About Me
If the sibling duo of electro house DJs the Stafford Brothers doesn’t ring a bell, then one must wonder
where you’ve been hiding for the past few years. Certainly not in the clubs, where the Stafford Brothers
are sure sell-out headliners in every state around the country. And you can’t have been to any festivals in
Australia because if you had, you would have seen the brothers in action at any one of them. And surely
you haven’t been tuned into the radio, where the Staffords’ own productions and remixes peak at the top
end of the club and dance charts and are hot request favourites. In fact, one must ask the question that if
you haven’t heard of the Stafford Brothers, are you listening to dance music at all?
Proud Gold Coasters, Matt and Chris Stafford have been steadily rising to the top of Australia’s elite DJ
forces since 1999, the year the brothers decided to shelve their solo DJing and pair up fulltime. Both
standout DJs, Chris is an old hat at producing and a natural lyricist on the mic, while Matt is known for his
lead guitar solos over sets and possesses business acumen to boot. All this adds up to the blood brothers
combining as a powerful force in both the production and DJ realms and whether they’ll admit it or not,
as one of the main drivers of the Australian dance music scene.
The nationwide fame of the Stafford Brothers’ seems to know no limit. The brothers soared from a
number 27 ranking in the Technics inthemix Australian Top 50 in 2005, to number six last year, to this
year being ranked as the number one DJs in Queensland and number three in the country. With both boys
possessing a natural drive to always reach the top of whatever they set their minds to, it shouldn’t be
long until the boys are claiming pole position.
After this year’s signing to international dance identity Ministry of Sound, the Stafford Brothers have just
wrapped the Electro House Sessions tour to promote the Ministry CD they mixed; a CD that has since gone
Gold and was sitting pretty at number one in the country for three weeks running.
2007 has seen the floodgates really open when it comes to Stafford productions. While on tour, Matt and
Chris penned their follow-up EP, due out in November, which already has fans salivating. Titled the Zoro
EP, it was produced in the UK with the engineer of the Baby Shambles and the Happy Mondays. Their yet-
to-be-released single, Give Love has been given the remix treatment from Roman Pushkin, Ran Shani,
Jason Herd, Little Rascals and Rob Kay... quite the impressive list of global music makers to put their
touch to the track. While this stellar list of artists is remixing the Stafford Brothers, the Stafford Brothers
have their heads buried in remixes of their own including Scroobis Pip’s Thou Shalt Not Kill and the JT
Project.
Remix work has always come a-knocking on the Stafford studio door, with remixes for Princess Superstar,
Sunfreakz, Dope n Dusted and Audio Thieves already in the bag. Adding to this, the boys have organised
productions for several major fashion events and lay claim to the music credits for Channel 7’s Wild TV.
The Stafford Brothers retain their status as national One Love residents and both this residency and their
in-demand guest spots see them playing the best clubs in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane
and in their home town of the Gold Coast, as well as numerous towns in between. Similarly, promoters of
Summafieldayze, Two Tribes, Future Music Festival, Good Vibrations, Splendour in the Grass, Parklife and
of just about every other dance festival eagerly seek out Matt and Chris to feature on their festival bill,
where the boys are never short of an appreciative crowd.
With the Ministry tour under their belts, the boys are now staring straight down the barrel of another
festival season, where promoter interest in the duo is stronger than ever. Among the festival circuit for
the pending 2007/2008 party season are Stereo Sonic (Melb), Summafieldayze, BBQ Breaks, Sunkissed and
Good Vibrations festival tours.
But it is not only Australian crowds who lap up the big-room, upfront electro house of the Stafford
Brothers. Tours of the UK and the USA are confirmed for early 2008. It certainly isn’t the first dose of
Stafford fever the world has received. Multiple tours to Ibiza and main room club sets in venues across
Miami, Las Vegas, London, Manchester, Dubai and Spain’s Malaga and Marbella have meant the Stafford
sound has already successfully infiltrated overseas markets. When playing abroad, the boys are conscious
to play plenty of Aussie productions, their own tracks, remixes and mash-ups as well as the latest floor-
rocking tracks from around the world. With their new tour in sight, the boys will revisit previous venues
and also take in fresh clubs and locations; all evidence that demand for the Stafford Brothers has well
and truly burst beyond Australian shores.
The duo mixed the past two WILD compilations for Central Station Records, as well as the recent Pure CD
for Gold Coast nightclub, Platinum, where the boys are hot favourites on the decks. On the release front,
the mega crossover hit More Than a Feeling followed their debut I Can See, which formed the Stafford
Brothers EP along with other original tracks, Umba and Palace City. The boys have enjoyed radio airplay
with the tracks, as well as peer support by way of other DJs dropping their productions into their sets. All
of this only hints at what’s to come with a debut artist album on the way as well as the almost-released
Zoro EP and Give Love single...
The good news about all this production work is that if you are on the dance floor with the Stafford
Brothers behind the decks, you can be sure there’ll be at least one of the boys’ original workings in there
somewhere. The boys often use the clubs to drop one of their spanking new tracks to test crowd reaction
and to give the room something original and fresh that no other DJ is playing. While Matt and Chris are
renowned for their animated hands-in-the-air crazy behind-deck antics, both brothers know the music is
the key and the most important part of any night. Matt seems to put it best:
“You could have the nicest club in the world with a pretty average artist playing pretty average
music in the main room. But then if you have an amazing DJ playing amazing music in the toilet of
the club across the road, everyone is going to be packed into the toilet across the road, you
know?â€
With residencies and guest spots that take them to every corner of the country, the boys’ fan base
continues to grow. It is no wonder they have found themselves hot property; Matt and Chris sound the
part, look the part and act the part of everyone’s favourite party rocking DJs while keeping their modesty
in check and revelling in the fact they are doing what they are truly passionate about.
Sell-out headliners, CD mixers, chart toppers, music makers and players, sought-after remixers, Aussie
exports, musicians, DJs, party boys, fashion designers (did we mention they design their own nationwide
clothing range, 5:am clothing?), international globetrotters and among the top three DJs in the country...
So, now do the Stafford Brothers ring a bell?
By Jodi A. Hammond
Current biography as at October 2007
