Grzegorz and Wojciech’s prolific careers as house outfit Catz ‘N Dogz began in 2003. Since then, the Polish producers and Pets Recordings’ label owners, known for electrifying performances and catchy cuts, have risen through the ranks of the DJ hierarchy, succeeding in their sonic missions.Already gracing the cover of Mixmag and DJ Mag Spain. Internationally they have never lacked momentum, whether gaining a spot in the RA Top 100, or being nominated for Best Track at WMC Awards 2013. Catch our favourite furry pair this weekend at Woobar.
First things first: How much of an animal lover are you guys?
Well of course, we love all animals and none have ever been harmed in the making of our music. Our name is obviously inspired by them. We were looking for a new artist name after our previous 3Channels. At this time I bought a cat and Voitek bought a dog, also in this period of time we were behaving like cat and a dog together on the parties
How did you two meet in the first place?
We actually met thru a friend. The local scene in Szczecin was not so big and whenever a new person arrived, everybody knew. Szczecin is just a 400k people city. Voitek was running the streets putting up posters on every wall and at the time I was still not sure if I wanted to DJ. but I started a radio show in the local radio and eventually Voitek joined me. We played minimal, deep house and a variety of electronic music. At this time there was new club opening and I asked Voitek if he would like to play with me. After this we played there every 2 weeks and for 3-4 years we were inviting a lot of people from Berlin to play and became great friends with many of them. I think it was 2003 when we first started playing together.
My next question is about you two as a duo. What makes you a good tandem and how would you describe your style? You sometimes play softer music as your albums and Eps are and today you really smashed it.
Voitek: We like risking. Together, we encourage ourselves and always make new challenges. It’s working out pretty good. We are sometimes surprised about it because we put out different music and play different music and most of the people actually like it. We played here harder set and tomorrow we are playing at Ibiza ant it would be the beginning of the night so we’ll play happier and softer style. And on the Sunday, we play at Feel Festival in Berlin so it would be trippyer and more disco. It’s fun because people book us to different places.
Greg: No risk – no fun. And we really like different styles of music so we enjoy pleying at big festivals and smaller parties, we learned to adjust to what people want. And as you said, we like to do techno music and we do house music, so it’s fun.
How do you and Greg actually feed off each other during a set- in respect to transitioning and track selection for example?
We’ve become this one weird person. We noticed that in the beginning we were still talking to each other as we were playing, but now we choose the same music. We even talk the same way now… it’s kind of weird.
We’re going to make an album right now actually. We don’t know for what label yet or the concept but I think we will base it around how we’ve become like one person now. We spend so much time together and we’ve played so many gigs together and we live two blocks away…
And how do you prepare for a gig, do you have any ‘out of the ordinary’ rituals before going on stage?
We always try to eat a good polish sausage, lots of garlic and a few shots of vodka before a gig. That’s our standard rider.
In short, how would you describe your relations to labels such as Toolroom and Dirtybird and how’s it going for your Pets Recordings? What would be the main influences on your style?
Well Pets Recordings is like our baby and it is a lot of fun for us. We try to find the artists and work with them, manage all the projects and involved in production, so we enjoy it a lot. And we like to book different music as we like to play, so we are releasing house and techno but also some experimental music. Now, we are releasing our first album on the label called ‘Basic Colour Theory’. With Dirtybird, well, we really like Claude Von Stroke. He asked us back in 2007 to do the remix of his ‘Who’s Afraid Of Detroit’, and we signed it as 3 Channels back then. Later we did an EP for him and release an album on sublabel Mothership. We still work with them, we throw parties together and do some releases, and we are also good friends with Claude, Justin Martin and others, so whenever we’re in San Francisco we meet them.
How is the scene in your native Poland? What is the genre of choice in the big clubs? Is it different from when you started out?
When we were starting the most popular music was Tech House and Minimal. That’s why we also changed the name as we were inspired by this music and we were producing it, but we were also playing house and different electronic genres. 3 channels was tagged as a minimal act during this time.
Right now, of course, the most popular music style in the clubs is House music. The problem in Poland is that there are not many producers and not too many big clubs. However, the ones in Warsaw, Krakow, Sopot and Poznan are doing some great bookings. There are also some nice festivals with amazing lineups like Unsound, Audioriver, Tauron and Opener. It’s just more professional now and cubs have much better sound systems and gear that when we were starting.
https://soundcloud.com/catzndogz
How exactly does the crowd influence your sets?
Of course there are some boundaries… we’re not going to play something we hate but we have such a big spectrum of music we like and are able to play, so its not that difficult for us. We are not just strictly house DJs or techno DJs.
What are your tips for young producers and DJ’s who want to grow as an artist?
We usually say the same thing, trust your own taste and do what you feel inside. That may sound obvious but that really is the key. If you’re doing something that you’re not feeling, maybe because it’s currently popular, people will notice and you’ll eventually get bored. Also don’t give up. It takes a lot of time but its worth it. And remember that you need to put 100% of YOU into it (that usually means you have 0% for other things)
s there something you would like to add before we finish this interview?
MIAUUU …. hm mmm actually I should say WOOOF because people say I’m the dog and Gregory is the cat.