We have been producing for seven years now. We learned mainly from online tutorials and also being musicians ourselves. I (Dax Maier) played the guitar and bass while Andrew (LaFleur) played the piano and saxophone.
Our top DAW would be Logic Pro X because of the organization the platform offers.
Our favorite pieces of gear are our Focusrite interface and our Novation synth and our Ableton Push.
Our favorite software plugin has to be Sylenth because of the many ideas it holds for melody creation. We also love Serum and Omnisphere.
Our work approach we could summarize in two words: creative and technical. For my role, I focus on the melody and overall bass production through layering. Andrew will help with the technical side and help create counter melodies to help with the overall flow. We usually send all of our ideas back and forth through email.
The first resource we look at is the Masterclass taught by deadmau5 and Armin van Buuren.
Laidback Luke and Busy Works Beats have excellent YouTube channels we would recommend. Also, DJ Mag is a great resource for publications.
The knowledge or advice we would recommend to our younger selves is how to make the right decisions when playing live and not being afraid to experiment more. A lot of the industry has been tough on the live end and figuring out how to make sure you work with the right people before making a huge decision.
The challenge we face is the writer's block when producing. The other aspect is trying to stay relevant in a constantly changing industry. To combat this we look up tutorials and listen to artists like Croatia Squad, Above And Beyond, Ferry Corsten and Gareth Emery to think of new ideas for melodies and bass lines for any track we want to build upon.
The killer technique that we have used and would recommend to upcoming producers is layering your bassline and overall experimentation. Along with that, using a cutoff filter can also help with building up a melody to add suspense when using any of the popular plugins or experimenting with sound design.
Most of the online tools we find are really through exploring tutorials and seeing what new production plugins we can find that we haven't already been introduced to.
Andrew would say I am very nit-picky and Andrew is too with the production, which really does help with our overall process. We also reach out to many producers. On any given project we can always get a different perspective. Obviously there have been productions we both loved and were happy with and there were some we really weren't.
The tracks we are most proud of are Bliss and our Electropulse. For many reasons, because we were so underground and most of our friends in the production world were mainstream it was crazy to see our releases on the Beatport charts and also getting a lot of streams.
The fact that Bliss was so widely streamed to the point it hit 64k still amazes us both. We are glad that it really bent the norm of underground music and the fact that the song itself was six minutes long and is still going up in streams every day.
RepostExchange is also an amazing place for promotion without it I don't think we would have grown our following on Soundcloud as well. Repost Exchange inspired me to seek out many none thought of tools to promote your music and find ways to really take full advantage of the internet to spread your work and connect with people.
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This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
