At the head of the pack are 3 Channels, the intriguingly named creative partnership of Grzegorz Demiañczuk and Wojciech Tarañczuk from Stettin.

With recent 12"s on Trenton, Crosstown Rebels and Trapez, 3 Channels have quickly procured a reputation for making kooky and minimal tech house with twists in their breakdowns. Along with Cocoon Recordings' Jacek Sienkiewicz, the duo are helping to cement Poland as one of dance music's most unlikely creative meccas.

We talked to 3 Channels on the eve of their gig at the Together Enchantment Under The Sea party this weekend at Turnmills in London.

Firstly, with a name like 3 Channels, I have to ask: Is there a TV/radio on anywhere near you at the moment? What channel is it on and what's showing or playing?

Haha. Well we’re in car at the moment going to Berlin and there is some random radio station on.

How did the two of you meet and how did you get into electronic music?

We met in 2003 on the Internet, and then at a party because we are from the same city. Wojtek was making parties and starting to DJ. I was also just starting to DJ in a new club in the city, Mezzoforte. Because our music style was similar, we thought it would be nice to start making parties together. We didn’t think about making music together back then though. The idea to produce music came about when we heard each other's tracks.

What kind of electronic producers or music have inspired you to make the music you do?

Wojtek used to play the whole spectrum of electronic music, from straight minimal techno to house music. He liked producers like Daft Punk, Bob Sinclair and also Adam Beyer, Jeff Mills, Marco Carola. Then he heard early tracks on record labels like Kompakt, Playhouse, Gigolo, Poker Flat, and he changed his style to more minimal house.

However I've been collecting records for a long time and are influenced by electronic music from the '80s and 90’s - I love old Detroit and Chicago stuff and the early UK scene. At the beginning I was playing deep house and I liked record labels such as Guidance, Deep 4 Life, Trackmode, Paper, Svek, Dessous and producers like Larry Heard, Carl Craig and Glenn Underground.

Originally, there were three of you, hence the name 3 Channels. Has your sound changed since the departure of the third member Votchik?

Yes, definitely. When we were producing music with Votchik, we were under pressure and we couldn't do what we wanted to do: modern electronic music for the club.

It was good when we decided to do what we truly believed in and do everything on our own because we both wanted to do the same thing.

Nowadays in our productions we’re using more advanced techniques of sound engineering and focusing more on the structure of the music, sound quality and the dynamics of the whole track.

Do either of you have day jobs?

I was working at the City Hall as an inspector but it wasn't the job for me (laughs), especially after the weekend. So now I’m only focused on the music. Wojtek is studying computer engineering, but as he says, he has no idea about it!

Besides electronic music, what else do you channel your energies into?

We both like sports such as: sleeping, sitting in front of a computer, catching a train. We especially like extreme sports like taking a big record bag to the airplane as hand luggage.

You're playing at the Together Under The Sea party at Turnmills in the UK soon which has a subterranean, aquatic theme. How are your sea legs? Can you recommend any good beaches in Poland?

Unfortunately the Polish seaside is not a good electronic music center in the summer. There is a lot of commercial music and not many clubs.
If you want to have relax the best places are outside the cities. You can rest and there are no screaming people all around you. The only one good club at the seaside is Sfinks, where we are playing next week with Smash TV. This club is one of the best in Poland and we’ve never played there so looking forward to checking it out.

How do you DJ together?

How we play depends of where we are playing and who the audience is. We use EFX and sometimes samples. Usually we play back2back. When the party is really good sometimes we mix the tracks really fast and put a lot of effects on them.

We recently played a very good party in Spain at the Metro and mixed many old tracks with the new minimal sound. We were really surprised to hear how it sounded.

"We both like sports such as: sleeping, sitting in front of a computer, catching a train. We especially like extreme sports like taking a big record bag to the airplane as hand luggage."

Jacek Sienkiewicz was one of the first Polish DJ and producers to really make a name for himself in the international techno scene. You recently remixed his 'Time Starts Now' track on his Recognition label. Are producers working as a collective to build the scene in Poland? Which other DJs/producers in Poland should we keep an ear out for?

We've known Jacek for a long time. He's done many good things for the electronic music scene in Poland. Many people think of him as the pioneer of electronic music here in Poland and his live PAs stay in the memory for a long, long time.

We were very happy that he requested a remix from us. We think it sounds like something that would come out on his label Recognition. We played a couple of nice parties at a club called “1995” in Warsaw with Pier Bucci & Jackmate. It’s a pity that he’s not involved anymore with this club, because there was a really good atmosphere. Everybody always knew everybody else.

If we’re talking about the Polish scene, we're always trying promote minimal and tech house sounds in Poland. It wasn't so popular when we were starting, but at the moment it's not bad. Right now we are looking for new producers here because we are starting a record label in autumn. We like tracks from SLG, who is working on some new tracks for Level Records and Tomek Nevada.

You've already had 12 inch releases on Trapez, Trenton and Crosstown Rebels. How would you say your releases on each of those labels differ in their construction, style or dancefloor aesthetic?

We’re trying to release different styles on each of those labels. On Trapez we’re releasing more minimal stuff, on Crosstown we’re releasing minimal but more twisted tracks, and tracks with more electro influences we’re sending to Trenton. It’s not always working out like we want but that's the main idea.

What equipment or software do you use to produce? How do you work in the studio together?

We use a lot of software to get the sound we would like to have. We’re also using a lot of effects units like Kaoss Pad 2, Fab Filter, Sonic Destructor etc. We like to have unique sounds so sometimes we put 10 effects on just one sound. Our main sequencer is Cubase. We have a studio at Wojtek's flat and we meet there and exchange ideas. We never start new tracks from the melody. First we trying to get a good groove and then usually we come up with a lot of nice ideas of what to do next.

What upcoming releases do you have lined up for the future?

The first one coming out next is the Trapez 63 release, this time not on the Ltd offshoot like the first one. I hope people will like these three tracks as they are some of the new productions we’ve made this year.

We've also done a few remixes for artists like Codec’n Flexor (Kitty Cuts), Mariel Ito (Connaisseur), Richard Bartz (Kurbel) and a track for a Resopal Records compilation.

Soon we'll have our second release on Crosstown Rebels but unfortunately we don’t know exactly when yet. After the summer break there will also be an EP on our own label with some nice remixes. Then we hope to release other EPs on Trenton, Crosstown Rebels and Trapez.

We’re very happy right now, got a lot of work and still looking for new sounds.

New clubbing hotspots are often exploited by well-connected foreign promoters who view the region as simply another place to make a quick buck without any regard for musical integrity or local development of the scene. What's the situation like in Poland?

We’re not so much into promoters here. We have our friends who are organizing the best parties in Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw, Bialystok, Zilelona Gora etc and we play there. The commercial promoters here are still not interested in clubbing; they are more into that disco type sound and cheesy house.

As we said before, right now the most popular music in the clubs is like everywhere else - minimal house, tech house etc. There is also quite a big minimal techno scene which is still very popular.

Which club nights would you recommend hitting up?

If you come to Poland and you’re looking for minimal parties definitely check out cities like Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan.

The best clubs in Warsaw are 1955, M25, On-off, Luztro (has the best after parties) and Tomba Tomba. In Wrocław check out Mekka Club; in Bialystok go to Metro Club; in Poznan the SQ Club and in Sopot, Sfinks.

Are you still running the Electronic House parties or any other nights in Poland?

Right now we’re taking a break. We were doing those parties for 2 years and invited over a lot of well known artists. We had the most fun when we had a party with not so popular DJs and there were a lot of people, or people would come for the first time and ask us about what kind of music we were playing, where to buy it etc.

When you see the same people again and again you feel good. But since last summer a lot of people have gone from Szczecin and we haven’t has that many people to come to the parties even though we we'd been putting a lot of work in to promote that kind of music.

I think we’ll start again when our label kicks off after summer. Right now we’re playing quite often in Warsaw and in Wroclaw, where we’re hosting a Trapez night next month.
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Finally, DJs and clubbers often talk about how up for it Polish audiences are. From personal experience do you think there is a noticeable difference between audiences in your native country and abroad?

We love to play for Polish audiences. People are very open. They are ask about the tracks, scream and dance until midday! Of course it depends on the party but often it’s very nice. Also playing to abroad audiences is awesome. There are a lot more people abroad who understand this kind of music and you can sometimes really experiment with the crowds.