Who are SUMO?
SUMO are Combo and Alf Tumble.

Why the name SUMO?
Alf: t is a tribute to the SUMO-wrestlers. Their sport is really beatiful to watch. It looks like they’re dancing when they wrestle, so we thought it would be a suiting name for us.

What are your backgrounds?
Alf: I have been djing since elementary school and got in contact with club music that way while Combo started playing the Saxophone in early years and used to play in various jazz constellations.

How did you meet?
Combo: We actually met at a recording session in 1999. Alf had just started producing and wanted a saxophone solo on one of his house tunes. In some weird way my name surfaced and he called me downto his studio. After that session I was hooked on house music and we started working together.

What was your first release together?
Combo: It was a remix we did of Taxi’s song “Living on a wire” which was released on the German label Infracom. Think it was back in 1999.

Do you DJ?
Combo: Yes, nowadays we both dj.

What sounds influence you and your music?
Combo: Everything, really. Think you can quite easily hear that if you listen to our productions.

Your site is very stylish and your CD artwork has a very clean design to it, is design something your into?
Alf: Thank you. Well, you could definitely say that we are both into design and fashion. But we could never have done it all without our very talanted art director Alexander Fredlund. But yes, we think it’s important – if it sounds good it should looks good as well. We are also working a lot with music for fashion shows.

Do you see yourselves as house music producers or would you describe your sound as covering a wide spectrum of music?
Alf: When we first started out I guess we saw ourselves as house producers, but as time moved along we have discovered that we defnitely are covering a wide spectra of music, but always with the focus on the dancing. Dancing can be done to a lot of different styles of music.
Combo: For each day that goes by we actually feel more and more distanced to what you could call “traditional” house music. There is really not much going on there. We get so many promos that all sound the same and like they could just as well have been produced 5 years ago.

You started you label HEYA HIFI in 2005 what’s behind the name?
Combo: Heya is the Japanese word for the place where Sumo’s live, eat and practice. HiFi is High Fidelity – we always try to present things as they are, no embellishments.

The label has had some excellent material on it and has established itself very well, apart from yourselves, who else do you have signed to the label and what do you have forthcoming?
Combo: Thank you. We have just been up and running for about a year so we have not yet had the economy to sign any other artists to the label. But the future is looking bright, and we are right now in discussions with different artists. Nothing we can reveal yet though....
 
What’s behind the name of your album ‘The Danceband’ ?
Alf: Hey that’s the question for the competition on our website! Can’t tell you, sorry.

Didn’t you guys split at one point?
Combo: Well, not really split. When we had worked together for about half a year I went to New York for 6 months and Alf went to London for 6 months. But those were plans that both had made before we started working together. It was good though, it gave me time to think through if i really wanted to give the producing a serious try. The club scene in New York really persuaded me to give it a go, and here we are 5 years later both working with this full time.

Do you do many live shows?
Alf: So far we have only confirmed dates in Scandinavia, but we have just started working with a booking agent for UK so hopefully we’ll be heading over to UK for a couple of dates. But it is always harder to get live gigs than dj-gigs since there are more people involved which will make the booking much more expensive for the promoter.

Are there any House music producers that you admire?
Alf: Sure. Producers who are constantly trying to push their own boundaries and who are always trying to evolve their sound, like for instance DJ Gregory and Bugz in the Attic. Then there are of course producers who have a sound that you like for the moment being, like now for instance Solid Groove, Ame, Osunlade and Quentin Harris.

Do you do much remix work?
Combo: During the last year we decided not to make any remixes since we wanted to focus on our own productions for the album. We actually finished our first remix in a long time last week. Then we felt that we had really missed doing it. It is a lot of fun. And we have plenty of more remix work coming up this spring.

Do you have your own studio?
Combo: Yes. Heya Studios, Stockholm.

How do you get on together in  the studio, obviously you work well together because your still a partnership! But I know some people clash sometimes with ideas, does this happen to you guys much?
Combo: Actually we don’t work together in the studio. We take turns, so that one of us takes over where the other one left off. It is a far more efficent way for us of working together. That way you don’t get any back seat drivers. It is better if you get to finish your idea and then the other can come with his improvements. Maybe that is why we don’t clash so much. But of course, you have to be open to changes that the other has made to your own original ideas.

I love the new album ‘Danceband’ its has some very good tracks on it that indulge in many different musical influences, are you pleased with the final product?
Alf: Yes, we are. When we stepped back from our work with the album and listened to it as a whole we discovered that it is hard to pigeonhole a certain sound or style. It was more the intention of the songs, to be danced to, that we found as a common denominator. It is not pure house, not pure latin, not pure jazz, not pure afro, not pure disco... It is some kind of eclectic dance music.

I understand you had some work stolen?
Combo: Yes. In November last year burglars broke into our studio and stole equipment for a lot of money. They also got away with more than half of the music to our album. So we had to redo the album. Quite an experience. Don’t recommend it though.

Who have you collaborated with on the album, and do you have a selection of regular musicians you like to use?
Clarisse Muvemba – new talent on vocals. Expect more from her on Heya. Thomas Eby – always our percusionist and sonero. Aaron Phiri (Hearin Aid) – amazing vocals. Simone Moreno & Hofstone – brazilian singing couple. Rigas – punky spoken word guy with own album out now.

What track took the longest to complete?
Combo: Nini I guess. The grounds to that song was actually layed down in 2004. It was actually a spin off from our remix of Lonesome Echo Production’s “Spirit of drums”. Then we had to re-record the whole thing since we lost the song in the burglary.

What clubs would you say play your style of music to a receptive crowd?
Root Down (Germany), Carfax (South Africa), Weekend (Madrid), Go Bang (Stockholm), Cielo (NY).

I see you have a food section on your website which is rather cool. Is this something you are both into, are you into cooking then?
Combo: Yes, we both love cooking and eating. Food and wine are something Heya will dig deeper into.

What is your favourite dish/drink?
Alf: Anyhing home cooked (check the website for recipes). Barolo red from 1998.

What’s next for SUMO, can you tell us about what you have coming up for 2006?
Alf: First of all we are going to work the album a lot. It will be release May 22nd so there will be a lot of djing and some live gigs as well. We also have a bunch of remixes to make. For the label we have a new secret project in the pipeline, so keep your ears and eyes open.