The couple of producers and djs from New York Local Dialect, grant us this interview exclusively for Las Grecas. We wanted to go a little deeper into the way they produce, their equipment, the future and many interesting things …

1. Can you tell us a little bit about your background? where are you from / how did you get into music?

Reed – I’m half-Thai, half-American and I grew up in Thailand. I took piano lessons as a kid and didn’t really follow Western music until I got a copy of The Breakthrough by Mary J. Blige from my cousin when I was 14. After that I really got into it through the internet. I started out listening to mostly rock music, but eventually discovered electronic music and in college I joined a music producers club, which is where I got started producing.

Sam – I grew up in Philadelphia, and I was introduced to all kinds of amazing music early in life by my parents! I played a couple instruments (trumpet, bass) in high school, but didn’t get into electronic music until my freshman year of college. I went to a few shows that completely blew my mind, and I’ve been hooked on electronic stuff ever since. Reed taught me to DJ freshman year of college, but I actually didn’t start producing until after I graduated.

2. Your new record is on Grums freshly minted Deep State imprint, what’s it like working with him?

Nothing short of amazing, Grum and his team are awesome people and have given us a bunch of helpful advice and guidance on our career as well. Our stream on Grum’s Deep State Twitch channel was really fun, we had a bunch of folks come through in a raid and it popped off!

3. Who are you main inspirations? and how have they effected your sound?

Obviously there are countless artists who have inspired our sound over the years, but when it comes to Local Dialect, a few names rise above the rest: Township Rebellion, Lane 8, Stephan Bodzin, Yotto, and Einmusik.

4. How would you describe your sound in 2020?

Music that lets you decide how to feel. Lush melodies, epic soundscapes, and powerful basslines. We strive to make our tracks work in the club, while maintaining the thread of a cohesive story through our melodic compositions.

5. Where do you see your sound going in the future?

We tend to oscillate between writing melodic house and writing more techno-influenced music. We love having multiple dimensions to our sound and will continue to develop each of them, and we’re happy to say that we have both types of music in our upcoming releases.

We’re also constantly experimenting with new sounds and production techniques. For example, we recently purchased some shakers and a tambourine that we’ve been recording for live original percussion, it’s a great way to add a unique touch to our tracks.

6. Tell us a little bit about your studio, are you hardware or software? how do you get a track down?

We use mostly hardware in our studio. We have a Prophet 6, OB-6, Moog Sub 37 and a Moog Voyager, as well as some guitar effects pedals, a UAD tube preamp, and a few other bits and pieces. We use software tools as well but we prefer composing with hardware as we find it much more fun and inspiring, and we can lay down ideas much more quickly.

When we write, we often start with what we like to call a “driver” element, something that is simple and repetitive that plays through the whole track. It can be either a synth or a percussive sound, sometimes it’s just 1 or 2 notes every bar, sometimes it’s a 16th-note pattern. We find that doing this gives us a context against which we can riff and jam, it makes things easier. Sometimes we end up deleting this element but that’s ok!

7. Are there any pieces of kit that you find essential?

Definitely the Prophet 6 and Sub 37, they are the synths we most frequently turn to for our lead and bass sounds.

8. Can you clue us into any acts you are loving that other people might not know?

Our buddy Joshua Moreno is a super talented producer from Trinidad & Tobago, we had the pleasure of remixing his track Inception on Immersed a few months ago and he’s returning the favor by remixing Phial (which could be considered one of our first “hits”) which is coming out soon.

Tantum and Black Wands are two artists we met through the recent remix competition Fehrplay held, their remixes rightfully won them placements in the remix EP and they’re definitely up-and-coming in the Melodic Techno scene.

9. It’s difficult for everyone in our industry during the crisis – what have you been doing to keep things going?

Apart from doing DJ Sets on Twitch, we’ve just been laying low and writing lots of music. The music industry, along with everything else, came to a sort of standstill during the pandemic, and it’s hard to release music when there aren’t any clubs or concerts for people to go hear your music being played! We’re hoping for the best and want to come out of this period with a lot of new material so that we’re ready to go full blast when things pick back up.

10. Whats next for you?

We have another release slotted with Deep State coming soon, can’t say much more right now but it’s going to be epic!

Apart from that, we’re finishing up a collab with our friends Anden. Lane 8 played it in one of his mixtapes a while back, and we’ve had many fans asking us when this will come out. Happy to say it’ll finally get to see the light of day!