UPFRONTBEATS

House of Virus, the partnership between Virus J & Dirty Orkestra provide solid sounds this summer with their brand new single ‘Love Story’. House of Virus have been gaining massive support from the likes of Radio 1, and have been spinning alongside some of the best.

UpFrontBeats caught up with House of Virus as they prepare for their Asia tour. The fantastic mix provides a little insight into what the boys have in store this summer. Furthermore, House of Virus are set to release their debut studio album.

For those are unfamiliar with your talents, can you begin by telling us a bit about yourselves and how the House of Virus project came about’

House of Virus is Virus J & Dirty Orkestra. We formed about three years ago and are based respectively in Manchester and Vilnius, Lithuania. We first met through a mutual friend in the UK, after which we traveled to Lithuania to hook up and work on some music and it went from there. We have been DJing and making music independently for years before that, but found a lot of similarities in our taste and the direction in which we wanted to take our music, so working together seemed like a natural progression.

The summer has officially started with Ibiza opening its doors, but where can we catch you guys over the summer months’

We are preparing for an Asia tour at the end of the summer so at the moment we are working hard in the studio to make sure we’ve got all out upcoming productions in the can. We’ll be releasing the dates shortly, so keep your eyes on our socials to get all the details.

Yourselves and Tom Finn have done a fantastic job remixing Marshall Jefferson’s ‘Mushrooms’, but how do you go about choosing a remix and how does it all start’ Who offers what in terms of production’

The original track has to be solid, had to be something we can latch on to while using the elements to create something new exciting and original. Aside from that, there’s no pattern or formula as we approach each and every remix and production differently. We both do a bit of everything in the studio, which is why we work so well together.

Your current release with LoVance ‘Freak’, is being hammered at the moment with the likes of Monki showing her support on BBC Radio 1, but can you remember your big break’ What advice would you give to any one who is trying to make it into the music industry’

That came through Richard Snow who signed our very first original production to Skint. This was a huge thing for us as we had both bought pretty much all the Skint releases up to that point and had followed the label for many years, so it was amazing to launch House of Virus on such a well-respected label. So thanks again to Richard, we love you bro!

In terms of advice, stay positive and don’t give up: if you believe in what you’re doing and commit to doing it to the best of your abilities, the chances are that you’ll get noticed. Don’t get disheartened, keep your head down, reach out to artists you admire and make good connections. Most of all, be a good person ‘ the rest will follow.

Like yourselves, we enjoy a classic here at UpFrontBeats but is there a certain track which holds memories’

There are way too many tracks that hold different memories for us, especially as one of us was a young teenager who used to sneak into the legendary Hacienda back in the day. Too much classic house to choose from!

2016 has been a fantastic year already for you guys, can we expect to hear more of the same during the second half the year and what do you have in store’

Thanks, glad you’ve been enjoying it! We have some great new material due including our ‘best of’ remix album which includes some of the biggest house anthems of all time that the original producers have asked us to remix: Inner City, Paris Brightledge and loads more. Plus, there’s our new single ‘Love Story’ with Pete Brown and vocals from Domonic Lawson & Yvonne Shelton. Finally, there’s our debut studio album, but that’s all a bit hush hush at the moment’