Dirty Vegas Talk Reunion, Technology, and Diamondless Watches

Their single “Days Go By” famously sprang from a Mitsubishi ad (and subsequent MTV-staple video) and burrowed itself into America’s brains for several years on end. But those same several years didn’t just leave Dirty Vegas with a Grammy Award – they left the British house trio feeling, frankly, in need of a break.

"You couldn’t have squeezed any more from us,” says vocalist Steve Smith, in town with the rest of his band to rock The Setai with a free Winter Music Conference performance Thursday night. “We'd given everything…Before we turned on each other, we walked away from it.”

"We literally had three years of non-stop, every single day being together, being around each other,” adds producer/DJ Paul Harris. “There was no animosity there; I think it had run its course.”

But there were dance floors left to rock and business left unfinished, so Smith, Harris and the unrelated Ben Harris joined forces again to release their third album, the edgy, rock-tinged Electric Love, on April 26.

This time around, Dirty Vegas is finding that technology has prompted a lot of changes since they first burst onto the EDM scene 10 years ago.

“Now, literally, you can just have two laptops, a couple of keyboards, and a couple of guitars and you can have a live show,” Harris gapes. “We used to spend $10,000 just shipping equipment to a gig! [If it had been that way in the beginning,] my house would be so much more pimpin'.”

Or would it? Expecting a Cribs-ian answer involving master bedroom shark tanks or elaborate hot tub grottos, we asked the boys of Dirty Vegas what big rock star-sized purchase they made when the band hit it big – and discovered Niteside was speaking with possibly the most down-to-Earth Grammy winners ever.

“I bought this watch,” Harris admits, holding up his wrist before adding, ruefully, “But it doesn’t even have any diamonds on it!”


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