TSC Behind The Decks | Abstraal
We are very exicted to introduce you to the the fastest growing and very promising French DJ-duo Abstraal. A group that consists of Alexis and Arthur – two very good friends who share the same passion for electronic music. We met – we talked about: life, music and future plans. The past consists of a b2b set with ANNA, the present consists of many releases and gigs in France, the future consists of a remix done for Teenage Mutants. This was only a small fraction of the mysterious and spacial group Abstraal – based on real facts.
Full tracklist
Hello guys – thank you for joining us and congratulations with your new collaboration with the booking agency No Hour! Where in the world are we catching you and what are you currently up to?
Hello, many thanks for getting us on your media! It’s indeed a very important step for us to be part of No Hour’s artist roster. We’ve been working with them for a while now since we use them for our booking in Lyon through XLR Events. Abstraal is growing up every day and now the project is mature enough for having our name included with other No Hour’s artist, we are more than confident with this new collaboration and also proud to be featured with artist such as Enrico Sanguliano, Giorgia Angiuli, Pig & Dan, Olivier Giacomotto & many more.
This summer you can catch us in several festival in France:
05.07 – Les Déferlantes Sud de France
06.07 – Evasion Festival 2019
13.07 – GREEN FEST 2019
04.08 – Family Piknik 2019 (after party)
09/10.08 – Machja Festival 2019
31.08 – Woodland Festival – Trip to Mars
Concerning the studio part, we’ve done 4 original new tracks, ready to be sent out to labels. We also just finished a banging remix for Teenage Mutants. That remix will be out soon via Stil Vor Talent. Actually, we are really busy but it’s a good thing. 😉
We also just finished a banging remix for Teenage Mutants. That remix will be out soon via Stil Vor Talent.
Could you tell us something that people don’t know about you?
We don’t have any secrets in this business you have to be yourself. We belive it’s one of the key of success. You have to be professional and respectful. It’s not a secret but a few people know exactly why we decided to choose ‘Abstraal’ as our name.
For us it was important to have a name with 2 syllables as Tutti & Castelz. Abstraal sounds like a combination of ‘Astral’ and ‘Abstract’ – something a little bit mysterious, aerial, spacial, underground but not too dark. Tutti is a pharmacist. In France you can find a drug called ‘Abstral’. It’s funny because that drug is pretty much morphine. We decided to write it with double ‘a’ because our first name starts with ‘a’: Arthur and Alexis.
Before forming the DJ-duo Abstraal – both of you were involved in individual projects. Could you explain those individual projects and the whole creation process of Abstraal? Tell us more about the secret lab and how you guys met!
Yes. We’ve been DJ-ing for 15 years now. Alexis (Castelz) has been DJ-ing for 15 years now and Arthur (Tutti) has been DJ-ing for more than 10 years.
Castelz’s parents own a mainstream nightclub next to Lyon. We met 10 years ago via common friends. Tutti has been running XLR events for 7 years now and 4 years ago we decided to work together with XLR Events. Few months after Castelz moved to Sydney, he started to work as a promoter with Zoo Events Sydney. We started to work on Abstraal 2 years ago between Lyon and Sydney, but the project is public only from this year. We share the work as 80 / 20 – like that we work very quickly and it’s quite effective. Alexis works on the production side at 80 % and Arthur does promo, PR, management at 80 %. We share all info and stuff all day long. It’s a very good balance!
buy now the ancient one
The Ancient One (released the 3rd of May) was a top 20 release in Beatport’s Afro House Chart – and was supported by artists such as Black Coffee, Danito & Athina, Laurent Garnier and many others. It must be a great honor to receive such a support! How do you handle it or even celebrate it – besides having a drink by the pool?
The Ancient One was produced long time ago but released 2 month ago. We are very proud of this track. When we play it the reaction from the crowd is every time so huge and that’s why we have a big support on this track and a really good rank on Beatport’s Afro House Chart next to big artist on same kind of music. We also thank the guys from Family Piknik Music who released our EP, support our music and give us the chance to spread it because before that nobody knew us. Family Piknik crew are very cool & professional. We hope to work more often with them and we are really looking forward to play for them in august. We are happy, for sure, but we remain focused on our next release, collaborations, remixes and gigs. Always ready to get some drinks by the pool!
What is currently your weapon of choice in the studio? Hardware-wise.
We are pretty basic concerning our stuff. Nowadays, we feel like people need more and more plugins to get confident with their work. However, you can definitely make a banger with nothing more than Ableton and a few samples. We produce with Ableton + Push 2 and Roland TR8 with 2 awesome Focal speakers. We also love the sound of the Mini Moog. We use it pretty much in each tracks.
Your remix ‘Nothing’ that was released last week simply confirms all your weapons. What a track! This is a remix that has been supported by Marco Carola, Ida Engberg, ANNA and many others! Surely a track where the crowd gets carried to the next level. Can you explain your secret behind creating a good remix and the leading hardware that you were using?
Getting good stems is quite a good start 😉 Trust us, it’s not an easy task sometimes. We have sometimes enquires for remix with only 2 or 3 parts and sometimes it’s better to pass because for us it’s not possible to do a “real remix” if we don’t have enough good stuff from original. For us, producing a remix is very exciting and interesting musically. It’s very important to respect the original but it’s useless to make a remix if it’s the same style. We have to be on our own style but in same time we have to fit with the label’s style. The idea is to find another vision of the track.
What has been the best gig for you so far in 2019?
It’s a very difficult question because we never had a very bad experience. As every artists, sometimes parties are not packed or the crowd is not dynamic. For us, the way that we are welcomed is very important. Probably because we are promoters too and we receive lot of guests in Lyon. February last year we invited Anna via XRL Events and we played with her. The party was sold out, more than 1200 people – it was a blast. We really appreciate the show at Culture Box, good vibes and perfect conditions.
What are you looking most forward to in 2019?
We think we had very good debuts, more than we hoped for our 1styear. Very cool gigs, 3 EPs especially ‘The Ancient One‘ and ‘Massalia‘ with two big remixes from Rafael Cerato & Marc Maya and Danito & Athina. We have 3 other releases ‘Habemus‘ signed on Click Records and two remixes. We hope to sign an EP or release on a big label in 2020, maybe via a collaboration or remix for big artists. It’s too early to explain you more about that but we have some very good surprises in the pipelines For us it’s important to continue working in the right direction, like now, on gigs with our agency & PR and promoters.
buy now massalia including remixesIt’s too early to explain you more about that but we have some very good surprises in the pipeline
What can fans expect from you in 2019?
We think the most important thing is to stay ourselves so that people love us. We are serious, professional but also festive, friendly and close to people. Stay true to yourself.
Thank you for the interview guys!
Many thanks to you! We hope you will enjoy our mixtape and we hope to be back in Copenhagen soon.
Connect with Abstraal on Facebook and SoundCloud
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