Ahead of their upcoming EP on UK imprint Underground Audio, Cologne artists Tolstoi & Andsan take the When We Dip family through a day in the life of the two budding producers. The pair, the founders behind the local Livingroom parties, are all set for a heavy run featuring new music over the coming months also on Carpe Diem, Go Deeva and Under No Illusion. Make the introduction right here!
WWD: Thanks for joining us guys!
Your welcome, we felt very honoured when you asked us for the interview.
WWD: Tell us, what’s the first thing you did this morning?
The day started with a nice breakfast, then we went to the beach and met some friends at a after beach party. As we are right now in Croatia for a couple of weeks.
WWD: Run us through a day in the life of Tolstoi and Andsan!
Well a typical day starts at 9am. But ours ends at 9am with loads of things left to do and complaining about 24 hours not being enough to finish tracks, do our event managing and get all the promoting done for our future events.
WWD: If the When We Dip team landed in Cologne, where would you take us and what would we do?
Of course we would show you all cultural sights and tourist places… NO! We will bring you to our regularly House music event called “LivingRoom” (www.livingroom-cologne.de) at the famous “Heinz Gaul” location. On our last events we had guests like “Patrick Topping”, “Sante”, “Paul C & Paolo Martini” or “Ki Creighton” headlining our party. You can always expect high loaded sets in Tech-house and good looking party people.
WWD: If you had to live anywhere else in the world, where would it be?
Definitively somewhere with fast internet! As hardworking producers, nerds and Dropbox users, we are always connected to our tools, so we are every time prepared to work. We don’t have an special priorities but Croatia, Italy or Spain would be very nice, as the party scene has the right flavour for our style of music and a lot of sunny weather would be quiet nice, too.
WWD: Back to the music! You’re all set for a brand new release on Underground Audio, where did you put the EP together and how did you connect with the label?
We build the EP in our studios, mostly we meet at Tolstoi’s kitchen and sometimes also in Andsan’s castle. There are many ways we start our tracks. But in this case we had a plan, which we followed. Some time ago we found this vocal which was talking about the greatness of the 1970s disco culture and as we are scanning lots of music from this time to combine it with our tracks, we immediately fell in love with it. So we decided to dedicate a track for this amazing period of time which stands for pure disco.
WWD: What’s your favourite thing about the 1970s culture?
Definitively the groove and happiness in the music.
WWD: Have you been busy in the studio this Summer?
Yes, a bunch of new releases are coming in the next months. There is this big release on Underground Audio called “1970s EP” incl. a massive “Francisco Allendes” remix like already mentioned, as well as our upcoming “Switches EP” with 4 heavy tracks and another single called “The Vibe” featuring the well known vocalist “Marck Jamz” on “Go Deeva Recordings”. Later then comes our “Surfside Grooves EP”. It’s a completely funky 3 tracker EP on “Carpe Diem Musica” which we are very excited for, too! Some other great appearance will be our single track “Biscoteria” which will be released on the new “ADE 2016” compilation on “Under No Illusion Rec.”.
WWD: Do you go through spells or creativity or do you find it easy to sit down and get going?
As we are collecting many ideas in our studios we don’t run out of projects to work on. If we finished a track and don’t already have a new idea we still can work on older projects. Our motivation is very high and as we are able to test our tracks on our parties we are always working close with reactions of the audience. The best feedback you can get is from the dancefloor!
WWD: Best single tip anyone ever gave you on production?
Listen to your mix in the car while driving to the next supermarket to buy sweets.
WWD: If you had to pick one goal in your career, what would it be?
To celebrate any day our music together with our family at one of the biggest festivals in the world.
WWD: Now that the release is wrapped up, where does your focus lie for the coming months?
To have a constant and increasing output on various labels as well as bringing our event series “Livingroom” to the next level and different locations in world.
Tolstoi and Andsan’s 1970s EP is out July 29th on Underground Audio
Follow: Tolstoi / Andsan / Underground Audio