Tough Love Five Year Celebration

With a fourth major single on the way for Island Records, there are just five weeks now until London duo Tough Love celebrate their fifth anniversary with an all-night set at their Get Twisted party on Friday September 2nd (details and tickets here).

Best known for their Top 40 chart hits 'So Freakin' Tight' and 'Pony', expertly realised deep house re-workings of classic tracks by Jodeci and Ginuwine, their Kiss Fm and Kiss Fresh radio shows, and label Get Twisted, home to the likes of Hannah Wants, Chris Lorenzo, Denney, LiTek, Midnight City and Blaise, the pair – also known as Stef & Alex – have swiftly risen to the top ranks of dance music, methodically gaining the support of everyone from Solomun to Pete Tong.

We asked them to cast their minds back over the last five years and pick out five of the highlights of their history together...

Having two top 40 records

Both ‘So Freakin' Tight’ & ‘Pony’ were DJ tools in our sets that we used for two years before they ever saw the light of day as a release. Every major in the industry turned them down, so we cleared the samples ourselves, put them out on Get Twisted and within weeks had offers from just about every label out there! Both went on to chart and we’ve now got some nice discs on our wall!

Signing our label Get Twisted Records to Sony Columbia

After many years of hard work on our label by just the two of us, we were approached by a number of labels for a partnership. We knew instantly that Columbia was the right fit once we met the team. They have the perfect blend of dance music culture, in the likes of Pickers and Jules, combined with fresh, hungry, hardworking guys like Joel and Stacey who have helped us build a really successful brand together under the support of Alison. We know we’ve got a big few years ahead of us, but we pride ourselves on doing good business. We’re about building a solid catalogue and supporting both emerging and established talent.

Ibiza Residency

After three years of guesting on the island we were offered 16 shows at Sankeys in the debut year of Redlight. We put everything we had, including money out of our own pockets, into helping build this night into what it is today. We also compiled, mixed and released the official album on our own imprint Get Twisted which went on to hit the album charts.

Creating a touring brand

Tough Love and Get Twisted have both gone on to be successful touring brands. For us as Tough Love we love nothing more than touring and have been very lucky to travel everywhere from Mexico to China. Get Twisted is in its early stages but we’re yet to have a party which isn’t a sell out and also a good vibe.

Having our own Radio show on Kiss FM

We’ve been one of the flagship specialist house shows on Kiss FM for two years now. It’s a real passion for us and we are determined to help break new artists without all the red tape and politics that makes it so hard for artists now.