While they’ve been getting plenty of love from blogs everywhere and on The Hype Machine charts for their track Can’t Stop alongside remixes of Florence and the Machine’s Take Care and The Weeknd’s Wicked Games, ColeCo want everyone to know that they are more than just DJs. Besides churning out their dance floor-ready interpretations of their favourite songs, the Toronto-based production duo of Duncan Grewar and Sean Koch have been busy making their own original electronic music. With their first EP titled Can’t Stop and debut album on the way, ColeCo are ready to show the world who they really are.

Max Mertens: You both have been involved in the Toronto music scene for quite a few years now. What are some of the most significant differences between when you guys started out DJing and the culture today?
Sean Koch: We had a production company throwing raves in the late ’90s in downtown Toronto at the height of the rave movement. There were some pretty big shows that were happening. We had 15 000 people going to the raves we were playing at the time and then it all kind of changed into club DJs and resident DJs.

That sort of marked a shift in the industry in Toronto. The city was known for having some of the best parties in the world – and it still does – but it’s different. The parties are a lot smaller; it’s pretty rare now to have a party with over 15 000 people. The music itself shifts depending on what people are into.

MM: Do you think DJs today get a bad rep?
SK: No, I think DJs are the new rock stars, really. Look at someone like David Guetta.

MM: Is there a sense of competition amongst Toronto DJs, considering that on any given night you could have 10 different DJs playing ten different bars in this city? How do you stand out from the pack?
SK: There always is competition. We don’t consider ourselves DJs though. We don’t play on CD turntables; we play with Ableton and Midi controllers, so we put together more of a live show.

DG: For us, that’s just a way of showcasing our music; for the most part, we are producers.

We would rather be in the studio than just playing clubs as “DJs”. We would rather come out to showcase our own music and productions.

MM: You’d rather be in the studio right now.
DG: Yes. No disrespect; all we want to do is make music. We love it. We always get inspired by music as a whole, whether it’s electronic, old jazz, soul, folk, whatever; good music is good music and that’s what fuels us to make music.

MM: Tell me about how making your own original material differs from the remixes.
DG: We’ve been doing our remixes for a while. We love it and we’re going to keep that side of production as a part of ColeCo; however, we also want to be able to show who we really are. We feel that doing an album will showcase more of what we are capable of. We do have a very musical background, so there’ll be a lot of that. For the most part, even down to the drums and the cymbals, we play everything.

We get influenced by a lot of different music and it has to do with the vibe that we’re in at the time.

MM: What’s the public reaction to that been like so far?
DG: Can’t Stop, our first single, has been as widely received as our remixes on our Soundcloud. The funny thing about Can’t Stop is that we finished it right before our show for The Weeknd, previewed it there and it had such a reaction that we decided to push it as a single. But it’s still a demo. By the time it went on The Magic tape, I said to Sean, ‘Well, I guess that track’s done.’ For the album, we’re going to get it professionally mastered, but other than that, I’d say a good 80% of the EP is already completed.

MM: When can we expect to hear this new EP?

SK: The Can’t Stop EP will be released just after the New Year.
DG: The full album should be expected sometime after next summer because we have a lot of touring and shows to play and we’ve also got some big remixes in the works.

We can’t really say yet because it’s not official. One of the largest French electro-house labels and also one of the biggest DJs in our genre has just contacted us about remixes, so you’ll be seeing a lot of stuff from us in the future.