David Folkebrant
Oki boys and girls, today we are heading of to Sweden for another interview. This time we brought on a truly talented progressive producer that still while he is a youngster, got a bunch of smokin’ hot releases under his belt. His music has been released on great labels such as Nellie Recordings, White2Black, Nemesis and L8 Night Records to mention a few. Now he soon also is up on the newly founded Swedish label, Macarize. Today you will get a glimpse who the great progressive producer David Folkebrant is. Enjoy your reading!
Hi David! Great to have you with us, we are really happy that you have taken some time to make this interview go through. We really appreciate it! So let’s start of this interview then. Let us know, who is the guy behind the name of David Folkebrant? How did you end up on the progressive house music scene?
Waah, thank you for the nice introduction! Oh btw, Hi! I’m glad to be hear :) Well it all started when I was a little kid. I grew up with house and disco music. When I was seven years old I bought my first CD and it was a compilation called “E-Power volume 5″. It was full of hard trance and acid from the nineties. I was hooked!! I have only listened to progressive house music for about 3 years, but I have loved it since the first time!
If we start to talk about your productions, some real quality stuff that is available to support in the digital stores. How would you describe your own sound?
Thank you :) I would describe it as progressive and melodic music with a touch of eighties. When I sit down and start work on a song I don’t really think of how I will make the song, I just follow my intuition. And that in the most cases results in a melodic track with influences by the best decade, the eighties. I was not born in the eighties, but I love it!
If we stay in the subject of your productions, what do you use the get your beats and melodies sound as good as you do? What programs do you use for productions? Are you using both software and hardware? Any specific vsti’s that you like to use and that is “doing the sounds” for you?
I usually start with a simple beat with a kick, clap, some hi hats and percussions. After that I add a synth and start with some chords. I have so many melodies in my head so my harddrive is full of unfinished stuff. One day I have one melody stuck in my head and the next day I have another one. But now back to the subject. When I have made the melody I add a bassline and develop the beat a bit to make it a little more interesting. Cubase and FL Studio are the DAWs I use. I really love Native-Instrument’s plug-ins so I use software’s like Massive, FM8, Kontakt, Reaktor etc. Beside them I use Zebra and Sylenth1.
We of course know the producing part of yours but is there any chance that we could go and hear you live while spinning records as a DJ also?
I have no gigs at the moment, but if there is someone out there who share the same taste in music with me, don’t hesitate to mail me. And you know, I love music you feel good of and of course often influenced by the eighties. You can contact me on facebook or my mail davidfolkebrant@hotmail.com if you want to get in touch with me.
You’re not only doing originals while producing. We can see you also both making remixes for a lot of people and also making a bunch of collabs with others? You seem to be very open minded about your productions. What are the differences to you in making original and remixes/collabs?
Yes, I have some things going on and I’m very open minded, so I love making collaborations! It’s very fun to mix my own ideas with other’s ideas. When I’m remixing I really want to put my own style and sound into it and to be honest that’s difficult sometimes. But I think that people ask me to remix them because they like my music so of course you must hear that it’s a remix done by me. Kind of understandable, haha.
You live in a relatively small country if we speak about the population, about 9.5 million people there. Although there are so many good producers coming from there, what is your say about that, you got any ideas how come it’s like that?
You know, I will tell you a secret why we have so many good producers from Sweden. It’s the weather! Bad weather 70 percent of the year, so we spend our time inside making music instead of being outside.
What is the club life like in Sweden, in your opinion, is there a big scene for the house music, and especially the progressive house?
Unfortunately people in Sweden seem to prefer music from the radio, the regular pop music. And in the clubs they play a lot of the commercial house music. Don’t get me wrong, It’s great for clubbing. I really prefer that over R&B but it would be nice to hear some melodic house or trance for a change. But that’s just how I feel :)
A lot of the music today is not sold, it’s spread through internet and musicians, producers & labels hardly make any money at all on their productions. What are your thoughts about the sharing through blogspots, forums and all other ways for illegal sharing of music?
Well in the beginning of your career it’s good to get your music spread, even illegally if that’s the only way. But of course it can’t continue forever. Some people are really putting a lot of effort in their productions and of course they most get support for the pleasure they give us!
If we talk about the future, what can the progressive lovers out in the world expect from Mr. Folkebrant in the coming months?
You never know what to expect from me! haha I’m working on a couple of collabs with great producers so you should expect some cool progressive music I guess :)
If we move a step further, what can we expect in the coming years, can you assure us that we still have the sound of David Folkebrant on the electronic dance music scene making progressive sounds? What are the goals in a long term perspective, “just” having fun making beats or is there a bigger story to it?
Yes, I really hope so! Hopefully I will begin to study this autumn but I will of course work with new music! I would be amazing to have the music as a full time job but as we talked about earlier, the illegal sharing really makes it difficult, so that’s why I want to study so I have a plan B.
Okay mate, time to round of thing for this time, any final words to our PHWW viewers?
Keep listening to good music and stay happy :) And of course, thank you for taking the time to read this little interview.
Thanks again for going through with this interview, it is much appreciated by us. Hope to speak soon again and hear more interviews and stories in the future!
No problem, I really enjoyed it guys! Take care :)
