At this past weekend's BangOn! event, ELEMENTS Music and Arts Festival, we had the pleasure of hanging out with New York's own FIGHT CLVB and got the inside scoop on the history behind this exotic production duo's musical voyage. Consisting of producer SAV and masked hype-man Mystereo, FIGHT CLVB brings sounds described as "jungle terror", guaranteeing a spectacle of a show when attending their live performances. The guys opened up the festival with a 1pm set time drenched in sunshine and good vibes. SAV held it down behind the boards and dropped head-banging beats, all the while Mystereo was spotted galavanting around the industrial water-front venue waving flags and getting the festival goers into the swing of things. Needless to say, FIGHT CLVB knew how to get the party started at Elements in all the right ways.
After their set, we stepped aside the electro-circus to find a little quieter place to chat. I immediately got bit by Mystereo's pet bat, Baby Eddie Jr., but we moved past it and the interview carried on..
So.. where did this all begin? How did FIGHT CLVB come about?
SAV: I met Mystereo in 2011 - I was on tour with Skrillex, Porter Robinson, and Zedd doing video work for Skrillex at the time (I actually did the Rock n' Roll music video) It was Sonny’s first video, actually!
Mystereo: I had a couple cameos..
SAV: That’s where we met, and at the time I was in a band called Sazon Booya..
Mystereo: Wait wait, you didn’t mention when you were playing moombahton back stage for me! … So, SAV was playing some moombahton (house music fused with reggaeton) backstage and some of his Sazon Booya stuff, and I was like “this shit it hard”.. I was kind of getting tired of the whole DJ’ing thing, but I knew I wanted to do more within it. SAV has always been a film guy and I always wanted to know more. We started talking and thought about how we could revolutionize dance music and that’s when I decided to go along with them and I actually joined Sazon Booya as a hype man. I thought I could bring a different element.. a little more texture.. and that’s how Sazon Booya was born. We went through a few reincarnations but we eventually landed on FIGHT CLVB. Our home. Our destiny. And that’s who we are today.
How long has this been a thing for you two?
SAV: Almost two years. We haven’t been around that long..
Mystereo: But the muscle memory is there!
SAV: We actually just had a bunch of fans come up to us and recognize us from Sazon Booya.
Mystereo: It feels super good to know that somebody was paying attention.
SAV: We still play some throwback songs from that era. The only guys really playing that genre anymore are Dillon Francis and Jack Ü.
Can you tell me what “jungle terror” means in terms of Fight Clvb?
SAV: We call it a genre - although the creator doesn’t like to refer to it as a genre. It is a style of music that was coined “jungle terror” by a Dutch producer called Wiwek. He was doing some crazy stuff a few years ago - taking Dutch house elements and adding more of a West-African flavor to it, like cool djembe drums, and we learned about it and just kind of helped Wiwek push this genre out.
You guys definitely have a unique sound. What’s your favorite part about playing jungle teror?
SAV: The percussion!
Mystereo: Think about “jungle” and what that means - I think of swinging monkeys and chaos; When your mother would come into your messy room and say “it's like a jungle in here!” We like to bring that element to the stage. We want to turn our shows into a jungle.
SAV: It also holds a special place in our hearts because we’re from the concrete jungle.
Any particular influences?
Mystereo: Wiwek definitely gets props because without him, we wouldn’t have started doing it. He’s the one who created this baby.
SAV: Afrojack has also been one of my main influences since I got into music from the beginning. I love his style. We have music coming out with him, actually. I’m always scared to send him stuff. He’ll tell me when it’s shitty though, and I respect that. He’s like a mentor.
Okay, so there’s a TON of electronic artists now, especially with modern technology and such.. What makes you guys different from the rest?
SAV: That’s a good question, and I really feel like Mystereo is the best to answer that. Mystereo is, to me, how we stand out at every show.
Mystereo: They look at me as a gimmick but I’m just doing me. We never wanted to be a DJ duo standing there pressing buttons and spinning. We wanted to be more than that. We wanted a true "show" element, and that’s where we found a place where I could fit in. This goes way beyond the show.. Think about it, I can't just be hanging out backstage having some beers and then putting on a mask and going out on stage - This is about live it, eat it, breathe it. This is about showing up at an airport ready to go. Promoter picks you up and takes you to go eat - you walk into the restaurant in full character.. Sheriff comes into the restaurant and customers start complaining - I’m still getting searched in my mask. I've been ticketed before. Actually, I got arrested in a Panera Bread in North Carolina once. If industry people and promoters see me without my mask on, Mystereo is over. Too much trouble and too much energy put into this to throw it all away. I’m just doing my job.
When it comes to playing particular places, different festivals, etc.. How do you tailor your sets?
SAV: I was a DJ before I was a producer.. DJ’ing in a strip club actually benefitted a lot. The girls in there came from a lot of different backgrounds and would request really diverse music. Sometimes I would play 8-10 hours. That’s how I got so acquainted with DJ’ing. It’s all pretty much second nature to me now. If we’re playing a BangOn event, we’re not going to play the same set that we’re playing at Billboard Hot 100 tomorrow. You have to know your crowd and you have to know who’s booking you too.
Mystereo: There’s times where we have a set plan and we look into the crowd and they might not be feeling it. This is where SAV will switch up the sounds and get the energy back to speed. You just have to be ready to transition according to what people want to hear. We’re not playing for ourselves, you know?
Tell me about your new music! I’ve heard about your Rude Boi EP.
SAV: It came about when we were playing a Webster Hall Boys & Girls event before Wiwek. We were in the works of making a track with Titus (our illustrator Voodoo Bownz was the one that introduced us). Two days before the show, Titus sent back vocals for the track. He performed it right after and it went OFF. The crowd’s reaction was great. We sent it off to Afrojack and his whole team, and that was it. They were super into it.
So, what’s next?
Mystereo: We have a tour coming up!
SAV: And we’re gonna bring some of our homies out.
Mystereo: By the way! We have a new track coming out, “Sus”, that we’re really excited about. It’ll be released September 25th.. It’s a lot different than what you’ve seen in our catalogue... Fair to say that it's for the ladies… A hype-hop song.
SAV: We have a few remixes coming out for Sus as well. Look out for that - #Sus
Mystereo: The song is a treat for the fans that’ve been with us through all of our reincarnations.
Following stellar conversation and all the laughs, we proceeded backstage to support the remainder of talents including Branx, HeRobust, Hotel Garuda, Minnesota, Paper Diamond amongst plenty others. Little did we know that once we turned our heads away for just a few moments, Mystereo would be grilling burgers on the stage steps, George Foreman and all.
Photo by Nick Longo
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