New York brothers Anthony and Christopher Alfaro are making a solid footprint in the bass scene as the deadly duo, YOOKiE. They recently touched down in Toronto at The Opera House for a night of relentless headbanging and mosh pits galore, alongside Cookie Monsta, Subtronics, and Phiso – thanks to Dead Royalty Productions, local bassheads were graced with a night of heavy madness, in anticipation for the upcoming Ever After Music Festival this June.
Their appearance at the festival last year was a heavy highlight that Friday afternoon; they were going as hard as the crowd was, to the point that their faces were covered by their long, flowing hair for a good portion of their set. Unfortunately, they won’t be at the festival this year; despite this, their set at the Opera House outshone last year’s, helping to bring the pre-festival season hype on that cold, snowy evening.
Right before their set, the FUX crew had a chat with them, Anthony going all black and Chris sporting a camo jacket/pink adidas toque, in a small alcove with a quaintly placed fern plant, for a little insight into the minds of the producer/DJ duo.
Throughout the interview, there were moments where one brother would start speaking, only for the other to segue his way in and finish the sentence for him. If anything, this goes to show how like-minded they are – not only in the way they make their music, but in a lot of their mannerisms and way of speech as well – which is likely to happen when you grow up together.
We have a chemistry where we just work together really well. We have similar ideas, and make the perfect team. -Chris
As common as it may seem, it’s not all too prevalent that we get to see siblings work alongside each other in the scene- at least, compared to friends. How do you believe that dynamic changes things for you?
Anthony: I feel like because we’re so close, our minds are connected.
Chris: We have a chemistry where we just work together really well. We have similar ideas, and make the perfect team.
Anthony: Pretty much.
What was your favourite aspect of Ever After last year?
Chris: I really liked the whole festival – the crowd was dope, all the workers were dope – the whole team. The line-up was super fire – it was just a really dope festival.
What can you tell us, particularly those who don’t know, about “The Other Vault“?
Anthony: That’s basically there for remixes that aren’t “clear”, just to put something up there – or maybe, in the future, it’ll be a throwaway account, or just stuff that doesn’t get put on the main one, we’ll put up there, and people can listen to it. We also have The Other Other Vault.
Chris: We have The Vault, and The Other Vault. The Vault has a bunch of really old songs from when we first started producing. Some gems on there if you wanna look it up.
What would you say is your favourite thing about Canada?
Anthony: We haven’t had a chance to really explore…
Chris: …experience Canada. We have a day off here tomorrow, so we should probably explore – and find something that’s our favourite.
Anthony: Yee – I’m down with that.
What’s been on your bucketlist, in that case?
Anthony: I mean, we tried poutine. We like food, so we always try whatever [food] that region is known for – we’ll go and try what the locals are into. But, we weren’t really feeling the poutine, so if you have any dope poutine spots you can reccommend-
Chris: -or just any food that you think we should eat while we’re here.
I would recommend Burrito Boyz.
Anthony: Someone was telling me about Burrito Boyz, that they’re really good. And we FUX with burritos.
Do you guys ever leave reviews on Yelp?
Anthony: Not really, but I was thinking about starting Halal Guys reviews. In New York, we have this place called the Halal guys – it’s a stand – and they’ve taken over everywhere. We just had some here in Toronto! We tried it, and I was thinking that we should just review all the Halal Guys that we try!
(The brothers snicker in unison.)
Chris: We should do a review vlog series, where we just eat random shit and review it.
Anthony: Yeah, that would be dope.
When did you start producing?
Chris: September of 2012 was when were like “Yo, let’s do this”. That summer, we went to our first electronic show, and it was fucking sick! After our first show, we went to a bunch of festivals. We saw Skrillex 4 times that summer. And we were just like “Shit, we wanna do this”…
Anthony: …and we’re doin’ it!
Did you play music or anything in any other ways before that?
Anthony: Yeah, I played guitar, [Chris] played the drums. We used to jam together a lot, so, music has always been a theme between us.
Both ‘Escape’ and your remix of ‘Rail Breaker‘ released around the same time – what can you tell us about each track?
Anthony: With the ‘Rail Breaker’ remix, I was really inspired by that heavily distorted sound. So I was just trying to do something like that, but I [also] wanted to have that “pulse”, for people to headbang to.
And for ‘Escape’: we were in LA and we were workin’ on stuff and I just made that same “pulse”. With the trap part, I wanted to make it sound like… the speaker was blown, so that was where I got that inspiration from.
Current repeat song(s)?
Chris: I’m really into ‘Gummo’ by Tekashi 6ix9ine; I play that track like, every day.
Anthony: For me, I just found the song ‘Imaginary Enemy’ by Circa Survive. It’s a good song.
We’re gonna do a tour on the moon. It’s a work in progress – we’re still working with SpaceX.
In a couple of other interviews, you mention 2019 being a big year for you guys- what do you have envisioned for then?
Anthony: We’re gonna do a tour on the moon. It’s a work in progress – we’re still working with SpaceX.
Chris: We’re also in talks with the National Cloning Association, and we’re gonna be the first DJs to play a show in all 50 states at once – via clones.
Anthony: Yeah – like, that’s some record-breaking shit.
Chris: That’s the year we change everything.
This is part 1 of a 2-part interview with YOOKiE; go here to continue on to the second half! Pictures courtesy of Kevin G.
