A sultry party set ready to soundtrack your after hour adventures, the pre-party glam moments, and those cozy dinner parties from sister DJ duo Daughters of Frank – edition 176 is filled with heartbreaking ballads, soulful R&B, jungle and UKG tinged edits.
Based in London, Daughters of Frank is sister duo Ruby and Lily London who previously hosted the drive time slot on Balamii for two years before moving to Foundation FM where they now host the weekly breakfast show. Championing industry legends through quick fire interviews and giving a platform to artists through mini mix sessions, their breakfast shows are bubbly and fun whilst giving access to industry insights and artist’s creative process. Their no genre approach to mixing sees them span across all sorts of soundscapes which usually have an underlining tone of romance and heartfelt emotions – they are a duo who could leave tears on the dancefloor. Especially during their Club Serenade events which are run bi-annually with the next one on the 17th February 2024. Alongside this, over the past year they’ve played at Paloma Bar Berlin, Shall Not Fade Festival, Field Maneuvers, Gottwood, fabric and much more!
Hi Ruby & Lily, how are you doing today?
We’re pretty good! Both excited for a lil Christmas break i recon.
What have you been up to lately?
We’ve both been busy working our individual musical projects and our event series. We’ve been planning Xmas dinner! We’ve decided to ditch most of the cooking and get a Turkish instead.
Let’s start from the very beginning, what was your first introduction to music in general and then more specifically electronic music?
Ruby: In the earlier days I remember we used to dance around this lil Hifi system in the front room. There was just always music, everything from Stevie Wonder to Donald Fagen. Then when the teens hit along with some tougher times the rave scene naturally became a form of escapism. Since then it’s just been a long old love story with electronic music.
Lily: I was always so engrossed by the music we had on in our house, by 11 I was importing CDs into my laptop and categorizing them on iTunes for fun and loved making playlists for my iPod too! Ruby actually got me into D&B… she took me to Fabric when I was 16! Then I just never stopped raving lol.
Who was the first artist or band that you were a fan of?
Ruby: I’m a 90s baby so I can’t lie it was the spice girls. Girl power 4eva x
Lily: Apparently I wanted to be Cher when I was 6…
Was there a formative moment growing up, whether that’s seeing your favourite band live or an incredible DJ set, that led you to this path?
Lily: nothing in particular! But I remember looking at Trevor Nelson when I was younger n thinking, fuck he’s got a cool job. He’s probably why I’m now a radio presenter. I also used to work in club promotions from 18 so I guess its all been very natural.
Ruby: 100% the first time I stepped into Fabric I new I wanted to make electronic music. I wanted to create an emotion and make people feel something. I was obsessed with liquid soul, I loved Liquid V and Shogun Audio at Cable.
How has the environment you grew up in influenced your sound and approach to music?
Lily: Our mum used to have all these r&b compilations in her CD collection so that’s been a huge influence in our sound. We grew up listening to all sorts so the eclecticism also has a part to play, we can’t just stick to one genre! But anything we play will be chosen from the r&b ingrained in us.
Ruby: We grew up on the edge of London with a lot of Family still in the heart of the city so house parties and community halls were where it was at. London has a particular sound and that has been a massive influence. We grew up surrounded by blues, rock, rnb, soul and I will always be inspired by the emotion in those genres.
You run the bi-annual party series ‘Serenade’ – what motivated you to start your own party and what is your approach to curation?
Lily: Good question! We started to identify a specific sound at the end of our Balamii show and Ruby came up with the name Serenade which we moved to Rinse, that really became our identity. We invited DJs and producers on to show us their Serenade side who have a sultrier side from what they play or produce. We loved it so much we made a night out of it! We’re always pushing for a mixed bag of sounds on the night but has to have a Serenade style to it! You cannot go wrong!
Ruby: At the moment it’s really tough out here with nightclubs closing and ticket sales struggling so to be completely honest the motivation to start an event during these times is pretty wild! We just wanted to start taking our radio show to the dance floors and with label plans in the making we wanted an event series alongside that.
How has running your own event influenced your relationship with music and DJing?
Lily: I’d say we’ve got our ear to the ground listening to artists, producers n DJs, we want to stay in the loop with who’s playing what. Especially cos we programme our weekly breakfast show on Foundation FM too! Every Wednesday 10-1 and we always have at least one guest there too.
Ruby: Running an event is not easy and the longer you are in this music world it becomes so much more clear that this music world is male dominated. Your never far away from an inappropriateness and personally running an event is really being up against the the disparity. I really try to use this as fuel to influence my creativity and to keep pushing further on my journey to breaking ceilings.
Where do you look for sources of inspiration outside of music?
Ruby: I always look to heartbreak. I try really hard to move away from this. Lately I’ve tried to look to Nature but I still find myself taking from the heartbreak of global warming. I really hope one day I can source from something happier lol.
Lily: I usually find people the most inspiring.
You’ve also contributed a mix for the 909 series, what’s the concept behind this one?
Lily: We wanted to share our entire sound with tunes we’re playing atm. We range from 130-170 and this one’s got our classic slow intro with a heavy finish, with an unreleased DFrank bootleg coming out soon!
Ruby: Yes! This mix embodies our Serenade event. It’s sultry, high energy and propa club ready. This is what you will find when you come to our night 🙂
Do you have a different approach to preparation for club sets to online mixes whether that’s for a platform or radio show?
Lily: Yeah definitely. Anything that’s recorded takes a lot more time to prepare. We wanna make it as crisp as poss so we sit down and chat about what we wanna include and how it’s gunna be done.
For DJ sets, we kinda know what we play everywhere we go now, so we’ll just text like “this one’s more like x or x so let’s go for that kinda sound, I got this, this n this” n the other one will be like “yeah I got that tune too” or “ah I got the B side to that!”
Ruby: I think there is a lot of synergy between our radio shows and what we would play at the club. I think the only difference is really the energy. Radio for us is listening and a club set we want you to dance ya socks off.
Is there a staple track in your DJ sets at the moment?
Ruby: Yes for me it’s the Usher bootleg we are thinking to release on our label next year. Stay tuned!
Lily: El Blanco Niño – Desire. Right in the thick of my Jersey moment.
As we come towards the end of the year and start reflecting on 2023, what’s been one of your favourite memories from this year?
Lily: Summer always! We love a fezzie – Gottwood n Field Maneuvers we’re a big highlight for us!
Ruby: Jinx, no returns 😉