City streets left abandoned, desolate factories and traffic lights aimlessly switching from red to green without a single car in sight to see them change. These are just some of the haunting images that characterize what the postindustrial city of La Louviere looks like. This seems a daunting context to live in, yet there is a certain atmosphere that you can’t find in any other city. Let’s take Vhyce as an example. This Portuguese-Italian breed steadily worked his way up to a noteworthy musical profile. Inspired by the desolation in these suburbs, or by the boredom, he grew into a self-taught producer. His new “All My Love EP” has just been released on Super Flu’s hot label Monaberry. So let’s dive into the cosmos of this fascinating artist. Get ready for the interview with Vhyce.
Vhyce – All My Love EP (Monaberry)
What do you love most about music? What do you feel when producing and DJing?
What I love about music is it can make me feel things that nothing else can.
What I love the most about producing is the feeling of creating something that wasn’t there before. You wake up and there’s nothing and you spend the day making music and hopefully at the end of the day there’s a song. Eventually you might even like that song you made. And sometimes some other people people likes it too and that’s a beautiful thing.
What I love the most about DJing is to share music I love with other people.
It’s a bit like saying “I like this and I’m curious what you think of it.It makes me happy maybe you’ll feel the same way” Love to share music I like with my friends so that’s kinda the same but with strangers. And the other great thing is that it gives you the opportunity to listen to your favorites tracks at very loud level.
Which experience as an Artist and Producer has influenced you significantly and also shaped your life in a certain way?
There’s a toy vending machine next to where I live with the french sentence “tant que tu n’as pas gagné tu joues” written. It could be interpreted in many ways but one is
“You have to play until you have won!”
And I think that’s how I now approach music making. Also I sometimes like to think the unidirectional sense of time we have is fruit of our own perception.
So if I have to make an important musical decision I try to remember what I’ve already chosen in the future. It take the pressure away and makes things easier.
There are constantly new technical developments for DJs and producers. Where do you think our scene is going? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hard to say.
Recent years have seen a lot of new small labels burgeoning as well as artists self releasing their music as music is not as expensive to distribute as before.
I think 15 years ago people couldn’t have expected streaming services having so much importance on how we release music.
Not sure how I see myself in ten years but probably still making music.
Let’s have a look into your studio – what’s your current production set-up?
Computer, monitors, headphones, cheap microphone, midi keyboard, guitar, bass guitar, guitar pedal fx, Juno 1O6, Moog Minitaur, Volca Keys and an old digital Yamaha DJX!
Which of these mainly went into the creation of your new EP on Monaberry?
Mainly the computer, monitor, headphones and the midi keyboard. Excluding these the thing I use the most is the microphone to record vocals and percussions.
It gives more life to a computer track. I like to use the analog synths to dub some parts and the DJX is nice for hi hats.
There’s some kind of constant moving white noise on top of it so if you play the same hi hat twice it will still be different because of the moving white noise.
Also using my phone recorder to get nice field recordings and sounds on the go.
Your “All My Love” EP is really inspiring and exciting to listen to – did you have lots of ideas before production began, or was it more of an organic process?
Thanks! Sometimes I have a clear idea of where I want to go before starting a track but I think for these I did not. I start with a simple musical line usually the bass or some chords. Then I play on the keyboards and write a lot of different ideas on top of the first one and stop when I feel I have enough. After taking a break from the track I try to see if I know where I want to go with it.
At that moment I usually have an idea of how I’ll structure the track and how I want it to sound although it still may change while working on it. Like the bass from Moved Not Stirred what totally different on the first version. Also I try to make a lot of demos so maybe to get to three tracks on the EP I worked on 15 ideas that I didn’t like enough to develop.
What are your plans for the next few months in 2022?
I’ve been working on a few remixes. The first to come out is one for Catz N Dogz on their Pets recording label then one for Routine Espresso and one PYN.
I also have two new EPs coming early 22 but still a bit too soon to talk about.
Thanks – hopefully, we will see you in Sweden soon!