Softwar want to get you moving. They want to get you moving in a "dancing on a tropical beach in the Bahamas, getting loaded on Mojitos" kind of way. Which objectively speaking, is really the best way to do it. After a busy summer the Sydney duo have no plans to slow down anytime soon—no matter how hard Barry O'Farrell tries to stop them. We sat down with Jeremy Lloyd, 50 percent of the group, to chat about digging up weird records, getting married, and the dance music cycle.THUMP: Now that summer's officially ended, what's coming up for you guys? Are you still going to be doing more parties or are you going to hibernate away in the studio?
Jeremy Lloyd: Yeah, I think it's looking likely that we're going to close up shop for a bit in terms of playing out and really focus on production. Try and get three consecutive releases this year, one every three months. Just working towards that. Holding back a bit. We'll still be doing some gigs, but really picking and choosing what we do.I heard you're working on a release for Let's Play House. How's that coming along?
It's getting there. We've been working on it for about six months. We're just trying come up with an idea that we're both happy with. Obviously we've got a very specific idea of what we want to put out for that label and really nailing that and both being happy with it has been a bit of a struggle. But we're almost done!You guys are heading to Europe soon right, work or play?
Well, Miles (the other 50 percent of Softwar) is actually getting married. So there's a big group of us going over for the wedding. And off the back of that we're going to do a whole bunch of shows in Europe. I think we might be doing something with the Melbourne Deepcast guys in Berlin.Super exciting! Your music often gets describes as tropical, lush, and fresh where do you pull those vibes from?
I guess the music we're into is, a lot of the time, really bizarre. Digging for old records and stuff, you can find the weirdest shit. Something that we've really liked is sort of that tropical, calypso sound that is resonating at the moment. It really hit home with us. I guess we're trying to replicate that.There's some amazing stuff happening in Sydney at the moment and you and your Club Mod buddies are in the thick of it. How did the house thing blow up to be this big, here?
I think it was the natural progression of music coming back around to house. That's how it happened thirty years ago—it happened with disco and disco lead back to house. We had disco five or six years ago. I guess it was natural that it swung back to house. All the people that are doing stuff on Club Mod have been involved in some facet of club culture since electro. It's all the kind of guys that just collect music and love all types of genres. You couldn't have liked any of the past ten years of music without being a proper house fan. Everything comes back to house.It's just so much fun.
Yeah, it's a little bit fruity but you can get serious with it.It's perfect for us here in Sydney. We get to go out on boats and sit on the beach and listen to you guys play tunes. It's logical that Sydney would be producing this sort of music, right?
Yeah, exactly. I think that in the next year there's going to be heaps of house coming out of Sydney. Good house. Ben Fester and the guys on Plastic World are doing really really interesting, glitchy house. I think it's a really good scene at the moment. It's a family, because Sydney is so small. Everyone is rising together.You've been playing Sydney for a while, how are the lockout laws affecting things?
Yeah, Barry O'Farrel fucked it up royally! People can scream and shout as much as they want, but the proof is in the pudding. It's not working. It's only a matter of time before it just disappears. From what I understand it was a knee-jerk reaction because the opposition had made some threats about alcohol fuelled violence and he just had to one-up them quite dramatically. That's what happened. Look at Melbourne—they got rid of it after six months. In the long run, it'll be good because people will be so pissed off that by the time it does finish, Sydney will go mad. It's just going to come back with a vengeance. Cut one head off and two will grow back. But it fucked up my Friday night pretty well.Do you think it could have an adverse effect with all the DIY warehouse parties?
In a perfect world, that would take club-lands place and be awesome. People could really make a party on their own, rather than towing a line of what a club owner wants. But in Sydney, unless you get quite a deserted area where people won't complain, cops will usually find out pretty quickly and shut it down.
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Jeremy Lloyd: Yeah, I think it's looking likely that we're going to close up shop for a bit in terms of playing out and really focus on production. Try and get three consecutive releases this year, one every three months. Just working towards that. Holding back a bit. We'll still be doing some gigs, but really picking and choosing what we do.I heard you're working on a release for Let's Play House. How's that coming along?
It's getting there. We've been working on it for about six months. We're just trying come up with an idea that we're both happy with. Obviously we've got a very specific idea of what we want to put out for that label and really nailing that and both being happy with it has been a bit of a struggle. But we're almost done!You guys are heading to Europe soon right, work or play?
Well, Miles (the other 50 percent of Softwar) is actually getting married. So there's a big group of us going over for the wedding. And off the back of that we're going to do a whole bunch of shows in Europe. I think we might be doing something with the Melbourne Deepcast guys in Berlin.Super exciting! Your music often gets describes as tropical, lush, and fresh where do you pull those vibes from?
I guess the music we're into is, a lot of the time, really bizarre. Digging for old records and stuff, you can find the weirdest shit. Something that we've really liked is sort of that tropical, calypso sound that is resonating at the moment. It really hit home with us. I guess we're trying to replicate that.
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I think it was the natural progression of music coming back around to house. That's how it happened thirty years ago—it happened with disco and disco lead back to house. We had disco five or six years ago. I guess it was natural that it swung back to house. All the people that are doing stuff on Club Mod have been involved in some facet of club culture since electro. It's all the kind of guys that just collect music and love all types of genres. You couldn't have liked any of the past ten years of music without being a proper house fan. Everything comes back to house.It's just so much fun.
Yeah, it's a little bit fruity but you can get serious with it.It's perfect for us here in Sydney. We get to go out on boats and sit on the beach and listen to you guys play tunes. It's logical that Sydney would be producing this sort of music, right?
Yeah, exactly. I think that in the next year there's going to be heaps of house coming out of Sydney. Good house. Ben Fester and the guys on Plastic World are doing really really interesting, glitchy house. I think it's a really good scene at the moment. It's a family, because Sydney is so small. Everyone is rising together.You've been playing Sydney for a while, how are the lockout laws affecting things?
Yeah, Barry O'Farrel fucked it up royally! People can scream and shout as much as they want, but the proof is in the pudding. It's not working. It's only a matter of time before it just disappears. From what I understand it was a knee-jerk reaction because the opposition had made some threats about alcohol fuelled violence and he just had to one-up them quite dramatically. That's what happened. Look at Melbourne—they got rid of it after six months. In the long run, it'll be good because people will be so pissed off that by the time it does finish, Sydney will go mad. It's just going to come back with a vengeance. Cut one head off and two will grow back. But it fucked up my Friday night pretty well.Do you think it could have an adverse effect with all the DIY warehouse parties?
In a perfect world, that would take club-lands place and be awesome. People could really make a party on their own, rather than towing a line of what a club owner wants. But in Sydney, unless you get quite a deserted area where people won't complain, cops will usually find out pretty quickly and shut it down.
Softwar are playing this month's Thump Presents show in Sydney. It's free so make sure you RSVP.