We have had the pleasure of speaking with the great producers: J.(Jacob, The Journey) T. (Tom, The Journey) R. (Rachel May) A. (Alverie)
Hey ! Where can we find you right now? How did you start your day?
T. Today is a day of celebration, Jacob and I both have both wrapped up 7 day isolation in Covid Jail and are free to rejoin society as negative testing citizens! We will be celebrating by starting work together on a remix for the lovely Bebetta who has supplied us with a killer original piece for our imprint UGENIUS for later in the year.
R. In all honesty, today is my sloth day/life admin day. Mondays are my only day off, so i had a glorious & much needed sleep in, followed by a few emails, a grocery shop & a play with the pooch. Nothing too exciting.
A: Today? Right now I’m enjoying the last of my holidays by playing piano and getting some sunshine. Waiting for 5 o’clock so it is socially acceptable to have a drink with some friend
When did the idea of starting a project start to take shape? Has it always been something you wanted to do?
T. Being friends for many years, Rachel and I had been chatting for a while about putting pen to paper together and whilst we were in lockdown, we had gone back and forth with a few ideas until one day the bed for Hollow came together. Enter Alverie:
R. Tom, Jacob & I are old mates from way back. I have had a release on their label in the past (under my other moniker MInx) & have been meaning to get more over to them. Since moving to Melbourne full time just 12 months ago, Tom & I finally agreed maybe this is something we should do together. I’m damn glad we did!
A. I originally wrote the top-line of Hollow for a different track of The Journey’s. Then coincidentally, through The Journey and Rachel May working closely together on a new track, we found that it worked better on the new record, so rolled with it!
How did you come to work with Alverie?
T. Ive been Alveries producer for her solo work for nearly two years now and it’s been a really great learning curve for both of us. We had been trying to find the right project to do as a joint venture in our world for a while so when the colab with Rachel came up it all sort of fell into place.
R. Being my Rachel May debut, I really wanted to keep things deep & moody with an almost haunting edge. The deep melodic sound is what drives my Rachel May project essentially. The guys agreed.Them having already worked with Alverie before, they knew we had the right combo of artists for this record. I couldn’t be more excited about how it turned out.
How would you define the sound of your latest work? What is the concept behind?
T. Hollow is a little different for us but I still feel it still sounds like The Journey. Throughout the pandemic we took inspiration from different areas rather than the dancefloor for writing music so our next few releases really reflect that.
I also think for us coming from a DJing background we have a number of palates to choose from when it comes to creation. If you listen to some of our more lengthy sets we cover quite a wide range of genres and moods so whilst this is more on the deeper side for us production wise we find it still sits well in our performances. If i was to put a label on it it would be our take on Deep House.
A: Collaborating with The Journey and Rachel May has been a very exciting experience for me, and has introduced me to an entirely new world of sounds and writing approaches. I usually write while sitting at my piano; ballads, pop, country. The lyrics of Hollow depict my outside perception of a relationship where one person was undeservingly treated terribly. It was, in a way, satisfying to be able to vent some frustration of not being able to do anything about it, and turn it into something catchy that people can dance to.
Why did you decide on that cover design?
J. Our direction for our art has always been clean and simple whilst maintaining sophistication. Textures and tones have always been important for us, much like the music we release on UGENIUS.
Why the name of this new version?
- “Hollow” – metaphorically and passively captures the person I’m describing. It also incorporates a lot of other meanings; empty, heartless, mentally-absent, selfish. I think the name brings another layer of depth to the meaning of the lyrics.
What can you tell us about each remix?
J. Tristan Case came on our radar in the past 12 months with some really beautiful releases on Do Not Sit On the Furniture & Sound Avenue. Hollow is something that would be on our deeper side of our repertoire and thought Tristan would perfectly complement. When we first showed him the record he fell in the love with the vocal straight away so we knew the finish result would be all class.
T: TAYA. has always been someone we have liaised with in regards to a collaboration so naturally this was always going to happen. His individuality with his music and diversity is something to really applaud so when we sent over the parts we really didn’t know what angle he would take on his remix. We are really stoked to get a really chunky deep version that works if you want to get that little bit dirtier.
What artists are you interested in these days?
J. If you look through our library you would probably go crazy trying to find some consistency with our collection. But that’s just it, we have never pigeon holed our sound to be just on genre of music. In saying that some stand out international artists in the past year for myself have been Cioz, Argy, Rampa, Bebetta & Marsh but I have to say the quality of music coming out of Australia at the moment is really hard to beat. Jamie Stevens, Doppel, GMJ & Matter, Mike Rish, Luke Alessi are all taking it to another level and it’s really exciting for the culture here.
T: I agree with Jacob on this one, Some of the Aussie artists at the moment are putting out some world class music! Elliot Creed, Made In Paris, Fabrication, Ebony WIllis all doing awesome things.
Can you tell us something about your current or future projects?
J. After this single we have a follow up record titled ‘Run’ which is a collaboration with Pantheon on his label ‘Interfonic’. This record was written earlier on during the pandemic and with not many dance floors open I think the influence and drive to write “Dance Floor” records dropped a bit for us.
After that we have a few remixes for some artists overseas, a collaboration with Jamie Stevens and also works in the making with our other moniker with Ivan Gough (TJIG)
T: We have another original called Games coming which is very much in the same wheelhouse as Hollow, so stay tuned for that one.
R. I have been wanting to release a Rachel May record for years, so i’m hoping to keep the ball rolling now. I’m currently working with a Sydney producer on new music, but wont say too much just yet. early stages.
Cheers,
