After a wildly successful collaboration on Thatmanmonkz's "Turn It Out" from the LP, Columbusing, Dave Aju suggested they should continue their production streak for a new percussive tracks
project.At the same time, Aju had finally kept his word to legendary Bay Area club/underground MC and personal-ity, Foxxee aka Foxxee Brown aka Lawrence Petty, to work on a track together as well. Petty being a core part of the infamous Ya Mama's House radio show on 106 KMEL alongside Pete Avila and David Harness that introduced legions of young Bay Area DJs to real House Music, including Aju, in the early 90s.While Aju & Monkz had originally been working on more of a slick club romance narrative angle over some robust tumbling drums, some very tragic news had struck their hometown -at an underground event in Oakland California, more than 30 people including many dear friends and stalwarts of the local dance music community had been trapped inside a building and killed in a fire that broke out while doing what they love, in the now-infamous Ghost Ship.Lawrence and Aju immediately acknowledged and agreed that the track should serve as a tribute to the event and the loved ones affected by it. But decidedly, rather than it being a solemn requiem of sorts, it should reflect the communal power, strength and uplifting spirit of the underground scene they all helped build and knew so
well.At first entitled They Sleep We Live, a representative reference to the iconic arm tattoo of the late Jonny Igaz aka Nacht, one of the more well-known and active DJs whose life was lost that tragic evening, and a lyrical direction idea for Lawrence for a direct tribute to the SF Bay Area scene, it was then decided that a universal underground anthem angle would be far more appropriate and that brothers and sisters from around the world in scenes just as the deep and expansive as the one in the Bay Area are a part of what happened -an extended family for real.Aju and Monkz then imbued the track with some flavor and attitude that evoked their own respective rave scene heydays -from early Cajual/Relief style fuzzy drum knocks to a filtered voiced bass line nod to MAW. The track was then unintentionally renamed They Sleep We Love by hands at the Music For Freaks label office, who loved at first listen and agreed to release it, a happiest of fitting accidents fol-lowed by fellow dance floor maverick Seven Davis Jr hearing the tune from Dave Aju, and immediately offering an enthused and upbeat remix. Aju paired the cuts with a nasty They Sleep We Dub version for the later-night DJ moments, and a clean "Foxxapella" so Lawrence's loving words can be heard and felt directly, fast forward through a bit of processing time, and now the rest as they say.."We are the music.. we are a family"
