Utah Saints are Tim Utah and Jez Willis from Leeds. They formed in 1991 and had immediate success with tracks like What Can You Do For Me, Something Good and Believe In Me.

Following a self-imposed exile, they buried the Utah Saints name in the early noughties (following unreleased albums and contract oblivion), vowing to return under that guise when the time was right. In the meantime they produced and remixed under their Beatvandals moniker, DJed all over the world, and run a club night called Sugarbeat (alongside another DJ / producer called Mooqee).

They returned as Utah Saints in 2008 with a new version of Something Good and since then they've been working on new material and now are about to launch a new label, also called Sugarbeat. We spoke to Tim to find out more about it and what else they're up to.

Why have you set the label up?

Well, we have been running this club night for over ten years now and making music for over 20 years as well as playing more than 150 DJ gigs a year. We play a lot of music in our sets that isn't getting released and we also come into a lot of contact with people who are making great electronic music and we felt that it was time to put some of this out. We are often getting people sending us music through our MySpace and SoundCloud pages and giving us CDs at gigs which is 80% unreleased.

Who is involved with running it?

The three of us are the main people involved in running the label and we will have a very 'hands on' approach to this from doing the accounts to the A&R of each release to helping on the mastering and putting collaborations together like we have done on our first release. We will also have a small team around us helping in different things such as promotion, etc.

What's the ethos behind the label?

The same as the night. With the Sugarbeat club night we have always just put on music we are into - end of story. For example, over the years we have had everybody from 2 Many DJs, Justice, Boys Noize, Annie Mac to DJ Yoda, High Contrast, Zane Lowe, Foamo, Herve, Stanton Warriors play at our night. That covers a lot of music and is very eclectic so with the label if it's something we like and would play out in a set then it would automatically be of a high standard and worthy of a release. We could never really stick to one genre I guess as things change and that would get boring for us.

Tell us more about the first release...

Our first release is Drop The Bomb by an artist called Santero who is a Nottingham based DJ and producer and features the vocals of Matty from Credit to the Nation (who had big success in the mid-nineties and we a great hip hop act). We met Santero while in our studio in Leeds and heard the music he was making and we were immediately into it. At the same time we had been in contact with Matty via Myspace and one of Santero's tracks needed a vocal so we hooked the two of them up together and the rest is history. It is really cool when you can do something like that and put two very talented people together and see what they come up with and then see it through to releasing it. There are remixes by Deekline and Tombcrew along with the flip cut Eat ‘Em Up and it's out on September 20th.

 

 

Got any other releases in the pipeline you can tell us about?

We have got our next few releases pretty much tied up. Our second release is by a producer DJ called Toni Jarvis. She started out as a Sugarbeat resident DJ in Leeds and has since moved to London and is now working at Toolroom Records as well as still DJing. She is a great DJ and is building up a really good following and to take it to the next level she needs to release some music. We are also working with a guy called Dom Farrington who is a great producer and hopefully he will be doing an EP for us for release three.

Done any remixes recently?

Not for about six months as we are working on new Utah material but I am sure we will be doing something soon for the new label.

What's happening with your Sugarbeat club night at the moment?

It's going really well. We are doing Edinburgh as a monthly and do one-offs in London and in Ireland in Galway. Coming up we have Jackbeats playing and AC Slater in Edinburgh this month and Doorly in Galway which is his first ever visit to Ireland which should be cool as he is a great DJ!!

 

Download a Utah Saints DJ mix

Tracklisting

1. Bigger Than Hip hop Intro
2. Drummatic Twins – Crazy Love (Peo 2010 Disco Remix)
3. Major Lazer – Bruk out (Foamo Remix)
4. Herve - Come Together
5. Calvertron - Funky
6. Will Bailey - Chip Shop
7. Svonger – Breathless – Dirty Disco youth Remix
8. BoemKlatch – Bonafied – (Dem Slackers Floor Dance Mix)
9. Fake Blood – I Think I Like It
10. Nas & Damian Marley – As we Enter – (Foamo mix)
11. Bonsai Kat – Ego Tripping
12. Swedish House Mafia – One (Oh Snap Baltimore Club mix)
13. Chemical Brothers – Swoon (Boys Noize Mix)
14. New Order – Blue Monday (Vandalism Mix)
15. Pendulum – The Island Part II
16. DJ Fresh – Gold Dust – Flux Pavilion Mix

• Utah Saints
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• Sugarbeat

Related Links:

• Audio: Utah Jazz Interview & Mix
• Breaks Booty Reviews
• Utah Jazz Presents Vintage
• Download A Free Dubstep Mashup Track
• Issue 100

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