Your rise in the electronic music scene has been rapid since forming in 2018. What do you think contributed most to this early success and recognition by top artists like Solomun, Pete Tong, and Tale Of Us?
We try never to stay in one musical genre. I mean, we’ve always been interested in electronic dance music, but we’ve always been interested in watching it change and changing with it. Before forming Goom Gum, we worked a lot individually and together under different names.
We started with genres like soulful house, deep house, disco house, electro house. We even wrote a little bit of EDM tracks. It’s not to say that we were looking for ourselves. We just liked a certain genre at that moment of time. Maybe our ideas in those genres were not as interesting as the ideas we brought to Indie Dance and Melodic Techno. Or maybe it was just that at that time, when we were working in other genres, social networks were not so developed and it was not as easy as it is now to get our music to the listeners and to the top DJs.
Your track ‘Pantheon’ with Argy became a huge hit in 2023. Can you tell us more about the creative process behind that collaboration?
We met Argy in the summer of 2022 in Egypt at a show. At that time we admired his track ‘Tataki’, which was very popular at that time all over the world. We told him about it, and he responded by offering to collaborate and send us interesting musical ideas. The first demo we sent him was the idea of choirs, which was the basis for ‘Pantheon’. It caught his attention and he offered to finalize it. We liked the way he finished it and he offered to show this track to Tale Of Us so they could test it at their shows and maybe release it on Afterlife label. What happened next, you know all about it yourself. The track fired and became a big hit. After this track Argy made another track with similar choruses, which became no less popular. And the idea with choruses we started became a trend and many producers started to use such choruses in their tracks. Of course, we were flattered that we were able to come up with a sound that captured the whole music world at that time. Not many people can do that and we are happy that we did it.
Your releases have been supported by some of the most prestigious labels in electronic music, like Afterlife, Armada, and Mau5trap. How do you approach crafting a sound that fits these diverse labels while maintaining your unique style?
We started Goom Gum as a project creating tracks in the Indie Dance genre. We wrote in this genre for a few years until we released on Afterlife and changed our sound to Melodic Techno. We changed our sound quite drastically and that left us with a lot of unreleased Indie Dance tracks that we would love to release. That’s exactly what happened with Mau5trap. We got an offer from them and felt that the track ‘Soma’ would be the best fit for their catalog. We still release tracks from those years on different labels. For example, recently Pete Tong’s label Three Six Zero released a collab track with Brigitte Bardot and it’s also in Indie Dance style. It took the label almost 3 years to license the vocals of the famous French actress and all this time the track was waiting for its time. Armada sent us a request for an Armin van Buuren remix and we decided not to refuse this chance. So the release on this label took place.
‘It’s A Lot’ reached No. 1 on the UK club dance chart and featured a licensed sample from Depeche Mode. How did the collaboration with Depeche Mode come about, and what was it like working with such an iconic band?
Like most of our ideas, this one came about purely because one day we suddenly imagined how cool it would be to sample “It’s A Lot” from Depeche Mode’s 1984 track ‘Master & Servant’ in the then trendy dark Indie Dance sound. We cut this moment from the original track and made basically a remix, which we then sent only to Solomun, counting on his support. He supported that remix massively and he played it in pretty much every set in 2019. Pete Tong noticed this and asked us to send him this track to feature as an “Essential New Tune” on his legendary Essential Selection show on BBC Radio 1. We told him it was an unofficial remix, but he didn’t care.
Pete Tong liked the track so much that he made the track incredibly popular through his radio shows. We got letters from many labels hoping to release the remix on their label. But none of the labels could get a license from Depeche Mode, because the band as a matter of principle did not give any DJs any tracks from their old repertoire to recycle. Then Pete Tong offered to talk to the band’s management and try to get a license. He did it successfully, for which we are very grateful! But the band still didn’t give us permission to call it a remix. They gave us the right to use the sample, but to call the track under the name Goom Gum ‘It’s A Lot’. We can’t say we’re upset about it. On the contrary, we were honored to get such a license from our favorite and iconic band.
Pete Tong has been a strong supporter of your work, presenting your tracks on BBC Radio 1 and even inviting you for a guest mix. How has his endorsement influenced your career, and what was it like collaborating with him on ‘Signal’?
We have always considered Pete Tong to be one of the most important figures in electronic dance music. He has made a huge contribution to its development like no other person on the planet. He is the real godfather of this music and we are very honored that he noticed us and has been supporting our creativity and helping us to develop for several years. We have been listening to his radio show for many years and we still believe that this show is the benchmark of dance music, the best of what has been created. To get your track on his radio show is a great honor for any DJ, even the top one. Pete Tong noticed us after remixing Depeche Mode and after that he has supported our tracks in his sets and radio shows many times. We have released 3 times on his label Three Six Zero and all releases there have been very successful. Besides ‘It’s A Lot’, we released a remix of Raffa Guido’s ‘Famax’ and the track ‘Contact’ with French actress and singer Brigitte Bardot.
Your tracks are frequently included in Tale Of Us’ epic Afterlife shows, which feature breathtaking audiovisuals. How do you feel about seeing your music paired with such powerful visual experiences, and do you think this enhances the impact of your sound?
These days, it’s not enough for listeners to just hear the music, they want to see the show. In the case of electronic music, visuals on big screens come together very organically. The Chemical Brothers were one of the first to do this many years ago – they were small movie screens with video sketches synchronized with the music. Modern technical achievements allow to use not just giant-sized screens, but also 3D screens, which Eric Prydz has already been doing for a while. The epicness of such shows is nothing short of impressive. Anyma is already doing a show at Las Vegas Sphere and we’re afraid to imagine what’s next. Technology is advancing at a crazy pace.
With so many of your tracks charting on Beatport and making waves in the dance scene, what do you think is the key to creating music that resonates with both DJs and the wider audience?
It is difficult to evaluate one’s own creativity. We usually treat it very critically. But maybe the main reason why we are interested in our music is that we never stay in one sound. Always looking for new sounds and grooves, always trying to change and wanting to surprise. The main thing in music for us is an unusual, completely new idea, but at the same time easily understandable to most listeners.
It’s very difficult to find that line between experimentation and mass appeal, but we always try to do it. We don’t want to go to the total underground, but we don’t want to become pop artists either. It’s cool when you bring an innovative idea to a mass audience and they like it. We think that’s what happened, for example, with the track ‘Pantheon’.
As a duo, how do you collaborate during the production process? Do each of you have distinct roles, or is everything a shared effort?
Even 2-3 years ago we worked together in our small studio, but now there is almost no such opportunity. Very often we are in different parts of the world and now it’s easier for us to exchange ideas and track projects, edit them and finalize them over the internet. The roles are definitely distributed, we complement each other in our work. Although sometimes these roles change. Most often, Eugene gives ideas for a track or a remix, defines the sound, mood and concept of the track, makes some minimal demo, and Kirill realizes this idea technically and makes a full-fledged track from the demo, which can be played in clubs. After we test our final demos in clubs, we decide together what can be replaced, removed or added.
With your music being regularly played in some of the biggest electronic music sets around the world, what’s next for Goom Gum? Are there any upcoming collaborations or projects that you’re particularly excited about?
We love making tracks with legends. It’s incredibly honorable for us. If legends agree to work with us, then our music is worth something. It was like that with Depeche Mode, Pete Tong, Brigitte Bardot. From the upcoming collaborations we can boast of working with one of the “fathers” of trance music and once the best DJ in the world Paul Oakenfold. It will be a cover of one of the classic electronic tracks from the 90s. We really like to use ideas from the 80s and 90s. Back then there were a lot of bright interesting ideas, which are now forgotten and if they are not revived, they can go into oblivion and will not be heard by our and future generations. Of course, any cover or remix should be not just a drum and bass underneath the original (as it often happens), but an original and modern look of the producer, who took to revive the classics.
Thanks for chatting with us today! Any final words for our readers?
Never rest on your laurels and never settle for just what you are offered. It doesn’t matter what it is about – music, movies, fashion and so on. Turn on your critical thinking and look further. There is so much information in the world that you will never get if you only use what is “recommended”. Dive deeper into any topic, analyze, compare! And then your life will certainly become much more interesting and rich. You will be able to make real discoveries! Especially, it concerns listeners and musicians. Open new musical horizons and enjoy it!