Sounds like Bicep with Zimmer-style string arrangements.

Solkatt prepares his second release with his own Made Magnetic label. For «Questions» he prepares a heavy House record with a strong melodic touch.

Released in October, the original is paired with a pair of heavyweight remixers that don’t disappoint. Each one carries the record in a unique direction to create a versatile record that walks between breaks and a more traditional 4×4 spine.

An album that is as suitable for home as it is for the club, and is sure to be at home in many collections.

We have had the pleasure of speaking with Solkatt, and this has been the result!

Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music?

We’re both from Ireland. We grew up in Dublin and Kilkenny. We started making music together when we both lived in Kilkenny. We had been making music separately for many years before this project came along.

Who have been your main inspirations (both musical and in «life»)? And how have they affected your sound?

We’re both massive fans of all types of music. We get inspiration from people like Nils Frahm, Johan Johansson as well as a lot of 90’s and modern dance music. I’m sure these influences bleed into our sound in some way but it’s not a totally conscious effort to sound like any of them.

How would you define your sound?

Highly synthesized with a love for both the analog and digital world.

How has your sound evolved so far?

We started out composing all of this music for a 48 speaker geodesic dome that was to be premiered at a festival over in Ireland. The type of music we needed to produce for that project has been streamlined somewhat since then and is a lot more focused on the dancefloor and playing live.

What can you tell us about your last record? What inspired you? What did you want to convey?

This was actually taken from the original sessions for that geodesic dome project and polished up. I think at the time we were listening to a lot of Richie Hawtin’s remixes from the 90’s which gave us the idea for the broken beat element of the track. We then built everything on top of that with vocal samples and strings.

What can you tell us about each song that makes up your latest work? What is hidden behind? 

Our latest release was ‘Questions’ on our own Made Magnetic imprint. The idea behind the label is to release singles with accompanying remixes from friends/producers we’re into. So for this release we got Jellypelt to put together an amazing hyped up broken beat slammer and Jack Ward completely transformed the track into a blissed-out house jam.

How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work affected you a lot? Do you think there is hope? I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist.

There’s always hope. We’ve continued to do what we do. Which is to make music both together and separately. The biggest impact covid has had on us is the lack of live shows, which is one of the main reasons we decided to start this project.

What projects are you working on right now?

For the next year we are focussing on our label, Made Magnetic. We will be releasing music from ourselves as well as other artists over the next while. The next release on the label will be from half of Solkatt. Leo Pearson’s Mutator EP will be released early 2022 with remixes from Neil Flynn and the other half of Solkatt, Polytunnel.

Artist Social Links:

https://www.instagram.com/solkattireland/

https://www.facebook.com/SolkattIreland/

Label Social Links:

https://mademagnetic.bandcamp.com/releases

https://mademagnetic.net/