Brothers and local DJs Darren and Ryan Rigney (both 25) who recently returned from Cannes, France have a lot to celebrate.
They were invited to perform at the South African Video and Film Foundation (SAVFF) and French Consulate’s publicity party in Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival in May. Identical twins Darren and Ryan hail from Cape Town, but grew up in Florida. They attended Northcliff Primary School and Northcliff High School. They started DJing at The Vibe in Florida in 2009. There, DJ Marlin and DJ Warras (who currently is working for 5FM in place of Roger Goode) taught them how to mix. In 2009 they had their first big gig at Groove Bar in Midrand as Twins on Decks. Their main focus is on house music, specifically the sub genres deep house, tribal house, electronic house and electronic dance music (EDM).
“We’re not gimmicky, we both DJ. I’d say we both work hard at it and never only one of us perform – we always perform together,” says Ryan.
“My mother gave us the name,” says Darren.
“She was teasing us about becoming big fancy DJs, saying, ‘what are you guys going to be now, twins on decks?’. It all snowballed from there.”
Twins On Decks is no small-time duo, having a regular and coveted spot on 5FM on Friday nights and also performing regularly at Vacca Matta in Montecasino.
“We’re not resident DJs there, though. We just like the place.”
They moved to Strubens Valley at the ripe age of 21 and can say proudly that they manage themselves, with only a booking agent and a brand manager to support them. They are to study marketing in June and have studied human resource management (Darren) and public relations and marketing (Ryan). Before making a career out of DJing they went through a baked-beans-and-bread phase, as they call it, barely affording anything else to eat. All they had to say about the Cannes Film Festival was “it was cool”. They had a stopover in Zurich, Switzerland, where they spent two days. They were fortunate to go to Monte Carlo in Monaco, where they walked on the Grand Prix tracks a week ahead of the big event.
“To this day, whatever happens and whatever we achieve, we buy baked beans and bread to celebrate – it’s sort of our vice, our ‘thank you’ to the universe.”
Find out more about Twins On Decks by following them on twitter @Twinsondecks or liking them on facebook at Twins On Decks SA.
