With upcoming shows for Defected In The House and Defected Gets Physical at Amnesia Ibiza this summer, we caught up with Groove Armada’s Tim Findlay to discuss the enduring appeal of one of the UK’s most essential dance acts. 

Andy Cato met Tom Findlay in mid-Nineties London during a swirl of sonic awakenings across the emerging UK club scene.  Groove Armada began as innovative jazz-funk-disco-house club night (full title Captain Sensual At The Helm Of The Groove Armada) before identifying the boys’ own fledgling work in the studio to help promote it. Over the past 18 years or so Cato and Findlay have enthralled revellers all over the world, be they heads down in sweaty basements or hands up in raucous festival fields, as while releasing a string of hit singles and several critically and commercially successful albums.

This summer sees the duo busier than ever.  Following remix work for Drew Hill, Burnski and Hot Creations’ Digitaria, Groove Armada’s first album in five years Little Black Book has just arrived on Jaymo and Andy George’s esteemed imprint Moda Black – an epic combination of brand new material and back catalogue remixes by peers including Joris Voorn, Huxley and Pillowtalk.  Cato and Findlay are balancing promos around that one with a series of typically high-profile gigs, including two Defected apperances 18 August and 15 September, with the latter part of the Defected Gets Physical Tour.  

Here, we discuss gigs, albums and navigating the music business with Tom.

Tom, what’s Groove Armada’s state of mind right now?

It’s really good. We’ve been working ourselves up for the summer, starting with vibe-y gigs like Love Saves The Day down in Bristol and Lovebox back at Victoria Park [London].  We’ve been making time to go through piles of tunes, edit favourite tracks and generally refresh the ‘inbox’, all so that we have the best music to play this summer.  There’s some great stuff there; the early reaction from people has been good.

Your first gig for Defected In The House at Amnesia is imminent….

Andy and I are really excited about these shows.  We feel Groove Armada has a natural fit with Defected, but it just hasn’t happened before.  We don’t play Amnesia that often either. So that makes these gigs extra special.  We were residents on the Space Terrace [for We Love…. – now relocated to Sankeys] for so long and we didn’t want tired, old habits to creep in. This is a welcome gear shift.

How do you two like to set yourselves up for a DJ set together?

We like to do things differently. Ideally, we’ll have a couple of mixers feeding into a sampler. Andy’s triggering all sorts of loops and plug-ins. We like our drum machines too; we like to work in the world of the 303 [Roland TB-303]. Then there’s the lighting and strobes. Visuals are more difficult but we like to take charge of it all and build the drama around the music. The combination of CDJs, USBs, dynamic loops and AV can be really powerful, working for the clubs as much as for the main festival stages. We’ve probably been performing this way for about two or three years now. It’s all about keeping the energy and groove up.


Are you keeping your own groove up?

Absolutely. This has never felt like a 9 to 5 for Andy and I. Our summers used to involve the same flights, which did have a slight feeling of commuting about it, but only that…slight. And we’re playing different venues this time round so everything is fresh. We massively believe in progress. We stay across everything that’s happening around us but, ultimately, we’re comfortable in what we represent. For Groove Armada it’s about continually refreshing the classic house sound. We’re lucky now, in the sense that the UK scene is enjoying a big house renaissance and actually the sounds aren’t so different from those 10-15 years ago. But still we look to progress. We believe in modernity.

What’s your opinion of modern-day Ibiza as seasoned White Isle performers?

There is a sense of doom and gloom there…that maybe Ibiza has finally lost its edge. But if you can get beyond the initial cynicism then you’ll see that, in actual fact, Ibiza is a hub for lots of different dance scenes. It’s definitely not the case that one big new scene is replacing the others before it. Look at this summer’s line-up – you have The Redlight at Sankeys next to Avicii at Ushuaia. People talk about the VIP scene as a distraction but there have always been big villa parties on the island for a similar crowd. It’s nothing that new.

There are, on the other hand, new spaces emerging like the Cirque du Soleil thing at the Ibiza Gran Hotel [new night HEART, a rarefied fusion of art, music and gastronomy hosted by renowned chefs Albert and Ferran Adria and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte]. I fear for great clubs like Space in the longer-term – what happens to them as the landscape of Ibiza evolves?


Take us through your plans for the rest of 2015….

Basically, we have new tracks due on a couple of labels this October and November. After that we’ll take things one quarter [of the year] at a time.

No bigger pictures?

In a couple of years it’ll be our 20th anniversary as Groove Armada so I’m sure we’ll look at some shows and other stuff down the line. We’ll want to celebrate. But really, we’re celebrating right now. We’re celebrating house music. For us, we simply want to keep feeling and feeding that connection to the classic house sound…with the right vocals, drops and everything else. We want to keep upping our production ante too. These are the bigger things.

How’s the dynamic between you and Andy?

It’s fairly similar to how it was in the beginning.  There’s a mutual respect. We make decisions together. There’s a lot of sending ideas and music back and forth and building things together. Our relationship remains strong.

Exactly how tough is it to navigate the music business these days compared to the late Nineties?

It’s actually much easier, personally speaking. When we were starting out we were part of the major label system and there were so many things to consider. These days we operate out of that system and have far greater control. There’s lots of energy in the independent label system in 2015…a really good vibe. That’s great for Andy and I. Things really are better than ever.

Words: Ben Lovett

Groove Armada plays Defected In The House at Together, Amnesia Ibiza 18 August and 15 September – full line-ups and tickets. Click here for full line-ups and tickets for the Defected Gets Physical Tour.

Defected Gets Physical Mixed by DJ T. and Luke Solomon is out 28 August 2015 (3CD and digital) on Defected Records - pre-order the CD and digital from iTunes