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Music

Saturday Night Gym Club Formed After an Anglo-Irish Dance Competition in Helsinki

Not really. But their new video "Suddenly The Feelings Are Ours" is like the rainbow Matrix.

Half Irish and half British, Saturday Night Gym Club are definitely a mix of the best chill dance breaks and elctro synth textures. This comes across in their latest song "Suddenly The Feelings Are Ours", which is taken from their latest EP The Nowhere Team. The video mixes computer edit wizardry that'll probably make you question the type of mushrooms in your lunch time soup. Because their video was so mindwarpingly brilliant, we sent over our quickfire questions to the band to find out about important things like fancy dress and whether they fold or scrunch.

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Why is this video great and what was the concept?

Firstly it’s great because of the data-moshing that Paul Higham has performed. It gives the effect that the video is broken and abstracted from the original footage. We have been working with an artist called Jody Clark to develop our artwork to match our sound and this video is an extension of that look. Our production method involves remixing our own songs, so it’s cool that this video is like a remix in itself.

The concept is based around the idea of dancing to the slow moving elements of music rather than the rhythm section. In order to create the visual artefacts we had in mind, Paul had to first create a series of slowly evolving backgrounds loosely based on the existing EP artwork, he then overlaid the dancers. At strategic points in the movement of the girls he then removed specific keyframes using a piece of software called Avidemux, this is one of the only pieces of software that currently exists that doesn't try to correct the missing keyframes, and therefore allows the artistic creation of video artefacts as part of the creative process. It is around these artefacts that the concept of datamoshing is built, using these 'broken' video transitions as part of the creative palette is something that really appealed to all of us.

What are the favourite thing on your iPod right now?
Alan: Jon Hopkins - Immunity

Nick: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

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Conor: Bonobo - North Borders

Tom: Shostakovich.

What's the most annoying question a journalist can ask?
Why is your band name so shit?

Lulz. Please can you make up a dramatic story about how you got into music?
SNGC were not always musicians. They were in fact originally an Anglo-Irish dance force to be reckoned with. Young Conor and Nicholas met head to head in the final of the Irish dancing battle ‘Feet of Flames’. The judges just could not pick them apart so both were crowned as champions. The two boys joined forces under the tutelage of Irish folk singer and middle-age heartthrob Daniel O’Donnell who was mesmerised by their creative ability. O’Donnell led the boys to international success, culminating in the final of the Dance world cup in Helsinki, Finland. The clash of the titans unfolded when Conor and Nick met the 6 times world Morris dancing champions Alan and Thomas. Bells, handkerchiefs, tap shoes and bravado collided in an onstage riot but the English contingent took the title by the skin of their teeth. Louis Walsh was in the front row that day, pervy grin on, punt sign in one eye, pound in the other. SNGC was born, a unique form of dance that blended Irish tap and Morris dancing. The group toured the world selling out arenas wherever they went. At aged 18 the boys performed bare foot in Moscow for the Russian Tzar. Tragedy struck when frostbite took hold forcing the young men to hang up their dancing boots. With their feet out of action the boys craved expression and turned to Louis Walsh. Knowing that this was goodbye, he introduced the boys to gabber techno legend Gregor Dolphinski who took the wounded bunch under his wing. The rest is history.

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What do you think you'd be doing if you had a proper job?
When we aren’t writing and producing music we work in research, clinical roles and technology. Three of us work around the area of sound and auditory science. Our work influences our methods in the studio which brings something unique to the sound of SNGC.

Can you sum up your music in a haiku?
Sounds from four cities
A cure all remedy of
Textural ditties

What's the best thing you've been in fancy dress?
One of us dressed as a zombie, one of us dressed as a pirate, one of us dressed as a ninja and four of us have dressed as school girls

What would your death row meal be?
Jungle Thai curry from Mango in Southampton. It’s pretty fiery so we’d need several bottles of Chang to wash it down. We met in Southampton and used to eat there after writing our first ever songs. The death row meal would be awesome food and memories combined.

Do you fold or scrunch?
Three of us scrunch all the way. Tommy probably irons his with a crease.

What did you get your mum for Christmas?
Conor cooked Christmas breakfast in nothing but an apron, which sounds worryingly Freudian to us. Apparently there is photographic evidence if the demand is there.

Nick said: “I don't remember things that happened more than 6 months ago so you just missed your window of opportunity”.

And what did you do for Valentines day?
Probably sat in front of a laptop playing around with a midi sequencer of some variety. Hello ladies!

What's your favourite memory of public transport?
Last summer we played a gig in Camden and had to haul our kit on trains individually from the cities we were living in at the time. Three of us were stood on the tube platform waiting for Conor to get in. The tube pulled in and the doors opened to reveal a densely packed carriage. In the middle of the crowd we could see this poor Irishman stood (just) with a full length electric piano, a keyboard synth and an electric guitar. The disgruntled London commuter faces just made the perfect backdrop to a tragic scene. We need a van!

Who's your favourite person on Twitter?
@Beardrock

Thanks Saturday Night Gym Club!