Interviewed: Billy Kenny and Maximono of This Ain’t Bristol

Purveyors of feel-good house music, This Ain’t Bristol is none too shabby when it comes to putting out some booty-dropping tunes for the dance floor. Co-founders of the Hanover-based label Billy Kenny and Maximono are on a 20 date North America tour, landing with a bang at big bird Claude Vonstroke’s Dirtybird Campout the past week for a weekend of sweaty beats and by-the-campfire treats.

Billy and Maximono’s latest collaborative effort comes in the form of the risqué One Night Stand EP, dropping on Beatport just in time for their stateside plight. The EP comes with four filthy bangers to keep that free summer feeling going long and hard. All in favor of a good time, say aye to the romping sounds of this highly anticipated collaboration featuring all original tracks titled “Hulahoop,” “Get Off,” “The Booty Call,” and “Das Ist Sick.”

Data Transmission had a word with the boys ahead of their North American takeover. Check it out in the interview below.

How are you guys doing? What have you been up to lately?

Billy Kenny: Other than sporting a sexy, raspy Campout voice from last weekend i’m great thanks! I only got into LA Friday and headed straight to Oak Canyon so i’ve been seeing loads of old friends and catching up with everyone in town this week whilst trying to catch up on emails.

Maximono: Pretty much the same over here. we’re basically enjoying the great Californian weather whilst its getting really cold back in Europe! We’re seeing a lot of friends, having lots of meetings, doing some photoshoots and just drinking up the LA vibes. Good times out here.

What are you looking forward to on your upcoming US tour?

BK: So many things! Seeing old faces from the last tour, checking out new cities i haven’t been to yet, getting Maximono ridiculously drunk and just making more amazing memories to think about when i’m 70 years old and above. You know the kind you shouldn’t really tell your grandchildren? Haha!

MM: Mainly dropping some weird music in many many cool places. We haven’t done a US Tour yet and have only played Miami and Vegas so far. Being able to do this with our own This Ain’t Bristol imprint at the same time still seems pretty unreal. So we can’t wait to see all these other exciting places, make lots of crazy new friends and spreading the good vibes. All these lovely messages we’re receiving left, right and center about how people look forward to the shows does not make it any less exciting.

Since you guys are readying the musical tools for your tour, gotta ask: personal favorite tracks and artists at the moment?

BK: I’m absolutely loving everything Josh Brown is doing a the moment. Hes just 21 years old and his work is exactly the direction we want to go with This Ain’t Bristol. His last EP with us was pure gold but my favourite track right now is a forthcoming one he’s done called “Gargle”. It’s just a flippin’ bomb and people have been loosing their s%#t to it wherever i’ve played it.

MM: There’s so much talent out there, it’s crazy. Josh Brown is definitely up there and we’re more than chuffed this champ has crossed our path just out of the blue. Apart from him we’re playing a lot of Kyle Watson, Dateless, Landis LaPace, Sven Lochenhoer, Bot and some others.

Also some touring necessities? Be it fave gear or other things?

BK: Juices full of green stuff and Virgin Mary’s on the plane to cure those early morning hangovers whilst traveling to the next show.

MM: 1. Powerbank (to back up the shitty iPhone battery whilst traveling) 2. Studio headphones and laptop to write new ideas  3. Salted Caramel Coconut Chips

Thoughts and feelings on your latest collaborative “One Night Stand” EP release? How was it working on the EP together?

BK: I absolutely love it and i’m so proud of what we managed to create in such a short space of time. I think it’s an awesome blend of mine and their sound to show that this was a complete team effort. Apart from that, locking ourselves in the studio created a whole level of intensity between the boys and me. I mean we’re used to negotiate, plan, curate, discuss and brainstorm for countless days and hours while running the This Ain’t Bristol imprint with the team back in Germany and have already had a few collabos together but this actually was a whole new level of intensity leading into this amazing six week tour on the other side of the pond. Gonna quote a sample from Dark Sky & Breaches track The Click’ here: “So from that moment on we became tight and clicked up, and then.“ (laughing)

MM: No one of us would have thought that it would go that quick and easy to put this EP we’re all really happy with together. There was an instant vibe when we decided to do the collab EP for the tour. We only had 2-3 weeks from start to finish as it was kind of a last minute decision but in the end it worked out perfect. The more often we play the tunes out, the more we recognize how happy we are with all of them…. and the best thing about it is seeing how every single one of them stands out in the sets and which reactions they cause.

Any raunchy stories that inspired the EP we don’t know about? Show and tell! 😉

BK: Normally i’m the first to have some juicy inside info on any raunchiness happening but not this time. It all just came from brainstorming and ideas we’d already got written down that just came together. Once we had the track titles, the EP name just wrote itself.

MM: „The Booty Call“ track was written first and everything else came together from that. We just wanted to stay on that slightly dingy vibe with all the tracks. Billy’s right, there isn’t a certain story behind those tracks, the formula was simply having fun and jamming in the studio as me and Nick always do when we write new ideas.

What is an absolute classic house banger that you’d want to surprise fans with on the dance floor?

BK: DJ Bigga J – Mind, Body & Soul. I cant believe how long ago this was made. If this came in my inbox today i’d fall off my chair.

MM: if we’d say now, the fans wouldn’t be surprised anymore right?! 🙂 They’ll find out if they come to one of the shows, always a pleasure to drop some of those classics… Some of that good stuff if you know what we mean.

Upcoming projects you’d like to tease us with?

BK: There’s a new This Ain’t Bristol Selections V.A. album on it’s way. The last was curated purely by Maximono, so i’ll let you guess who’s doing this one.

MM: We’re working on new Maximono material whilst being out here in America which we’re properly excited about. also working on some collaborations which we can’t really talk about yet. From a This Ain’t Bristol perspective we’ve got some more fire installed beside another compilation to close off this great year. But we’ll have to let you in the dark for now.

Last comments or words of wisdom?

BK: Wear protection, never eat yellow snow and when the lights turn on in a club, always chant for “one more tune!”

MM: Hit us and Billy up on our private Booty Call number: 323-200-4646 to send us weird messages, dodgy pictures and of course: BOOTY CALLS! And don’t forget to bring your Hulahoop to the club!