Exclusive Interview with Shipstad & Warren

PP hosting another exclusive interview with big players from the progressive scene! We have already announced our cooperation with Shipstad & Warren duo [Armada, Key, Nellie, Silk, Neuroscience, Shah Music] and their newcoming label Key Recordings. After few promos we have received (and which u all will be able to hear in our future promo mixes) well next logical step was making an interview with these great guys right? So we done it. They are really cool as persons and they told us lots of interesting things (such like they have never met each other in person, even though they produce together for quite a while now). I dont wanna discover no more, just read what they have to say bellow. U will enjoy it i'm sure! At the end of the interview down bellow u have Beatport player with their latest releases so just play some of them while reading the following! ;)

PP: Hi guyz! First let me say we feel honored we got you here on board and that we have the opportunity to make an interview with you. You guyz are one of our absolute favs here at PP. Ok, so how's goin’, all fine there?

SW:Yup! All is well here! Finishing up some work for our label Key Recordings, some new originals and a remix for Nellie Recordings.

PP: That sounds cool! OK so for starters, can you tell us few words about how the project Shipstad & Warren was born? When did you guyz met each other? For how long have you been into music? When and how did you start to produce music? Shortly, tell us few words about beginnings of Shipstad & Warren project.

SW: Well…First off…we have never met each other in person! I (Luke Shipstad) was a friend of one of his friends and we met through there. All three of us produced and I was really intrigued by Dylan’s sound. We started sending back some project files here and there and soon enough we had our first tune! We’ve both been into music for a loooooong time. However Dylan is 16 and I’m 18. Our styles seem to fit well with each other and also our personalities ;) A key element in any partnership!

PP: Haha, unbelievable guys, I never would have tought u never meet eachother personally! Ok, can u tell us how would u describe the sound of Shipstad & Warren? And In which genre do you place your sound?

SW: Well, we’d have to say we have an emotional sound. Although not all our songs are formed off of emotions or thoughts of year’s pasts :) …they seem to tug some heart strings here and there. Uplifting, driving, soothing and progressive…Progressive House that is!

PP: What are your biggest influences? In musical sense.

SW: Besides each other…it varies between the two of us.

Luke Shipstad: For me it’s probably Michael Cassette, Junkie XL, Chris Reece (and all his aliases), Yuan, Answer42/Mooka. From the mainstream mainly Seal, Madonna, Thin White Duke and most likely some others I’m forgetting to mention!

Dylan Warren: Man that’s a tough one…Mainly Deadmau5, Mango, Sound Prank and some others.

PP: Can you describe to us your process of making a track? Is it first an idea in your heads and you then go to the studio, or is it all at once? Also tell us about experimenting with sounds. How much time do you need to make one track?

SW: Well our process is mainly devised off one of us coming up with one small idea, and then sending the project file over to the other when we want the S&W sound to kick in ;) Because the beginning depends on only one of us at a time, sometimes one of us will have an idea or it can just start off all at once from opening up FL Studio (DAW we use). We try to be as original as possible with our sounds and attempt to the best of our abilities not to use a bunch of sounds that others have already trademarked. As far as time needed to finish our tracks…well that all depends on the song. For most artists we’d agree that it depends on how “into” the track you’re working on. We’ve finished a track anywhere’s from a day to a month, although normally it’s a couple of weeks to complete a track.

PP: Where do you find all the inspiration for melodies? Do you think that talent is most important thing (coz we think so :)) ?

SW: In everyday events and emotions to be honest :) Really sometimes there is no inspiration other than pure talent by us ;) In this genre, we are both firm believers that talent is a must! You can really tell those who know how to make a melody and those who can just produce music well apart.

PP: What equipment do you guys use at the studio? Is your production all software based or is there any hardware used? And if both, in what percentage do you use them?

SW: We use the Behringer B2031A’s for monitors and the PreSonus Audiobox as our soundcard. For our DAW we previously stated that we used FL Studio, and for the record, it’s version 9. We have no hardware synths however the software synths we have consist of Sylenth1, Sytrus, imOSCar, Minimoog, Nexus 2, Omnisphere and some secret sexy presets we’ve made ;)

PP: There are just so many tracks with the S & W sign on them which are so amazing. I will feel free to name a few my personal favs: You & I EP on Silk, Are U With Me, We Are Singularity, as well as remixes for Samara on Armada and Cloudsurfers tracks. Are u guyz workin’ on some material at the moment? What can we expect soon?

SW: Those are all some good tracks you’ve listed ;) We’re working on a lot of material for Nellie Recordings which will all be coming out soon this year starting in March. We’ve also got a lot of new material for our own label Key Recordings which will be released later this year. In addition we have a new artist project collaboration with exclusive Key Recording artists, Jola Eidos. We’re not going to give the artist name away…so you’ll all just have to guess at who we are!

(Dylan Warren - on the left, Luke Shipstad - on the right)

PP: Looking forward to all of it guyz! Ok so here is one tough and interesting question. Tell us what you think about illegal music sharing (via blogs, forums etc.). Is it killing the producers? Can it somehow help them? What is important people who do that (share music illegally) to realize?

SW: Well, neither of us supports illegal downloading, however it’s something that it looks like all genres and forms of music are going to have to endure now. In some ways there are plus sides to illegal downloading, such as it being the number one free promo tool for any artist, and it gets your name out there like non-other. Major obvious downsides…are obvious…I wouldn’t say that its killing producers, however it is certainly hurting a lot of us. Royalty payments are not what they used to be and it puts off a lot of artists from releasing music in the first place. It’s really for the love of music that many artists today still sign and release music, well knowing that 80% of downloads will be illegal and not paid for. An even larger problem that I’m noticing lately is leaked tracks that aren’t even released yet. It seems that many promo pools have a*#hole leakers that release music to the public for free without the official release date even being met.
To all the illegal downloader’s and leakers we have this to say, “Thanks for sharing, but no thanks, we’re done with your sharing for now :)”

PP: Are you guyz DJing besides producing? Can u tell us few words about the situation in the clubs there concerned progressive sound? Is progressive house beat alive at all in the clubosphere?

SW: We do have a few offers to DJ and tour here and there around the globe; however a key issue is that Dylan is still 16 and not even allowed in clubs yet! Until both halves of S&W are of legal age, we will be focusing solely on our productions and weekly radio show Key Sessions on proton radio every Sunday. (Also syndicated to Pure.fm once a month at every first Friday of every month)
Is the prog house sound dead in the club scene? I don’t think so. There are many prog house artists touring and headlining clubs all around the world, I don’t think the genre has anywhere to go but up :)

PP: Ok, now let’s move to next part of the interview. U guyz started a label Key Recordings together w/ Nick Stoynoff. How did that happened? What’s your idea with it, what’s the story about Key Recordings?

SW: Well, the idea first started in hands of Proton label owner, Jason Wohlstadter. He approached Nick and ourselves with the idea of starting a label together and we more than happily accepted. Partially due to ours and Nick’s contact list, we have a very promising roster for this year and going into next :) for more information visit our myspace page at http: www.myspace.com/keyrecordings

PP: What kind of genre are you planning to release on the label?

SW: Mainly Progressive House, however we’re not limiting ourselves to a certain kind, we’re into all kinds, Melodic, Techy, Uplifting, Funky, you name it :)

PP: Are there any releases already scheduled? Drop us some schedule if u got it!

SW: Our first release comes from the Anjunadeep artist Roddy Reynaert and his beautiful track Thalys. The EP will be out on the 26th of February and be supported with remixes from the ever talented Dezza and Nick Stoynoff. There’s already quite a bit of heavy support on the release however we’re not even a week into promo at this moment and the full list will be announced soon. Other tracks on the label will be announced periodically, as to keep you all on your toes ;) However we can assure you they’ll all be A+ quality work ;)

PP: Are u guyz diggin’ the track Electro House Is Dead? hehehe ;)

SW: Hahaha, yup ;)

PP: Ok can u tell us your 3 - 5 favorite tracks at the moment?

SW: Oh jeez. We hate this question. Ok. Ummm. IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, Dinka – Elements (Original), S&W – Just Like Your Father (Original), Roddy Reynaert – Thalys (Original), Luigi Lusini – Set You Free (LL InstruRemix)

PP: Is there any producer you guys consider as the best in nowadays?

SW: Are you kidding us? Easy question. Shipstad & Warren!

PP: Haha, cool ;) !! Thank u for your time boys! It’s been an honour for us! The PP crew wishes you all the best in the near future, hopefully speak soon w/ some great news! Cheers!

SW: Thank you to everyone who’s apart of PPB and keeping Prog House alive and strong! Keep listening to Progressive House and we all win :) Hope to see many of you soon somewhere around the globe!

Cheers,

Shipstad & Warren