Kandi Crush

The Stanton Warriors, aka Dominic Butler and Mark Yardley, are set to return to our shores once again for a run of shows including playing Breakfest in Perth on Boxing Day. For Butler, it means having plenty to look forward to. “Obviously it's great to be back there because it's summer there and it's fucking pissing down and cold here. So first and foremost it's a great time of year to hit Australia but we've been working in the studio, knocking up edits and lots of fresh tracks and it's both of us doing our thing and we're massively looking forward to it,” Butler begins.

The duo has been hard at work over the past year, not only producing a Sessions IV remix album but also recording a weekly DJ podcast with BBC One. Butler says despite their increased awareness in the public eye, they still like to take a hands-on approach to interacting with fans, particularly through social media. “I do all our Facebook but pretty much everybody I know pays somebody to do it for them and I've always believed that's not really a good idea. I think it's important to put your own kind of stamp on what you do and social media is your kind of platform, your kind of shop window to what your band's about and I think for us it's worked quite well. We like to have a laugh and not take ourselves too seriously because a lot of DJs do that and have big egos and that's not we're about.”

And while the more personal approach has gotten them more fans online, some of what Butler has commented on, including the bizarre culture of kandi ravers in the US, has divided some of their followers. “I wanted some Americans to explain themselves and like 200 people commented, some apologised and some were defending it and it's an interesting debate. We're interested in the world; we travel extensively and visit different cultures, different people and we're genuinely curious about what people think and what music they dig and it's a great platform to receive that information.”

Butler says it's also given the band a closer connection to their Perth fans who are arguably some of their biggest supporters. “Perth is I think the top city that interact with our Facebook and I think it's a testament to the fact people there actually aren't so swayed by the latest trends compared to, say, like in America. Sometimes we play festivals where we're up alongside big EDM guys like Afrojack or whatever and just because they have million pound PR machines behind them the kids kind of just follow them. So it's good playing somewhere like Breakfest where they dig what we do and we can drop tunes they've never heard before and they react to it. To have DJs who don't play all the commercial stuff is nice; it's more rewarding for us to play these kind of events because they appreciate what we're doing and we're keeping it fresh and not cheesing out. And there will be no kandi ravers.”