LA based classical crossover pianist Van -Anh Nguyen and Sydney DJ/Producer Olsen come together to create their own blend of electronica, percussion & orchestral vibes...
1.- IBR: How did the union between a pianist and a percussionist come about?
Double Touch .- We actually met in a music studio many years ago. Our love of music was definitely something we had in common!
2.- IBR .- When did you decide to be part of the electronic scene?
Mark .- I started getting into Electronic Music in the late 90s when I discovered Daft Punk . Then in the early 2000s I moved over from playing drums in live bands to being obsessed with House Music after hearing Ben Watt and Jay Hannan’s Lazy Dog compilation CDs. I loved the blend of live instruments with the Electronic sounds.
Van-Anh .- I have loved electronic music and always wanted to bridge the gap in classical and electronic music since the early 2000s.
3.- IBR .- What's new in your next productions. With which labels are you going to release them and when?
Double Touch .- We are currently working on some new vocal tracks with Reigan after taking a few months off writing music at the end of last year. Our next few releases this year will be on Trybesof, Hoomidaas, and All Day I Dream.
We are also about to finish off our next batch of demos so hopefully we will have some more releases scheduled in soon!
4.-IBR .- Those 2 years that you have been stopped, locked up, due to the pandemic, has been useful for you to retake old projects, to create new things? What good did you get out of all that time in isolation?
Double Touch .- We definitely made the most of the lockdowns over here. We had more studio time than we have ever had before, so we were able to create a lot of new music (which have been all of our releases over the past 2yrs). Even tracks like Greatest Day were finished during the first lockdown and released a few months later on All Day I Dream .
5.- IBR : I understand that you make organic house, melodic deep and melodic house, with which style do you feel more comfortable when it comes to producing?
Double Touch .- Organic House would be our most comfortable music to create as we much prefer to play live instruments instead of using only synths like some other House genres.
6.- IBR .- You are working at the moment with several colleagues in new productions, do they have any ingredient that makes them different from the previous productions? Which ones?
Double Touch .- We do have some collaborations with some other ADID artists such as Flowers on Monday and Luka Sambe, which we finished off during the lockdowns.
You can definitely hear the unique sounds of each artist in these tracks, such as the live hand-pan sounds from Flowers on Monday, and Luka Sambe’s quirky synths and melodies! It's amazong to combine the sounds of two different artists and hear the final result.
7. IBR . - You are part of the line up of the ADID Festival in California, I imagine that you are anxious after so much time without being in contact with the public, What are you preparing for such an important day? Tell us everything , hehehe!
Double Touch .- We are so excited! We had all of our large scale events postponed or cancelled over the past two years so we can’t wait to play on a big stage again! With all of the border restrictions in Australia, we haven’t even been able to fly overseas since our Cercle and ADID gigs in Bali with Lee Burridge at the beginning of 2020.
Its going to be an amazing experience to be on this ADID festival lineup. Reigan is also joining us for this gig so it will be a great chance to test out some of our new music we have been working on too!
8.- IBR .- After the Festival you are planning to come to Europe. What are the clubs, countries, cities?
Double Touch .- It looks like we will be in Europe in July. So far it's looking like Ibiza, Mykonos, and Santorini for now. We are keeping that month open at the moment so we can add more dates in over the next few months. It will actually be our first ever gigs in Europe for Double Touch so it will be a special month!
9.- IBR .- For those who don't know you enough, how were your beginnings?
Double Touch .- Double Touch is actually quite a new project compared to a lot of the other artists in our genre. Our first release was in 2018 which was under Ministry of Sound Australia. We then sent Lee some demos after that release and he took all 4 demos for our “Adagio” release on All Day I Dream in 2019.
We actually started Double Touch as a fun studio project as we liked to combine Classical Music sounds with Electronic Music. We really didn’t think we would ever do live gigs together, or release music on labels that inspired us so much like ADID. We just fell into it and now here we are! :)
10.- IBR .- What do you prefer Club or Festival? Why ?
Double Touch.- Our music is more suited to daytime or sunset, so festivals would be our preference. We love the atmosphere at festivals and meeting so many amazing other artists we love.
Plus, it's sometimes the only chance we get to catch up with our DJ friends who are on the same lineup. On the other hand, nothing beats an intimate Club setting where everyone is specifically there to see your music.
11.- IBR.- To produce, Analog or Digital sound?
Double Touch.- Analogue would be our preference but most of our music is Digital as we are usually based between Sydney and Los Angeles and need portability. Our tracks are mainly written with soft synths - usually a blend of Omnisphere, Serum, and Massive. We try to add a lot of Organic live sounds in the mix too so the tracks aren’t too “Digital” sounding.
Interviewed by Paul Ross
