Interview with Cat Dealers …on the way to Ibiza

Created by brothers Lugui and Pedro, Cat Dealers are one of the rising artists of the international
electronic music scene and one of the most established acts in Brazil. In 2021, for the fifth consecutive year, the duo were voted among the Top 100 DJs by the renowned British magazine, DJ Mag. Their debut on the ranking was in 2017, just one year after starting the project. In 2018, Cat Dealers were elected one of Forbes 30 Under 30, which highlights promising young professionals in many areas, including music.
Internationally, the brothers have already played in all five continents and in the lineup of festivals such as Tomorrowland Belgium, EDC Las Vegas/Orlando/Mexico, Lollapalooza, Rock In Rio, Ultra Brasil, Mysteryland, Nameless Music Festival, S2O and many others. Recently, the duo sold out Marquee from New York twice, from the iconic club Printworks in London – in their first time in the city and in many other clubs around the world. In addition, Cat Dealers were also the opening act for the latest Shakira tour in Brazil and played on New Year’s Eve in Copacabana, for more than 1 million people.
Cat Dealers has already amassaded over 1 billion streams on digital platforms. Among their biggest hits, the highlights are “Your Body”, “Gravity”, “Gone Too Long”, “Sunshine” and “Ai Ai Ai”, an official remix for Vanessa da Mata in collaboration with Felguk. In 2020, Cat Dealers signed with Armada Music, a renowned Dutch label co-founded by DJ and producer Armin Van Buuren, who is now responsible for the duo’s releases. Since signing with Armada Music, they have released several songs that have been receiving support from big names in the scene, such as Martin Garrix, Tiësto, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Nicky Romero, among others.

Hello Lugui & Pedro!
We are very excited to have you both as CAT DEALERS DUO in an interview today. Please tell us how you started as a deejay duo and what your ideas of electronic music were in the beginning.
How did you find each other as a deejay duo?

We’re brothers and began sharing a love for electronic music when we were teenagers – we even attended several festivals in Brazil at that time. Lugui came up with the idea of working with music because from a very young age he got interested in DJing and music production. Over time, we improved, took a music production course and got more and more involved with it until we decided to start a project together. As brothers who share the same passion for music, it all came together organically. A fun fact is that we had a different project before actually starting Cat Dealers with a different name and a completely different sound. After some time, Cat Dealers got off the ground and started to be successful in Brazil so we decided to focus all of our attention on it.

Tell us a little about your best gigs in the last few years and how you have managed the pandemic with your live performances.

During the pandemic we had to reinvent ourselves just like every other artist. We’ve worked on ourselves and had time to delve into Cat Dealers and understand what we wanted for the future of the project. So when we started touring again we had completely different mindsets for every aspect of our lives, including work. Unbelievable things have happened in our career over the past year.  Our North America tour keeps getting bigger in terms of number of shows.. We played so many shows last year, but this year it’s just crazy! We played at EDC Mexico, Orlando and the Las Vegas edition, which was something else. Forever in our memories for sure. We’ve also made our debut in London, a sold out night at the iconic Printworks London. And of course we have a long awaited Tomorrowland debut at the main stage, something we’ve been waiting for so long. There are so many amazing accomplishments, whether it’s shows or music, we’re really proud of everything we’re doing alongside our team.

You will be in Ibiza for the first time this year, performing at the incredible Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel and Tox Club at Destino Pacha Ibiza Resort. What do you expect from your first gigs in Ibiza and what can the audience expect from you?

Ibiza is obviously sacred and iconic to every electronic music fan in the world. It’s that perfect European summer vibe that we’re just super excited to be a part of this year. It was a long journey to get there and we also know that the Ibiza crowd is very unique, so we’re prepared to deliver our best and hopefully bring out a good time. We have some recently released tracks that have been getting such amazing reactions from the fans, such as Funkatron, a collaboration with Robbie Rivera, bringing a new twist to his classic homonymous track. Our next single, Hey Hey, is also working really well on the shows and it’s one of those tracks we’re really looking forward to playing in Ibiza.

Tell us a little bit about your music productions in the past when you started and what we can expect in the future! As a deejay duo how do you produce your tracks together?

If we compare to the beginning, we certainly changed a lot the way we produce our tracks. We’ve met other artists, exchanged experiences, improved ourselves, and been influenced by new sounds. So many factors made us grow musically over these last years and this is something that we will never cease to do as producers, it’s an eternal cycle of development. When we’re in the studio, our dynamic together is really good. We are very complementary in our activities and  know each other’s strong suits. Besides, we are brothers, so when we have a disagreement, minutes later everything is fine again.

Which performances were the most impressive for you? Do you like the big stages more or the smaller ones with direct interaction with the audience?

For sure, seeing that huge crowd ​​enjoying the show and singing your songs is something impressive for any artist. We’ve already played at Copacabana New Years’ Eve for 1 million people, and that was certainly special for us. But playing at clubs for a smaller audience it’s a very different thing, in a way it’s much more intimate, so we can adapt the set and really feel the energy, and that’s really nice as DJs.

How do you connect with your live audience and how do you prepare for the stage performance? Are you nervous before the performance?

We don’t have any rituals before the show, but we like to stay quiet to prepare. We are always very focused with our team to ensure that everything goes according to the plan, so there isn’t really  anything crazy going on before we go out on stage (haha). We’re very chill overall.

The world has changed a lot since 2020 because of the pandemic situation. How do you see the future of electronic music and live performances in general?

We believe that people are coming back with a strong desire to enjoy each and every moment, most of the shows we played so far had such high energy, the crowd delivered everything. People really miss the fun of going out and being surrounded by friends while enjoying their favorite artists and that’s what our community is all about. Electronic music has been taking over the music industry and it’s become as relevant as ever, as we’ve been watching it rise year after year. It’s a great honor to be a part of such an amazing scene. Electronic music itself is innovative by design, so we believe it really is the sound of the future. We always invest a lot of time and put so much effort into our shows and the music we create, to deliver our best to the fans and also to ourselves and technology is a huge part of that. During the pandemic we put together with our team a series of 3D lives created from scratch for our Insomniac TV residency. It was an amazing experience and we managed to stay connected to our fans even from afar. So for the future, we believe technology will play a huge part in the making of a whole new generation of artists and producers that will create new experiences for the whole community.

Tell us a little bit about the music scene in Brazil. What do you like the most about the Brazilian music scene?

Brazilian music is so rich and has a lot of diversity. The country itself is really unique, so we’re really proud of our culture. We always try to create music that brings together our Brazilian influences and some other elements that are inspired by what we research during our travels. What happens in the Brazilian music scene is really unique and creative, so we’re finally seeing a lot of DJs getting acknowledged internationally and the already established artists get more and more recognition. We’re really proud to be a part of this.

What are your favourite music labels and why?

Definitely Armada Music. In addition to always bringing current sounds and new artists to the electronic music world, they’ve believed in our potential and have been fully committed to the work we do together. It’s been a pleasure and hopefully there’s a lot more great things to come.

Your favourite Brazilian meal is…

Pedro: Açaí, of course! (haha) The authentic Brazilian açaí is like no other

Your favourite drink is…

Lugui: There’s a cold non-alcoholic beverage called Matte Leão, that’s heavily consumed in our hometown, Rio de Janeiro. You can find it everywhere, restaurants, markets, food stores and also at the beach. That’s one of the things I miss the most when I’m not at home. We always have a few bottles at our dressing rooms, it’s actually part of our tour rider (hahaha)

Thank you for this amazing & funny interview Guys
Some last words to your audience before you go to Ibiza?

If you go to Ibiza, we’ll see you there! Enjoy as much as you can, you can sleep when you get home.
And make sure you go see us at Ushuaia ( August 24) and Tox Club (July 25).

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