The WMC is descends upon us and the excitement for this year couldn’t be any higher. Pretty soon clubbers, DJs, producers, promoters and dance music lovers are going to be making their annual pilgrimage to Miami for the biggest music conference in the country. One of Clubplanet’s WMC photographers got a chance to sit down with New York producers Filo & Peri about their latest tracks, CD, upcoming parties and the winter music conferences of past and present.
Andrew Van Vlack: What's your favorite thing about traveling around the world and playing the music you love? 
DOM: Our favorite thing is just going from city to city, flying around and playing all the records we made in the studio. It's a really great feeling; the fact that we are sitting here on a Friday night doing the interview, working on music, and then next week we will be out at a gig and there is going to be a ton of people that will tell us how great one of the latest tracks we just did was.
How is playing in New York different than playing in other cities like Vegas, or even in Europe?
DOM: New York is really a tough city with a very niche market. Unless you’re in the top ten or in that local community, it’s really tough. That’s just the reality of the city. So it's rough right now because it's really hard to pick up a gig here and there, even in our home town. But we still manage to get shows across the country and all over the world.
I was listening to A State of Trance the other day and heard your latest track titled "The Anthem" featuring Eric Lumiere and I have to say it is an absolute bomb. Tell me about what inspired the track and where it came from.
DOM: It was Eric that really inspired the vocals. He had a really rough version of the track that he showed us. We said to him that we could work on it, arrange it, and really turn it into a dance floor bomb. And the great thing is that everybody talks about anthem trance and uplifting trance and all the work that goes into producing it. It just came together really quickly for us with this track. We listened to the vocals and we really thought this was something that could be an anthem in vocal trance. It all came together in about a week.
BO: I actually met Eric at New York University because we were both studying music business. We met in the program and as fate had it, we all clicked right away. So now we are working on a lot of new stuff with Eric. His song writing is amazing. The anthem is pretty much done on our end and we have 2 other songs in the works with Eric. It's been a pleasant surprise actually. It kind of came out of nowhere and before you know it, guys like Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buuren are hammering it out all over the place.
I saw the video of PVD jumping around on stage to the song on your myspace page. I can only imagine things like that can be a sign to you that this track is going to get a lot of play for you guys.
BO: It's really exciting considering Paul Van Dyk is one of the guys that got me into the music personally. And then seeing him jump around like that to one of our tracks is amazing. He even called us to congratulate us and you know, coming from the number one DJ in the world, that’s really motivation for us to work even harder and keep hammering them out.
That’s got to be a great feeling. I know right now you are dead smack in the middle of your tour "Crowd Control" to promote your latest compilation titled "Crowd Control - Live at Wetgrooves." How is it going?
DOM: The tour is going pretty well so far. We got a little bit of a rough start because the CD got delayed a week. So we got off slow, but now we are out there in full force promoting the CD.
Tell me about the compilation. When did the whole idea start?
BO: We didn't want to release a CD until we were ready, especially an artist album. So we figured a good first step would be to take a lot of our old productions lying around that never got released and that we knew were still good. So we
thought, why not put a compilation featuring a lot of our tracks on it? We went ahead and licensed 8 or 9 of our own tracks on the CD. So it's a mixture between an artist album and a compilation.
DOM: Plus, the sound of the CD really fits the whole style of the Wetgrooves party and theme.
Your track “Wet Groovin” was the finishing touch on your compilation. It's the Official Wet Grooves Theme song now. How do you guys feel about that?
BO: It was a departure from what we do. But the whole point of a live CD is to have it in the style of the party. Wet Grooves parties are more of a house party by nature with that kind of vibe. We were working on a track one day and we just thought, “wow this would be sick at a Wet Grooves party.” And that’s what kind of inspired the rest of the track, especially the vocals.
DOM: Overall, Steve, the main promoter of Wet Grooves, really liked the set we did last year at Nikki Beach. And he thought we were great artists to help represent his company and his party. So it just kind of made sense to do this CD with the Wet Grooves theme, as well as a lot of our other productions which really wasn’t our trance stuff.
Last year's Wet Grooves party at Nikki Beach was my favorite party of the conference by far. This year, you are playing three different Wet Grooves parties alongside other artists like Bad Boy Bill, Above and Beyond, Sander Van Dorn and more. What can people expect this year from Filo & Peri?
DOM: We are really going to try to play towards each type of party. I know at Nikki Beach this year we are playing in the club section, versus last year when we played on the beach earlier in the day. So this year, we plan on bringing out more of our club trance sound. But I know that we are also doing the Wet Grooves BBQ party which I think is going to be more of a lounge, house vibe, so obviously we are not going to be banging out the trance at that party. 
BO: Then we are playing Ink Nightclub with Benny Benassi, so obviously that is going to be more of our electro side for that party. We like to play it all, so it kind of just works out for us.
Are you guys psyched for the Music Conference this year?
BO: Oh, hell yeah. We really need a break from the studio. The past few years of the conference have been awesome. It's really exciting to see how it keeps growing and growing on its own.
What is your favorite thing about the Miami music conference?
DOM: Every where you go, people are into electronic dance music, whether it’s trance, house, electro, progressive, whatever it is… Everywhere you go, you’ve got people blasting it in their cars, and every club has wall-to-wall people. It's too bad that every city is not like that every weekend of the year.
BO: In a lot of cities, people go out to be seen and spend money. It's kind of a superficial thing. And the thing that I love about Miami, or at least the conference, is that everybody is there for the music. Playing to a dance-educated crowd is definitely my favorite thing about it.
How has the conference changed since you first started?
DOM: I went down for the first time five years ago. It has really changed for me because the first time that I actually went down there, I really knew very little about the whole scene or the music and especially the business aspect of the conference. I was just going down there with a couple tracks and mixes, and just went to hand out some CDs to people. And now, here it is five years later and we have pretty much come to the conclusion that any real business at the conference actually happens before the conference, with a few small exceptions.
BO: For us, it changed when we first went together to the conference three years ago. We had just had our first record signed and we were going out and taking it all in. The excitement of the first time anything happens is always special. Over the years, we went from being the clubbers to being the DJs that people are coming to see. It’s really exciting as a DJ, because in our minds when we are DJing we are still just like regular clubbers, having fun, except now we are spinning records.
Is Miami ready for Filo & Peri this year?
BO: (laughs) I hope so!
DOM: I know we are ready for Miami!
Click here to see the video of Paul van Dyke.