PHAT BEATS... EMMA JOHNSON catches up with grammy nominees camelphat.

Byline: NIGHTLIFE/CLUBS WITH EMMA JOHNSON

WHEN you have David Guetta and Erick Morillo messaging you and Noel Gallagher saying your song blew him away and he wishes 'he'd wrote it', it is safe to say that you are doing something right.

Throw in that you have been named one of "10 artists you need to know" by the prestigious Rolling Stone magazine, scored a UK top 20 and you've well earned yourself a little 'I made it' party.

So Camelphat should definitely be popping the champagne. From festivals to club dates and remix requests, theirs is the name on everyone's lips. And best of all the pair are from Liverpool!

Cameplhat's global domination follows the release, in June last year, of their smash hit Cola. Featuring vocals from Londoner Elderbrook, if you have stepped foot in a bar or turned on the radio or TV in the last six months you have heard it.

It reached number 18 in the UK chart and was certified Gold.

Oh and did I mention it was nominated for a little award called a Grammy? Yes a Grammy!

When I catch up with Anfieldborn Dave Whelan, who along with West Derby's Mike di Scala, makes up Camelphat, he is enjoying a rare few days at home amid a hectic touring schedule that reads like a geography textbook.

So how are the pair coming to terms with their success? Says Dave: "We haven't had chance to think about it. We get an itinerary and we live off that. It's 'you are going to go and do this, you eat then, you sleep then, you go to that party or that airport'.

"We have just done 10 days in America and Mexico then we are going to Miami and South America... it's crazy but great."

While the Camelphat story bears many hallmarks of an overnight sensation, that couldn't be further from the truth as Liverpool clubbers will know.

Dave and Mike have been producing as Camelphat for more than eight years and have been DJing since their early 20s.

"We have been working together since we were 21," says Dave, who like Mike is now 36. "I met Mike in 3 Beat Records and we just made music. It was probably terrible the first 10 years but we eventually got our s--t together!

"But people think we have just come with Cola and blown up. Especially in America. When we tell them the story that has gone into it their jaws drop."

All those years of hard work is paying off now though it seems.

Says Dave: "We are getting to see the world and to meet all these DJs that you have looked up to for so long. People like David Guetta and Erick Morillo are giving us their numbers saying 'message me'."

While Cola put them on the Radio One playlist and grabbed Mr Gallagher's attention, it was not the pair's first hit. In 2015 you couldn't go anywhere in Ibiza without hearing their track Constellations and Pete Tong premiered it on his show.

Says Dave: "I remember this time last year we had a track out called Hanging Out With Charlie and we were sat in Miami with Detlef. He had just had a big track which was a Beatport no. 1 and he said 'You just need that Beatport no. 1. Once that happens everything else will fall into place'. "About two weeks later the track got released properly and went straight to number one and stayed there for six weeks or something.

"Then Cola came along and the rest is history."

Cola was recorded in February last year and was picked up in May by Defected.

"Everything just went from there," says Dave. "The track blew up. We have had gigs left, right and centre, had Rolling Stone calling us ones to look out for... it's just amazing. Then the Grammy nomination came."

Ah the Grammys. In the end the lads lost out to LCD Soundsystem's Tonite but just the nomination was enough to send Camelphat's profile soaring.

"We don't think of making a track for the charts," says Dave. "We make music for the dancefloor if it crosses over it crosses over. (The nomination) was nothing to do with us it was the record label, we just got the email saying you are up for an award. It was 'get your suits ready...'" As for the awards themselves: "They were the longest day of our lives. We were there from 11am and the ceremony started at 1pm. Dance Recording was the first award of 75...

"You get told you didn't win at number 1 and then you have another 74 to go...," he laughs.

"It was an amazing experience.

We were only 20 rows from the front. We actually had better seats than Ice T!" While the Grammys were special, a gig closer to home really stands out for Dave and Mike. Last year's Creamfields saw them step in to play the closing set of the Steel Yard after Loco Dice had to change his set time.

"We already had three or four gigs that day including SW4 in London. We had to end up at Creamfields for 1am which we just made," recalls Dave. "We hadn't been in the Steel Yard before so didn't know how big it was. It was the night Connor McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather and we were the last set.

"It was rammed. Marco Carola was on before us and was killing it. We said 'let's play as loud and as big as we can' and we did. It was the best feedback of any gig we have ever done."

This year the lads, whose remix of Fatboy Slim's classic Right Here, Right Now just scored them yet another Beatport number one, will be back at Creamfields with their own-branded arena.

"We are so proud to have our own tent and have Creamfields say to us 'that's your arena, book who you want to book. We have got a solid line-up of people who we think are really good."

Before that though the lads have a city homecoming with Circus and Cream present Kaluki at The Asylum at the end of April where they join Dubfire, Heidi, Max Chapman, Pirate Copy and more.

"That's an amazing venue. We went to see Sven Vath there and he killed it. It should be a great day. I live in Anfield, I can walk there.

"I don't even need a pick up!" | CIRCUS and Cream present Kaluki at The Asylum, The Old Newsham Park Hospital is on April 28, asylumevent.com | CAMELPHAT host their Blow arena at Creamfields on August 24, creamfields.com Liverpool lads Dave Whelan and Mike di Scala

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Publication:	Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England)
Geographic Code:	4EUUK
Date:	Mar 22, 2018
Words:	1124
Previous Article:	nights and news.
Next Article:	LARGER THAN LIFE; NIGHTLIFE/GAMES WITH CHERYL MULLIN.
Topics:	Music industry