You often hook up with UNER – what makes your relationship with that guy so strong?
Quite a few things really. We are fiends, we share the same management and booming agency, we often share the same lineup, we are from the same generation, we don’t really play the exact same sound, although it’s similar and we appreciate our respective music. Most importantly, the symbiosis when we play together is perfect. We don’t need to speak to each other’s to make it a great show. when we play together it comes really naturally. That’s like if we had been doing that for years, except that the project is just one year old.
And when did you first hook up with him, how did you come to work together?
Uner played for a private party I organized for my birthday last year in Miami during WMC. We ended up playing back to back and it we both felt we were feeling really comfortable at it. Our set went super smooth. So we sat down the next day and thought it could be good to make it a serious side-project for both of us, something that would complement both our individual career. Promoters have been so far really enthusiastic with it, and we’ve been doing more than 30 shows in many top festivals across Europe with the project since we started it. It’s really fun to do it for both of us, and music wise, our both respective style really mix well into each other’s.
How different are you when you play with him than when you play solo?
The mechanics of a b2b show is very different than when you play solo, in that you are two people working on the same thing. It allows you to really focus on your track selection and flow without letting go of the energy you try to bring to the crowd, which is crucial. When one is playing, the other one has time to look for the right tune, interact more with the crowd and so on. When you play solo, you need to do it all by yourself and at the same time, which is not always easy and sometimes quite impossible.
You also collaborated with Green Velvet recently – how did that come about?
I’ve always been a huge fan of Green Velvet, I guess like pretty much everybody in the electronic music scene. I made this track about 1 year and half ago, full of guitar riffs, rolling bassline and funky beats, a bit similar to the style of Heart Of Flesh. I loved the track very much yet i felt something was lacking in it. I did a Mexico mini-tour last year with my friend Pleasurekraft and as I was playing the tune, he came up to me and told me that the track was awesome and that it would match perfectly to Green Velvet’s vocals. Kaveh (Pleasurekraft) being a good friend of his, he arranged the whole thing and a week later, i had the vocals ready (kudos to both chaps!).
What did you learn from him, how was it? What’s the resulting track like?
I wrote the whole music of “Suga” so Curtis (Green Velvet) just did the vocals in it. But again, he did an amazing vocals job, which matches perfectly to the spirit of the instrumental, with a twist of Blues to it. The great thing about him is that he is able to convey the listener into a story, with only a few words. It’s not only because his voice is great, but also about how he writes the vocals and the different ways to understand them. And the great thing about Suga is that it’s got Green Velvet actually singing in it, which he doesn’t do very often.
Technasia is resident for Reverse at Sankeys Ibiza on Saturday.
His new track ’Suga’ drops this month with Green Velvet on Toolroom Records