“I think he just absolutely hated us,” Matt Stafford says. “We were having the time of our lives. He had to do that for his health. He was quite fat in the first series.” But, it wasn’t all fun and games for the boys. Chris ended up getting a foot infection and Matt almost got smashed by a Muay Thai championship boxer. In an episode of the second series, a Thai ‘doctor’ attempts to help Chris by pouring warm water on his infected foot – an act which did not help the cause. “I’m going to have to say no,” Chris says, laughing, when asked whether he chose to not mix alcohol while on antibiotics for the infection. “I definitely did drink while on antibiotics. To be honest, it was quite painful walking on it.”
The filming for the second series began early last year and the final episode hasn’t been filmed yet. With roughly a year of footage from so many different countries, Matt says, “Season one has got nothing on season two, that’s for sure.” The goal that is set by the boys at the beginning of the second series is to have a #1 track and the series is centred on that – aside from the distractions of general party behaviour, Joey’s outbursts and Brooke Evers’ (Matt’s girlfriend) media and DJ career. “We auditioned vocalists and we ended up working with a really big Australian producer and we got an amazing female vocalist,” Matt says, talking of the filmed journey to create a #1 tune. “The track has been building throughout this time and should release on the last episode.”
Although it’s been exciting globetrotting non-stop for the duo, the lads wish they could spend more time in the countries they tour. “We went to Whistler and we only got to do a show there, we didn’t even get to go snowboarding there so that’s something that you always miss out on,” Chris says. “Even in Thailand, every day we’d do a show and then we’d have to fly to another place so for us there’s so many places that I’d like to stay like Canada in the snow and places like Ibiza.”
Touring has also stretched the relationship between Matt and his girlfriend Brooke, who recently moved to Sydney from the Gold Coast. “It’s been really tough and it’s not getting any easier to be honest,” he says. “She just had three weeks off and I’ve seen her two days because I just haven’t been home so it’s just bananas.”
But, both Chris and Matt say their business degrees and background in sport has been handy in their rise to stardom as international DJs. “It does definitely help with alcohol because if you stay fit then you tend to be able to do more of that and you know, we try and train every day so we try and stay healthy and run the hangover out of us,” Matt says.
“I think our performance helps [with fitness]; we jump around a lot so we’re pretty energetic out there I think and as for business degrees – it’s more being out in the field that’s helped us but you know, it was good to get them,” Chris says. “Mum was really happy when we got degrees and that’s the main thing [laughs].”
The lads have two singles coming out on Ministry Of Sound as well as their own compilation Season 2: Stafford Brothers Soundtrack amongst others. And, of course, “the big one is [the one] you’ll see on the TV show and that’s our #1 record that we’re trying to get,” Chris says. And, although at the beginning of season two the lads talk about cracking the Asian dance music market, Matt attests that it isn’t only Asia that the duo are trying to target. “It’s the world,” he says. “We want to crack every market so Asia is one of those stepping stones. We’re doing well in Europe, we’re about to head to America, we’ve just got three year visas so that’s happening. We want to do well in every market but Asia’s just such a big place and such a big population and it’s developing so much there.”
BY ANNABEL MACLEAN
