Yotopia (Flow Records, Israel)

Hi Tomer & Yonatan, how are you my friends?

Hi!

By reading your bio, even though the name Yotopia might not have been around for as long, this is a long standing project between you and your partner. Tell me a bit about where your journey into this music began…you guys met in high school right?

Yup, We met in high school and became best friends. we listened to a lot of music together During school & even been at same unit in the army ,our friendship is beyond music and very important to us. As far as music goes , we started to create psychedelic music in 1998, mainly for the experience and for the fun of it & since 2000 started releasing tracks on various compilations, thought we must admit, it’s still allot of fun for us creating together ;-)

Which music did you get into before you discovered electronic stuff? Which do you think still influence your music now you make trance?

Our Early musical influences include acts like : Pink Floyd, pearl Jam, Faith No More ,The Prodigy ,Chemical Brothers & Depeche Mode & SL2, Altern8 , Charley LowNoise & Mental Theo on the crazy electronic side. For now, our influences comes more from the progressive scene (both house & trance) & whatever make our lazy ass move …

How has the sound of Yotopia changed over the years… I notice on some of your earlier releases that the sound was very different from now… Describe the sound of the Yotopia of today…

We try to keep ourselves away from definitions, we create what we feels like at the moment, that’s why u can see a yotopia’s release at Aeon rec. which is 130 bpm more proggy , housy track & on the other hand track like “noises” which will be released soon on “Beats n’ Pieces” which is 142 more fullonish track, in both cases we believe that u can hear it’s a “yotopia” track. We see it as our advantage , we created tracks that contain various aspects of trance music , from techno ,dark & psychedelic to melodic , progressive, even housy stuff. And It’s allowed us to make the right turn in a track story whenever we feels like.

You released your album “Point Blank” on Flow Records earlier this year… The reaction has been very good critically, tell us a bit about the feedback your getting?

Well, we’re getting very good feedbacks first of all from the dancefloors we play to, and second from artists, labels, party organizers and listeners all over the world. It’s very nice and exciting to know that people hear and enjoy your music. Lot’s of DJ’s/Artists send us messages that they played some tracks from the album and it was a blast, and it’s very important to get feedbacks like that, especially from people all over the world, that don’t know you personally.


So what else is on the horizon for you guys? Any compilation releases coming up, or collaborations?

Currently, we’re making a new top notch progressive compilation for flow Rec. which is estimated to be released in Nov. 2005 and will be very interesting. We also work on new tracks and already have some future releases to be come in various compilation at labels such as Iboga, Flow, Aeon, Beat’s & Pieces and more. For more, stay tuned at our website on : http://www.fly.to/yotopia

You’re based out of Tel Aviv right? That’s a pretty happening place in Israel isn’t it? What’s the scene like at home?

We both live in Tel-Aviv , which is located at the center of Israel .It’s a fun crazy and place to live .allot of places to hang out and the trance scene is pretty big here, but only indoor parties take place in Tel Aviv, the nature parties take place out side of Tel-Aviv all over our country .

How is it being a progressive artist in the mainly full-on Israel though? Does it make it harder to find gigs? There definitely seems to be a resurgence of late, with labels like Domo, Dance’n’Dust and VP and guys like you guys, Lish and Etic.

To be a progressive artist in Israel is not too common for sure, and sometimes it’s quite hard, because there aren’t too many progressive parties in Israel, BUT lately it’s growing, great party productions like the “3rd empire”, “Moksha” and some more already invited top progressive artists and DJ’s from all over the world, and the keeps the scene alive, new progressive Artists, Labels And Fans are starting to come out from Israel. It’s a smaller scene compare to full-on here but allot of positive energies flow here lately … 

There are a few collaborations on your album with other Israeli progressive artists like Lish and Etic… You are good friends with those guys? Any plans to work on more tracks in the future? You’re sounds seemed to compliment each other?

Lish are very good and old friends, we both planed to do a collaboration track for long time and didn’t have the chance, so for our album we couldn’t miss it and made our efforts to sit together and write it. Etic is also a good friend and we’re spending lot of time together and love his musical direction. Both with Etic and Lish we felt like everything went very smooth and our sounds were very good together. I’m sure we’ll have some more releases together!

Which other artists around the world do you think are doing original or good music? Any new faces you’ve heard lately?

Antix , Beckers , Minilouge stuff is fun to hear , also you can catch on pur player act like Blue Haze , Andre Absolut , Greed & Infusion . from Israel there's Ace Ventura, Perfect Stranger , Etic & Lish makes great music as well.

What is in your studio? Do you use a lot of hardware, or is your music largely VST based like a lot of artists these days? What is one piece in your studio you couldn’t live without?

Our studio is not with lot of hardware at all… We work mainly with keyboard controller and VST , good music and production is good ideas and work and not only material and stuff! The thing in our studio we couldn’t live without is the feel and energies (hehehe!)

Are you guys touring much at the moment? Have you had much of a chance to play outside Israel? If so, where have you been?

Till this moment, we had the chance to play only in Portugal outside of Israel, but we have some future bookings strting in Nov. 2005 at Mexico, Brazil & Turkey & maybe more.

Any plans to make it down our way any time soon? I think Australia would be very fond of your sound!

Thanks, It’ll be great to visit your country and play there in some parties, let’s hope we’ll have the chance to meet soon.

Any thank-yous, last words or things you wanted to add?

Everyone that helps us along the way … & to all the listeners around the world that keep it alive !!

Cheers mate, hopefully we’ll catch you down under sometime soon! Peace out!

Interview by Jesse Kuch