TV Rock flaunt it

31 May 2010

by Danni Mahoney

You might remember TV Rock as the DJs that successfully remixed the Dukes of Windsor song The Others a few years ago, then followed it up with Flaunt It which spent five weeks atop the ARIA singles charts. The songs pounded out at every club in Australia and became two of the most played tracks on Australian radio in 2007. If you thought they had been hiding under a rock somewhere since then you’d be wrong.

“We’ve actually got three or four records finished with Tara [McDonald]. Elevated is going to be the first one of those to go...we’ve also got five or six other records finished that are aimed at the underground and European markets”, says one half of TV Rock, Grant Smillie.

The boys have also signed on to a label in Amsterdam called Sneakerz and are releasing a track on Steve Angello’s record label, Size. “We did about twelve remixes in the first couple of weeks this year, so we’ve done Axwell and Calvin Harris, some really big names, so it’s exciting.”

Unlike pop acts that thrive on keeping their faces constantly in the spotlight, dance acts are more about getting their music out to the masses by playing live as much as possible and recording with any hot artists they can access to. The schedule ahead for TV Rock is a testament to this. The band is heading to the US later in the year, while their new single In The Air has just been released on the soundtrack for The Kings Of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2, thanks to Grant’s friendship with star Nick Giannopoulos.

“It turns out the movie was coming out two weeks after the single was released in the UK...so we played the premiere in Athens.”

When I asked Grant how he thought the UK would react to the single, he sounded quietly confident. “Everything’s pointing in the right direction, there’s no guarantees, we’ve seen phenomenal success here in Australia and not had it translated in to the UK before...we sort of put it out as a club record, never expecting it to do any of this stuff and now it’s the theme song for the Wog Boy 2 movie and it’s been on So You Think You Can Dance.”

The all-important sync is fast becoming a pretty popular way for artists to get their music out to a wider audience. The question for TV Rock is, does it get them out to the wider audience they've been searching for?

“I think it’s crucial to be honest...the sync market gives you instant credibility as far as if you’re in line with another brand then you’ve got a lifeline of propositions to appeal to a certain market. Synching is really important for us moving forward and something we’re looking to develop more and more because it just seems to work. The next week it’s climbing straight back up the charts. It’s tangible. You can sit there and say ‘well that’s a direct result’.”

Getting widespread exposure for singles is important in today’s digitally savvy era. Albums seem to be a waste of time and money for DJ’s like TV Rock, who find singles a more lucrative business. Teaming up with big name acts has helped the dance duo carve a niche for themselves in the past, and in the single dominated dance world they're keen to stick to their tried and tested formula.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever do another album unless we’ve got enough hits to put together to make a kind of best of thing with some remixes and stuff. I don’t necessarily think that the album market for us right now is perfect, just because we’re trying to focus on track by track composition. We’re working with a whole bunch of different artists and trying to collaborate with different people. We’ll see how it all comes out in the wash.”

The Kings Of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2 movie and soundtrack are out now.