Dublin is not renowned for its house music scene. Belters Only, however, made up of experienced DJs and producers Robbie G and Bissett, are fast becoming an exception. With their music hitting the hundreds of millions of internet streams, the Dublin duo have recently returned from headlining London superclub Ministry, and, just two years into their lifespan as a pairing, look set to absolutely fly.
“Ministry was mad,” Robbie G tells us. “I’d previously played Ministry as a solo act, closing a small room. That was a completely different experience to headlining, it was weird being the main act up there.”
“I’d been working around Bissett for a while, we were the only people, we felt like, making house music in Ireland. He had built a studio during Covid, and he invited me over. We decided to become one when we realised how in sync we were. We’d both been searching for that feeling, and we had to keep going. The rest is history.”
“Belters Only is two years old, but there’s 20 years of experience between us,” he continues. “We’ve been in the game ten years each DJing, playing nearly every venue in Dublin, and producing music. People might think it’s an overnight thing, but it’s absolutely not. A lot of hard work and experience is behind us.”
“We both bring our own skills to things, all our strengths work as one, and that’s what’s important, really. We’re making so much music, and it’s working, so the plan is to continue to do that.”
“We started a project with ‘2022 Only’ and ‘Irish Only’,” he recalls of the past year or so. “We’re writing for an album now, so that’s the focus, so for now we’re going to make all the music we can, before we go on tour and work on our external projects, things like ‘2022 Only’ and ‘Irish Only’. Once we’ve got our music in order, everything else will come.”
“A lot of dance acts and labels, they try to push for singles all the time, which is understandable, but for Belters Only as a band, there’s a story behind us. We’re not really aiming to be relevant, or to get hits. We want to leave a legacy, a mark on the scene, so we’re aiming straight for the top. The album is very important to us. An album is like a painting for a painter. A showcase, at the end of the day. We really believe in our music and believe in ourselves, and we want to showcase how good we are. Albums are a different kind of art compared to a single. This is the first album but it won’t be the last.”
The album is also about making a statement, and exploring their own identities. “We feel like we’re looked at as the scumbags,” Robbie says. “We have common accents, we wear tracksuits. It’s rare that people like myself get to where we are. We didn’t go to college. We self taught. There’s no money behind us. That’s our story.”
“The club scene is restrictive for everybody in our sector.” Robbie continues, looking at Dublin’s status with dance music. “It’s getting better, slowly. There’s more conversation about venues, warehouses, that kind of thing. I think if we get more venues and more support, it’ll start to take off. Now more than ever, we’re used to the lack of venues, but there are a lot of young people with the get up and go to go and try things after Covid.”
“It would be very easy to just stop, but the spirit in Dublin and Ireland is brewing very nicely. I’m very excited to see what comes, Ireland is being taken a lot more seriously in terms of the dance scene.”