ANJUNABEATS’ RISING TALENT:
Upon the recent release of their track Aldo, Norin & Rad are climbing the vast mountain of dance music success; full speed ahead. Other Anjunabeats anthems Zion, DeVas and Five Finger Death Punch confirm their passion for producing cutting edge progressive trance. Composed of Bruce Karlsson (Norin) and Nick Sember (Rad), their collaboration as a duo is pure synergy. Bruce has always had a knack for production and Nick brings a skill set involving playing instruments and spinning vinyl. These two have added a specific essence to their sound, fol- lowing closely in the footsteps of Above & Beyond, who have referred to the boys of Orange County as ‘the stars of the future.’
Lately Norin & Rad have been receiving a lot of recognition from industry leading artists and dance music enthusiasts alike. These two have shared their music with a large international audience by performing at festivals such as EDC Las Vegas, Tomorrowland and most recently, Ultra Music Festival in Miami. We had the pleasure of sitting down with them for an interview to see Miami Music Week from their perspective and look towards their breakout year.
So you guys just performed at Ultra yesterday, describe that experi- ence?
Nick: That was incredible! Since it’s an opening set everyone always says stuff like, ‘I don’t know if we should put you guys in there. We don’t know how the set times are going to be,’ because its an hour after the doors open. Well yesterday they actually pushed the doors to open right before our set time. And we were thinking, ‘Well what should we do? Should we go on now?’ Luckily our manage- ment (they’re so good) told us to wait 5 minutes. So we waited, we went on, and as soon as we went on they opened the gates. Our stage was right by the gates so everyone came right in; within a half hour we had a pretty good size crowd and we were rockin’ it!
How would you compare UMF to the other festivals you’ve played at?
Nick: Well, they’re all along the same basic structure, you know? You’re playing in front of a huge crowd and it gets really intense. One thing that separates Ultra from the other places is that every single stage has so much work put into it. Not saying that the other festivals don’t do that as well, because they do a great job! But, I feel that with Ultra you can walk to one stage and walk to another and not have any clue which one is the main stage because there’s so much production put into all of them.
Personally, I live in Miami so I know what the hype of MMW is like through a fan’s point of view. What is the hype like through an artist’s point of view? Bruce: Oh, I look forward to it every year! It’s like one of my favorite times!
Nick: Yeah, one of the coolest things about it is being able to come and listen to new music and all that. But it’s a big reunion as well. We get to hang out with all the artists that we know, who are usually on the other side of the world. It’s just like a big Mecca for dance music. We get to come here once a year and just rejoice, have fun, share new music, see people like our management team and have a great time as well. We’re obviously all great friends so it’s really a fun time.
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Besides Ultra yesterday and the Anjunabeats’ pool party today, what other events do you have lined up?
Nick: We’re doing the Mox bus; it will be for Mox TV. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe we’ll be DJing on the bus with Maor Levi and Jaytech.
In terms of performance, what steps do you guys take (if any) to make sure that no two sets are the same?
Nick: Well basically we find new music. But, when it comes to changing your set we just kind of do that on the fly. We feel that if you create your set before you go up is sometimes the worst thing you can do because if you stick to that set and people aren’t into it, then you’re not really DJing. To us, DJing is keeping the crowd entertained, being spontaneous and throwing down those awesome random tracks too.
Your website says you are currently working on your debut album; when can we be expecting the release?
Bruce: It’s just still something that we are bouncing around. We still have lots to do with it.
Can we expect any collaborations with other artists on the upcoming album?
Nick: We might add a few vocalists and maybe one collaboration. That’s actually something that we are still discussing as well.
Having heard your productions back to back recently I noticed that no two songs sound the same, making you guys extremely unique in the electronic scene! Where do you look for inspiration in producing such diverse tracks?
Nick: I think that’s probably why they’re so different… Because what we listen to is so different. Obviously we really like Above & Beyond and all the stuff that they put out, but we also really like guys like Zedd and Porter Robinson, who are doing more innovative stuff. On top of that, artists who really help us out are guys like Flying Lotus and Shlomo. Guys with this down-tempo, real cool, melodic music that’s really fresh. It’s almost like hip-hop in a way, but its not. We get so much ideas and inspiration from all the little glitches.
Once inspired, how long does it usually take to finish a track?
Bruce: It can take anywhere between a day to a week. It all depends. Sometimes we’ll skip a track, move on to the next one and once that one is done, we go back to the other one and pick up where we left off.
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