We had a chat with the dynamic duo North South Project who will be releasing fresh work on our label pretty soon. We ought the time was right to have a talk about their drive, studio setup and what’s coming.
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How are you guys doing?
Hey! We are doing fine, thanks!
For fans who don’t know much about you, could you tell us a bit about your music background? Maybe a brief history of North South Project, past to present?
We are a German-based House & Techno producer duo. Torsten comes from a family of musicians. He started playing synths at the age of 13 and has also a classical background. On top, he plays the piano and the brass. Petra is also familiar with keyboard instruments but has always been more focused on vocals and writing song lyrics.
The drive to create distinctive tracks brought us together in 2017. We have released 4 E.P.s so far. Our next one “Phoenix” will be released on 27 February with you, Tanzgemeinschaft.
TGMS: Yes, looking forward to that one. Feedback so far is fantastic.
Tell us about how you ended up playing and producing electronic music to make people dance. Did you see this all coming?
No, we honestly didn’t. We just shared our passion and focussed on creating electronic music with an emotional value. At some point, we finally decided to do the first release. We didn’t expect to hit the Beatport charts with this production. But we made it to the top 10 in the Beatport Progressive House album charts. That was beyond awesome … .
A quick retrospection. How was 2019 for you? Highlights or downsides to mention?
We had to do a lot of studio modifications. That was necessary for being able to develop our sound in the direction we wanted it. Furthermore, our track “Vision” made it in the Beatport Top 100 Progressive House charts and had a lot of radio plays.
A new decade has started. How do you look at the future, 10 years is a long period, so how do you see yourself evolve over the years? What do you want to accomplish?
There are million possible routes that you can take, but you never can predict what’s actually going to happen. Of course, we will continue producing tracks.
What exciting news do you have in the works for the coming months?
End of February we will be releasing our first track this year, another EP will follow later in 2020. We will also do a remix for another Tanzgemeinschaft artist.
TGMS: Just stick with us. 🙂
What is the importance of the connections you make? How do you utilize them?
Creating connections opens up new opportunities. But we always try to stay authentic, play fair and are happy to support people. And it’s no secret: what goes around comes around.
Give us an insight on how your studio looks like
As you can see on the pic, we have a mixture of different synths, machines and controllers. We are using analog and digital equipment. For sequencing and recording, we are working with Ableton Live and Logic Pro X.
What is your favourite gear/plugin/…? And why of course.
Our all-time favourite synth is the Access Virus TI. With this synth everything’s possible. Of course, it takes some time to work with the Virus TI, but you will be surprised about its potential.
Our favourite plugin is the U-he Diva. We are convinced that Urs Heckmann developed with Diva one of the best software synths ever. It depends on what you’re looking for, but this synth has a wide range of different sounds and we definitely recommend it.
When working on music is the dance floor always something you keep in mind? Or does a certain vibe or flow sometimes transcend that?
Of course, it’s always our mission to make the crowd dance. But that’s not what we focus on in the production process. We concentrate on melodies and harmonies first, instead of making beats and grooves. It’s a more classical way of songwriting during the first stage.
We always start on a simple E-Piano for finding chords and harmonies, define the Track Key and then we are working on the structure. As soon as we have a rough idea and have finished the song structure, we continue with the synths and drum machines. From that point on we are working also on the sound design and in parallel we are focusing on grooves.
As already mentions, you will be releasing on our label, Tanzgemeinschaft. Why did you pick this track?
We have worked on this track for about 6 months and we have spent a lot of energy on it. We had a lot of different versions and we tried many variations and modifications until it felt right, that´s why this track is so special for us.
You guys are well known for supporting and releasing quality underground music. To make a long story short, we are very happy to have the opportunity to release this track on Tanzgemeinschaft.
And even more, at the end of February, you will be hosting an event. The floor is yours to do your promo:
We are really looking forward to host this event! “Melodic Xperience” will take place on 29 February at Club My Way, Konstanz, Germany. You can expect 7 hours of best Electronic, Melodic House and Melodic Techno.
We are happy to share the decks with the guys from Simpatiek (Tanzgemeinschaft), Claudio Capo (Tanzgemeinschaft) and our friend CALI, who´s well known for his excellent Melodic Techno sets.
TGMS: we are really looking forward to that event!
Thank you so much and see you soon!
