Subsurface

 When we started djing we used to play a lot of hard electro like Cyberpunkers, Haezer etc. That was in late 2010. It was Skrillex and Tommie Keeston who brought us into bass music a few weeks later. We’re living in a small village with 6k people and a pretty old-fashioned taste in music so it was quite hard in the beginning, but soon we’ve been picked up by a local drum & bass label called Culture Assault Records and got in contact with a Festival called Love Electro! Festival. I think that’s when we came into drum & bass music.

 

 It was pretty random. We started a project and thought about a name for quite while but couldn’t come up with something that’d suit us. Then one day, I was watching a documentary about the Subway system in London, because I was really f*cking bored. And there was a part of the subway system called “Subsurface”. And they repeated that name quite a few times throughout the whole documentary. And at some certain point I thought: Well, this would be a nice name for our project. It was very random. We first came up with “The Subsurface Project” but changed it later into “Subsurface” because that was easier and shorter.

 We both had a friend in common who brought us to a prom night. There were two guys behind the dj decks who did absolutely nothing, so we both came to a conclusion that we could do that too. We were quite drunk that night but that’s how we officially met and how we started djing.

 We started in October 2010, so it’s more than 5 years now.

To be honest we don’t really like playing in clubs, we prefer festivals, warehouses or stuff like that. There was a venue called Halle 28 in a nearby city which was nothing but a giant warehouse with a stage and a counter in it – that was pretty dope! Nevertheless there’s one club we always love to come back to, which is Club Max Brixen (IT). We have a lot of great memories there.

 Yes, I (Clemens) was in London a few times because I love the city and for watching Football. I’m a huge Chelsea supporter since I was a child. But besides that, I really love London as a city and would love to move there one day!

I (Stefan) started on FL Studio and switched to Ableton live when I bought a MacBook. We also use it for our live performance, it’s really awesome! My favourite plugins are NI Massive, Sylenth 1, Nexus, Slayer 2 and Serum by Xfer Records. I also really loved Harmor and Gross Beat on FL Studio.

Unfortunately we haven’t ever met in person. I was just browsing through her soundcloud when I stumbled over the acapella version of Mr. Magician. A few months later I wrote some chords for a new track and tried to find some vocals for it. That’s when I discovered the acapella of Mr Magician on my pc. It sounded so good that I wanted to get in contact with Leanne to ask if she was down for an official release. I added her on facebook, sent the track and asked. That’s how we met. (I’m glad that she liked the track and agreed immediately)

 

 We use a MacBook Pro with Ableton Live, NI Audio2DJ Soundcard and Mixer. Sometimes we also bring our launchpad if there’s enough space on the dj desk (which is very rare haha). 

 It was amazing! The biggest gig we’ve ever had and that stage though! Still impressed tbh! People there were simply amazing, the whole atmosphere of the festival was very special. And of course we felt honoured to share the stage with such big acts as Pendulum or Chase & Status.

 

 

 

Our best gig was deifinitely Electric Love Festival, but there’s a lot of other gigs which we really enjoyed. Love Electro! Festival for example is one of our favourite festivals in town. There’s such a good vibe, great people, great line up and great promoters. It’s not always about big crowds, sometimes it’s much better to have a small venue with a small number of people who really enjoy the music. We also love coming around, we did some gigs in Austria and the rest of Italy. We’d love to do more gigs in the rest of europe like Vienna, Amsterdam or London. 

I’d say: Ram Records, Hospital Records, Viper Recordings, Black Out and of course: Moshbit Records – they really care about their artists which we really appreciate. Shoutout also to Culture Assault Records who helped us a lot in the beginning (and still do).

I (Clemens) personally listen to any kind of music. This goes from Nu Metal to Brit Pop (I love both Oasis and Blur) to Reggae, Alternative and a I’m a huge fan of oldschool grunge bands like Alice in Chains or Nirvana. And I love the band Gorillaz! Also i prefer listening to artists such as Moby or the Arctic Monkeys. There’s pretty much a bit of everything in my iTunes library.

Can we leave this question out please? There’s too much great music and we listen to too many different genres haha. Our mood changes like every day.

We’d really love to quit our day job and make a living just by making music. No matter if it’s producing, djing, selling sample packs, offer classes or whatever. Of course we’d prefer touring all over the world as Subsurface.

Pendulum, Noisia, Netsky, Skrillex, Zomboy or Deadmau5. I think we could learn a lot from them regarding music production. Then there’s some incredibly talented vocalists which we’d really love to work with. And Dillon Francis – just because he’s Dillon Francis.

We make music, isn’t that relaxing? Other things we love to do is hang out with friends, play poker or watch Malcolm in the Middle. Doing sports is too exhausting.

Yeah we’d like to thank everyone who supported us so far. There’s Culture Assault Records, Moshbit Records, Love Electro! Festival, Boom Festival, DJ Shany, Ralph Cieli, WestMB, Stunnah and many others. Shout out to Leanne Louise for being such a great singer!

You can find our tracks here: