Munich-based trance, euro dance and hard house artist Davyboi started DJing three years ago, and then began producing three months after that.
"From the beginning, I knew that if I wanted to take DJing seriously and really grow as an artist, producing my own music had to be part of it," he says. "I’m also not really the kind of person who starts something just for fun and leaves it there. If I commit to something, I want to keep improving and take it as far as I can. So for me, it became serious pretty much from the start. I felt like there was a certain niche and something missing in the scene that I could bring my own energy and sound to, so that’s exactly what I tried to do."
Davyboi describes his sound as, "Energetic, uplifting and definitely built for the party. I’d describe it as high-energy music with a lot of positive and happy vibes. At the same time, I’ve started making some deeper tracks as well, so it’s not always just straight-up party music. But the one thing all of my tracks have in common is energy. Whether it’s something I produce or something I play in a set, I never want there to be a boring moment. I like keeping things moving, building tension and bringing some groove into the sound as well."
All of that can be heard on his latest release, "System," a collab with Sasha Harland. "We actually finished the track pretty quickly, it came together in about two studio sessions," he says. "We locked in the main synth quite early, then started experimenting with some vocals and built the rest of the track around that. The whole process felt very natural. I think the track represents my sound really well. It’s energetic, it’s a club banger, but at the same time it feels fresh. It isn’t just another standard track in that style, the lead has its own character, the vocals work really well with it, and overall it has that combination of energy and freshness that I’m always looking for in my music."
As for gear: "For DJing, I like having four CDJ-3000s available because I genuinely use four decks sometimes. Even though I’m playing trance, I like having that flexibility and being able to layer different elements. For the mixer, I’m definitely Team Xone. I use an Allen & Heath Xone:96 rather than a Pioneer mixer. One thing that’s a bit unusual in my setup is that I use reverb through the Xone to create and build tension during my sets. You don’t hear that approach that often in the trance scene, it comes more from the groovier side of electronic music, but groove is also a big part of who I am, so I really like using it creatively."
"For production, I work in Ableton Live. I don’t really use analog hardware; most of my production happens in the box with software synthesizers. And for headphones, I use the classic Sennheiser HD 25s."
Looking ahead, Davyboi has plenty planned for the rest of the year. "There’s a lot coming up," he says. "In December I’m doing my first North American tour, which will run for around two and a half weeks. I’m really excited about that because it’ll be my first proper debut tour over there. On top of that, I have a bunch of new singles and releases on the way. Some of my remixes that have already been getting a lot of attention are also turning into official releases, which I’m really excited about."
