Adam Beyer’s Truesoul is a breeding ground for new musical projects, and the label is now thrilled to share the debut collaborative EP between Sydney Blu and Shelley Johannson.
Photo Credit: Sydney Blu & Shelley Johannson – Official
Their maiden collaboration is an inspiring link-up of styles, with the pair spending six months refining the work. ‘Getting Closer’ is vibes from the get-go, a shimmering and propulsive slice of late-night dancefloor fun, with a foot in both house and techno camps. ‘Drive Me Crazy’, steps up the intensity, a dynamic offering that mines elements of silky progressive, heady after-hours house and thrilling peak-time techno throughout its six-minute duration.
To celebrate the release of ‘Getting Closer’, Sydney Blu & Shelley Johannson invite us into the studio for 5 tips for a successful collaboration.
1. Have a sound in mind
At the beginning of your collaborative journey, choose where the music should go. It’s like having a map to point you in the right direction. In this case, we chose a specific label to help guide our sound. Reference tracks serve as a touchstone to make sure we were merging our sounds into something fitting.
2. Try lots of ideas
People tend to be very creative in groups and this was definitely true for us! During our studio sessions, we would bounce ideas back and forth, just trying everything out until we got the right sound. Working together in this way allowed us to combine our perspectives to come up with something unexpected and unique.
3. Share techniques
Collaborating with another artist can really expand your toolbox of musical knowledge. Sydney was showing me all sorts of plugins I had never used before, which was exciting and enjoyable. Sharing and receiving knowledge does two things; it solidifies your understanding of the world and introduces you to new creative solutions. And THAT really enriches the experience.
4. Zoom sessions
We Zoomed a lot making this EP and it’s perfectly fine to make tracks this way. You can send the audio through Zoom so the session could be heard clearly when one or the other was adding things. Sharing a Dropbox with the Ableton session is also key for this, so one of us could open the session as we worked on it. If one of us didn’t have a plug-in the other was using we could freeze each track so we could hear the sound without the plug-in.
5. Road test at your gigs
Another huge key to finishing a track is each of us road-testing at our shows. This gives you a clear message on what needs to be edited or fixed, especially when it’s in the final mixing stages. Road testing also gives you an idea of how the song will connect with the crowd. Then if you need any final edits you can go back to the track and have the final mix exactly where you want it.
Sydney Blu & Shelley Johannson’s ‘Getting Closer’ is out now via Trusoul. Purchase your copy here.
Follow Sydney Blu: Soundcloud | Spotify | Instagram | Facebook
Follow Shelley Johannson: Soundcloud | Spotify | Instagram | Facebook
