Klavar

Spotlight by Severine, We7 PR Guru

Feeling in a bit of an Ibiza mood? Here is what you need: Klavar, a clever mix of strong beats and ambient vibes. Clubbers, "Day" and "Night" is the perfect double album for you: while "Day" will keep you chilled during your day, "Night" will get you ready for dancing and will keep the party going till the morning. We7 caught up with Tony, one of the two members of Klavar to talk about music.

The interview

Hi Guys, how are you doing today?

Hello Severine we are feeling great. Thank you for this opportunity on the We7 Spotlight.

Your albums "Night" and "Day" have been a success since their release and now on We7. What was your magical recipe to compose this album?

After creating our début album "Dispursed Reality" we had a mixture of Ambient tracks and Dance tracks on the same album, and although listeners enjoyed the music, the one criticism they had was that the continuity was broken by the very different style between each track. After listening to this feedback we decided to embark on a big project which eventually took us 2 years to complete. The project from the outset was to create two single albums to be released simultaneously and to reflect 24 hours in a clubber's life. We named the first album "Day" and the second album "Night". We wanted the "Day" album to be "Chilled", and something that the listener could relax to, but changed toward the end of the album ready for the mood of the more upbeat "Night" album. Similarly, the "Night" album changes towards the end ready for the more chilled mood of the "Day" album.

How do you go about creating a track?

When we are creating new tracks we generally have ideas each of us have been working on and we bring these ideas to the table to discuses how we would like the track to go. We put in a basic beat and work around this to create the sounds we want for the track, then as it progresses, we decide if it needs vocals. If we find vocals are required we then discuss with Sarice how the track will progress and give her a basic track that she can work with, occasionally providing lyrics for her. Sarice will then take care of the vocals for the track and check back with progress to see if we are happy with how the vocals are going. Then we slowly tidy the track up listening to different areas and sometimes come across mistakes that weren't intended but sound great, like the start of "Your Touch" which originally was in the middle and due to a mistake became the beginning, it sounded good so we tweaked it and the result was great. We build the track up little by little and constantly listen to it, gaining more ideas and working out problems, once the track is finished we send this off to be mastered which greatly enhances the tracks audio quality for the final mix.

What are your influences?

Influences for Klavar stretch from Ibiza club style and Trance music to Chilled. So, artists like Enigma, Jean-Michelle Jarre, dark sound of The Prodigy, Dark Globe, Deepsky, Faithless, Above and Beyond, Telepopmusik and various other Chilled and Dance artists. We generally listen to any type of music and enjoy a well produced track. We also have a lot of influence from people we have met in our travels who are also independent artists, such as Sarice and Sketchie.

What would be your dream venue?

Ibiza. A big stage in Ibiza playing to a nice sized crowd.

Who would you love to play with?

We are talking about a dream here. We would love to play with The Prodigy that would be a dream come true for us. We would also love to play with any dance DJs and artists that love to create and play music as a passion. We all have dreams and heroes. We regularly create tracks with other independent artists as a way of learning new ideas, so we may have already worked with the next big artist, you never know.

What has been your best moment since the Klavar adventure started?

There have been many moments that have put a smile on our faces, this being one of them. Things like gigging, and releasing our own music on our own label, and seeing our tracks on various websites. One big moment was when we had a track "Left Behind" which had the vocals of my children laughing, chosen as the background music to a documentary about the anniversary of the e-mail. This was shown on a German News Program on 3Sat satellite TV station. That was a proud moment for us.

One very big moment was meeting Sarice. We met Sarice through the independent artist websites. We needed some vocals for some tracks and although we hadn’t known her long we asked if she would do some for us. She happily agreed, and asked if we would also create some music for her own vocals and create some fresh music for some older songs she had created. Sarice features on "Day" and "Night" albums with some of her original songs with new music created by Klavar. Tracks like "Your Touch" and "Reflection". We now work regularly with Sarice who is still independent and working with other artists. She is involved in helping Klavar develop and using her experience helping us to prepare for "‘Giggs" some of which she will appear on.

What do you like most: recording or gigging?

We have done very little gigging for various reasons lately, but when we did, we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Being in front of a crowd can be frightening but once you get out there the nerves do settle and you really become part of that crowd yourself, enjoying it just as much. Now the "Day" and the "Night"albums are finished we are practising our stage performance ready to start a season of gigging. Although dates and venues are still being discussed, plans are also being discussed for a live album launch in Ibiza this summer which we are looking forward to.

As for recording, the thrill of listing to a fat dirty baseline you've just created and are hearing for the first time which nobody else in the world has heard is amazing. This just inspires you more to create a great track that will eventually be blasted out to a great crowd. So we love both gigging and recording the same, each has its own rewards.

You also manage the label Klavar Recordings. How different is it to be on the other side and managing artists instead of making music?

Klavar Recordings has a great team of people helping to keep track of everything needed to run the label. A lot of work goes into Klavar Recordings on a daily basis. It has certainly made me realise just how many hours are needed to simply keep things up to date and how much work is needed, especially on the internet side. Managing artists is great. I enjoy discussing any new music/albums they are producing. After a few years of running Klavar Recordings we know we still have a lot to learn.

What is next for Klavar?

We are currently finishing the "Night Live" set and will soon be gigging with it. It is a full 1 hour set with tracks mixing in together, there are some new sounds and versions of tracks in the mix to give a little taste of future albums, we are slowly looking into new sounds for a new album and have worked slightly on two new tracks for a new album which will be of an Electro nature. We are concentrating more on being ready for gigging. We are also reserving time for Sarice and any music/work she requests if needed for her own album which we are looking forward to. Also in the pipeline is another year at University. After successfully getting an Honours Degree in Music Technology it would be great to do a PGCE to learn how to teach. After volunteering to help in a local studio for teaching young adults I found it was a great feeling passing on my knowledge and sharing ideas etc. So a PGCE to teach seems a good idea. This may also lead to Klavar Recordings being able to teach/help others more.