“The vibe of House music right now is like nothing else, and we love it!” – Interview with musicians and producers roseboy and Level 8
Next in our series of interviews with music artists using RouteNote distribution, we catch up with EDM producer collaborators roseboy and Level 8 as they release new House track “DANCE.”
Between the three of them, producer duo roseboy and sound designer and producer Level 8 have explored just about every electronic music style you can think of. Now the three talented producers have joined forces to release brand new House music track “DANCE,” distributed via RouteNote.
It’s a track that will make you want to make the most of the summer. Within “DANCE”, a pulsing House beat builds to the introduction of an uplifting 90s style synth line, as sultry vocals sing of a night free of complications.
Both artist projects have over 100k monthly listeners on Spotify alone – that’s a lot of eager ears waiting to hear “DANCE.” Excited to watch the collab unfold, we spoke with both Level 8 and roseboy to learn a little more about the background of the release.
The trio share tips for working remotely with other musicians, including why they don’t use fancy music collaboration apps, and we chat about the convenience of digital distribution and their humble beginnings as self-made producers.
What are some of their proudest moments? Check out the interview below.
Introduce yourselves!
roseboy: Hello, this is August and Marko, and we run the artist project roseboy together.
We can’t remember exactly when, but we first got in touch regarding a collaboration on some hip-hop beats to send to rappers.
We ended up speaking over the phone for hours and we instantly became good friends.
We noticed we shared similar views on the EDM scene. Creating music together was really fun and we have been working together ever since.
Level 8: Hi, I am Timon, 25 years old, and I live in a smaller city near Frankfurt am Main.
I launched the project Level 8 three years ago after mainly working in the sound design cosmos. I’d been rather in the shadows in the years before.
Most producers out there have probably heard sounds made by me in their favourite plugins as I was part of the official factory sound design team for Serum, Spire, Phaseplant, Vital, and others.
Now, however, I want to carry those sounds out to the whole world with my own song releases.
What’s the best part about producing music with someone else?
Level 8: Inspiration and teamwork. I love how music in general, but especially also producing it, brings people from all over the globe together.
There is nothing more inspiring than having the influence of completely different cultures and music styles melting into your common production space.
August and Marko, do you have set roles within roseboy? I wondered whether you work together on all aspects of your artist brand and music production as well.
roseboy: No, not necessarily, of course, we have our way of gravitating toward certain things we excel at, but we don’t have any set roles of what one might do or not.
I think the main goal we have is to always strive toward creating the best finished product. And both of us always come up with different ideas and ways to facilitate that goal. It can be from one of us creating a melody, making a bass line, cover art, or a video for a song release.
We try to pick the best one every time regardless of who might have come up with it, so there are no given roles. We both like to be able to bring something to the table and create a space where creative ideas can flourish.
Are there any resources in particular that are useful for collaborating across different countries?
Level 8: I personally use quite common tools that you’d also know from international business. So all kinds of messengers, screen sharing work on the same project, or even the good old telephone call.
There are cool new options in some DAWs such as working on projects together in real-time simultaneously. But I personally have not tried these out yet.
roseboy: We try to focus on communicating a lot and send ideas and projects through the mail all the time. Our Internet might not be as good as Level 8’s, so screen sharing hasn’t been a great option.
We though recommend Splice for sharing projects with other collaborators. We often just send ZIPs of music projects through the mail though.
The new track, “DANCE,” lyrically and musically makes the listener think of letting go of complications and enjoying the moment. Did you set out to have a particular theme or mood? Were you inspired by any particular track or producer?
roseboy: The way “DANCE” happened was very spontaneous. The initial idea of the track came about in less than 20 minutes! We guess the right ingredients were there and it was just a matter of time before we mixed them together.
So, we can’t say we set out to make a track with a specific vibe, it rarely works like that with us. Marko created the initial idea of the track and passed it over to August and Level 8, and they added their part of the track.
We weren’t inspired by a specific record but we are definitely inspired by the House scene at the moment. The vibe of House music right now is like nothing else, and we love it!
With digital music distribution, artists and indie record labels can release music on their own terms – a major label deal is no longer the only way to be successful. How has RouteNote made releasing tracks like “DANCE” easier?
roseboy: This has been a super smooth release so far with a helpful team and it proves again that anyone who loves music and would like to share their creativity with the world is now able to do so!
Level 8: Even though you might think it complicates things, I definitely prefer working with real people instead of a fully automated process. Having a contact person and a team that supports your release journey, while you can focus on making music 24/7 is pure bliss.
And in our case with RouteNote it was still possible to make changes last minute before going live with “DANCE” (which in fact led to our sick new cover art, shortly before the release).
A few years ago it was a huge milestone to have your track on the big distribution platforms.
Now it is even possible to upload a dog barking to Spotify.
It makes it even more important to make music that stands out and to team up with partners who help you get your music heard – even without being a major record label.
What’s been your proudest moment in your music producer journeys, as Level 8, and as roseboy?
Level 8: The fact that my sounds and samples are located on hundreds of thousands of computers – even without my name being attached to all of them – still amazes me to this day.
The moments when I hear my songs playing at the gym, without the people working there knowing that I made them. And having broken the milestone of one million monthly listeners lately… These are three memorable moments for me.
roseboy: We both come from smaller cities and live in different countries. None of us have had any real or serious studio time with other artists before.
But as the pandemic faded away and traveling was possible again, we met up in Sweden for the first time in September for some real studio time creating music together. This was after years of working over the Internet and we were both incredibly happy that working together in real life was now possible.
Can each of you remember the first ever track you finished, when you were just starting out producing music? And… would you let anybody listen to it now?
Level 8: Difficult questions! Back then I don’t think anyone would have encouraged me to continue with music if they had heard that. Today it could be a funny moment though, especially when hearing the huge progress I made over the years.
roseboy: Yes, but we both laughed a bit thinking of this, who would even be submitted to this torture?
You each have a diverse catalogue of tracks and remixes. You’ve said “DANCE” is the start of a general move towards House music – why now?
Level 8: I always stress how important it is for me to keep the doors open to all genres. But House music with its hundreds of subgenres can be so versatile, that you can basically fuse it with any other genre.
I think the Slap House movement was just the beginning of a new era for House music and I definitely want to be part of it. But this won’t stop me from continuing to make Trap, Future Bass, beats, or even gospel – when I feel like it.
roseboy: We’ve been major House fans since we were kids and I believe there will be a lot of eyes on new House music this and next year. We have been doing a lot of DJ-gigs in clubs where House music is appreciated and that, if anything, has gravitated us towards creating new songs to play in the club.
We think we will see a lot of major artists stepping into the House genre for the first time, releasing tracks that may be very new to their usual sound. But like Level 8 said, keeping the doors open to crossing the borders of genres is something that we are also a big fan of.
What do we have to look forward to from roseboy and Level 8 for the rest of the year?
roseboy: Aside from more exciting music releases, we are making a move towards live shows since we think it’s time to finally put roseboy together on stage!
We can’t say too much, but there is a lot of music and things being planned for roseboy right now.
Level 8: Like every year, the 2022 resolution letter is very long. Besides having a full schedule of records that I can’t wait to release as Level 8, I also started a new project called LV-L8. Here I will focus on all urban genres again, such as Trap and Future Bass.
Lately, I also created hundreds of new sounds and samples for the producers out there which are waiting to be set free.
So, all in all there is a lot in the making and still a lot to be released to the public in 2022. I hope you are all going to be part of the ride!
Follow roseboy on Instagram here and Level 8 here to keep up with their next moves! “DANCE” is out now.
Discover more interviews with other RouteNote artists here.