Exclusive Interview: NERVO on David Guetta, Ibiza, and Breast Cancer Awareness

“We recently did a campaign for our “People Grinnin’” release alongside Made By Me in Australia that helped promote women in engineering. We would love to be inspiration to any girls if it helps them achieve their goals/dreams, and especially in the DJ field, so come on girls, let’s start making some music!”

In a scene still largely dominated my male acts, it’s always refreshing to see women with as much sheer power and determination for the industry as Liv and Mim, aka NERVO.

Usually, talent is only sprinkled gently on the lucky few. In the case of these Australian twin sisters, it has been doused on as the duo have enjoyed careers as musicians, record producers, composers, singers, songwriters, models and most notably, DJ’s. And this seemed like a perfect place to start as we caught up with them for an exclusive interview.

“We used to be full time song writers for loads of other artists in all types of genres.  When “When Love Takes Over” which we wrote for David Guetta and Kelly Rowland, won a Grammy, we thought we should give being an artist a try ourselves. We had so many songs of our own that we thought it would be such a waste to leave them on our hard drive, so we had to become artists to release them and NERVO was born!”

Though originally from Australia, the girls travel all across the world when playing different events, and we were keen to find out if there is anywhere that particularly feels, like their track with Nicky Romero “Like Home”

“Great question!  We are currently spending some time with family in Melbourne and getting some home cooking while we make some music!  But when traveling there are definitely places that feel more like home.  We feel very comfortable in LA and have a great group of friends there. Similarly London and Ibiza are also places that we have spent a lot of time in and they definitely feel “like home”.

So having recently been awarded the “highest ranked female DJ” award at the DJ Mag Top 100 awards, just why did NERVO think the dance music scene is still more heavily populated my males?

“We feel very  blessed to be the highest ranking female DJ’s in the world and are chuffed that our fans keep voting for us. We worked and still work very hard at making music and we really believe that this determination, hard work and passion helps us succeed in a male dominated field.”

Trailblazers for the female dance music movement, and also masters of their own label. It was a venture the girls were rightly excited by, and keen to discuss in more detail:

“Got Me Baby! Records is our new label partnership with Armada that came about so we can  help showcase other producers and talent that out there.  We also hope to release some NERVO records under this label in 2017. We are very excited for this venture so stay tuned!”

But of course, their label is not only the exciting venture these girls have delved into within the past few years. The release of “Collateral”, their very own studio album also brought about the opportunity to work several talented musicians:

“Collateral was a labor of love for us. Although dance music is more driven by singles, we had so many tracks on our hard drive, many of which aren’t classic “EDM style” so it made sense that we release them on an album.  We had an amazing time being able to work and collaborate with so many talented artists like Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Nicky Romero, Nile Rodgers and Kylie Minogue. When the album reached #1 on iTunes and 3 of the singles off the album reached #1 on Billboard we couldn’t have been happier. There are no set plans for a second album but we are always working on new music so you never know!”

Sibling squabbles are only natural, but not for NERVO. The telepathic understanding between these twins goes much further, right to the booth in fact, as they were happy to point out.

“In terms of taking control of certain mixes and effects, or just going with the flow and deciding there and then, we use 4 CDJ’s we alternate mixes and we both help with the song selection but Mim takes more of the lead on the microphone as Liv gets shy!”

As if producing dance-floor fillers wasn’t enough, the talented twins from Melbourne also provide their own vocals on certain tracks too, they explained how it is a characteristic that comes naturally to them:

“We both sing and have done for as long as we can remember. When we started songwriting we always recorded our own demos. We love to work with other singers but sometimes it’s easier to keep our own demo stuff. That’s often how we end up on our records.”

But perhaps one of the most noble feats of NERVO’s career to date is their tireless campaigning to raise funds for Breast Cancer treatment, a cause that is close to their hearts.

“We will continue to do everything we can to help raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer. Our mum is a survivor so we saw first hand how important charities were not only for cancer victims but for their families, providing emotional support and also of course to the research that goes into finding a cure and the hospitals who care for the patients.  We started #TittiesTittiesYEAH so we could raise money and donate it to various hospitals or organizations and can’t wait to do more in 2017!”

Despite already working with some of the most talented names in the music industry, NERVO were quick to point out there was a still an endless list of artists they’d love to collaborate with.

“Our dream collabs would be Eminem/Marshal Mathers, Imogen Heap, Fleetwood Mac, Skrillex. Really, the list goes on and on!”

Finally, once concept we just couldn’t ignore when chatting to these two incredible producer was NERVO Nation, which proved to be a huge success at Ushuaïa Ibiza last summer.

“NERVO Nation started as the name of our radio show and now has kind of taken a life of it’s own. We refer to our super fans around the world as NERVO Nation as they show up to every club, festival and give us such great energy. We throw NERVO Nation parties all around the world – in Miami and Ibiza and this year in Solden in April for a mountain and ski version, so please –  join us where you can. NERVO Nation is always a great vibe. We invite a lot of our friends from all different genres of music to come play with us. We can’t wait for more parties in 2017!”

So there you have it, 2017 promises to be a year of much more NERVO, and that’s a “reason” to be positive for everyone! The new single is ‘In Your Arms’ and you can check out the latest music masterpiece from the girls below: