Strasbourg pair Medicis & Vanshift step up for the latest episode of Select Cuts! The rising duo first caught our eye with an inimitable release on Alsace imprint Friendship and they’ve continued to impress, most recently laying a killer cut on Teki Latex’s respected Sound Pellegrino imprint. The boys are a key cog in the city’s maturing House & Tech scene, a community which is profiting majorly from positive cooperation and true vibes. Not only have the guys crafted an intricate and educational sixty minutes of exceptional tunes for WWD readers but they’ve also taken the time to talk about their exploits with Friendship, collaborating with Sound Pellegrino and jamming with Juan Atkins at Strasbourg’s recent Redbull Music Academy event. Check it!
WWD : Thanks for joining us lads! Delighted to have your here. For those not yet familiar with you guys, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you got started playing and producing?
M&V : Hello, thanks to you!
We are based in Strasbourg (France) a beautiful city near Germany, and as the name suggests we are a duo. We can’t really define a precise date for our debut in producing music, but by looking at the first track we release it’s approximately three years ago and playing music always was a part of the process for us.
We started like a lot of producers, you listen to music you like, you became curious about the process, and you try to do your own.
WWD : You signed your CCM EP to Strasbourg’s Friendship Recordings, a label that has not only caught our eye in recent times but also that of Turbo chief Tiga and Teki Latex. It seems like a real shining light for Strasbourg. Can you fill us in on the project and the concept behind it?
M&V : The project started at the beginning with Big Oh and Jerome Laufer, they used to organize a party at the unmistakable club in Strasbourg Le Rafiot named “Friendship”, based on a simple concept; playing music with friends and artists they like. They evolved the project into a label and they found us and our close friend Voltery to produce and release music with them. The label has the same spirit as the party, releasing music of friends and artists they are close to, and not just searching for producers around the world by sending e-mails.
In simple words, it’s just a human relationship around music.
WWD : More recently, you’ve released on Teki’s Sound Pellegrino imprint. How did that release come about?
M&V : Teki and all the crew of Sound Pellegrino (Orgasmic and Emil) always think about us when they’re working on a various artists project, we had the chance to develop more than a “record to artists” relationship with them and it’s a pleasure.
Teki just sent us a mail like four months before the release and told us that they are working on the new compilation, we came to Paris to their office and made them listen to a lot of tracks we had recently made, tracks of all styles but always made for the club, and it’s funny because they chose the strangest one, and told us “this will be the best way to end the compilation”. In fact the track it’s called “P11 (outro)” and was just a track we produce to put at the end or beginning of a mix, a pur jam with no real idea in the back.
WWD : We love the rawness to your tracks and the fact that it’s accompanied by top quality production, a rare combination. How do you approach putting a track together in the studio?
M&V : Woo thanks for the kind words. The process is always different, we generally produce with hardware, synths and drum machines, so sometimes just jamming can create good surprises, and a track can be done in 2 hours. But sometimes one of us just comes up with a loop he recorded, an idea, a melody, a vocal, or whatever, and he asks the other if he has some ideas for it too. It’s important not to always have the same process to keep things interesting, we can’t describe to you our special plan to produce a track because we haven’t one.
WWD : You had the pleasure of jamming with Juan Atkins at the recent RBMA event in Strasbourg, what was that experience like? Did you guys partake in any of the lectures/workshops on offer?
M&V : It’s was a real pleasure to perform after Juan Atkins, and as you can imagine we were also a little bit stressed. This man is an example, very calm, very wise, he started music when we weren’t born, and he is still passionate about what he does. His performance was an awesome set after maybe twelve hours of travel, the jet lag and an interview of two hours, a real respect for this father.
Of course we participated in the lecture, when a guy like this is in town, explaining the beginning of techno music, you can’t miss him, it was like going back to high school, some people were really taking notes. Thanks to Red Bull and the Souldancer team for making this happen.
WWD : Obviously, you guys are one of the up-and-coming talents impressing us at the moment but who are the local talents impressing you right now?
M&V : Strasbourg is a small town, in terms of space, but we are lucky to have a lot of good Dj’s and producers here. It’s inspiring because we know almost all of them, even if you are interested in different styles, the atmosphere is pretty good. Some of them are our friends, close friends, and we always keep an eye on their work even if some left town nowadays.
The real heroes here, are all the clubs, collectives, associations, bookers, who brings us good artists and musics in town, because we know that’s not always an easy task.
WWD : You’ve been kind enough to put a little mix together for us. Can you tell us a little bit about what one will find in there? Any unreleased music?
M&V : It’s a long introduction followed by an hour of cold techno and house music. When we make mixtapes, or radio mixes, we try to do something more turned on, “what you can listen at home” rather than that a “club mix”, our selection is not exactly the same, even if some tracks fit both.
Unfortunately their is no unreleased music, we don’t really play tracks we produce…
WWD : And, before we leave you. what’s next on the horizon for Medicis & Vanshift? Any big dates we should look out for?
M&V : We are still working on some tracks right now, originals and remixes, nothing really precise, but we can announce that the first vinyl of Friendship Recordings will arrived in late March, with a track from us, one from Voltery, and two from Friendship. We are also working on a booking with two of our good friends for an upcoming party at Le Rafiot, hoping it will work, more info soon…
Follow Medicis & Vanshift :
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Medicis.and.Vanshift
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/mdcs