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New EP: Duo Alias

‘New EP’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Duo Alias, who have just released new EP Stabber through Berlin-via-Wellington dance label Margins.

When/where was the new EP recorded?
The EP is mostly tracks from Mid 2017. It was all recorded at our home in Lower Hutt. Margins had hit us up to talk about putting out an EP with them. We sat down with Joe from Margins and basically had the EP selected after an hour listening session of about 12 tracks that were done and mixed down. A few tweaks here and there and we were ready to go.

Who produced/engineered the EP? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
We have super varied ways of writing our music, but it all comes out in a similar style. Some tracks started with both of us in the room and one finishing, others were done together and some solo.

Did the shorter format of an EP give you the option to experiment in any way with your sound or with different forms of song-writing?
It did allow us to focus on quality over quantity, with a hard limit on the amount of tracks which can be hard when doing an album. Its also good having the label owner pick from our collection of material. It’s validating and makes you think about the whys of why something didn’t get picked and what you can improve on next time.

Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
This EP was done in 100% Ableton live, some filler elements probably came from foley packs we recorded or things we have sampled from hardware. A lot of it is sample mangling with distortion and filters, with some Native Instruments Reaktor and Massive thrown on top.

Is there a particular track or theme that the EP was formed around?
‘Stabber’ was chosen as the title track for this EP. Its one of our gruntiest tracks yet. Having Keepsakes (normally known for his heavy music) do a more chilled out take on the track was awesome and we were blown away by the direction he took. We really wanted to make a bit of a statement with this EP and kick it off with something nice and heavy, to show people we aren’t messing around with our sound, which can be quite removed from the techno most people hear over here.

Where do you see the EPs place in growing an audience online? Do you see it as a progression towards an album or a separate entity?
EPs are a great way to get material out there. For electronic producers, ideas tend to come fast and take less time to record/make than a band. Being able to trickle stuff out over time keeps you in peoples minds, as opposed to the possible once per year hype and push of an album. We want people to be able to hear what we are doing and not hold on to it on hard drives forever.

Which digital platforms is it available on?
Margins exclusively release via Bandcamp.

Are you doing any gigs or promotion for its release?
It’s not specifically for this release, but we are playing at E=MC2 at Valhalla on April 14th with Luke Colleran, Paul Dockery, Balkstar and OBTM. We’ll be doing a DJ set for this one as opposed to live, and we’ve got a lot of things we want to hear on a big system outside of the studio.


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