Talking Masklife With Slice N Dice

Let's Go Slice N Dice 

Stage dives, hand held Co2 guns and ridiculously big bass are all in a days work for Slice N Dice..

The notorious masked duo out of Melbourne, Australia, known for their high energy, high impact shows skillfully blending anything from big room anthems to their own diverse productions ranging from trap and minimal to their signature Melbourne Bounce style have already massed a impressive following including the likes of Chuckie, Lazy Rich, TJR, DVBBS, VINAI and many more, While scoring releases and remixes on Dim Mak, Ministry of Sound, Onelove and simultaniously appearing all over Beatport's Electro House & Hip-Hop charts, oh., and a modest 8 month stay as #1 in Beatports Minimal chart.

Ok so, productions aside, These masked men are more than comfortable behind the decks, skilfully blending genres and bpms and pulling all stops to throw down a ride you won't forget, resulting in their debut at #41 in the InTheMix Top 50 National DJ Awards in Australia in 2011, jumping up several places to #36 in 2012 and reaching a staggering #13 in 2013, all whilst sharing the stage with heavyweights such as Deadmau5, Sidney Samson, Diplo, Knife Party, Boys Noize, Porter Robinson, R3HAB, Dada Life, Adrian Lux, AC Slater, Araabmuzik, Cosmic Gate, Showtek, Kill The Noise, TJR, Nari & Milani, Tujamo, Fatman Scoop, Zeds Dead, Lazy Rich, Deorro, Feenix Pawl, Run DMT, Will Sparks, Stafford Brothers, on and not to mention on stage cameos from the likes of Carnage, Hardwell, Martin Garrix and Chuckie.

After several U.S tours, guest spots across Asia, and Mexico, these Masked Party Starters have their eyes set firmly on total world domination.

Welcome to the Masklife.

Hello Slice n Dice, Thank you so much for taking time out to do this interview with us we are so excited!

1.     This is a staple TIE question what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear South Africa?

Sport!

2.     Before we start can you tell us a little more about who each one of you is minus the music we know Slice is into Snorkeling and diving and Dice is into video games what else makes Slice n Dice?

Hahaha you guys did your research! Ok well, we’re both into skateboarding actually! We just bought some boards the other day for while we’re in the states haha. Asides from that, Dice is big on Motocross racing and has a couple of bikes while Slice is actually a bit of a foodie!

3.     How did you meet and how did you both end up in music specifically dance music, has a career in music always been a dream?

Well we kind of came together as a joke haha! Our friend (now manager) Aleks, was starting a club night and wanted to do something a bit different so he asked us to wear masks and put together a few tracks for the night and play a set. We didn’t think it would take off the way it did back then. We were both DJs and producers before we teamed up. Slice was actually a concert brass musician for 8 years as a kid and Dice kind of self taught himself to play piano! It’s a dream to do what you love and we’re both totally committed to music. So the fact that we can sustain a living off it is awesome!

4.     The name now that’s what we want to know more about what inspired it and do the mask make Slice n Dice or do Slice n Dice make the masks?

The name came up when we were just throwing things around and it seemed catchy enough at the time, I guess in hindsight it was haha! The masks and the whole anonymity thing came initially from a novelty point of view, but we decided to keep them on because of 2 reasons; firstly people love the whole hidden identity thing! It’s almost like we’re an entity to some people, not just 2 guys behind decks and secondly for us its just really cool to be able to do what we do and perform in front of massive crowds and kind of have this freedom to mingle unnoticed afterwards. Not that we don’t want to meet our fans but more so the fact that we’re not about chasing personal fame or building our egos and the masks allow us to do what we love and just be regular guys at the end of the day.

5.     What makes The Slice n Dice signature sound exclusive from the rest out there, what cookie would you use to describe your sound/style? 

It’s hard to say, I mean we have sounds we like to use or styles we really identify with, but it’s more about the performance side I guess. When you see us on stage jumping around it really reflect with the energy of our tracks. We try to put our stage presence and energy into our music to mirror it and vice versa.

6.     Which musicians / DJs / Producers do you look up to also where do you draw your inspiration from when producing?

Our big 3 are Showtek, Deorro, and Hardwell. All 3 play a huge part in our studio inspiration, whether it be from aggressive in your face drops to massive melodies or bouncy riffs!

7.     Inferno is your newest release we’ve been smashing it out in the TIE den. Did the track turn out the way you aimed? Love the use of 123 Jump sample from Ummet Ozcan’s Raise your hands.

Hahaha thanks! We just want to say firstly that it was actually a sample from a sample pack. It just happened to be the same as Ummet’s so we don’t get in trouble for ‘stealing it’ haha. Inferno was a cool track that we had a lot of fun writing, it was something different to what we’ve been working on in the studio at the moment, but we thought it was important to put out something a little different so as to keep everyone guessing as to what is coming out next. Also, it was good for us to write something a little different to everything else we’ve put out so to stay flexible and not pigeon hole our ‘sound’

8.     Your sets are unique in the way you blending anything from big room anthems to in-your-face Dubstep and your own brand of Melbourne’s ‘electro bounce’. Do you guys plan your sets beforehand (Track wise/ action wise / dance moves)? We pretty sure you both practice DJing in front of the mirror to get your moves in sync, do you?

HAHAHA Nooo! Never! We play a lot of different crowds and venues back home, so for us its always important to stay flexible in terms of track selection and set direction, we have tones of our own edits of songs that you could call ‘crowd pleasers’, so that even if we have to shift our set to suit a crowd a bit more, it still stays true to what we’d play or write for ourselves.

9.     Melbourne Bounce is becoming pretty popular in your opinion what elements define Melbourne Bounce?

I think what makes Melbourne bounce so cool and popular right now is that it can fit into any set anywhere. It can be fun, aggressive, boppy, or really big room. But at the end of the day, it still retains its kind of core elements, bouncy bass and catchy bendy leads. It’s hard to just define it because we think that its kind of evolving right now as it gets bigger but you can always pick a ‘Melbourne Bounce’ track.

10. You guys are currently on your #MASKLIFE tour, what makes attending a #MASKLIFE event unique from attending any other event?

We like to think that we put on a bit more of a show than your regular DJ set. We’re big on working with the crowd and really jumping around and putting as much energy into our sets as we can. When we get back home we’re doing a national tour where we’ll be bringing dancers and a lightshow with us which we are in the process of finalizing the last stages of which is exciting!

11. What has been one of the craziest things you have seen so far on the #Masklife tour?

We’ve seen some pretty crazy things so far. It’s kind of hard to sum up and pick just one example. America has given us some awesome and hilarious memories this time, coming from crazy pool parties to our festival sets and so many more, and we’ve still got 3 weeks left before we go back home!

12.   The mask, leather jackets, all black everything you guys have a unique style and have just launched your online store (in love with the snapback, need one) why the decision to start a merch range? Do you guys have any plans to design exclusive items for the range, ladies underwear maybe?

We’ll make sure to send one over! Hahaha, umm I dunno, we had a lot of requests for merch from our fans at shows so we decided to make a few designs and starting handing it out at shows and giving it away on our page and sell. I guess we did it for the fans haha

13.   If you guys were the ones asking the questions and us answering them what would you ask us?

If you were stuck on a desert island and could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

14.  What does Masklife represent for Slice n Dice?

It’s us, haha, it’s how we live, how we perform. From running in between 5 shows a night, back home rushing in time to make it to keeping everything low key about our identities. We’re just living the masklife!

Rapid Fire

Who’s the brains and who’s the beauty between the 2 of you,

We like to think we’re both a bit of either hahaha

Dead or alive if you could be anyone who would you be;

S:Dan  Bilzerian

D:Travis Pastrana

Favorite cartoon?

Despicable Me (we’re all about the minions)

One thing your fans don't know about you?
Our names! Hahaha just kidding, one of us has a bunch of tattoos and the other used to be a carpenter!

Your favorite item of clothing and favorite scent....
S: scent: Polo Black, clothing: Nike Runners   
D: scent: Man Abusson    Clothing: Uncle Reco Los Pollos Hermanos  Tee

3 things you would like to change about yourself (physical or personality wise) 
S:My hearings copped a beating over the years, I’d love a full reset! Haha 

D: haha same! We can’t really thing of any others right now, hahaha but the hearing thing would be really ace though!

Any last messages for fans? What can we expect from Slice n Dice in 2014?
Thank you so much to everyone so far! Lots of free music and some really big collaborations and of course big shows to come so stay tuned!

Thank you so much for doing this interview with us now come and visit us in South Africa.. ;)  Layla and Yasmin!

We Shall!! X SND

#MASKLIFE TOUR

JUNE 24TH CHATEAU, LAS VEGAS

JUNE 28TH FLIGHT, CIRCUS DISCO NIGHT CLUB, HOLLYWOOD

JULY 5TH ONE LIFE MUSIC FESTIVAL, NOS CENTRE, SAN BERNARDINO

JULY13TH BASSMNT, SAN DIEGO

JULY 18TH MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

JULY 19TH ENSAENDA, MEXICO

JULY 20TH TIJUANA, MEXICO

JULY 26TH ORGANIC MUSIC FESTIVAL, LOS ANGELES

JULY 27TH OFFICIAL ORGANIC FESTIVAL AFTER PARTY, LOS ANGELES

MORE TBA

Connect:

•  Official Website 
•  Official Fan Page 
•  Twitter 
•  YouTube 
•  Beatport