Words by Ash Kissane

DJ and producer duo Rebecca and Fiona (Rebecca Scheja and Fiona Fitzpatrick) rule the Swedish club scene and are quickly spreading their reign across Europe and the US. They’ve now toured with Robyn, performed at a string of European festivals, collaborated with the likes of Kaskade and Adrian Lux, and have recently written, produced and released their first album, I Love You, Man. They’ve even had their own Ben and Jerry’s flavour. These are two talented producers that don’t rely on being really, really ridiculously good looking. Rebecca and Fiona will soon be hitting Brisbane and I had a chat to the BFFs to discuss their new album, musical inspirations, touring the US, and getting some Swedish style advice.

MM: How did you meet and decide you wanted to pursue music together?
RF: We met at a party and we immediately felt that we wanted to do something together. Live our lives together. And very fast we hosted a club night and it developed into becoming DJs and then producers.

MM: How did you go from DJing to producing your own music?
RF: We loved so much music, and ran a music blog where we introduced a lot of new stuff. When we met Adrian Lux and Carli, they started to push us to producing our own stuff and fastly [sic] we fell in love with it. We had always known we wanted to do music and, through the program, Logic we found our sound and how we were supposed to work.

MM: What’s your favourite track off your new album?
RF: For us right now the tracks we like the most are the ones we don’t hear that much, so we would say “Church Is On Fire.” Actually, “Dance” is the only track we’re not involved at all in the production on and that makes us love that track even more somehow. We have more distance to it and like the darker sound.

MM: The aesthetics of your music videos are always really visually appealing and almost like little worlds of their own, especially the video for “Jane Doe.” Where does your inspiration come from to create these stories?
RF: We work with our creative “everything” Tommie X and he listens to our music and gets really inspired. He has a friend called Josephine Hinders who is a scenographer and she builds amazing stuff. So it’s when our minds and music meet we all together create our videos. We like strong women. Also, our favorite director Laerke Herthoni has a big impact and will have, even more in the future on the videos. It’s kind of like we’re all in a big band together. They come on tour with us and we’re always hanging out together.

MM: What was the response like in the US compared to audiences in Europe?
RF: We love touring in America! We meet so many wonderful people, and especially being introduced to the American audience for many through Kaskade. People are just so happy and friendly and into the music. In Europe, we sometimes find the dance music culture to be more snobby and hard.

MM: Electronic music production is often a bit of a “boys club”, did you find it hard to make a name for yourselves when you were first starting out?
RF: It wasn’t hard for us to make us a name because by just being girls we stood out so much in this EDM [electronic dance music] world. But it has been hard to get help and to learn from people, because most guys don’t want to teach stuff. They just want to show off.

MM: How did you find your experience touring with Robyn?
RF: Robyn is a good friend of ours and it was an amazing experience to tour Europe with her. We hope we can do more stuff together soon.

MM: What is your favourite gig you’ve played so far?
RF: OMG! Almost every gig is great in some way. But we’re super happy about all the love we got in Albuquerque this summer… What a crowd. Experience-wise, I would say our Tomorrowland gig on the mainstage was breathtaking in many ways. We didn’t believe it was happening while we were playing. Then we went home and watched the festival on Youtube and couldn’t understand that we’ve been there on that same stage as our idols.

MM: You’ve collaborated with some great producers already, who would be your dream collaboration?
RF: Olof Dreijer, Röyksopp, or if we could time travel, the band, Suicide.

MM: Who are some of your favourite musicians?
RF: The people I just mentioned are big inspiration. But we love tons of music, listening a lot to a band called, The Soft Moon right now, Plastikman, and Saint Etienne.

MM: Drink of choice?
RF: It’s the Averna Sour (very hard to find in America)

MM: What’s on your rider?
RF: Not much, but a lot of beer, preferably local.

MM: Favourite track to play at the moment?
RF: An edit we did with Carlis track, “Big Journey” and our track, “Jane Doe.” And then our personal vocal edit of “Atom” (Nari & Milani)

MM: You’re known for your great style, where does your inspiration come from and do you have some tips where to shop in Sweden?
RF: We only buy second-hand clothes and we just go with our guts and what’s cheap and comfortable. In Sweden, go to Humana on Timmermansgatan 23.

MM: You’ve been getting some attention over here in Australia, when will we be able to see you here?
RF: We are on our way! Our tour starts in Brisbane on the 21st.

You can catch Rebecca & Fiona in Brisbane the Eaton Hills Hotel on Friday September 21st. Be there!

Originally posted on Moustache Magazine.