Progressive House | Nervo vs. Hook N Sling – Reason
Posted by Middy on August 27, 2012
Following his successful remix of “We’re all No One”, Hook N Sling had made a name for himself with the Nervo sisters and the collab was born. Though there was a two week delay due to promotion reasons, we now finally have “Reason” from the Nervo twins teaming up with Anthony Maniscalco or Hook N Sling. They put together this heavenly track with Liv & Mim on vocals, pitched synths, quick snare, and joyful melodies. Hook N Sling & Nervo have been making a name for themselves lately and “Reason” will only continue their upward trend towards steady success.
Beatport: Nervo vs. Hook N Sling – Reason
Events, Featured, Interviews, Review | Hook N Sling Interview + Lavo NYC Recap
Posted by Middy on August 17, 2012
The Australian producer / DJ Hook N Sling has really made a name for himself since his start back in the early 2000s where he was struggling to get by still working in his dad’s graphic design and working in the breaks genre with his radio show ibreaks.co.uk. He has garnered support for his tunes since the his first big hit in 2007, “The Bump” and his career has shot off from there with hits like “Diamonds In The Sky” with fellow Aussie TV Rock, his remix of Nervo’s “We’re All No One”, his remix of Calvin Harris – I Am Not Alone, and many more. He has upcoming tracks on Axtone, Stealth Records (the below remix of Mozaik) and Wall Records. The future is very bright for this young Australian producer who has shown that success does not come over night and that if you work hard and are patient, good things will come to you.
We caught up with him in his hotel room before his set at Lavo NY to ask him about his upcoming records, his move to the US, his favorite place to vacation, the reason why “Reason” release date was delayed, his history of singing and more. His set at Lavo was superb, bringing his flavor from down under to the upper crust of New York. Lavo NY has some decent openers, but they do like to sprinkle a few too many Beatport top 40 tracks when those should be left up to the headliner to use as crowd pleasers.
Hook N Sling stepped on around 1 and got the party going with a mixture of his own hit tracks such as his recent single “Evermore”, his remix of We’re All No One”, which got a good reaction from the crowd and “Diamonds In The Sky”. He played recent songs from others like fellow Aussie producer Walden’s remix of “In My Mind”, which was fitting as the young producer stopped by for a short time that night. He played a good blend of progressive as well as some lesser known house tracks that worked very well in the set, displaying Hook N Sling’s ability as a DJ and his intelligence behind the decks. He finished around 3, leaving the nearly full crowd still wanting more. Looking forward at Lavo, Dash Berlin will be there next week the 23rd. Tickets are sold out, but if you are a regular, get to the show. Below is the start of the interview and the rest is after the jump.
FNT: You recently moved from Sydney (Bondi Beach to be exact) to LA — was that tough for you, anything you miss from Australia?
Hook N Sling: It was tough setting up a whole new life. I had to sell my car back home, kind of pack everything up and think about stuff I really love and and don’t give a shit about anymore and sold the stuff I hated. It was like boiling your life down to bare essentials and then picking up and leaving. In that part leaving home was the hard part, getting over here doing stuff like Social Security, drivers license, which I still don’t have and I hope I don’t get pulled over until I get one. All that kind of stuff has just been a big deal, but as I was just saying to someone the other day, it wouldn’t bother me if the shows are doing well, I am busy, so I don’t really think about it, but it was awfully stressful coming over.
FNT: DJs are known for never sleeping or rarely sleeping, how do you deal with that?
Hook N Sling: I slept 9 hours last night. But I needed that because the night before was like 4 hours. It’s ok, I can deal with it, the alarm goes off, I know I am going to get out of bed otherwise I am going to miss my flight and I kind of hate dealing with airports so I like to get it over and done with as easy as possible. It’s alright, the more you think about it, the more you hate it. So I don’t think about it.
FNT: Since you were in a choir as a kid (Hook N Sling laughs), would you ever do vocals for one of your songs like Calvin Harris?
Hook N Sling: I knew I shouldn’t have said that in an interview haha. I do, I have done a couple of vocal parts, but nothing I do makes it to the final record. I would put down an idea and I would give it someone else and go “what do you think” and can you make this sound better and put some words to it, I am obviously not to good with that stuff, but yeah, I have been known to step in front of a microphone.
More of the interview after the jump
DJ-Set, Progressive House | Hook N Sling feat. Evermore – Surrender
Posted by Middy on June 25, 2012
Australia is really putting itself on the map with some top of the line house producers with Dirty South leading the way, but also with the likes of Hook N’ Sling, Nervo, Tommy Trash, Feenixpawl and Ivan Gough, TV Rock, Walden and more, Australia is turning into a haven of quality house music. Evermore’s emotional vocals lead an uplifting melody from Hook N Sling into a break of moving synth chords and quick percussion with a top line piano melody. Also included is a mix from Hook N Sling with some of the latest house tunes and the first preview of his remix of Michael Calfan – Mozaik. Tracklist after the jump.