Mihai Clipa: Hello guys. As we spoke before we prepared some questions for you. I hope you like them, so let's get done with this interview :)
1. How did the group Kaseta & Graf took birth into the worldwide EDM scene ?
Dave Kaseta: I was in a band for 10 years, playing as a drummer and mixing the bands music together on adobe audiocity. As the band members were splitting up from lack of commitment and drive for success, I was determined to keep my passion for music alive. Going to my first show at the guvernment, in toronto to see Armin Van Burin, I was introduced into the EDM scene. Shortly after my first experience with EDM, I started to collect and listen to a wide range of music. From trance, progressive house, and other electronic music genres. But listening was just not enough for me. I learned about a program called Virtual Dj where I could mix the music that I was just starting to gain a passion for. Slowly my passion for EDM grew to a state where I was creating mixes on a regular basis.
Mike Graf: I first attended a show at the ice house in london ontario where I was introduced to the EDM scene with Lady Bass as the main headliner. After the show, i was around 17, I stumbled on a program called Fruity Loops. I didn't really have any background music experience or any idea how to use the program. I experimented alot and just made tunes that were a bank of sounds and vst's, but there was never any real structure or tune layout. It was just something i would do for fun and play with for hours at a time. I kept experimenting and always kept it as a hobby of mine. As I was growing up, my brother which is 7 years older then me, was really into the EDM scene which also played a role in my passion for EDM. One day he asked me to go with him to a Dj Tiesto event at The Docks in Toronto. Not to familiar with the EDM scene at the time I didn't realize that the show was going to turn around my life. We went to the show and since that day I have had such a passion for EDM. The people, the vibe, and everything about it was something i wanted to get involved in. At this time I was going to College for a degree in Graphic Design. I lived in a college neighborhood with many different people. One of my friends Ryan Bruner and I were talking about music and djing then one day and he told me he had his own equipment. That is where i performed my first beat match on Technics turntables. I found my new passion, music. As my college days went on I lived with many different roommates, one of them was a new friend from Trinidad. He gave me alot of influence on reggae music and I really enjoyed the rasta vibes. Another person that influenced me to become a dj was Dj Busdriver. His choice of music was DnB, Dubstep, Garage, and Grime, which i wasn't to interested in at the time but i slowly gained appreciation for it after living with him for 3 years. As the 3 years went by i slowly learned more about the djing world and how to beat match and mix tunes. I learned how to mix reggae tunes with DnB, just mashing up tunes and only playing for myself. But there was something holding me back. My passion was for house, trance and progressive.
One day near the end of 2007 had a friend come over, which was David Kaseta. Our families were friends for almost my whole life but we never were very close friends. We started to hang out and talk about our interests. We realized that we both had this passion for EDM, that we never really talked about. We talked about the shows we went to and how we came to like EDM. Then one day we were driving through the city listen to some wicked tunes, on a mixed cd. I was really enjoying the tunes, then Dave told me he mixed it on his computer. I was amazed. The tunes reminded me of why i liked EDM so much. I asked him how he mixed them and he responded with "Virtual Dj". I once opened the program and found it was not for me. But i didn't realize that you could mix tracks so well on such a basic program. I told Dave, "Dude this is some good s*%t". And he was shocked that i thought it was so amazing. He told me i was one of three people that listened to the mix. I then suggested to him that he should by some real equipment and try to really Dj. I also showed dave some of the things i created with Fruity loops and it also played a big role in us starting our duo.
As our talks progressed into use both purchasing our own equipment. Starting with a dj 600 mixer and two cdj's powered by serato we thought ourselves how to mix various genres of EDM. We were hooked on mixing. We then learned about a program called Ableton Live. I started to teach myself the program and slowly passed on the knowledge of the basics onto Dave. We both started to collaborate and started producing music in the early months of 2008. We both realized we both a talent, and we had everything we need to make an image for ourselves. Dave's strong background in music helped me learn structure and theory of music, while my graphic design skills would help us create an image for our self on the world wide web. We decided we had to do it big or not do it at all.
2. Where did the passion for EDM music came from ? Have you been involved with other genres beside Trance or any other electronic style before ?
David Kaseta: You probably have a good picture where our passion for EDM came from with the answer from the pervious question. We both came from different backgrounds and we both were into different styles of music, so yes to your question about being involved in different genres.
Mike Graf: I personally enjoy all genres of music. Music is about the evolution of the human species and over time i believe we have trained our hearing to adapt to different styles of music. There are different genres still growing and becoming very popular, for example dubstep. I personally don't spin dubstep but i believe it is hitting a point in music evolution that is combining many genres. My background of music taste, which is composed of DnB, reggae, chill out, and jungle, Dubstep is one style I really enjoy to listen to. But when it comes to production my passion is trance, techno, tech house and minimal genres. I believe that if a genre like dubstep has evolved form many different styles, the trance and techno music scene will also flow in the same direction and we will see an amazing change in music in years to come.
3. London Loud Session is your weekly radio show as far as I know, could you please tell us the idea behind the show, which kind of public is it designate for ?
London Loud Sessions was created to give people a place/ radio station where they could listen to the newest tunes, and keep up to date with the evolving music community around all of us. When we figured out we wanted to share our passion for music with the community and start up Kaseta & Graf, a radio station was the best way to have people listen to our selection of tunes and our flawless mixes. The show started off hosted on a free web provider that could only stream around 10 listener. What a joke. We very quickly decided to find a provider with a larger listener base so we contacted Deviant Audio, who's listener base was higher, at 50 listeners. We signed a residency and our listener base kept increasing. Unfortunately Deviant Audio's website went down and the online radio station was closed. That is when we approached Sense.fm to propose a bi-weekly show, on every first and third saturday of every month. We were given residency within a week of the request and we started to advertise our show. Creating radio jingles, approaching well know dj's for quest mixes, and spinning tunes produced by some very talented producers, London Loud Sessions currently hosts to an average of 180 listeners per show. Also we created a place where people can go and download all the mixes, or stream online anytime they want. People can leave comments about every show read news, and stay up to date with our evolution process.
We strive to attract a wide listener base. We designed London Loud Sessions to be the source for trance, house, tech-house, techno, progressive, and minimal mixes. We are looking to attracted everyone and anyone. From special guests dj's around the world, to new tracks produced by us, people are always in for a treat.
4. I know you produced a track called "Evolution" which I must say it brings a lot of 90's style, can you offer more information about how this track was born ? Was it inspired by facts of your everyday life ?
As you can probably already put two and two together, we believe all music is apart of a evolution process. As we are both very new to production in the EDM scene, we believed that tune "Evolution Process" was a perfect name for one of our first few track signed to a label. We plan to do very big things this year and really make on impact on the EDM scene, and play a big roll in the evolution of these amazing genres. It just seemed to fit perfectly.
5. You guys are supported by artists like Airwave, Yves Deruyter, just to name a few. We were wondering if there would be any collaboration with other artists included the ones I named before.
It would be an honor to collaborate with the names mentioned above. With the experience that airwave has gained over his years of producing and djing, a collaboration would be something that would not only turn out amazing, but also teach us so much about the EDM scene we still do not know about. It would be amazing to see the types of remixes some well known producers could come out with from our tunes or vise versa. There are many tunes that have remixes of the original version, and sometimes they can turn out better. Collaboration with other dj's and producers plays a large role in the changing style of music. Its amazing how one original tune can be put in the hands of 5 other producers, and be release with 6 or more different version. Simply amazing.
06. Has your style changed upon time ?
As everything in our world is changing, so are the music trends. Our taste for music constantly is on a ride. We generally stick with trance, house, techno, tech-house, progressive and minimal. With such great tunes coming out in all different genres, its hard to just focus on just one style. There are times where so many great trance tracks are being release, but other genres are not releasing an abundance of good tunes at the same time. Then is changes, there aren't as many good trance tracks, but other genres seem to be releasing good tunes left right and center. that's what makes its fun, we constantly are listening and spinning good tunes from a wide variety of genres.
7. I know you guys are from Canada, and I would like to have some information about the EDM scene out there. What's that the public prefers more ? And does the listener's wishes influence your way of making music ?
We produce and experiment with alot of trance and progressive music because that is where both of our passion for music lies, but techno, tech house, and minimal music is the predominant music style in our part of the world, so lately we are producing more of that style of music. The trance/progressive scene is huge in europe and other parts of the world and it is still big here, but there aren't as frequent Trance/progressive events as other genres like techno, tech house,minimal and house. When there is a trance event in these parts there is usually someone well known that plays and it is usually a memorable night. We hope to one go international and play our productions for huge trance/progressive crowds. Just remember everyone, trance and progressive are where its at!
8. In terms of production, please tell us what Your studio consists of.
The Studio Consists of 2 Yorkville YSM1P studio monitors with a 12" Powered Yorkville Subwoofer
M-Audio axion 49 Keyboard, M-Box Mini, Rhode Condensor Microphone, a powerful PC Tower, 2 19" LCD Monitors and for production software we like to use Ableton and Logic where we use mikes Mac book pro to use logic.
9. When You're both in the studio, do you usually work together with him on a future track or do You just kind of let him finish own thing and then You jump in with ideas or You just go with the flow, how's the intuition?
David Kaseta: We both have our own studios and we both have slightly different styles. But when we team up and sit down together in the studio our our styles mess to create great tunes. We usually just go with the flow, one of us will have an idea, then we'll both build on it and discuss it. Sometimes we are both working on different project and then when we sit down together and share what we have been working on new ideas and tunes seem to come together. We will give tips to each other on what areas need improvement and sometimes remix our own tracks. Its amazing having someone that can honestly tell you if a song is amazing or it needs work. Most people will just tell you it sounds good to make you feel confident about your music, but in reality, when your talking to someone that is there to produce a track with you, they will give you there honest opinion.
Mike Graf: Dave's solid background in music and song structure, he has helped us with our productions. In my experimental days of making tunes, it was all about creating music on the fly without any structure. Basically just a fun hobby. But in the last year, I have learned so much from him. With both of our minds combined, we have come out with some wicked tracks, and will hopefully be releasing many more this year!
10. Explain the process as when You both are coming up with Your production concepts and ideas, thanks.
Our ideas seem to come from everywhere. From going to parties and feeling the vibe of people dancing. Coming home and pumping out a tune, to sitting and just talking about really cool song ideas, we get our ideas from many different sources. We have many influences that give shape to our our music, the dj's that influence us, the tunes that we like at that particular moment, and the genre we are most into at the time.
11. Please tell me, how would You describe and define the style of music that You both create and perform ?
We have only been in this scene for a short period of time, but we are currently playing a mix of trance, techno, tech house, progressive, tribal and minimal. We are trying not to limit ourselves to one style or genre because there are so many good tracks being release in all type. We try to stick with what's new fresh and ground breaking. With our production we try to mesh different genres together to come out with something original.
12. What’s going on with Kaseta & Graf in 2009 and what are Your future goals and plans for near future ?
2009 will be a very productive and busy year, were producing alot this year and plan to have around 40 tracks signed by the end of the year, This year we'd like to collaborate with different artists on various projects, play outdoor festivals and play as much as we can. In our long term goals we'd like to release a full length album, Tour Europe within a year or two and start up our own record label called London Loud.
13. In Your personal point of view, what is it like being an artist in these day and age, versus when You all first entered the business back in the days ?
Let the good times roll! We haven't been in this scene for a long time, so we have lots to see and accomplish. But it has been real good so far.
14. Before wrapping this interview would you like to say some words to all the people reading this interview especially to TranceSound.net members ? Thank You.
We just hope you guys like our style and support us by tuning in to our radio show London Loud Sessions, supporting our releases and by coming out to our shows when in your town. Any support is greatly appreciated.
Interview made by Cosmin Lukacs aka Dj K8oard (TranceSound admin/founder) and Mihai Clipa (TranceSound.net PR forum moderator).
Links:
London Loud official website
Kaseta & Graf @ MySpace
