Hailing from the beautiful Dutch-Carribean island of Curacao, brother-and-sister duo Shermanology have become one of electronic music’s most well loved and well known pairings releasing on the likes of Rawthentic and Dirtybird. This year marked a pivotal milestone in their career as they collaborated with The Martinez Brothers on the incredible Bam Bam. Add to this their soon-to-be-released debut on Hot Creations and it is safe to say Shermanology will be making heads turn, and feet move, for years to come.
They just made their debut on Hot Creations with the tremendous three-track Bon Bini EP. The release continues an outstanding 2020 for the brother-sister pairing, which has seen them collaborate with The Martinez Brothers already this year.
Speaking of the release, Shermanology described how “ Bon Bini is a combination of everything we stand for. House with a lot of different influences, from gospel to Caribbean. “Bon Bini” means “Welcome” in our language Papiamentu.”
The title track, Bon Bini, kicks off proceedings in a no-nonsense fashion, as a pumping lead kick merges with latin-inspired vocal cuts. The lengthy breakdown builds a party atmosphere, as rustling hats provide an up-tempo feel. OK – Cool – Aight feat. ConQuer Jones comes next, with its uplifting piano rolls and wonderful vocal solo courtesy of the lead vocalist who tells us to “make the best of what life has to offer.” Breathe feat. Agent Sasco rounds off the EP. A straight-up club cut, the kick-hat blend is irresistibly danceable, building on an underlying bassline that features Agent Sasco’s whispering lyrics underneath.
The duo just told us 5 tips for every producer out there. Enjoy!
1. Make time to create your own sound. Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and take time to listen to all the music that inspires you. So you can create a sound that YOU stand for as an artist. Figure out what triggers you in certain songs. Is it the chord progression ?? or the sound or the vocal? And make music that gives you the same feeling you want people to get when they listen to your music. It’s a journey but once you have found that, there will be no one with your sound and copy cats have to stay far away. Even if they copy you will be miles ahead on your next releases.
2. Music doesn’t have to be a one man show. Some people wanna do everything themselves, produce, mix, master, compose, write, sing etc. If you are that good at all of these then do it yourself, no problem at all. But most of us have our strong points and weaker points. For example, if you see that you are not a good mixer, get someone to mix it for you. BUT…in the meantime school yourself on all the points you feel you’re weaker at. Youtube has all the answers, see it as a study. And if at one point you feel that your mix is better than the engineer, then you are ready to do the mix yourself. In the end when people listen to your music they don’t see how many people worked on it, it’s all about an amazing final result. You are the producer and that means that you have to bring your vision alive in the final result. It doesn’t matter how many steps you make, as long as you get there. You will be happy once you hear that your music evolves with every release. Just enjoy the journey.
3. Invest time in knowing the basics 1st, don’t worry about how much gear and plugins you have. It’s all about knowing the stuff you use. I can tell you that I switched to ableton one year ago. I was using logic before and I still don’t know a lot about all the tricks and stuff. But I know what I need to know to get the result I wanted. After that I did my research on some extra plug-ins and hardware to expand the sound, but all of this is not necessary. A good track is built on a good foundation, once you have that you can add whatever you want. It will be the cherry on the cake
4. Kill your darlings. Pick the best demos and finish them all the way to the end. A lot of producers have a 1000 demos but nothing is finished. If you don’t know what tracks you need to finish, you can always call your friends (the ones you know what your music is all about) and just play the tracks. It’s a great way to seen how people react before you can play it on the dance floorI always work in bundles because I don’t like working the whole day on one track. I select like 4 demos that I wanna finish and in that week I just bounce back and forward between projects to keep a fresh and open vision. Making music is all about having fun with it so don’t get yourself in the situation where you get frustrated with a track. Let it go and when you feel inspired jump back on the track.
5. Once your demos are done aim for your biggest dream label and work your way down. Make a list for yourself of who you wanna work with. I never send my demos to different labels at the same time because you can get yourself in some awkward situations. If 2 labels react at the same time… been there.. it’s not a nice feeling. With that being said I think it’s important for artists nowadays to have a solid release schedule so plan everything in the smallest detail. You will see that you can plan as much as you like, but in the music industry can always be a bit slower than expected. But that is not a problem if you worked on your planning. A small gap is not a problem, just be consistent. Once you have sent your demos don’t be discouraged if you get “no” for an answer. We have all been there. But don’t forget it’s all a matter of taste. So keep it going and keep believing in your unique sound.
Buy their latest EP HERE