:: INTERVIEWS :: ORGAN DONORS

We caught up with Scott & Matt Harris AKA The Organ Donors ahead of the release of their brand new single 'Techno Shock' on Tidy...

1). How did the Organ Donors come about? Is this a case of living out a childhood dream?
We shared a bedroom from the beginning of time, and through that developed the same passions, the same friends and a lot of the same interests, we both fell in love with dance music when it really started to come about at the start of the 90s, we done a lot of stuff together but also went out alone doing our thing in the music buis, it was about 10 years later in our early twenties when we decided we could actually combine our forces to try really make a name for ourselves, that’s when we became the donors and never looked back since.

2). Are there any particular advantages of brothers working together?
Its very difficult to fall out with family, I mean we have our moments don’t get me wrong but I think being close brothers will give us a very long working relationship. Unless he shags my missus ha I think we can work through anything else. Nothing is thicker than blood, though matt can be thicker than shit some times!

3). Any particular disadvantages?
Having to put up with your brothers annoying fucking habits all week and every weekend!

4). Do you think your partnership would work as well if you were not brothers?
No I don’t think it would, I think friends, no matter how close, have a much higher chance of growing apart.

5). Do each of you have certain responsibilities within Organ Donors? IE, does one come up with the ideas while the other makes the tea?
Yeah we do have different roles towards our common goal, its only as a team I think we are able to pull off what we do, we fill in for each others weaknesses, we don’t conflict with each other, we both do what we have to in order to succeed further and rely on each others strengths and stand in for each others weaknesses to make things happen.

6). It’s fair to say that over the last few years you’ve ripped up dance-floors the world over - including head-lining at China’s first ever rave event at Guang Zhou Olympic Stadium in 2005; if you had to single out ONE performance or event as your ultimate, which would it be? Why?
One of the most memorable was playing at our first super stage party called 4 Elements in Holland to a crowd of like 10K, we had only been playing small clubs for years and never been so thrown in at the deep end, the booking had come about from the success of some of our early tracks but nothing was to prepare us, I can honestly say it was the scariest experience of my life! And probably the shittest set we ever played because of that hahal!

7). Were the Chinese ready for you? How did they react?
They stood around thinking what the fuck is this music haha! And said to eachother in Chinese, “they look like they are on drugs”. Lol its just a different world in china, the dance scene doesn’t exist as we know it! But it was still one of the craziest and most memorable experiences ever.

8). Hard-house is fairly good at pigeon-holing; DJs, producers, DJs that also produce, Producers that also DJ. What is the best description for you guys?
We just love good dance music, a good tune is a good tune I think and everyone can appreciate that, we’ve never tried to pigeon hole ourselves with our productions and dj sets, its just about good hard dance music and were just about two brothers doing our music, producing, performing and supporting dance music in general.

9). Last year you unleashed the Audio Surgery project, can you tell us more about this concept? How did it come about?
We developed our Audio Surgery concept a couple of years ago, we were under pressure to develop a live show, but didn’t really have the drive to do that as we were so passionate about Djing and performing live, so we set about trying to come up with something that had never been done before, a semi live show that incorporated DJing, the timing was spot on with the digital dj equipment revolution and with some crazy new equipment we set about launching the concept upon the nation, its been the most exciting couple of years touring this concept and its really taken the industry by surprise, were planning to launch our own clubbing experience called The Audio Surgery in the coming year and try bring more awareness to this unique concept.

10). The award-winning “Turnrablizm” is a track derived from the Audio Surgery project; did you have any idea it would do so well?
I don’t think you ever know something is going to do well, it was just luck, when you spend so long in the studio and on the decks I think its inevitable that at some point lady luck is going to show her fat ass and give you a break! We were just happy it happened.

11). Your Michael Jackson inspired “4 Tribes” release made the national top 40; who came up with that idea? How do you come up with track ideas generally?
Matt is a genius when it comes to song ideas and song concepts, somehow one day in the studio we came across the Michael Jackson accapella and said that would be wicked in a techno track, it was down to lady Luck that day that the tune came out the way it did and was that successful.

12). “Techno Shock” released on Tidy in November is the latest installment from you guys due out soon, what can we expect from the track?
Some forward thinking ideas, something a bit different in a league of its own I hope, I think the collab with Vinylgroover was a real testament to how a good collaboration should work, different style producers bringing their different ideas and ways of working together to achieve a hybrid production.

13). As an act you are constantly evolving which keeps you ahead of the game; at what point though do you draw a line under it all and switch off the dex for the last time?
Probably at the point when you lose the enthusiasm that keeps you wanting to do all of the above , for as long as were passionate about what were doing and believe were doing something good for the scene we will keep going, only god knows how long that will last but I suspect a very long time!

14). The amount of live engineering that goes into your sets requires two pairs of hands, do you think that you’d have had the same amount of success if there was only one of you?
I don’t believe we would, I believe our success has been because we have worked together as a team to get where we are, we couldn’t of done it alone.

15). No one could argue that the Organ Donors are definitely For The Harder Generation; given your customary hard-sound, if I were to look through your CD collections at home is there anything there that may take me by surprise?
Absolutely all sorts, from Pink Floyd, Marley, UB40, Stone Roses, Electro house comps, oldskool comps, rap albums, leftfeild stuff and electronica, pretty much into anything and have drawn influences from all this over the years.

16). [Matt on Scott] - if you could change any aspect of your brothers personality, what would it be?
His desire, at every given opportunity when we share hotel rooms, to constantly walk around wearing only his pants!

17). [Scott on Matt] - what is the one aspect of Matt’s personality of deep and dark past would I be surprised to find out that I would not know having trawled the web in researching questions for you guys.
He never leaves home without a packet of baby wipes! His bottom is oh so gentle lol! And after he showers he feels the need to blow dry his balls with the hotel room hair dryer! Which is generally right next to the television set whilst im happily trying to watch tv wearing only my pants!

18). When you’re not performing surgery what can we normally find you doing?
Mostly getting our pants pulled down by our girlfriends lol! Otherwise Matt fishing and me on Xbox Live being the main fucking geek with a head set!

19). As another highly successful year draws to a close, what plans do you have for 2008?
The launch of our second artist album that’s taken the whole of 2007 to write, “Oldskool Autopsy” an album of influences, a whole album of cover versions and remixes of classic tracks that inspired us, and a generation!
We will also be launching our own branded club experience called the The Audio Surgery, a night dedicated to the digital and technical revolution and support all the modern DJ’s utilizing this new digital revolution, we have secured our launch party at the Great Opera House in our home town of Bournemouth later in 2008.