Potbelleez To Headline White Night

The Potbelleez are one of Australia’s seminal electronic dance acts with hits such as ‘Are You With Me’ and ‘Don’t Hold Back’, so they certainly know how to par-tay. They will be headlining the White Night Lumavibes concert at QV Square, and I got to chat with Potbelleez member David Goode on their career and upcoming show.

I saw a photo on the Potbelleez’s Facebook page of a man on Millionaire Hot Seat being asked a question about your songs. How did that feel to be a topic on a game show?
[Laughs] We had a lot of people say that we have made it when our name is on a Millionaire question. It was surreal, I couldn’t believe it, it was an honour.

The Potbelleezs are huge in Australia. Have you guys played many gigs overseas?
Over the years, we’ve done many tours of Europe, Asia, LA, a big extensive tour of China, Singapore, Moscow. But our main focus is Australia. We haven’t had much success with our tunes overseas as we have in Australia. But we got plans for America this year.

Being that the Potbelleez formed in 2003, and had their first string of hits around 2007/2008, how do you feel house music has changed in all that time?
Music and fads come and go. The beauty of music is that is always changing. You got to adapt or you die. That’s one of the beauties about music, it keeps you fresh and up to date. I don’t think there’s one other industry that’s constantly evolving like this one.

What were the early days of the Potbelleez in the Sydney nightclubs like?
Well, we didn’t get to do nightclubs straight away. We had to earn our stripes first. We very much started in the undregornd in Sydney. The overground said we had to work our way up. So we played some illegal rave parties before getting gigs at clubs. The main clubs we played at was Moulin Rouge in Kings Cross, we had a residency there for five years, it our launching pad, but it’s gone now. We played Home Nightclub as well.

How did the Potbelleez get involved in White Night?
I’m not sure actually, but I think they [their managers] thought we would fit every well and rock the shit out of it.

You’re performing some new songs at White Night. How do you feel your new songs differ from your older songs?
In a production sense, the techniques and sounds that changed over time. Technology gets better and better all the time. If you hear something produced 8-9 years ago compared to today, especially being a music producer, you can hear the difference. But listening to what’s happening, how we’ve moved on is fascinating. What we do with our old tracks is we remake them, make bootlegs, make them more exciting. All of our new stuff will be played though.

Does that mean there is another album in the making?
We’re not doing another album at the moment, we’ll keep releasing singles for now. We got a lot of in the pipeline. We did a remix of ‘I Need You Tonight’ by INXS, and we ended up remixing their remix album.

White Night Lumavibes at QV Square
QV Square, Corner of Lonsdale Street and Russell Street, Melbourne
Saturday February 21st, 8pm
qv.com.au/#!/articles/lumavibes