Dance duo Dada Life (Olle Corneer and Stefan Engblom) recently made history by making the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s biggest pillow fight.
Stefan describes the undertaking, as with almost everything he does, like it was a whimsical dare. “We've always done small pillow fights during our set,” he says. “We first tried it out with a couple hundred pillows. One time we did eight hundred pillows, and then we thought how hard can it be, what's the world record in history, like ever?”
But it wasn't all fun and games for the happy-go-lucky Swedes who were unprepared for the sheer amount of paperwork that comes with carrying out such an outrageous endeavor. “After we decided on doing it we realised how much work it really is to have a record registered with Guinness Book. There were so many pages we needed to fill out. It wasn't until we got to Chicago and got the insurance people to sign off, that we could do it with a crowd of 5,000. So from now on we're going to lay low on the record breaking side of things, but we have some other ideas.”
The ambitious pair are no strangers to controversy; their show in Miami last year was shutdown by the police due to an overcrowded venue. “[At] that point we were super disappointed,” Stefan says. “The fire marshals shut down the show two minutes before we were supposed to go on. We're so pumped behind stage and they pulled the plug. In the end it was pretty good though because we came back and did it much bigger and the whole production was better.”
They may be slightly crazed (in the best possible way) because last year Dada Life petitoned the UN to make their fictional ‘Dada Land’ a sovereign state. Sweden temporarily revoked Olle and Stefan’s passports as a result of the stunt. But Stefan shrugs it off as another example of Dada Life being Dada Life. “[We] always try to do weird and funny stuff doing our shows,” Stefan says. “It's hard to watch YouTube or listen to our live shows or interviews. You have to be there to realise how it is to be in Dada Land.”
But Dada Land may have never existed were it not for a one-time cook-off that thrusted the pair into the spotlight. “We met at a chili cook-off in Sweden and we started talking about dance music and said ‘let's hook up tomorrow and see what happens in the studio’. Then we made our first track and it was called 'Big Time'. We felt the dance music scene at that point was so uptight and everyone was trying to look so cool and they had a big stick up their arse, so we wanted to go in and show everybody what it's all about. It's all about having fun. Don't think too much and just do it Dada.”
A phrase which means having a banana and glass of champagne on hand; an obsession that started when the men first tackled the club scene. “Bananas are the perfect club food because it's protected by this beautiful yellow skin,” Stefan explains. “When we play, the clubs get so ugly and greasy and it starts dripping sweat from the ceiling. Nobody wants to eat a sweaty apple, but with a banana you can just peel it and it's super fresh inside. As for for the champagne, c'mon, it's fun and it's bubbly. The combination for us is perfect. It's magic. People should try it.”
With two successful albums already under their belt, and a string of new releases including singles 'Born To Rage' and 'This Machine Kills Ravers', Dada Life are revving up for a massive 2014. “The plan is to release much more music than we did last year,” Stefan says. “For us the inspiration of tracks comes from the energy in the crowd. We see people’s faces, we see people rage and when we come to the studio we want to recreate that feeling and that is how our music is created.”
Written by Sam Allen-Ankins
Dada Life plays Future Music Festival
Sat Mar 01 - RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane) Sun Mar 02 - Arena Joondalup Joondalup (Perth)Sat Mar 08 - Royal Randwick Racecourse Randwick (Sydney)
Sun Mar 09 - Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne)
Mon Mar 10 - Adelaide Showground
