We had a little chat with quite the duo of veterans, and who have just conquered a new summit.
We kick off this week, quite the special one by the way, by sitting down with Weekend Heroes, a duo of producers and DJs who have taken the world by storm. The alias is the collaborative project between scene veterans Felix Nagorsky, also known as Timelock, and Eli Baltsan, the renowned DJ Zombi.
They first met way back in 2009 with the main goal in mind being creating music that resonated with them yet still sat outside of their independent genres of Dance. What they went for is a balanced blend of Progressive House and Melodic Techno, which they hold to this day.
To say they’ve signed to the largest labels time and time again, although good sounding, would still be an understatement. These guys have gone above and beyond on deals. Just to name a few, for more than a decade, Weekend Heroes have released records on the following imprints: Plattenbank, Toolroom, Spinnin’, FSOE UV, Mango Alley, Zerothree, Anjunabeats, Vandit, Einmusika, and Armada.
On Friday, the duo made their Afterlife debut, in the form of two collaborations with producer Argy. ‘No One’s Coming’ and ‘Talk To Me’ are a part of his studio album, New World.
Without further to do, let’s dive into the interview.
1. You guys are veterans in the industry, with your lone projects Timelock and DJ Zombi being successful names even to this day, yet your sounds are quite far apart when working on your own, the former being closer to Psytrance and the latter paving the way over in Organic House. What made you try and form a duo, and how did the chemistry between you two start growing as Weekend Heroes?
“Yeah, we both started this journey in Electronic music a while ago and in quite different zones. That’s exactly what brought Weekend Heroes to be what it is, a mixture of genres, sounds and inspirations. We find it very interesting to experiment with sounds and textures from different types of audio collages.“
2. What’s your creative process when starting a song? What inspires you to make a song?
“Each and every tune has its own background and story. It can be lyrics we send to the singer and take it from there; it can be a sample from another tune from the past that we start from; it can be a kick-bass combo that inspires us… Basically, we get inspiration from other artists, art from the past, life and the world itself.“
3. How did ‘No One’s Coming’ and ‘Talk To Me’, your collaborations with Argy, come about?
“We share with Argy that we’re fanatics about sound engineering. We have the same interests and audio esthetics fetishes, that’s how it all started. ‘No One’s Coming’ started from the amazing vocals we got and then came a long ping-pong process between the studios, until it became playable, which was not the end at all. We kept tweaking the track. One more and another version after road tests, we introduced slight changes and slowly we got to the point where we felt 100% happy with the result, the way it came out on the album. ‘Talk To Me’ is a darker and more underground number that started as a DJ tool, and that became a full-length tune. It took us around a year to build it properly.“
4. These tracks mark your Afterlife debut. We’d love to know your thoughts on joining the imprint, and if there are any secrets you could tell us between you and the label for the future.
“We are more than happy to release on the number one label of the moment! It’s a great feeling to be “approved” by a brand like Afterlife. We can’t speak about future plans yet, but we can say this is not the last big release from us…“
5. Where do you see your project in a few years’ time? What are your goals, or wishes, as a duo for the next, say, five years?
“We just want to make more good music, travel to play amazing gigs and continue to spend our lives in rhythm like we chose many many years ago. It is not about goals but the journey for us: if you enjoy the road, the destination isn’t important.“
6. If there’s one piece of advice you could give to up-and-coming producers, their workflow, their mindset, whatever feels most valuable, what would it be?
“You just concentrate on your own, don’t copy others, don’t overthink, don’t panic and only be yourself. If you do it well, with heart and soul, with time the result will come. Just stay calm and try to have fun, all the time, life is not too long…“
Final Words
Thank you Weekend Heroes for this lovely conversation. Be sure to check out their newest tracks ‘No One’s Coming’ and ‘Talk To Me’ alongside Argy. Follow them on social media to stay up to date, and stay tuned to our page for more!