It was Sin that first brought them together – the former Dublin nightclub Sin, that is. Ten years or so later, Robbie Griffiths, aka Robbie G, and Conor Bissett, aka the mononymous Bissett – “No one calls me Conor”, he says – are at the vanguard of a renaissance in Irish dance music.
Under the banner of Belters Only, the Dublin production and DJ duo have already scored several big hits. Their debut single, Make Me Feel Good, reached number one in Ireland, broke into the top 10 in the UK and racked up 94 million streams on Spotify alone. Their subsequent singles, including I Will Survive, a reworking of the Gloria Gaynor hit, and Don’t Stop Just Yet, which samples Morcheeba’s World Looking In, have proven similarly successful. And, the way they tell it, they’re just getting started.
“I bought myself a new car last week – and I still feel like I don’t deserve it,” Griffiths says, grinning shyly. “But that’s just me. It takes a while to realise that we are in this position.”
This weekend, having played an Ibiza residency, topped festival bills and headlined the Ministry of Sound in London earlier in the year, Belters Only will cap off a huge 2023 with their biggest Irish show to date, at 3Arena in Dublin. The gig sold out in half an hour. “And it’s going to be the best electronic show that Ireland has ever seen,” Bissett says. “The production budget that we have… You’ll never see it anywhere else.”
“The day we actually stand up on stage and see the sold-out 3Arena and just look around us,” Griffiths says, shaking his head. “If we were to pass away the next day – and touch wood we won’t – but I’d die happy, because that’s been a goal for both of us. To prove that two young fellas from our area can do that.”
The pair first crossed paths at Sin when Griffiths, a former drummer who “didn’t like sitting at the back of the stage”, was 16 and Bissett, who had learned to DJ on a YouthReach course, was 19. Griffiths, Bissett says with a laugh, had to get permission from his father in order to DJ at the venue. “We did an event night called Warriors in Sin, and when that broke up we went our separate ways,” he says. “Then we came back together through Covid.”
Bissett had been tinkering away at solo material in his rudimentary attic studio in Drimnagh. He got back in touch with Griffiths when he built a new studio in his back garden, four years after they’d first crossed paths. Belters Only began as a club night at the Grand Social, the venue by the River Liffey in Dublin, in 2019, but when Covid hit they were forced to find a new outlet.
We want to show people that anybody can do this. You just need to put the work in and believe in yourself, know what I mean?
— Conor Bissett
“Timing had a lot to do with it, but we both knew we had a similar outlook on what we wanted to do,” Griffiths says. “At the time, me and Biss were the only ones in our genre in Dublin that were making similar stuff, and doing well at it. So he reached out to me and, literally from the moment we started working, it was like poetry in motion. And it still is now.” He shrugs. “And here we are.”
The duo are the face of Belters Only, but they have big plans for what they describe as a collective. They have worked with the vocalist Jazzy, a rising star in her own right, on several singles (including Make Me Feel Good and Don’t Stop Just Yet), as well as producing her hit debut single, Giving Me, which reached number three in the UK.
“There’s a couple of things going on in the background,” Bissett says. “We’re going to be starting a music label soon as well, and there’s a lot of stuff in the pipeline. We’re going to be branching out into merch and a clothing line, and stuff like that. So it’s not just about us – there’s a lot of people involved in Belters Only.”
They plan to sign other acts to their forthcoming label. “We have a couple of people lined up already,” Bissett says, “so we just need to get the contract over the line now, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
The pair clearly have no trouble with self-belief, and both agree that their working-class background is a motivating factor.
“Listen, that’s why we’re doing this,” Bissett says. “We want to show people that anybody can do this. You just need to put the work in and believe in yourself, know what I mean? We’re just trying to just prove to people that there are great, gifted people in these working-class areas.”
“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from. If you really believe that you can do it, and you work harder than the person beside you, you can really do anything you want to do,” Griffiths says. “Me and Biss are living proof of that. Of course we’re achieving things we want to achieve, but it’s bigger than us now; this is a movement. We’re proving to kids growing up in our areas that you can do this, that it is possible – rather than being told that it’s impossible, like we were told when we were starting off.”
Griffiths has a theory about why so many people connected with their debut single. “A lot of it was down to timing,” he says. “The clubs were the first to close during Covid and the last to open when things started getting back to normal. So for two years people were deprived of dance music, deprived of nightclubs, and Make Me Feel Good was released just as Covid was easing off.” He shrugs. “I think it’s something that people probably hadn’t heard a lot on the radio, never mind in person, for two years. The lyrics and the whole general vibe behind it, it demanded that people feel good about themselves again when they really needed to hear it.”
Both producers agree that the proposed extension of licensing laws to allow nightclubs to open until 6am, which looks set to come into effect in the summer of 2024, is much needed, particularly in a city where the dance-music scene is rapidly growing, but there are fewer clubs than there were a decade ago.
Griffiths says the impact in Britain of Irish dance acts such as Belters Only, Shane Codd and Jazzy should help to spur change here. “People are starting to look at Ireland and say, ‘Okay, what’s going on over there?’ And when there’s not a lot of clubs even open…” He shakes his head. “We have to do something about it now, because the last thing that people in Ireland want is to look bad across the water. So they have no choice now. Realistically, I’ll believe it when I see it, because I heard that was going to happen the year after Covid. And nothing has changed.”
“Me and Biss are both sure we’re going to achieve the biggest things. If we didn’t believe that, we wouldn’t bother doing this
— Robbie Griffiths
“They’ve been saying it for years, and nothing’s happened,” Bissett agrees. “I do hope it happens, but there’s a lot of factors involved in late licensing laws other than just opening clubs until six in the morning. It’s a struggle to get home from Dublin after three in the morning as it is, so there’s a lot to it. But at the end of the day, if it does [happen], it’s a good day for Ireland and it’s a good day for the nightlife in Dublin.”
For now they are concentrating on building their own empire. Their new single, Life Lesson, is a collaboration with the Australian producer Sonny Fodera, a “big inspiration” for both of them growing up. There is the 3Arena gig and their debut album, which they are putting the finishing touches to and plan to release in early 2024. When that’s complete, they intend to “tap back into the club era and really enjoy ourselves”, according to Griffiths. “Because we’re club DJs through and through, and that’s where we came from, as much as our music is kind of mainstream at the moment.”
If the past couple of years has taught them anything, it’s to dream big. They want to work with RnB singers such as Mary J Blige and Alicia Keys. They want to win a Grammy. They want it all.
“Me and Biss are both sure we’re going to achieve the biggest things,” Griffiths says. “If we didn’t believe that, we wouldn’t bother doing this. The goal is to financially secure both me, my family and my family’s family for generations. So, yeah, to change the course of history for our own.” He smiles. “That’s the goal.” Not too big an ask, surely. “Not in our heads it’s not!” he replies, laughing.
“And do you know what the scary thing is?” Bissett adds. “The scary thing is we’re going to do it.”
Belters Only play 3Arena, Dublin, on Sunday, October 29th; Life Lesson is released via Polydor
