Alan Nieves hails from New York and is a new school tech house hero. He makes slick groves with real character and after his debut in 2017 on Kinetic Records topped the charts he hasn’t looked back. He brings a sense of funk and soul to what he does and now his tunes get high profile support each and every time. He is focused on utilising technology to create music in an innovative and exciting new sound and has plenty of new sounds coming on Knee Deep In Sound, Deeperfeckt, Rawthentic and many more.<\/p>\n
Here we speak to him about the pandemic, his approach to making music, staying true to his sound while evolving each time and much more<\/p>\n
how are you, what’s good and bad in your world?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hello! I’m doing very well thanks for asking! Well, what’s bad in my world is bad in everyone’s world sadly – this Ukraine crisis is just heartbreaking to witness. Feels like it’s so senseless and my heart goes out to the people there, I really hope this stops soon. We’ve gone from a pandemic to this and I feel like people could really use some positive energy. It’s hard to see when as an artist, I try to just focus my life on giving people an outlet for absorbing good vibes with what little control we can muster over our lives! As for the music, we have a lot going on and I’m really excited about some upcoming shows and festivals this summer in the USA, Europe, and South America. We’ll touch on more of that soon! Plenty of good creative energy is coming out in 2022!<\/p>\n How was the pandemic for you and what effect did it have on your music taste and style?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the pandemic was pretty difficult for all of us and I was certainly no exception. To have our lives so massively disrupted like this is certainly not anything I had expected and I think it extracted a particularly heavy toll on the live music industry of course. From here, it’s important to try to maintain those relationships and keep building upwards to come out even stronger. As far as music taste and style, it has allowed me time to reflect on the direction and changes in the music industry that I have noticed and also feel might be coming down the future pipeline. I hope that we can focus on getting out on the dance floor as much as possible as well as moving forward after 2 years of disruptions to our art. I’ve tried to focus more on music that reflects this shift and also feels modern and fresh!<\/p>\n you hail from new york – how much influence on your sound does the city and its musical history have?<\/strong><\/p>\n It has an immense influence on me! New York City is a marvelous machine and I think it leaves an indelible mark on all those who stay here. I have tried to let the city influence my sound as much as possible, whether it’s the early Harlem Hip-Hop days or the early dance music era and Disco vibes from Studio 54 etc. as well as some of those legendary landmark NYC nightclubs such as Pacha, Cielo, Output, Sullivan Room, Twilo, Tunnel, etc. In addition, as I often incorporate my own vocals, many are heavily tinged by NYC culture (I even have a track called Boroughs :)) and my latest EP on Revival NYC was titled Empire EP as a homage to the city. I try to rep New York as much as possible!<\/p>\n what makes the place unique in terms of dance music, and what is your signature sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the massive impact NY has had on dance music culture in general as well as the birthplace of Hip-Hop and Disco with The Loft means that it has a massive impact on dance music all over the world! So many artists are sampling Hip-Hop records now in their productions and that’s always something I’ve done and is a homage to the music I grew up listening to which is mostly Hip-Hop, but I also try to incorporate Jazz, Salsa, Latin, Disco, and general club elements into my signature sound. I would describe my sound as House music with a subgenre of Deep Tech House and Minimal House that incorporates elements of percussion, groove, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Salsa, etc and has a deep rolling style for the most part \ud83d\ude42 Doing my own vocals on many of my tracks out now these days has also helped as it makes them unique and helps them stand out further.<\/p>\n what gear do you use currently in the studio, does that matter to you? are you a studio nerd?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wouldn’t classify myself as the biggest studio nerd but I do love my plugins that’s for sure! I use an Apogee Ensemble sound card, Mackie monitors, and a Moog Little Phatty. My favorite plugins would be the Waves bundle – I use them all constantly! From reverb, delays, EQs, to distortion plugins. I also love the Soundtoys bundle and use a lot of vocal manipulation plugins as I do my own vocals on probably 50% of my tracks :). I also love the Izotope plugins for mastering and mixing. I’m always looking to upgrade my setup as well!<\/p>\n