Egopusher is a Swiss/German, instrumental Electronica duo consisting of Tobias Preisig (violin, synths) and Alessandro Giannelli (drums, synths). Their sound is a mixture of elegant, analog Electronica, with a touch of Neo Contemporary that has been captivating listeners and dancefloors alike. With the project beginning back in 2013, the pair now have over seven years of experience working their magic in the studio.
As they look forwards to their latest release,‘Elenor’, we sat down with the duo as they shared with us some useful production tips.
1. Look for that excitement.
Music is all about a vibe. If it gives you goosebumps, if it gives you back some energy, if it speaks to you, then it is the right thing. Follow that feeling and trust it. Don’t listen to others telling you ‘this is hip’ or ‘this is too old school’. It’s all about personality.
2. Take free space to improvise.
Even between intense touring, we plan free time to play around, to improvise, to fool around musically, to test new things, and to just spend time together that has nothing to do with playing the repertoire on stage. These open windows are extremely important to let new things happen organically. We often meet in the studio, play and when the musical arch is over we go out and grab a beer and some nuts at the ‘Späti’. Then we go back to the studio and go for the next move. It’s Important that we don’t judge the musical moment. We record everything anyway and we can judge it later, and then even go deeper. All our tracks are based on this principle. It makes our music very organic and very honest.
3. Don’t think too much. Don’t talk too much. Let it happen.
Often when we start to discuss about music that we get into arguments and disagreements. Mostly in our discussions, we mean the same thing, but we call it differently. If we just play and let things happen, the music speaks for itself and all the doubts and the uncertainties are gone.
4. Wet and dry contrasts. Think in 3D with sounds.
In the beginning, we had the common tendency to send everything into superlong reverbs, because it just feels good. In the meantime, we have learned that it is important to work with contrasts. If everything is wet, you don’t feel the ‘wetness’ anymore. If suddenly something is completely dry, the wet feels like it’s supposed to feel. Think in 3D with the sounds, it makes the music more haptic. There is a front, behind, left and right, and many more. Think visually when you place your sounds.
5. Always record as if it was a real take.
This happened a lot to us in the beginning. Everything we record now is for real, well microphoned, well amped. So many times we wanted to use a take from a demo recording that was badly recorded but had this amazing vibe. It’s mostly impossible to recreate this vibe if you record it again and try to copy it. The song ‘Faint’ from our upcoming album, for example, was exactly one of these moments and happened at an endless improvisation session in the mountains late at night. In the end, we looked at ourselves and felt that something magical just happened. This track is exactly on the record as it was improvised at that very moment.
Ergopusher’s brand new single, ‘Elenor’, is out now via Quiet Love Records. Stream and buy here.
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