The joining of the musical minds of James Erwin and Darbs in 2002 has spawned a liberal and unrelenting journey towards perfecting their craft. As the Trolleyboys, they have developed a crisp and cutting-edge sound, unearthed tomorrows tunes and exhibited their clear ability to gently take their audience into the unchartered. These two guys are among a small sect of Gold Coast DJs who have been embracing and spinning electro before it became the new house. Their sound is distinctly their own driving electro, tech and bottom heavy breaks and thumping house with dirty bass.
These purveyors of top-rate tunes dig far and wide to uncover the essential audio ingredients to craft the perfect night out, as is witnessed on the last Friday of every month at Baja (Kirra Point) for Off Ya Trolley. The night is broadcast live on Radio Metro and within just months of its inception, had already hosted the Fuzzy Breaks CD Launch with James Taylor, New Years' Eve with Paul Arnold (Fat! Records, UK) and the iridescent discothèque of the famous White Party. The aim of the night is to provide for electro addicts who are bored with the cheap and nasty party-pie DJs who are dirtying the genre with hyped-up sets that lack any musical depth. Off Ya Trolley has been successfully running for almost a year and shows no sign of letting up.
The Trolleyboys growing popularity has meant no slowing down for the pair, who are just as hyperactive behind the decks as their dancing audience in front of them. These guys are far from being your typical super-star DJ types; they are at the whim of the crowd. The boys are residents at Baja, Kirra Point, as well as regular guests at Versus events, which are monthly line-ups of local and interstate DJs held at Quest Lounge Bar (Broadbeach) and presented by Toomba Records. The Trolleyboys have unleashed their music sense at some of the areas top nightspots, including The Berlin Lounge (Surfers Paradise), Quest Lounge Bar, La La Land (Byron Bay) and Baja, as well as playing a more chill-out lounge sound at establishments such as Café Fresh (Coolangatta) and Jetz (Coolangatta).
Among the names that the Trolleyboys have played with are the Loose Cannons (UK), Steve Hawker (UK), DJ Friendly (UK/AUS) and oneloves Joe Mills (Melb) as well as with some of the Coasts own local legends.
Together, the boys head-up Trolley Entertainment, which promotes and organises club events. Some events to date include the Off Ya Trolley parties and the Bright Nights full moon events, with more, new events on the way. Trolley Entertainment deals with everything from edgy poster design from Darbs, radio advertising, visuals and lighting, DJ management and hire, equipment hire and technical support from James Erwin and promotional campaigns in conjunction with their sister business Madjin Music.
Both DJs are formidable artists on their own. Darbs, who comes from a punk-rock background, splits from his Trolleyboys duties to spin funky soulful house. He has supported the calibre of Brian Tappert (USA), Chuck Love (USA) and Graham Cordery (Syd), while a side project of his is spinning the odd hard house gig. James Erwins trance alter-ego, Jerwin, has a weekly trance residency, Hard Nites, at Baja which he shares with hard house DJ Randy James. He has also held his own weekly trance specialty program on 105.7 Radio Metro for a year, on which he pulls out his collection of up-front, melodic tech trance. Jerwin is currently working on a new hybrid project, which sees him playing and producing a unique fusion of psy-tech and trancey-breaks scattered with spacey femme vocals.
As a team, creativity, enthusiasm, ingenuity and technical expertise are their hallmarks and together they play only the highest-quality, innovative dancefloor-dedicated tracks. A Trolleyboys gig is about partying with style while introducing music-savvy clubbers to the sounds of tomorrow by spinning the most interesting, energetic and first-rate productions around. Whenever they play, it is as if they themselves are plugged into the music, such is their connection to and knowledge of the sounds they are cranking and their extroverted, enthusiastic antics behind the decks.
The Trolleyboys do more than play music - they create an unforgettable, feel-good atmosphere amongst friends and strangers. And isn't that what clubbing is all about?
