Philadelphia’s Elvin T follows up ‘Get Close / Pressure of Desire’ off Regraded with a strong double-A side on Clubby Boy.

Subtly shifting production styles delve into adjacent sonic territories with the A side, ‘At The Intersection Of Fantasy and Delusion,’ demonstrating a broader stroke of his production sensibilities with narrative vocal pondering doubt and deception.

We caught up with him to discuss all things new EP, production gear, US influence, and more!

WWD: Hey Elvin, how are you today? What’s happening in your world at the moment?

Musically, I’ve piled a lot onto an already full plate. I tend to bounce between ideas — if I get stuck on one thing, I’ll pivot to another and let my subconscious sort it out. It means I’m never short on projects, but also that I’ve got a lot of half-finished ones lying around.

I’m carving out space for some other releases under new aliases, just to separate different sounds and ideas. And outside of my own work, I run a late-night DIY venue called void with a small crew of people who’ve kept it alive (I would’ve folded years ago without a solid group of people here) I’d like to grow it into something bigger, with music, merch, and a broader reach both locally and internationally.

WWD: You just released your new EP ‘At the Intersection of Fantasy and Delusion’ on Clubby Boy. Can you talk us through the release?

Originally, Matt and I had lined up a different pair of tracks for Clubby Boy. But in the middle of planning, he asked me to send over some more works-in-progress. When he heard these two, he immediately wanted to pivot and release them instead. The earlier tracks ended up as a self-released EP on Bandcamp, and At the Intersection became the Clubby Boy project.

I’m one of the slowest people when it comes to finishing tracks — these were sitting at 80–90% done since before the pandemic. I’m not trying to invent anything new, just following what feels right. This release let me push past what might be “expected” from Elvin T and explore more breadth and depth.

And yeah, the last 10–20% of finishing always drags on… so maybe I’ve got those percentages flipped.

Q: What attracted you to the label, and how did the collaboration come about?

A: Matt and I go way back. We both live in Philly, have been friends for years, and worked together in different ways — I even remixed one of his tracks, and I’d like him to remix something of mine down the line. We’ve DJ’d together plenty, sometimes b2b, sometimes just hanging out. Our tastes run close, so we don’t have to “sell” each other on ideas. It just clicks.

WWD: Where was the EP made? Can you expand on some of the notable gear or plugins you used?

Most of it came together in my home studio, which still needs serious acoustic treatment. By the time Matt heard Describe Music, the arrangement was done, but I was fighting nasty phase-cancellation between the bass and the kick. My room exaggerates or kills certain frequencies — if I slide my chair back two feet, 160hz basically disappears. It’s maddening. To cope, I switch between Hedd monitors and a vintage Auratone cube in mono, which keeps me focused on the midrange where the real meat of a track lives. Additionally I was trying to add a kick that filled out the sub end but didnt interfere with the punch that existed in the original bass/kick sample. This was painful but I learned something really integral here to marrying added sounds to a kick that has practical application in a broader sense: the timing of the attack release that shapes the kick itself – i actually went into micro-second edits with fades to make sure the kick I was adding had the proper amount of sustain and tail to mirror the original but just enough of an extension to still ring out a little longer. I wanted it to be noticeable enough with presence but not screaming for attention.

To paint a broader picture though, I use a hybrid setup: Pro Tools HD at the center, with outboard gear like an Ensoniq DP4, a Manley ELOP (which i’ve since sold but many parts of both A and AA hit that Manley for its compression characteristics or simply to pass through the tubes and bypass any other work). I have a small assortment of hardware synths like the Radio Shack MG1 which was a collaboration between Moog and Radio Shack, a Korg MS20mini and some other less ‘cool’ synths. Often times I’ll run clean digital sounds through the outboard gear just for grit or density — sometimes you get weird artifacts, sometimes gold. The bassline for the title track came from a DeepMind 12. People say you can’t get good bass out of a poly synth, but I enjoy proving them wrong. There’s also a healthy amount of noise on At The Intersection that was a result of pushing some pieces through a slowly deteriorating Peavey Line PA style mixer. There EQ section is interested on it and the producer who did a lot of Dinosaur JR’s albums as well as a weezer album I think (I think) used it heralding its spring reverb with the drive knob. Problem is mine adds a ton of 60hz and harmonics up above so a ground bar needs to get installed or something.

For vocals and FX, I like to build things by hand rather than hit presets. Lots of micro-chops, heavy automation, and FX chains patched into each other until they feel like they’re breaking down. I’m chasing that dystopian “functional shit hole” aesthetic — music that feels dusty, lived-in, and barely holding together. It’s that near-future grit you find in Philip K. Dick or William Gibson’s worlds: everything works, but just barely, fraying at the edges. That tension is what excites me.

WWD: Can you describe the connection between your music and your US roots and how they influence you today?

Well dance music as an American export arrived post disco, which was influenced by Funk and Soul, which was influenced by Jazz etc. And one of the most important facets of these genres is groove. I’ve become obsessed with using non-tonal elements to drive momentum. I grew up playing different instruments, but i start diving into the micro-second shifts of timing, dissecting groove through a microscope almost and this intense focus on simply rhythm opened up a world of possibilities for me. A millisecond shift can completely change how something lands. You can approximate it with a swing algorithm sometimes, sure, and that might even be the necessary idiomatic expression the style of track you want, but the way great musicians control time is so much more dynamic than a static swing grid.

For example, the drum pattern on At the Intersection is basically canon — we’ve heard it thousands of times. Its swing pattern is quite familiar. It locks you in, and then I opted to break away from that static constraint with little turnarounds just to demonstrate some intention. Ive found rhythm offers more freedom so to speak than tonality, which can feel restrictive if you don’t have endless harmonic vocabulary. And being that Dance music is closer to cellular structures — repetitive, iterative — than traditional “songs,” the momentum and hypnotic parts we find compelling comes from repetition of theme, not chord progressions as much so rhythm and groove take a bit more of a spotlight.

WWD: As a producer, what message or themes do you find yourself returning to?

Most of my tracks start with a single emotion or concept. I think a lot about the emotional texture of sounds — how some drum machines or synths feel cold and distant, while others feel lush and warm. Take for example a Gina X song vs. a tune like Goody Goody’s It Looks Like Love — one’s sharp-edged, the other’s a warm blanket. Gina X’s work makes me think of describing it with a phrase “love with hard edges” against the warm smooth sultry movement in Goody Goody. Shit, that “love with hard edges” might just be enough to sinpire some new compositions later this evening.

I definitely return to themes around desire in its different shades: wanting, yearning, passion, shit like that. But I like refracting it through distortion, anxiety, or doubt. I love tracks that churn and never quite resolve, leaving it to the DJ to supply the resolution with the next record.

Take Describe Music, its rhythm is sensual and heavy, but I wanted to undercut it with loose synth lines and borderline non-sequitor dialogue. I also saw it as a fun opportunity to just poke fun at myself a bit too. I frequently overanalyze or intellectualize things until the poetry gets lost in the theory. That’s part of the joke, and so also part of the music.

WWD: Who are some other producers we should be listening to right now?

I always freeze up on this question — I never want to leave anyone out. But some that come to mind: Snad, Physical Therapy; folks who somehow manage to have a huge output without sacrificing quality. I so wish it were me who fit that mold but i just dont ever see it happening, i love kinda living in the houses i build for a while before saying goodbye to them. Another  is Levon Vincent whose back catalog deftly cuts through various disparate genres while managing to always retain a singular sound and style distinctly his own. I really love Floating Points’ recent singles, the way he sculpts the upper mids and top end in his mixes without it sounding brittle. Then folks like Linkwood or Leon Vynehall or Sound Stream: combination of sophistication with elegant intent, I really do love having a wheel house of names where its always a buy on sight.. Julie Marghliano brings an energy that’s both restrained and exciting — she knows when not to overfill space and when to let the pot bubble up and boil over. For some straight forward stuff there’s Ron Obvious/Phrased. I dont know, somethin bout this dudes work just lands that dirty ‘n deep vibe so succinctly. 

Closer to home, friends like Midland and Matt are constantly putting out great work. And then say folks like Iz or Iz & Diz, Franck Roger and Leonce CONSISTENTLY pump out perfect dance floor cuts for pretty much any moment delivering reliable heat for the dance floor.

WWD: What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects or new directions you’re exploring?

A: Plenty. I’ve got a few aliases lined up: Eleventy for a more straight forward almost mid 90s UK techy sound or simply less sample focused/intensive; The Library of Babel for techno and dub techno; and a collaborative project I just started with a friend of mine here in Philly called Infinity Pools. I’m doing a bit of production and DJ mentorship with her as we build that one out but ideally that’ll start pumping out some releases. Fun game though, we build out 3 different aliases each so depending on the vibe/intent/emotional association would determine which alias those hit. DJ Regrets (subject to change just learned there’s a DJ Regret but i mean, whatever its a good name) where I was trying to really place limitations on what I can use/reach for in an attempt to dump ideas out quick via practice. Meanwhile, I’m still chipping away at a pile of Elvin T tracks in various states. I bounce around between them a lot — it keeps me from getting stuck in my own head.

WWD: Which three records have been staples in your bag recently?

A: I always rotate older cuts into my sets, but three staples lately: Levon Vincent’s Love Technique , F.S.T.R.’s Basic (I need a new copy, mine’s wrecked by dirt in the sleeve), and Mike Simonetti’s Release Your Body to the Best.

WWD: Dope choices! Thanks for the chat 🙂

‘At the Intersection of Fantasy and Delusion’ is available here