Trimtone on Love To Be, Urbana Recordings and the Future of House Music

More than three decades after Love To Be first emerged from Sheffield’s Music Factory, Tony Walker and Marc Dennis have little interest in turning one of UK house music’s most enduring institutions into a monument to the past. History matters, certainly, but for the pair behind Trimtone, longevity only has value if the story keeps moving.

“For us, Love To Be represents just as much now as it did when Tony first started it in 1994,” they explain. “Back then, it was really about the music, the energy, the people and that feeling you got when you walked into a club and knew you were part of something special.”

Those fundamentals remain intact, but the community surrounding them now spans generations. “In 2026, we’ve realised that Love To Be isn’t just a brand or a series of events, it’s a community and a feeling that has connected generations,” they say. “Seeing people who were with us in the ’90s now bringing their partners, kids, nieces and nephews to our events is pretty special.”

It is an evolution currently being played out on an increasingly ambitious scale. Love To Be’s 6,000-capacity flagship festival at The Stray in Harrogate has become a focal point for a brand that has travelled far beyond its Sheffield beginnings, and Walker and Dennis see it as a distillation of everything built over the preceding decades.

“The festival definitely feels like the culmination of everything Love To Be has become over the last three decades,” they say. “The original ethos behind Love To Be was simply about bringing people together through music, creating that feeling of being part of something, dancing with your friends, discovering great DJs, new music and sharing experiences that stay with you.”

Crucially, however, they don’t view that culmination as an ending. “The festival feels like a natural progression of the Love To Be story, but hopefully it’s not the final chapter. If anything, it feels like the beginning of a really exciting new one.”

That next chapter includes Love To Be’s biggest UK venue tour, taking the brand into O2 Academy venues around the country from November 2026. For Walker and Dennis, returning to venues is simultaneously a nod to where Love To Be began and an opportunity to reimagine it for a contemporary audience.

“Before the festivals and the bigger outdoor events, Love To Be was built in clubs and venues, so taking the brand on a UK venue tour feels like coming full circle, but at the same time pushing it forward with our current house sound,” they explain.

The partnership with Academy Music Group also provides the infrastructure to make the tour more than a sequence of disconnected club nights. “It allows us to think beyond simply putting on a series of nights,” they say. “We can develop a real journey for the audience, from the production and staging, to the artists, the atmosphere and the way the Love To Be brand comes to life in the room.”

Those line-ups deliberately connect different eras. House veterans including Todd Terry, Marshall Jefferson and Sandy Rivera sit alongside contemporary artists such as Sam Divine, Solardo, Belters Only and lau.ra.

“We’ve always believed that house music isn’t defined by one particular era or generation, it’s a culture that continues to evolve while staying connected to its roots,” they explain. “For us, it’s about celebrating the heritage of the music without being stuck in the past and embracing where house music is going without forgetting where it came from.”

That philosophy is particularly visible on Love To Be dancefloors, where people who experienced the brand’s earliest parties now share space with audiences discovering the music decades later.

“Younger audiences don’t necessarily see the boundaries between generations in the way we sometimes do,” Walker and Dennis observe. “They’ll listen to a classic Marshall Jefferson or Todd Terry record alongside a contemporary house track and appreciate both for what they are. When the right record comes on, it doesn’t matter whether it was released in 1992 or 2026, if it makes you want to dance, it works.”

It leads to perhaps the clearest statement of where Love To Be sits today: “Love To Be has its roots in the ’90s, but it doesn’t belong to the ’90s. It belongs to everyone who loves house music.”

Making sure that future generations have opportunities to participate rather than simply spectate is another part of the current expansion. The Next Generation DJ Competition will give emerging DJs the chance to perform at their nearest O2 Academy date.

“After more than 30 years in the industry, you quickly realise that technical ability is only one small part of being a great DJ,” they say. “You can teach someone how to mix, but you can’t really teach them musical instinct, personality or that ability to read a dancefloor.”

Individuality matters more than perfection. “We’re not looking for the finished article, we’re looking for those DJs who have that spark, that individuality and that connection with house music that makes you think, there’s something here.”

Walker and Dennis also believe longevity brings responsibility. The pathways that existed for aspiring DJs when Love To Be began have changed dramatically, particularly as grassroots club culture has faced increasing pressure.

“If you’ve been fortunate enough to have a career and build a brand that has lasted for more than 30 years, you have a responsibility to give something back to the culture that gave you so much,” they say. “Supporting the next generation has to be more than just saying the right things. It has to mean actually putting young DJs in front of audiences, giving them a platform and allowing them to gain the experience and confidence that comes from playing a proper venue.”

While Love To Be expands, Trimtone’s production work provides another connection between their formative influences and the present. Their latest single, “We Gonna Dance” featuring Alexis Hall, marks their debut on David Penn’s Urbana Recordings.

“The track really started with the idea of creating something that captured the essence of Love To Be in a record,” they explain. “We didn’t want to overthink it or try to make something complicated for the sake of it. House music has always been about the feeling.”

Built around piano, percussion and an uplifting vocal, the track carries disco, soul and gospel influences that Walker and Dennis regard as fundamental to their musical DNA. But again, the objective isn’t recreation.

“We’re not trying to recreate a particular era,” they stress. “We’re taking those ingredients and putting them through a modern production lens. We’re big believers in the idea that house music is a connection between the past and the present. You can hear where a record has come from without it sounding like a throwback.”

Alexis Hall’s vocal actually came from an earlier session. “Alexis’ voice had exactly what the track needed, personality, energy and that unmistakable sense of celebration,” they explain. “The vocal was an old hook we found on a hard drive of Alexis’s vocals from one of our earlier sessions.”

The relationship with Urbana developed just as organically. Penn heard a clip online and approached them about the track, adding another dimension to a friendship already established through gigs, radio and Love To Be.

“David actually heard a clip of it on our socials and reached out, so Urbana feels like a very natural home for this record,” they say. “Given our history with David, it feels less like simply signing to a label and more like working with a close friend.”

There is also a shared musical philosophy. “For us, great house music has to have soul, but it also has to work on a dancefloor,” they explain. “It’s that balance between musicality and energy that has always been important to us.”

After three decades, getting a new record signed still matters. What has changed is how Walker and Dennis measure its significance.

“Earlier in our careers, success was naturally about the next release, the next gig, getting records played and building your profile,” they reflect. “Now it’s much more about longevity and making music that we genuinely believe in.”

That longevity has unfolded against extraordinary technological and cultural change. Together they have moved from vinyl through CDs and digital DJing, from traditional broadcasting to syndicated radio and streaming, and through successive revolutions in production and music discovery.

“We have effectively grown up alongside the evolution of house music, so we’ve had to constantly adapt while keeping sight of why we started making music in the first place,” they say. “There have been plenty of challenges along the way, but having someone beside you who understands the journey makes a huge difference.”

That shared experience has created the trust to challenge each other while retaining the friendship underneath Trimtone and Love To Be. “We’ve always been able to bounce ideas off each other, challenge each other and, importantly, know when something feels right,” they explain. “That trust comes from having spent so many years working together.”

It perhaps explains why neither appears particularly interested in slowing down. Love To Be’s history is something they celebrate, but not somewhere they want to remain.

“Nostalgia is a great part of house music and we’re proud of our history, but we’re much more interested in what happens next,” they say. “We’re still excited about making new music, discovering new artists, playing to new audiences and finding new ways to bring the Love To Be experience to people.”

For Walker and Dennis, preserving a legacy ultimately means continuing to add to it.

“We want Love To Be to mean as much to someone discovering it today as it did to someone who was there in the ’90s,” they conclude. “We’re still chasing that same feeling we had when we started. If anything, having been around for this long makes us want to achieve more, not less. We’re very proud of the past, but we’re much more excited about the future.”

Trimtone - We Gonna Dance featuring Alexis Hall is out now on Urbana Records. Grab it on Beatport HERE.