What’s your musical background? How did you get started?
Both of us started playing music around the age of 7. Zach started out taking drum and percussion lessons while Will began learning piano before he picked up the guitar at age 10. We grew up listening to all kinds of genres, and we were always very open to everything and enjoyed a lot of different styles music. As far as playing goes, we both grew up playing in a hand full of your classic high school rock bands, and school jazz ensembles, as well as spent a lot of time experimenting with electronic music production. We continued our musical education and passion at University of Miami’s School of Music.
How does the equipment you use vary between studio productions and live performances?
We use Ableton Live both in the studio and live. Usually when we are making tracks in our studio, we just use a simple midi keyboard and an MPC or some sort of sampler.
Live is a completely different story. In addition to having live drums, guitar, and keyboards, we have a fully custom Ableton Live setup which we designed to act like a hybrid DJ mixing station mixed with a digital version of an old school “King Tubby” style dub mixing station.
How do you start a track?
Since we both are equally involved in coming with new tracks, it always starts differently. Some tracks start with a beat or idea one of us come up with, and we will pass the track back and forth adding whatever we hear until we feel that it’s done. Or we will sit down together and make a track from scratch to finish. Either way, we usually both have had our hands on the track before its complete.
How do you feel your music has progressed over the years?
Just in the past year the music has progressed exponentially. From constantly making music and working on tracks, experimenting with new effects and production techniques, trial and error while mixing and mastering, we have steadily been taking the music to the next level.
Are there any productions or career highlights that you’re particularly proud of?
Having the opportunity to remix our close friends Afrobeta for the Ultra Music Festival remix contest, and winning, was awesome. The contest was held during the first few months of Sounduo’s inception, so having the remix released on Ultra’s label and performing at Ultra during this time was a great kick-start for us.
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning for 2012 to be a huge year for us. We have our first full length album, ‘Departures’, coming out on Made In Glitch on January 30th, followed by a full southeast tour throughout February. The album is going to be exclusive to Beatport for the first month, and has already been blogged by several great music blogs. After that, we are just going to continue doing what we love: making music, throwing down at shows, and pushing our music and name out there.
Was there a particular artist or track that compelled you to become a DJ?
We don’t consider our selves as DJs, we have very little experience actually DJing, but being exposed to the music coming out of the DJ scene in the UK definitely hugely influenced us into producing our music and finding ways to perform electronic dub-glitch music in a live “band” setting. But, some producers we really love are Benga, Eskmo, Wagawaga, Radikal Guru, King Tubby.
Are there any up and coming artists catching your eye right now?
We are very close friends with Joe Wendt (jOBOT), who we went to college with at University of Miami. So we are loving the whole west coast Headtron family of producers on the rise. jOBOT, ChrisB., Gladkill… all those guys.
Where do you see music heading in the future?
Electronic music is blowing right now, but we see the live music scene continuously getting better every year. With the immersion of all kinds of new music and arts festivals all over the world, and the insanely quick development of music and production technologies, electronic music and live shows can only get bigger, better, and more mind-blowing. We hope to be a part of it.
Do you have any advice for new producers?
Just make music you love, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.
