I have followed the Odd One Out Label Boss, Otto from his Wondering EP days. So you can imagine how stocked I was to speak to the legend himself. If you haven’t heard Yotto’s music yet, don’t waste another minute.This year has been filled with numerous accolades for the Finnish superstar. From the release of his 2nd studio album, Growth to playing at the biggest, busiest venues and festivals like SÓ TRACK BOA in São Paulo and Printworks in March this year.
Yotto is a man who loves his fans and label. His fan base has grown tremendously, spreading across all major continents and I was lucky enough to cross paths with a few of them. Join his group ‘Yotto Is The Motto‘ if you haven’t yet. Don’t miss the shenanigans this family has to offer. These last few weeks have been busy for Yotto with his b2b with Lane 8 at Dreamstate Socal and his first ever all night long at Fabric. Yotto played an intimate set at DJ Mag right before his Fabric set. Check it out live below.
Otto hailing from Helsinki, Finland is currently one of the leading producers in the Dance music industry. He started off his career with the Anjunadeep family many moons ago. Since then has earned the title of one of electronic music’s forces to be reckoned with. Gone onto launching his record label Odd One Out back in 2019 through which he has introduced amazing fresh talent. Being an odd one out groupie myself led to my wonderful chat with Yotto.
EDMTunes – Loved your set at DS this weekend, a dream combo with Lane 8! We heard a bunch of IDs, any of them with Daniel? Anything in the works for the both of you together? Any plans to play another B2B in the future?
YOTTO – Ah yes we did play IDs, but none of them were ours. We tried to get something done for this, but just didn’t have enough time. We played the two tracks we have together. Just kind of upcoming new stuff that we enjoy from, you know, both our labels. That was fun. It was an interesting event as well, playing in between these really high-energy, kind of bigger Trance acts was interesting. But yeah, it worked for us. I’m sure there will be something Daniel and I will work on together at some point. It’s an ongoing process. Nothing that we can, or we have actually finished or set on the calendar yet. Our previous B2B was in Belgium, four years ago. Nothing in the works currently, hopefully soon.
Overall it was a strange weekend, everything was off. If you saw my stories I lost my phone, got parking tickets and just standard behaviour.
EDMTunes – Any highlights that you’ve had over the year, other than your album Growth, and are we gonna get that on vinyl?
YOTTO – That’s a good question, maybe I am really looking into the vinyl. There was an idea earlier to do that. But I finished the album so late and like the vinyl lead times at that point were half a year. So then there was no way to get it out when the album came out. So we haven’t made that jump yet. Maybe we can do an anniversary thing at some point. This year has been pretty busy with it being an album year. Touring and sets have been focused around it. As much as I loved it, I am happy to jump into the next year.
EDMTunes – You sound excited for the new year, any plans from 2024 you can share with us?
YOTTO – Well exciting news, we will be releasing the Growth remixed album in February of 2024. Super excited about that, the first remixed single is out, ‘Let You Go‘, remixed by the one and only Joris Voorn. Speaking of Joris, we will be releasing the B2B set I had with him at ADE in a few weeks on YouTube, keep a look out for that. And very excited to mention that there will be other Yotto B2B Joris Voorn shows in the future! I will also be releasing new music that I am really excited about. It’ll be nice to release some music that is not album music anymore.
EDMTunes – Maybe unpopular opinion but my favourite album of yours is Erased Dreams. What was your inspiration behind it, and outside of the EDM music space what do you listen to?
YOTTO – I have always loved that kind of music. All the old stuff from Orbital. Especially tracks that never had any drums in them. I used to listen, I still listen to this stuff to sleep, especially on airplanes. I kind of need something playing when I am sleeping. Not at home luckily, but anyway, I always make music like this. During COVID, I realized I had quite a lot of these tracks so I put it together and released it. Some of the tracks on the album were originally to be club records. But I stripped away all the club elements, the drums and the bass and all of that. It left me with something different. I don’t really enjoy listening to my own music but this album I have listened to it a few times and I still like it, I am happy with it.
I like classical music without the club elements. There is also hip-hop, RnB, indie music, then Cocteau Twins kind of stuff. Pretty much anything other than Dance music in my free time. I also listen to a lot of Drum and Bass when I am running.
EDMTunes – We always love your collaboration with your brother CAPS. Is there anything that we can expect with him in the near future?
YOTTO – I am sure there will be! He and I go to the studio every now and then. CAPS was very involved in the Christoph collab ‘Out Of Reach’. He wrote it and was to be the original voice of the track. But then the track kind of turned into something that worked better with a female vocalist. He has been involved with some other records as well. We’ll hopefully get something cooking soon.
EDMTunes – Odd One Out has been producing amazing music, any favourite collaborations or artists you have enjoyed working with from the label?
YOTTO – I do really enjoy working with the Anden guys. They are nice people and super nice to work with. I am excited to see where their music goes next. Um then of course Karolus, who I have the Something Good project with. We have worked together for decades. It’s a project (an alias) that we started years ago, when we were in our 20s. Now we are giving this project another shot!
EDMTunes – Best venues you’ve played at so far, and bucket list venues still pending?
YOTTO – I am sure there are some, it’s always a tough question. One that really stood out to me and I really enjoyed playing was Warung in Brazil. It was a great club before it burnt down. They are rebuilding it, though. It was just one of those places that had this aura to it. I had heard so many great sets from people there like Digweed, Progressive House guys that I used to listen to in 2005. All the sets I heard from there were great and I had them on repeat for years. When I finally stepped in there and played myself, it was magical. It helped up to the image that I had of the venue, it wasn’t a letdown. Kind of the same thing I feel at Fabric, in London.
I played there a few agos for my first ever All Night Long from 12-5 am. I remember I used to buy all the Fabric compilations when I was younger. It’s a validation of your career when you get to play at places like that. Ones you used to be a fan of. I haven’t played in Ibiza, for some reason I have not. That is something that kind of popped into my head just now. I hadn’t really thought about it and now I started thinking about all the legendary clubs that I enjoy going to I have not played at. I have to give the agents a note to put me there – I can play in the toilet or whatever. *HAHA*
EDMTunes – I am sure even the toilet debut will sell out.
EDMTunes – Ok something fun – what is the weirdest thing you have eaten? And if you weren’t a DJ what would you have been?
YOTTO – I don’t think bugs really count as weird. I think it was Hákarl – it is Icelandic rotten shark meat. It is really disguising, worst thing I have ever had. I want to say I would have a restaurant. I wouldn’t be a chef, but I would own it. That is kind of what I went to school, that is my backup or retirement plan anyway.
EDMTunes -I want to thank you so much for doing this with us, we appreciate it. Also how you and your team were on board with chatting with me as you learnt I am part of the Yotto Is The Motto family.
Hope you all enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Otto. A couple of things fans enjoyed his All Night Long at Fabric on November 24th. Joined him were Booka Shade, Sohmi, Artche, and Daniel Curpen B2B Dom Donnelly. If you want to ring in 2024 with Yotto you are in luck. He will return to Brazil for New Year’s Eve, after his epic debut at SÓ TRACK BOA earlier this year. That will be a party you won’t want to miss.
Stay tuned to EDMTunes for all your updates with Yotto!
