Octave One: Dio smo Detroit kulture bez obzira gdje živjeli ili gdje išli u posjetu, pristup nam se možda mijenja no ritam i osjećaj ostaju isti

UES: Je li preseljenje iz Detroita imalo veliki utjecaj na vaš zvuk i na koji način?

Octave One: Ne smatramo tako, jer biti rođen i odgojen u Detroitu, također i živjeti u istom tolike godine, ostavilo je vibru u našem sistemu. To je kultura i mi smo dio te kulture bez obzira gdje živjeli ili gdje išli u posjetu. Možda se naš pristup mijenja, no ritam i osjećaj ostaju isti.

UES: Putujući s mnogo glazbene opreme zvuči kao smetnja. Koje su prednosti i mane rađenja live svirki u tom stilu?

Octave One: Najiskrenije, putovanje sa svom opremom je velika muka, ako znate na Å¡to mislim. Al’ na istu ruku, jednom kad se popneÅ¡ na stage sve se to pretvori u jednu od najljepÅ¡ih i najsretnijih boli koje pojedinac može iskusiti. Ima neÅ¡to uzbudljivo u tome Å¡to možeÅ¡ dograbiti puce, pritisnuti tipke i slajdati fejdere na hardveru tijekom live seta koji ti omogućuje određenu slobodu – jer su mogućnosti, kojima sve svoj nastup možeÅ¡ odvesti, neograničene, i to samo s jednim predosjećajem.

UES: Sakupljate li još uvijek ploče i puštate li ih?

Octave One: A i ne baš mnogo, samo iz razloga što smo fokusirani na live setove.

UES: Biti dijelom scene tako mnogo vremena je zasigurno ostavilo određeni uvid u evoluciju dance glazbe. Što se, prema vašem mišljenju, promijenilo s godinama?

Octave One: Ovo će zasigurno zvučati čudno i pomalo smijeÅ¡no, no ljudi koji odlaze na dance glazbu ne pleÅ¡u uopće… smh! Možda bismo morali to nekako prekvalificirati, mogli bi reći da je proteklih godina većina postalo ‘gledatelj’, a manje ‘sudionik’. Oduvijek je bilo gledatelja u klubovima, ali mnogo manji broj, mi smo ih nazivali „train spotterima“ koji su uljudno stajali postrani stagea ili dancefloora kako ne bi ometali druge i radili ono Å¡to vole i nama je to bilo sasvim cool. Ali danas se „train spottanje“ odvija naprijed i u centru, i ta ekipa zbilja ne mari ako ometa vibru na flooru sve dok god slobodno mogu snimiti svoj videoclip. No, moramo priznati kako dame „drže konce u svojim rukama“ na flooru, naučile su se „probiti“ do prvih redova kako bi uhvatile svoj groove. I to je ono o čemu pričamo… Tako se to radi!

UES: Dolazite iz glazbene obitelji. U kojoj je mjeri glazbeno znanje iz djetinjstva imalo utjecaja na vaš pristup glazbi?

Octave One: Imati petero dječaka u jednoj obitelji nas je sve naučilo kako se izboriti za vlastito mjesto u obiteljskoj zajednici, što je u jednakoj mjeri imalo utjecaja i što se glazbe tiče. Kompetitivni smo, ali ne u onoj mjeri da mislimo samo na pobjedu, već u smislu da želimo svoj vlastiti prostor/mjesto i identitet u onome što radimo. Različiti su nam utjecaji od kojih krećemo i svi sudjeluju kao cjelina u izgradnji naših ostvarenja – različiti utjecaji, a jedna mješavina, jedan mix.

UES: Je li single ‘Black Water’ bio prijelomna točka vaÅ¡e karijere?

Octave One: Radimo to Å¡to radimo već toliko vremena da smo srećom svojevremeno imali nekoliko prijelomnih točaka od početaka do sada, ali posljednjih godina svakako ‘Black Water’ predstavlja ključnu točku.

UES: Snažan vokal, Ann Saunderson, dala je bitan naglasak skladbi. Kako je na vas utjecala suradnja s Ann Saunderson?

Octave One: Uvijek nam je privilegija raditi s Annom. Ona je sestra koju nikada nismo imali tijekom odrastanja u kući punoj dječaka, danas muškaraca. Ali ona zbilja razumije u kojem smjeru želimo krenuti kada kreiramo, što se nekima može činiti vrlo jednostavnim, no mi zbilja znamo biti nekonvencionalni ili djetinjasti, točnije neodlučni, u onome što čujemo, ne čujemo, i smjeru u kojem želimo da stvari krenu… A ona to sve kuži!

UES: Koja priča stoji iza vašeg zadnjeg albuma? Kako se dogodila te u kojoj se mjeri razlikuje od prijašnjih?

Octave One: Posljednji album je album za fanove! Kažemo zbog naÅ¡ih fanova i njihovih upita o skladbama koje smo imali za ‘Boiler Room’ projekt koji nas je i potaknuo na produkciju albuma. Napravili smo nove trake za taj nastup samo zato Å¡to smo htjeli neki novi groove, ljudi su to prihvatili i pokrenuli konstantnu ludu lavinu upita, a pritom i započeli „skidanje“ sekcija videa tog nastupa – stoga smo si rekli kako je najbolje dati im Å¡to žele i dovrÅ¡iti album. I u tome i je razlika, nastao je i krenuo na dance flooru prema uÅ¡ima, umjesto u studiju.

UES: Kako odlučujete je li live stvar „dovoljno dobra“ za distribuciju? Postoji li neki razlog zašto ste puštali „Jazzo“ u live setovima mnogo prije izdavanja istog?

Octave One: Prema našem mišljenju, ako ne pokrene dance floor tada traku ne mičemo u studio na snimanje… mora pokretati ljude! Toliko smo ju dugo puštali prije izdavanja baš zato jer smo ju htijeli napraviti kako treba. Ponekad je pokretala ljude, a ponekad su se ljudi pitali što mi to točno radimo na stageu. Znali smo da je dobra skladba, no samo smo ju trebali napraviti onakvom kakva treba biti jer je bila, i još uvijek je, drukčija u usporedbi s onim što se trenutno događa.

UES: Koliko često mijenjate setup? Da li stvari poput održavanja i prijenosa imaju utjecaja na vaš odabir setupa?

Octave One: Naš se setup mijenja konstantno, konstantno se razvija i nikada ne prestaje. Od najveće je važnosti, prema našem mišljenju, doživjeti i učiniti napredak. Nemamo mnogo prtljage na letovima ovih dana i transportacija sve opreme može biti dosta skupa, da tako kažemo. Stoga nije samo stvar u tome da mora biti lagana već i izdržljiva. Ono što mnogi ne vide jest proces koji prolazimo popravljajući zadnji tren prije no što se popnemo na stage sa opremom… ako je prekrhka neće izdržati put.

UES: Koje je vaše mišljenje o razlikama između Europe i Amerike u pogledu spram elektronske glazbe?

Octave One: Jednostavno, USA je u globalu komercijalna i ne razumije se previše u ništa drugo, dok u Europi postoji prostor za sve i ta je kultura u Europi već toliko vremena da Europljani jednostavno razumiju!

UES: Gostovali ste u Das Hausu u Hrvatskoj, mjestu koje se po mnogočemu razlikuje od vašeg sljedećeg giga, na Moondance festivalu. Utječu li prostor i postavke na vaš nastup u bilo kojem smislu?

Octave One: Zasigurno smo eksperimentalniji tijekom klupskih nastupa zato što možeš osjetiti vibru s floora, no bez obzira na kakvom se stage-u nalazili mi smo Octave One. Stoga, budite sigurni da mislimo ozbiljno!

UES: Jeste li vidjeli lokaciju Moondance festivala? Radujete li se ponovnom nastupu u Hrvatskoj?

Octave One: Nismo još vidjeli lokaciju, no radujemo joj se jednako kao i ponovnom „demoliranju“ stagea u Hrvatskoj, bez ikakve sumnje!

UES: Did the relocation from Detroit affect your sound and in what way?

Octave One: We don’t really think so, being born and raised in Detroit as well as living there for so many years the vibe is in our system. It’s the culture and thus we are part of that culture no matter where we live or may visit. Our approach may change but the rhythm and feel is still the same.

UES: Travelling with a lot of hardware sounds like a nuisance. What are the pros and cons of doing hardware based live shows?

Octave One: Quite honestly the traveling with the gear is a major pain if ya know what we mean:(  But on the same note once we get it to the stage it turns into the most sweetest joyous pain one ca ever have. (smile) It’s something so exhilarating about being able to grab knobs, push keys and slide faders on hardware during a live set that gives you such a freedom because the possibilities of where you can take your performance on a impulse is absolutely endless!

UES: Do you still collect records and play vinyl?

Octave One: Not so much anymore, just because we’re so focused on our live set that we pretty much don’t do any doing anymore.

UES: Being a part of the scene for so long has certainly left you with a certain insight in evolution of dance music. What has changed during the years, from your perspective.

Octave One: This is going to sound really stage maybe even funny but people go to dance music but don’t dance anymore…smh! Maybe we should qualify that a bit, maybe we should say for the most part it’s became more spectator and less participator than in years past. It’s always been spectators at large when you hit the club but they were a lot fewer and far between, we used to call them train spotters and they would politely stand on the side of the stage or dance floor so they could do what they like to do which is cool to us too. But now, train spotting is front and center and folks really don’t care if they’re interrupting the vibe on the dance floor so much as long as they get there video clip (smile) But we can still say that the ladies ‘hold it down’ on the dance floor and have learned to push there way upfront so they can get there groove on! That’s what we’re talking bout… Do That!!!

UES: You come from a musical family. How has the knowledge that you learned in your childhoods affected your approach to music?

Octave One: Having five boys in the same family taught us all to probably fight to have our own space in the family unit, which in turn probably has had the same effect on us musically as well. We’re competitive but not that we want to win but because we want our own space or identity in what we do. We all have different influences that we draw from and we contribute those to the mix to come out with our creations as a whole, different influences one mix.

UES: Was ‘Black Water’ single breaking point in your career?

Octave One: We’ve been doing what we do for so long now that we’re fortunate to have had many breaking points in our time span from our beginnings onwards, but in our latter years sure Blackwater has been that career pivotal point.

UES: Ann Saunderson powerfull vocal gave a big sign to the song.  How did   cooperation with Ann Saunderson affected you?

Octave One: Well its always a privilege to work with Ann. She’s the sister that we never had growing up in a house of all boys now men:)  But she really understands where we’re trying to go when we create which might seem easy to some but we can be quite quirky in what we hear or are not hearing and the direction we want things to go into…she gets it!

UES: What’s the story behind your latest album? How has it come to pass and in what way does it differ from the ones before it?

Octave One: The latest album is the fans album! We say that because it was because of our fans making inquiries from songs that we had did for the “Boiler Room” project that pushed us to produce this album.  We had done new tracks for that performance just because we wanted some new grooves and people dug it and made mad inquirers constantly than started downloading sections of that video performance, so we told ourselves we’d better give them what they want and finished the album. So that’s the difference, it came from the dance floor to the ears instead from the studio first.

UES: How do you decide that a live piece is „good“ enough for a release? Is there a reason that „Jazzo“ was played in your live sets for so long before the release?

Octave One: For us now, if it don’t move the dance floor then we don’t move it to the studio to record it… it has to move the people! We played it for so long before releasing it because we really just wanted to get it right. Sometimes it was moving people and then sometimes people wondered what we were doing on stage and we knew it was a good song but we just had to get it right cause it was and is so different compared to what’s going on now.

UES: How often does your setup change? Do things like maintenance and transportability affect your decisions regarding the setup?

Octave One: Our setup changes constantly, its constantly evolving and is never ending.  It’s at the ‘head of the class’ in our decision making process. We don’t get much weight on flights these days and transporting all this gear can be quite pricey say the least. So it has to be not only lightweight but durable. Because what a lot of people don’t see is the process we go through making repairs before we even hit the stage with the gear…if its too fragile it won’t make the road.

UES: What are your opinions on the differences between Europe and America regarding the electronic music?

Octave One: Simple, the US as a whole is quite commercial and don’t understand too much anything else, in Europe there’s room for everything but the culture has been in Europe for so long so europeans get it!

UES: You played in Das Haus in Croatia, a place which differs from your upcoming gig, at the Moondance festival. Does the setting affect your show in any way?

Octave One: We’re probably a lot more experimental during club shows because you can feel the floor more, but regardless we do Octave One on whatever stage we are on. So you can know for sure that we’re bringing for real!!!

UES: Have you seen the location of the Moondance? Are you looking forward to playing in Croatia again?

Octave One: No we haven’t seen the location yet, but we are looking forward to seeing it as well as smashing the stage in Croatia again, no doubt!!!