Rey&Kjavik is a German DJ/Producer who has a very unique and emotive style when it comes to his productions and sets. His label RKJVK is often a port of call for many esteemed artists in the organic and deep house worlds. With a recent EP “Parabari” out on his label, we caught up with him to find out how his 2023 has been so far, and what inspired his new release…
WWD: Hey R&K, how are you, whats good and bad in your world right now?
I just had Breakfast with my Family, a nice bicycle ride to the Studio in Frankfurt, and now doing an interview with you guys and afterwards I will start producing new music. I´m healthy, the sun is shining, life is good to me, I feel blessed.
WWD: As a dj are you someone who likes to get people in a trance, or who likes a sense of fun in their sets, or who likes to shock?
I love to create a certain vibe with the audience, which is based on a constant flow and different energy levels. It feels good to me seeing people getting lost with me in music, forget the daily hustle for a while by listening to the sound. Tones transport emotions into bodies, without guiding a crowd with gestures, I believe music does it all on its own when the right moment has come. This is when the magic happens.
WWD: And where is your best environment? A small dark club or a huge outdoor festival stage? Late at night for the weirdos or early so you can play slow?
I always try to set the best mood for the crowd and place. I play most of the time my own productions and remixes and this could be between 80 and 122bpm so I do have a wide range and can stay with my own sound which kind of gives me freedom and well feeling on all environments and occasions. Every event has its own vibe and I love to play my music for the crowd, so it doesn´t matter to me where I play the most important is for who. As I believe in the particular moment, there is just a rare collection of live recordings of me available online. Because you won’t understand the vibe we created together if you haven´t been there with us. So, the moment and feeling does it all.
WWD: And when making music, what are your aims, what sounds are you most found of, what is the aim of your tunes?
When I enter the studio I catch the mood I am into and transfer it into music. That´s why you have this bright spectrum of bpm in my productions. All with my specific soundscapes of course and the vibe I created over the years. I never was the guy who thought, ‘oh today I need a dancefloor Single or Downtempo Remix’. I do what I can do best the day I produce. That’s my feeling, that´s my sound. The honest ‘me’ I can give.
WWD: Tell us what inspired the new one on your label RKJVK, the ‘Parabari EP’?
‘Para’ and ‘Bari’ are two Tracks for the Dancefloor in my eyes. The two songs wasn´t intended for an EP, time brought them together. The basslines, my own Vocals with Vocoder on ‘Para’ and ‘Bari’ got this driving Synth which is a recreated Zurna that sounded great to me. Both Tracks with my beloved 808 drumming and released on my own label RKJVK. The label was one of the best decisions I made over the years. The freedom out of it is just pure bliss. The Cover for example was a shot while walking through China Town in Singapore with Friends. All this procedure happens very natural in daily life. The Artwork and Tracks are all temporally independent but, in the end, belonging together. This is often surprising and beautiful at the same time to me. It shows you can trust the process.
WWD: What gear was used to make it and does that matter to you?
Daw, Midi-Keyboard, Microphone, Vocoder, VSTs, analog Synthesizer and 808. Overall I tried to have a simple Set-up. I travel a lot and love to do music everywhere I am. So, it does matter to me, cause it had to fit into any of my daily circumstances to let me feel comfortable in every situation I want to work on music.
WWD: What are some of the key tools, bits of hardware or software in your arsenal?
I love the Roland 808 as you can hear in the most of my tracks, as well the Moog Synthesizers like Minimoog or Minitaur.
WWD: How has your signature sound evolved over time?
Thanks for percept my works as a signature sound. Time is a good word to understand that nothing lasts forever, but art will. It presents a part of a particular moment. If you go to a museum, for example, you can see modern art on one floor and on the other it’s paintings from the Renaissance. If you visit a Library you can basically time travel without moving. For me, my music is like a personal diary, as I said I transport my daily emotions into it and if you know me personnally you can point out when which track has been created but don’t categorize a real genre, I like that. So, my productions evolved over time in terms of bpm, energy, build ups, and downs, and of course the emotions but it was always me and the love for certain sounds and the understanding of my emotions, this might be key to the ‘signature’ that you hear.
WWD: What else have you got coming up?
There is a lot of unreleased music I made over the last months. Remixes and Originals will see the light very soon.
Rey&Kjavik ‘Parabari’ EP is out now on RKJVK. Grab it here.