Calling all dancehall lovers!! In the run up to their performance at Horizons Festival, Bulgaria – I caught up with Gabriel and Benjamin, aka ‘The Heatwave’, and the bashment DJ crew giving you the full carnival experience, and a non-stop dancehall party like nothing you’ve ever seen.
For someone who’s life seems to involve throwing one big party, the boys from The Heatwave came across extremely calm, cool and collected. Then again, they had been playing in Manchester the night before the interview, playing a sell out Hot Wuk party showdown. They described one of their nights as:
“All ages, shapes, colours, sizes and styles Brukking out together.”
Think Rihanna’s new ‘Work’ video, the one directed by Director X where Rihanna and Drake get steamy in a crowded Caribbean restaurant in Toronto, and involves a lot of twerking. As fans said themselves ‘Rihanna’s “Work“ video looks like Heatwave’s Hot Wuk party.’
Not being hugely familiar with The Heatwave myself, I wanted to do my research into who and what The Heatwave was before the interview. I spoke to my friends who were familiar with the duo and their parties. One friend said:
‘Yeah I went to see Heatwave just one time actually when I was like 18 and they smaaashed it soo hard. Really sexy whinin’ in da cluub ya get me? Lurshus ladies mm hmm…’
Sounded good to me. So given the opportunity to interview the guys who are creating your guiltiest dancehall party pleasures, I wanted to find out what got them into the scene, their influences and what plans they had for the future.
Horizon Festival 2016 at Bankso ski resort is the next big gig for them, which has been an annual thing for the boys and always something they look forward to. As they described it ‘Like when fire meets ice.’
I found out from the boys what was the naughtiest dance moves they had seen go down at one of your parties – with the word ‘bashment’, originating in the 1990s, and used to describe a particularly good dance, you can only assume this is something they’ll see a lot at one of their Hot Wuk parties. Throughout the interview you can also find out which flavour of Rubicon takes their fancy, and most importantly what their survival method is in ‘The Heatwave’ – A life lesson the boys know best.