Latin American artists and producers PAAX (Tulum) are world travelers and fusion rhythm lovers, faithless about their Latin roots. PAAX (Tulum) has achieved a very personal and distinct sound thanks to the different cultural musical influences, and the assembly of natural instruments together with electronic beats and experimental nuances. This has led them to perform at some of the best festivals and music parties around the world with the support of great artists.
We caught up with PAAX (Tulum) to learn more about their incoming releases, new plans for 2023, future performances, and more.
EG: Hi guys! Welcome to EG. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. How have you been? Where are you based right now?
PAAX (Tulum): Hi EG friends! How are you? We are very happy to be back in the studio after so much touring…it’s hard to say where we are based, but, right now, we are mostly based between Argentina, Spain, and Mexico.
EG: So, what have you been up to in the studio in these past months? Is there anything you can anticipate on that front?
PAAX (Tulum): There are a lot of things coming this year, very good releases, an 8-track LP with Scorpios Music, new participations of more musicians that join the PAAX collective, and recently, we have finished a remix for one of the greatest progressive artists, Nick Muir.
EG: Speaking of Muir… he has just played in Argentina, which is where you’re from, and where you played just a few months ago, right? How was the experience at the Primavera Folck Festival?
PAAX (Tulum): Argentina is a country with an impressive electronic culture, the truth is that we are very happy to play at home every time. This particular festival was awesome. Folck Producciones did this PRIMAVERA Folck Festival in a very professional manner, with a lineup full of friends vibrating together with over 5000 people. Luckily, we were able to record an hour of the set, which you can enjoy on our Youtube channel.
EG: How do you guys figure out when it’s right for a DJ or a band set? What are the main challenges you face when creating one or the other? And the advantages?
PAAX (Tulum): We consider our music to be very dynamic, and adaptable to different contexts, ages, and places. We like to arrive at our shows as informed as possible. With presentation as a band, we work a lot re-versioning our own tracks live, which allows us to perform a fresher, more human, and more organic show. Meanwhile, the DJ sets allow us a deeper performance and different intensity, more “dancefloor”. We like both a lot and sometimes we combine them. For example, in Scorpios Mykonos, we start with the band to do the sunset and when we finish with the band, we do 2 hours more as a DJ set.
The main challenge they present is undoubtedly the musical selection. But what would life be without challenges? We love to get to the venues, connect early with the party and then decide what we are going to play. 99% of the time we change almost everything we had prepared (laughter)… It also depends on the amount of time we have to play. The longer, the better the sets to be able to tell stories.
“We consider our music to be very dynamic, and adaptable to different contexts, ages, and places. We like to arrive at our shows as informed as possible”
EG: As we said, you guys are from Argentina. but you’re now based between Mexico and Spain. So, how did you guys first connect? Was the idea of PAAX (Tulum) right there from the start?
PAAX (Tulum): Music has connected us, Mexico was just the meeting point, the common place where those things of life and without explanation magically brought us closer. The human connection is the main thing, musical connection was given through different projects and sounds to reach the current sound. PAAX (Tulum) was born there, obviously, where after several years of playing music, we discovered that precious connection that Tulum had that made it unique.
EG: How do you guys go about in the studio? Do you have defined roles? How do you overcome “arguments”?
PAAX (Tulum): In this last time, being on tour for a long time where time is scarce, we always find time to make music… the creative processes are the most important, and regarding the technical and studio part, we finish the tracks whenever Nico finds time and harmony. Depending on where we are in the world, we have different studios we go to. The musical ideas for PAAX are always between the two of us, in and out of the studio – Honestly, we know each other very well and we follow a line, our musical tastes coincide, so the discussions at the time of creation are minimal and we have great freedom to have fun creating.
EG: How do you feel about the role of social media in the music industry? Is it drawing us too far away from the actual music? How can we make our interactions with social media serve us better?
PAAX (Tulum): First of all, we always try to see the positive side of things, the role of social networks today is very important. For example, without this tool, it would be very difficult to meet emerging artists or explore music without limits… Then it’s up to each one to determine what he likes or dislikes and find the way to know how to search.
In general, they do not take us away from the real world, if we know how to use social networks and not waste our time looking at meaningless things or simply letting ourselves be carried away by the applications that show us only what they want…
One way to improve interaction in social networks is to be authentic and use them for productive things… Sometimes we spend a lot of time on them without realizing it, and in reality, what we don’t understand is that time is the most valuable thing we have.
EG: How do you keep entertained when not in the studio? Have you checked out any good movies, series, books, or albums you’d recommend?
PAAX (Tulum): When we are not in the studio or on tour, we take refuge in family and friends, and we enjoy the human side. We couldn’t recommend any series, we don’t really watch much… for example, Germán recently discovered ‘Game of Thrones’ and it’s been more than 10 years old since it first premiered (laughter).
But the truth is that as we spend many hours in front of a computer with music, or on the phone working… Every minute we can, we escape from the screens and, as we said before, we try to spend as much time as possible with the people we love. That generates one of our greatest inspirations.
“Sometimes we spend a lot of time on them [social media] without realizing it, and in reality, what we don’t understand is that time is the most valuable thing we have”
EG: Can you tell us something about you that very few people know about?
PAAX (Tulum): We are very passionate about what we do, we enjoy it very much, every second… because we are very aware that we had to leave behind many things years ago to make a living from this… like our country, friends, family, loves… everything… we have struggled a lot, and we have started with absolutely nothing, but thanks to the support of family and friend,s we have been able to cope quite well and endure in the most critical moments. We feel very grateful to be able to live this musical dream.
EG: What’s next for PAAX (Tulum)? What particular milestones are you looking forwards to this 2023? Where can your fans catch you next? (we can list all upcoming dates here)
PAAX (Tulum): Right now, we are very focused on the new music we are producing… very happy to discover new ways and we are already in full swing with the season that is coming in very strong. In the next few months, we will have confirmed shows all over the world… For example, in Jordan, Chill O’posite Festival in April, the first week of May we will be in Porto, Portugal, and then we will go 2 weeks to Mexico on tour there, returning to Europe in June. Back in Portugal, but this time in the south, then Santorini, our monthly residency in Scorpios Mykonos, big festivals are coming in Romania like Neversea in July, and UNTOLD in August… and so on… we’ve got a bit of everything.
EG: Thank you so much for your time, guys! We wish you all the best for the future.
PAAX (Tulum): Thank you EG friends, it was a pleasure to share this moment with you and we hope to see you somewhere in the world.
PAAX (Tulum)’s remix for Laroz & Matara’s ‘Nidze’ is out now via Camel Riders. Purchase your copy here.
Follow PAAX (Tulum): Spotify | Instagram | Soundcloud | Facebook
