp8gQSVC4

At Electric Forest Schoolboy Q got a bunch of "party favors" thrown at him, what kind of stuff did you guys get?

glowsticks in the eye :(

a couple people gifted us blunts. that was a nice gesture

Hey guys! HUGE fan!

• Where did the names DC and Hooks come from?

• What inspired you guys to start making music?

Excellent work on the new album! Every song is god damn awesome!
Happy Canada day!

Hooks comes from Captain Hook. I made it up when I was like 14. Sort of a play on the 'hook' of the song. There's also this picture of me as Captain Hook from halloween when I was like 5. I'll have to find it. The first thing I ever did that was production-esque was slowing down the solo from stairway to heaven a lot. I was doing it partially to learn how to play it and partially because I was really stoned. From that I started messing with some free sound editing programs and then I got Garage Band when I was 14.

Just saw you guys absolutely kill it at Electric Forest. What was the craziest shit you guys saw there?

Some dude asked us if we wanted nitrous cookies...

are you sure that wasn't just a hallucination?

I've asked this so many times and never got an answer :( but what is the legendary song that you opened with, on a lot of sets last year. This is where I heard it live last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKjyJs3As-0 You also opened with it on your EDCLV 2013 set which is where I heard it for the first time on soundcloud!

A small hint or short answer would be perfect, can't want to see you guys @ NorthCoast next month :)

It's something we never finished. It doesn't even have a name (the file name is INTRO TING) but we're going to finish it one day hopefully. It just kind of ends after one drop.

You guys threw down at Electric Forest! Definitely the best set of the entire festival IMO.

What was your favorite, most memorable performance?

EDIT: Also, who are your favorite artists to listen to right now?

Favorite artists to listen to right now to name a few: moderat, moody good, tchami, mr carmack, hunter siegel, joe ford, phonat, ape drums, kill the noise, crookers, chocolate puma, dusky, memorecks, must die, jade blue, gorgon city, darius, break, schoolboy q, sean p, action bronson, omar linx, black atlas, skrill, noisia, zhu aaannd thats all i can think of for now, but lots of others

How did you two meet?
and
Favourite alcoholic drink?

Love your music, can't stop listening to it!

scotch scotch scotch I love scotch

What's your favorite cereal, and why is it Reese's Puffs?

Capn Crunch. But I usually get down with Shredded wheat or Corn Flakes (boring). Funny fact, Dr. Kellog, who was a weirdo and was completely opposed to sex developed Corn Flakes to stop young boys from jerking off. I can tell you though first hand that it didn't work.

Excluding other electronic music artists, who are your biggest influences on you or artists you look up to and why?

Louie CK is pretty inspirational in the way he makes his show (Louie) exactly as he wants it and doesn't cater to any way people think a sitcom or comedy show is supposed to be. You never know what to expect but whether its serious or funny its always entertaining to me.

Sometimes movies inspire me a lot. I just watched Basquiat on a flight the other day and it really made me want to paint more and get more involved in art. We were talking about doing a show that also had works of art featured to sort of bring two worlds together. Like the way hip-hop and the art world were more together in the 80's and there was a cool scene, I'd like to make something like that happen with electronic music.

How do you take your coffee???

usually a cappuccino or espresso black

You guys tend to try out tons of different genres which is something I really respect from established artists. For example, I'm in love with Lost You, which seems quite different to what you guys are kind of known for.

1. What track of yours do you think threw the most people off/received the most backlash from the "hardcore" fans?

2. Which track of yours did you have the most fun making because it was out of your norm?

our song with major lazer got a lot of flack. I wrote this in response to some of it:

"Since we've seen a lot of mixed reviews here we wanted to take second to discuss our new Major Lazer/ Elephant Man tune "Turn Around'. We love all types of music and have always tried to pursue sounds we dig. If you've been following us you'd see that we've never tried to be just one thing or let genres define us. We make what we like, and every day it's different. Some of you are fans of just one of our styles some another, some several but variety is part of what makes us who we are. You may not be down with everything we put out but just know we never put out something that we don't fully stand behind. We are big fans of dancehall (see Undah Yuh Skirt) and Turn Around is very much a dancehall track more than anything. It's not what some of you expected and we knew there would be some hate but at the end of the day we're trying to expose you to the sounds we like and we love the tune. We welcome discussion here."

When the two of you are producing a track, do you assume different roles (such as DC on leads and drums and Hooks on melody) or is it purely a collaborative experience?

I'd also like to say that Zeds Dead needs to make a return to Shambhala, we miss you.

Love Shambhala! That's one of the best festivals ever!

Our process is always different. We usually just make things on our own separately and send to the other person then they critique and make suggestions or ask for the project to work on. Then when it's at a certain point we get in the studio together and figure out how to flesh it out and finish it.

When we lived in LA we were together in the studio every day working. It's always different how a track gets done.

Hey guys! Massive fan, I think I have listened to your BBC radio 1 mix over 100 times and you killed it at Royale in Boston last year!

On that note, you seem to get inspiration and influence from absolutely everywhere, which rock artists have given you the most inspiration?

Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, Nirvana to name a few

also gotta rep the beatles

Just wanted to say thanks for everything you guys did for the music scene in Toronto. The good 'ol Bassmentality days were some of my favourite that I have ever had the fortune of being able to enjoy. Thanks again!

On that note, what were some of your favourite nights from back then?

My fondest memories are of 751 in the basement. There was something about the vibe down there that was super unique and never duplicated.

those were the days!

Who is Chris Paules and why is he so damn pretty?!

chris paules is a blond guy that follows us everywhere we go. we don't even question it anymore. he was even in japan when we were there. we were like damn, that's some dedication.

Love the new EP! Is Pulp Fiction your favorite Quentin Tarantino movie? Or is it a different movie?

Pulp Fiction is my favorite, but Reservior Dogs is really close. I used to have the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack on cassette when I was a kid. My parents used to play it in the car and I always thought the beginning of Hooked On A Feelin was hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QK-XUsKb00 That soundtrack was a big part of my childhood even though I wouldn't see the movie till much later.

HOOKS - what brand shirts are you always reppin?

always different but I do wear a lot of mishka

Hooks, did I see you at the disclosure/TNGHT show in central park last summer or was that someone else? It's been bugging me since then

yup that was me

Who's been the coolest artist you've toured with? Worst?

It was really cool to tour with AraabMuzik and his manager Duke da God. Araab used to just set up his MPC and jam out in the studio in the back of the bus. We used to just smoke and watch in amazement! He'll just make the craziest stuff on the fly and then flip it up right in front of you to some other insane beat. And Duke is the man.

You guys killed it at EDC and in Albuquerque! Do you remember playing at a house till like 6 am in albuquerque? I was there and it was fucking awesome. Keep doing what you guys do! Ps. Hooks has awesome fashion sense.

thanks. ya i do remember that and that was awesome! shout out the albuquerque crew!

you guys have a lot of love for colorado, miss the days we all used to throw down at the ogden :) I'm stoked omar will be at deadorcks and can't wait to see what y'all have in store of us. what do you guys like most about red rocks?

those rocks! something about that place its just like it was meant for humans to congregate there and share a collective experience. it's an honour to get to play in such a place.

What is the wildest/craziest thing you have seen someone do at one of your shows?

at one festival that we played there was a guy standing on the speaker getting blown by some girl.

one time this guy jumped on stage and tried to break down our led wall. i think one of our visuals just made him snap. it took 4 guys to pull him off. he had some superhuman drug strength.

Will we be hearing more Deep House influenced Zeds dead tracks like Lost You in the future? Please say yes. Thanks guys you fucking destroy it every time.

yes for sure! we have several unreleased ones that may come out in the near future.

I absolutely LOVE your remix of pyramid song by radiohead. Is there a reason why you guys have never officially released it? Your album is great btw!

it was a bootleg remix. it ended up getting cleared because it got used for one of the step up movies

So how do you guys work? Does it ever get like there's too many cooks in the kitchen with you both?

never too many cooks in the kitchen with just us but we've been in sessions with too many people before. people are always saying 'it would be so amazing if you did a collab with this person and this person and this person!' but it probably woudn't be haha

What's up guys!? I am a huuuuuge fan and went so hard when you guys played your first Hawaii show. That was round 3 for me and you guys never disappoint! When are you guys going to come back to the island?

hopefully soon! we had an awesome time and that show was crazy!

First off great job on the new EP! Saying that im out of Toronto, a big graff head and Zeds Dead fan boy. I was wondering how long Hooks has been writting and under what other names? Keep on slaying em boyz!

I've been writing for 8 years I think. Wow first time I've actually thought about how long it's been haha. I write Rezone. I used to write Rezn and before that I wrote Real. I like the R and the E I guess.

Hooks, your graffiti at BUKU Festival in New Orleans was dope and you killed it in Dallas on Saturday. Do you guys have any plans to release more UK Garage/Bassline type stuff?

EDIT: Also the after party you played b2b with Skream in New Orleans was amazing, but I was upset the crowd only wanted to hear dubstep :/

Thanks! I was in rough shape when i was doing that but it turned out ok.

We have some unreleased stuff in that department. We'll see what happens.

Are you guys still here? Please be here :(

ya

Do you have any intention of releasing another Klassroom Mix? You should make it a series!

would love to do another mix like that of old tunes. klassroom was actually a series that kissy sell out had on his show.

How did collabing with Sean Price (P!) come about? Have you guys been longtime fans of his stuff? Do you like Heltah Skeltah?

we're huge fans of boot camp and sean p. we knew somebody that had worked with duck down and they hooked us up with a guy who knew his manager. it was really cool to get to work with somebody like that who we've listened to for a long time.