Australian DJ duo Set Mo, comprised of Nicholas Drabble and Stuart Turner, have grown a massive country-wide following that’s now quickly spreading internationally. Well groomed, well mannered, well spoken, well dressed and well liked, fans gravitate two the duo’s original productions behind the decks. With 20-million Spotify streams and 500 thousand monthly listeners, Set Mo’s primed for success. Have a listen to their latest release, “Nightmares” feat. Scott Quinn, embedded below.

— — —

SunCity Paradise: Kicking it off with Australia, what really stands out and makes it special to you? Where would you send a first-time visitor to get a real sense of the country?

Set Mo: Australia is where we’ve been born and raised so we’re a bit biased, but we love the city and the beach. It’s pretty hot here all year round. If you were coming here for the first time, we’d recommend coming to a city like Melbourne or Sydney, then also making some time to travel up the coast to get a feel for the beach and some of the smaller coastal towns.

© Lenny K.

SCP: What was your first real exposure to music? How did you get inspired to create your own and eventually pursue it as a career?

Set Mo: We both grew up around music at home. Our parents were always playing music at home and we both started playing instruments from a young age. It wasn’t until we turned 18, and started going to nightclubs and music concerts, that we really started pursuing music more as a passion that turned into a full-time hobby, and now it’s all we do.

READ MORE: Ibiza Profile: Lovely Laura & Ben Santiago

SCP: To create music, and traveling to promote it, must be such a feeling. What’s the most impactful and meaningful part you cherish about it? Does the travel help inspirationally?

Set Mo: We absolutely love traveling and we’re often inspired by going to new places and meeting new people. One of the most exciting bits of traveling and playing shows is to see people you’ve never met who love your music. It’s a pretty crazy feeling.

SCP: You just released “Nightmares” feat. Scott Quinn in February. What was your thought process behind this release? What’s been the reaction since it’s been out? Describe your excitement to play it live for your fans.

Set Mo: We wrote this track in London with Quinn and it’s definitely a bit darker compared to a lot of our previous stuff, both lyrically and musically. We didn’t sit down and plan to write a darker track, it just kind of happened. We were a little apprehensive that people may not like it as it was so different, but the response from fans has been overwhelmingly positive. As always, we find it takes people a little time to really get into a track, but as the tour has gone on the reaction has been getting stronger and stronger almost each week.

SCP: What’s one stark difference between traveling as an artist versus personal travel?

Set Mo: I guess the one main difference for us when we’re traveling as artists versus personal travel is that you always have to be on. Don’t get us wrong, we still have fun and explore when we’re touring as artists, but you’re there to do a job, so you have to make sure you’re able to do the best job. I guess you can’t switch off the same way you might when going on a holiday.

© Kristoffer Trolle

SCP: When searching for a personal getaway, are you looking for a serene beach or after a more active, adventurous getaway?

Set Mo: We actually love both. Big fans of going to new big cities and the excitement that gives you, but also certainly into the lying on a beach with a cocktail in hand. If you can engineer so you can do both in the same holiday, that’s pretty much the perfect getaway.

SCP: Everyone has a list of places that they still have to hit. What are three destinations, either work or pleasure, that you need to see?

Nick: Seoul – I want it all. I want to meet the people, eat the food, check out the fashion and just soak it all in. I don’t know many Korean people, but the ones I have met are lovely and I’d love to learn more about their culture

Stu: Tokyo – I’ve been wanting to go for years. I love Japanese food and culture. I want to go experience this city so bad.

Both of us: Croatia – We’ve had some friends hit this up over the last few summers, and they haven’t stopped raving about how good the electronic music scene is there. So, it sounds like it would be a pretty amazing place to go and play.

© Sergiu Bacioiu

SCP: One of our core objectives at SCP is to bring people together while traveling, not only to influence people to see and appreciate our beautiful world, but to also minimize cross-cultural divides. What effect does traveling, specifically surrounding dance music, have on humans in this regard? How has it broadened your perspective of the world?

Set Mo: Dance music and music in general, has always had this amazing ability to bring people from all different walks of life together, this is something we see and experience regularly. People call it the universal language, as it really does transcend nationality, religion, gender and sexuality. We’ve been at festivals before where a person on your right is speaking Spanish and the person on your left is Canadian. It’s nice to think that music can bring people together in this way – it gives us hope!

READ MORE: Travel Profile: Bingo Players

SCP: When you’re relaxing on a beach or just have some downtime are you listening to music? Do you like to switch up the genre you listen to? If so, to what?

Set Mo: We do spend a lot of time listening to music and you can most certainly catch us listening to music while lying on a beach. Maybe something along the lines of Air.

SCP: Lastly, what do the next couple of months have in store for you?

Set Mo: We’re putting out a track a month this year, which has kept us very busy in the studio. That, along with touring, is taking up pretty much all our time. We have a week or two off in May, and then we’re actually going to be in the [United States] for our first-ever run of shows there.

— — —

For more on Set Mo visit their website: