Dolby Anol Feel the Tigerbass

David Gillespie, club promoter for the Glasgow Barfly, has a concern. “For quite a while now the Barfly has been seen as just a rock and metal venue. It’s been forgotten slightly. We’re looking to change that with the Cancelled night, to bring something fresh in to remind people of how good we are. The venue has been refurbished and John and Graham are the best duo to host this new night, without a doubt.”
The duo in question are John Baillie Junior and Graham Peel, Glasgow’s Dolby Anol. Name dropped on music blogs constantly as one of the emerging talents to watch out for, loved by Annie Mac and highly recommended by the very magazine you hold in your hands, the pair are one of Scotland’s top dance acts. So how did they become the powerhouse of infectious glam-electro that they are today?

“I was doing this crazy laptop thing called Smile For The Cameraman, Honey and Graham booked me to play his club night. After my set we DJed together and realised that we had a lot of the same of the same tracks. He then asked me to start producing dance music, somewhere between super gay pop and odd hard electro,” says John.

“We got together and began producing music, making remixes and DJing as a pair. When we were trying to settle on a name I wanted us to be called The Pope but John refused,” says Graham.

Now signed to cutting edge Berlin label Tigerbass, Dolby Anol have released two singles, an EP, and have remixed The Gossip, The Futureheads, Errors, AC Slater, Chromeo and The Teenagers to name but a few. Their album is due next year and features collaborations with Amandah Wilkinson from Operator Please and Lola Olafisoye from Chrome Hoof.

“We played a show in Edinburgh with Kid606 [Tigerbass label owner]; he listened to our set and came up to us and said he’d put us out tomorrow. Even though tomorrow turned out to be three months, he kept his word. He has such an amazing ear for pop and punk that few people have, which is why his labels Tigerbeat6 and Tigerbass have such great artists. We are lucky to be among them,” says John.

The distinctive glow of the Apple logo has infiltrated many clubs over the past few years, as the rise of affordable, portable and powerful laptops, along with the proliferation of popular music production and DJ software Ableton, means that a lot of electronically-minded artists are choosing to use computers within their sets. Dolby Anol are slightly different, they use just their laptops - along with a few external mixers - to create and perform.

“To produce music we use Ableton, various VST synths and hardware synths. Usually we will sit down build a track together from scratch, we'll argue over almost everything until a compromise is found and the sound of it is always something neither of us could have come up with alone. More recently, when I've been away on tour with Dananananaykroyd, we've been zipping up Ableton files and emailing them to each other, which feels a little odd but is kind of exciting when you open your email and have what Graham has been working on at home. We'll send tracks back and forth like that and then finish them together when we meet up.”

After the unfortunate demise of their excellent first club Ghosthaus at Classic Grand, Dolby Anol are hosting their new night, Cancelled on 5 December at the Glasgow Barfly. The opening night sees the boys DJing alongside Genuine Guy and Kid606.

“I like Miles Dyson, Strip Steve, Fake Blood, Blende, Siriusmo, Mr. Oizo, ZXX to name a few. So people can expect to hear us DJ that type of thing. My favourite club in the world is Blast Your Ghetto in Antwerp. It’s run by our friends Fanklub Deejays, who have struck gold in every way possible. They have the perfect venue, a mixed crowd, and they also happen to be among the best DJs I’ve ever heard. Honourable mention to Moscow though, who had strippers at either side of us when we played. For our second night at Cancelled we’re hosting a Boys Noize records party with Shadow Dancer and Strip Steve. The last time with Shadow Dancer the PA blew up then there was a fire which closed the whole club, so we’ll have to top that on December 19th.”

Miguel De Pedro, aka Kid606, explains why he signed Dolby Anol after meeting them for the first time.

“They’re just the best, they’re so funny and are a real dynamic duo with a new take on everything they do. Their personalities compliment each other amazingly: Scots have a great sense of humour and dance music needs more of that. Everything they do has a hidden meaning, from their name to their song titles. They’ve got great style but they’ve definitely got the substance to back it up.”

A quick look at the Tigerbass roster makes for impressive reading, The Six Million Dollar Kid, C.L.A.W.S, Drop The Lime, KNIFEHANDCHOP all make an appearance on Tigerbass’ axis of gut-punch noise. However, what is most impressive about the list of artists is that they come from all across the globe. Berlin, San Francisco, Glasgow, London and New York. So how does Tigerbass gather its artists?

“We meet new artists by touring and in person, playing gigs together," says De Pedro. Sadly most demos are awful and one of the problems with just signing people over the internet is even if they make some good tunes you might meet them and just find out they’re total wankers and then it’s too late. When looking for an artist I want music that sticks in your head, that's not disposable. One of the problems with dance music is even if a track sounds massive, if it is just sick basslines and cool drum programming, or some trendy new style, it is too shallow for me personally and ages pretty bad. Not that I think all music we do is timeless, but at least we can fill a niche. We're not just pumping out EPs of whatever new floorfiller people are pumping out.”

“I’m looking forward to playing Glasgow again, it’s amazing for new musicians and I like how everyone seems to know each other. I’m sure it’s going to be a great night.”