“Call The Asylum”, set to release on Nov. 15, is described as “an ode to freedom and difference in an increasingly conformist world.” How does this concept resonate with you, and how do you hope it impacts your audience?
(ASH) It’s a rebellion and a scream of rage against the music industry, we notice a strong standardization of artistic proposals in the Hard Techno scene and not only, the Techno Sphere is globally impacted, the public is starting to get fed up too, you can already see the effects with the crowd who reacts less and less to the music, they don’t come to festivals to see their favorite artist, they come to see a bunch of artists serving the same thing. When you have 10 artists at a festival who offer almost the same stuff, playing the same trendy sounds, we interpret that as a mockery for the public, they don’t respect them. Nobody takes any risk, they are so scared to lose their seat, choosing conformity over art is fucking annoying and show weakness. Art is evolution, creation of new things, despite what the gatekeepers want and say. We decided not to answer to the call of conformity to become “a product that sells” as some agents have asked us to be. First, we are not a product but artists and if we cannot create music as we want because we have to please the industry, there is no interest for us to do so because the essence of being an artist is defined by being a person who dares to go against the grain and who proposes different ideas that can sometimes change the world, we chose freedom over submission. So yes this EP is an ode to freedom and a message for all our fans that they should never change who they are for anyone and above all stay away from toxic people and those who don’t believe in you.
You’ve mentioned that specific frequencies and fast BPMs can have a healing effect, removing negative energies. Could you dive deeper into how it shapes your performances and tracks production?
(ELLA) You know, music is above all a way for us to transmute our energies, I feel a real satisfaction during the creation process. I lock myself in the studio for a whole day and I don’t go out, I need to be in my bubble without any interactions. The best part of this process is to perform on stage and that’s where everything explodes, I feel a sense of deep connection with the vibrations of the music and a burning desire to share all my energy with the audience. I love dancing and improvising situations. We love to speed up our BPM at the end of sets with Frenchcore or Hardstyle and dance like crazies, It’s quite orgasmic and we let go completely, like a state of trance, at the same level as an intense meditation where your body will start moving by itself to heal its knots, fast bpm give me a feeling to expel my bad energies, It’s extremely delicious and liberating. This process has existed since the dawn of time with shamanic dances. I strongly believe that dance is a way to heal your wounds. I deeply feel alive and real when I perform, I’m not a fan of self-control on stage and don’t like to wear masks, I don’t have filters. You know, we « abnormal people” have often experienced trauma in childhood and art is the only answer and what fascinates me and is incredibly wonderful is that even having lacked love, having been completely broken, we create wonderful things from this suffering and continue to give despite everything, and the public fills us in return by giving love. It’s all about sharing. It’s magic. Music is the best thing that happened to my life, it saved my soul.
After debuting in Italy this past September, and with upcoming dates in Bogotá and Wroclaw, how has touring shaped you as an artist—are there any standout moments or unexpected encounters that have inspired you?
(ASH) We chose to first create a real artistic identity before touring, for us it was really important to find our personality and to offer something different. Obviously, the stage helps us to shape ourselves because we also analyze the public and their reactions. We say to ourselves, hey, they really liked this track so we’re going to release it soon… We always feel out of place like aliens when we are in the backstages and often the other artists/DJs don’t even want to talk to us and avoid us, that’s fucking crazy but there is a very heavy spirit of unease, we find it extremely funny because we don’t have this competitive mindset at all, we are very sociable guys and when you have confidence in yourself and your art you shouldn’t act like an asshole with other artists. As artists, we are supposed to be energetically all connected and share our passion.
