Artist Name: Philippe Creytens
Nationality: Germany (Born in Belgium)
Release title: Travel – EP
Release Genre: Deep House / Techno
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Listen
Philippe Creytens latest EP on Spotify. Enjoy while reading the interview.
About the Artist
When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?
I started dj’ing when I was about 24-25 years old as a way to have a continuous flow of music going on when I am working. This piqued my interest in developing my own music but this was a years-long search. I have moved in between electronic genres, going from EDM, Big Room to Trance & PsyTrance all the way back to hardcore Techno and eventually what I like to call Melodic House. What really draws me into making music is the creative process and a bit of the geeky ness to it as well. Being a developer I love geeky things and making music, especially electronic music, there are so many ways to be creative and geeky at the same time, that it brings an incredible amount of joy to my life.
What would you say are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?
I am always looking for emotion in my music. I start out with something going from either a beat or an idea in my head but it is usually not an idea per se, it is more of a feeling I am looking for. It’s quite hard to describe but listening to music, and especially my own music, must give me a distinct emotion, this can vary from track to track, but I will search and try out and experiment with all the tools in my toolbox until I find this feeling. Once the feeling is locked into place I start building the entire track around this.
Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way has music – either your own or that of others – contributed to your understanding of these questions?
Not quite understanding of questions but I have gone through some serious Covid illness that fueled a huge amount of inspiration for me and from that has guided me into finding my true sound. Now why do I say a true sound and not just sound, because even long after being sick whenever I would start making music I would be drawn to this particular sound and even trying to divert and make music in other genres, this “true” sound would always pop up, there will be always a distinct sound in my music that will make it recognisable.
About the Album/Single
Tell us about your new EP ‘Travel’. Is there a story behind it? What were the influences or inspirations to write it?
The idea behind it was to create a follow-up for the 3 singles that I released earlier. This time a full-blown EP, building on top of what was there, showcasing what I stand for as a musician and paving the path as a DJ as well. My main influences for this were The Blaze, ARTBAT, Ben Böhmer and Paul Kalkbrenner.
Could you describe your creative process behind the album? Where did the ideas come from, how were they transformed in your mind, what did you start with and how do you refine these beginnings into a finished song?
Some ideas for the EP came from small elements I would hear in other songs and trying to recreate it with my own sound to it. I also started to create my own library of sounds in Synths so I would reuse some of the sounds over the course of the tracks, creating unity and I would be discovering, and playing around with different synths and tools until I would come up with something. Oddly enough, the title track Travel took me the least amount of work yet it is one of the best and I think this is in part due to the groundworks that were laid down by working on the other tracks for so long.
How did you go about choosing your recording/mixing/mastering engineer? Any advice for anyone else currently going through the process?
The recording & mixing I do myself while I am in the process of creativity. I find it hard to be creative when not everything is sounding the way I want it to sound, harmonically in a mix. In regards to the mastering engineer, I have worked with Cefe before on the Track X-Ray and that was a smashing success so the choice was easy for my full EP.
What's next?
What’s next for you?
Promotion, Promotion, Promotion. I have started promoting the EP and have a clear path of more promotion opportunities coming up. I will also use the EP as a launch platform to fuel my DJ career here in Berlin as this EP is a pure representation of what I stand for as a dj and what I bring to the table.