Speaking with the Cruising and Sensational Y.V.E 48

Brothers Leo and Rafael are Y.V.E 48 – a German deep house combo that has been sending shockwaves around the world. The duo have a solid musical background with Rafael who has been experimenting with electronic sounds since his early teens and Leo that is a classical pianist who graduated from the Juilliard School in New York City. The combination of their knowledge and passion have created hit tracks like “On the Road”, “Records” and “Nothing To Say” that have received over 20 million hits on Spotify and been released on dance labels such as Armada Music. Their scheduled show at Mirror on the 16^th of June is going to be one of a kind, so we decided to catch up with them to see what they’re all about!
Hey guys! How’s it going? Let’s start with how Y.V.E. 48 began?
Hey – it’s going great! We are excited to come to Bali to play in Indonesia for the first time.
We started making electronic music together about four years ago. At that point, I (Rafa) had already been producing and DJing for a while, while Leo was studying piano. One day we just decided to make a track together and it was great fun, so we teamed up and started playing some DJ gigs. In 2014 we wanted a fresh start, so we started the Y.V.E. 48 project.

What is your creative process when starting a new track? What kind of Hardware do you guys use?
We normally start by finding a chord progression on the piano and try to figure out what tempo feels best by adding some drums. However, we try to keep the instrumental kind of rough in the beginning, so that we are still able to go in any direction when we team up with a vocalist/ songwriter. Most of the time the final version of a track differs a lot from its initial idea because we keep changing things throughout that creative process. That’s the beauty of making music! We use Logic Pro X as our main workstation with many additional external plugins. We also use some analogue synthesizers such as a Moog Little Phatty or the Yamaha DX7. They always add a nice, warm color to a production.
 How did the collaboration with Ziggy Alberts come about? Do you have any other collaborations coming?
We discovered Ziggy’s music last year and instantly fell in love with his voice. It has such a special color and blends so well with the guitar he plays, so we decided to reach out to him. His management liked the idea as well of us making a remix of his song “Runaway”. Currently we are working on another remix for Ziggy. In addition to that, we just released a remix for Amsterdam-based producer OIJ that came out on Epic Records Amsterdam/ Sony Music. These remixes were the first ones that got officially released. Usually our focus is on creating original music.
 Do you have any up and coming releases that you could share with our readers?
We just finished our next single. For this one we teamed up with an amazing singer from Berlin to make a Future Bass-like track. It will be released on Berlin-based label “We Are Diamond” soon.

Have you been experimenting with any other genres? What made you guys choose deep house?
We had been producing a bunch of different genres such as Techno, Progressive House, etc., before we started making melodic Deep House music. We like the idea of creating music that you can play live but that people can also listen to at home. In today’s electronic music world, all genres seem to merge more and more, so it is hard to categorize. For us the most important thing is to create your own sound, rather than sticking to a certain genre.
 What are some of your inspirations?
We grew up in a very musical family because our father is a Jazz musician, so we have always been exposed to all kinds of music.
Artists that had the most impact on us are:
Odesza, Rüfüs, M83, Lane 8, Andhim, and Snakehips – just to name a few..
We are also really into this new wave of videography that is currently evolving with people such as Rory Kramer or Sam Kolder and how they combine motion picture with music.
What are some of your aspirations for the next 5 years? Whats next for Y.V.E. 48?
As a creative person it can be hard to plan ahead because you should always be open to new opportunities along the way – so right now we are focused on what’s right in front of us and excited to find out where it takes us! 😉
What can we expect from you guys at Mirror Bali?
We are going to play a set filled with our own music and other tracks we love. Hoping to have a great night and spread good vibes!
 
 See the Y.V.E. 48 event page for Mirror on Friday June 16, 2017.