Today, we catch up hotly-tipped Israeli producer Takiru; one of the leading artists within Tel-Aviv’s flourishing underground circuit. Takiru makes his debut today on Elif’s brand new Marginalia imprint with their intoxicating vocal collab, ‘WTF’ — one of three tracks on Elif’s ‘Medusa’ EP. Combining the seemingly disparate realms of 80s rock, Italo disco, breakbeat and electronica, the pair’s joint offering produces a daring, yet warmly familiar sound that’s as niche as it is versatile. Here’s how it went down.

Hi Takiru and welcome to House Music With Love. How are you today?

Hello House music with love! I’m very good thanks!

For those that don’t know your story, please can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to be a musician.

Well, as a youngster I always had interest in music, I played piano and guitar and was listening to soft rock music, but I never really thought it would be my main job/career. But then at the age of 24, during my economic degree at Tel Aviv university, I got some kind of a spiritual “wake up call”. I quit the university and went to study music production in a private school, something in me just told me it is the right thing to do, and the rest is history of course 🙂

Who have been your biggest supporters in your career so far?

As much I want to say that my local colleagues and fans from Tel Aviv, that have been on my side since day one, are my biggest supporters, I think the right answer will be – my family. They have truly helped me to be who I am today, and my music wasn’t gonna spread around the world without their huge support in my journey ❤️

What inspires you the most when making music? And how do you stay inspired?

When it gets to musical inspiration, there’s two main things that I get my inspirations from. The first one is that I go to listen do DJ’s that I like and admire, it’s Always working 🙂

And second one is…Movies. Yes, my biggest inspiration as it comes to music & ideas for telling a musical story is to watch movies and their soundtracks, I get a lot of ideas from it and it’s really opens the mind.

What would you say has been your biggest career highlight to date?

It’s funny that you ask. I just came back from Burning Man (my first time) where I played on the “Whomp Wagon” art car. I said to myself – this is it, this is my best moment so far,

It was so magical, the closest to the Moon that I’ll ever get, I guess.

You’re about to release your new single WTF alongside Elif, on her new label Marginalia. What can you tell us about the release? How did you connect with Elif for this collaboration?

Well first of all I’m very happy for Elif. I think this new label is going to be something really special and it will do great things in the electronic scene. As for the release, actually the making of the single was made in a very spontaneous way. I happened to be in Barcelona for a gig and I went to visit Elif (She has a really nice place). Long story short, we jumped on the computer and just wanted to have some fun and to jam a bit, and in a few hours we had a track 🙂

Good things sometimes comes out of nowhere.

What does it mean to you to be releasing on Marginalia?

I’m super glad to take part in this amazing project. The fact that Elif is promoting new artists shows how much she cares about people in the scene, and for me to be among those artists and even more in the first EP of the label, it got me really excited.

What is the coolest venue you have ever played and why was it so special?

The coolest “venue” I ever played was actually an Artcar, at the Israeli Midburn. (After you play at burn events it’s really hard to ״Outcool” those gigs haha) The acrtcar is basically a train and it has also a driver room at the front and a roof up top, I think it’s the coolest DJ booth I ever been in.

If you could put on your own show anywhere in the world, where would it be and who would you have join you on the lineup?

My dream is first of all to put up my own live show so I guess there’s not gonna be anyone to share it with (at first). But if it would be a DJ set it would without a doubt will be a B2B with my buddy Mosko. As for the locations, I have a dream to throw a party, or to play at a party in some on the world’s rain forests, maybe in the Amazon. I have an unexplained attraction for forests.

Beyond the new single release, what is coming up next in the world of Takiru?

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming year, there’s a very special EP that I’m working on that’s gonna show other musical sides in me, also there’s a secret edit that I’m looking forward to share, of a special song from the 2000’s.

I’m pretty active on social media so I think the best place to keep up path me is Instagram and Spotify, I also post new things every now and then on my Linktree link which you can find in my every social media’s profiles. And if you have my mail, feel free to contact at any time, (except Sunday between 2-4pm)😅

Elif & Takiru – WTF is out now via Marginalia as part of Elif’s Medusa EP: https://www.marginalialabel.com/medusa