Dan (21) and Tim (26) Apter have no problem with slightly dirty puns. Which is why they’ve merged their skills to form Jozi-based electro outfit Double Adapter. Dan handles visuals and lighting while Tim tweaks all things musical. Their sound mixes pop and hardcore electro. ‘We like it hard and dark,’ says Dan, ‘but we still think it’s important to keep it fun and to entertain.’ They’ve quickly developed a huge following, amping up crowds while mainlining bass and killer rhymes. So we had to get the dirt on partying hard from the bros themselves…
Originally published in Issue 22 of one small seed
Double Adapter on crowd control
Dan: Crowds are only bad when they don’t move. I want to have as much fun as everyone else and when people are lame I get a little lame. Throw ’em a stagedive – that should keep ’em going!
Tim: We’ve seen some crazy shit. Our favourite is to invite the crowd up onstage. We’ve played some shows with more people jamming onstage than in the crowd! The weirdest but coolest we’ve played to was in Potch during Aardklop festival – those kids aren’t really listening to the same stuff as the kids in Cape Town and Jozi, but DAMN they threw down when we got going!
Double Adapter MFM Mini Mixtape 1 of 4 by DoubleAdapter
On groupies, or, casting your cheap porno
Dan: Tim is in charge of the groupies department!
Tim: We don’t hire girls for cheap pornos… We’d like to think they’d volunteer. (Not really!) Groupies are what make us keep doing this – not in a hook-up kind of way, but in a ‘you’re doing something right’ kind of way.
Double Adapter MFM Mini Mixtape 2 of 4 by DoubleAdapter
Drinking: yes you can!
Dan: We can drink our fair share but napping and a good dinner before are important.
Tim: He’s an old man. I love to party. Next time you drink tequila, try this: breathe in deeply, hold your breath, down the shot, and exhale all the air out your mouth. Then, small sip of beer or whatever you’re drinking. Done. Repeat all night. No tequila face. Voilà!
Looking the part
Dan: We get all sorts at our shows, from hipsters to metal-heads and punks. It’s something that I really like to see: crossing genres is definitely our goal. My life is a wardrobe fail… wearing white in a club? It’s more like wearing various shades of alcohol!
Tim: Somehow I got lucky and got the black outfit… Dan has always been more into fashion than me. I do love clothes though. I just got a tailored suit made in Thailand to wear at our Double Adapter shows – loving that!
Double Adapter MFM Mini Mixtape 3 of 4 by DoubleAdapter
Grievous bodily harm
Dan: You can tell it was a good night when you wake up with half a cheeseburger in your hand and a compulsion to go to hospital. During a show, Tim dropped a beer on my laptop and fried it so I picked up two lights and danced on top of the DJ booth to make up for the lack of visuals. I fell. I cracked four ribs. The rest is a codeine blur.
Tim: At a gig with DJ Antention (Russia) and Haezer (Cape Town), I managed to slice my hand on a mixer that only had metal faders – the knobs had fallen off. I still have blood all over my desk. I kinda like it. That night I also fell backwards off the DJ desk at Town Hall in Joburg. Quite a drop! For some reason it didn’t even hurt (see my tequila tip above).
How to tell that you’ve partied your life away
Dan: Well, my back is already fucked. It’s constantly stiff and after a show I can’t get up for a day or two. I think I’ll be deaf by the time I’m 30.
Tim: It’s also because he’s so old! I’m in pretty good shape – DJing the way we do is super physical. I’m hoping that when I’m old I’ll have a six pack to show for my DJing years.
Getting physical
Dan: It’s mainly just falling with style. Gravity does strange things when you’re drunk. Personally, I’ve only stagedived once. I’ve never seen Tim do it but I’ve seen a lot of photos. I think it’s Photoshop!
Tim: For some reason, Dan has missed me stagedive every time. That’s a lot, dude! We’re physical onstage – we jump, we flip, we fall, we tackle each other… we fall some more. We go crazy because it’s something that was missing from the DJ scene. You can’t incite a crowd into the best night of their lives unless you’re also having the best night of your life.
Double Adapter MFM Mini Mixtape 4 of 4 by DoubleAdapter
On the road
Dan: Touring is great, airplane drinking is the best and getting picked up in cool cars is a plus. I’ve flown to Cape Town and back twice in three days. That’s one hell of a hangover.
Tim: I also love touring… Cape Town has become our second home. This year we’re headed to Germany and Italy to tour and get drunk, um, work in new places. We’re working on documenting the whole thing – it’s going to be embarrassing to watch!
How not to kill your brother
Dan: Take each other lightly, copious amounts of alcohol, take naps and, of course, sharing is caring.
Tim: What he said. It’s cool being brothers in a band – you can fight, but you can’t really fall out. Blood will prevent us going our separate ways.
Double Adapter are managed by Griet Artists | griet.co.za
Words: Donna Hill
Photography: Liam Lynch
