RouteNote Blog

Tobu is a music producer who has been making a lot of waves across YouTube in 2013. The 21 year old Latvian has made a great impression on the electronic music world with his great collection of original tracks. Tobu is one of our favourite RouteNote artists so are you can expect, we were excited to be given the opportunity to interview him.

– What inspired you to start making music and at what age?

I’ve always loved melodic music, my main inspirations definitely included Aqua, Vengaboys and all these bands that had such syrupy and sweet melodies. My first attempt at making music was at age 11. I discovered a software called eJay, where I liked to put samples together, but of course it was on a joke level, I had no idea what electronic music is exactly and that it’s actually made otherwise and required huge knowledge.

More to nowadays. It became a lot more serious at age 17, when I got myself a copy of FL Studio and I’m still using it even today. Very first inspirations back then were Deadmau5 with his masterpiece “Strobe”, of course, Avicii with “Levels” a bit later, when I started to make more melodic music. Archie (who’s alias is now Desso) also were one of the biggest influences for me.

– Where did you learn your skills from, was it self taught or through education?

It was self taught, didn’t go to any special schools for that or anything. Did watch some basic tutorials on YouTube at first, but that’s it, I like to figure everything out myself and do it my own way. Also, I have couple of producer friends, who are extremely good at music’s technical side, so they taught me some game-changing techniques and I can always rely on them and ask for tips.

I’ve never been good at music theory, but when it comes to piano, I used to sit there for hours figuring out a lot of things for myself. It’s even rare that I know what key I’m playing in, most important for me is that I know people will definitely like the melody I’ve come up with. If it’s catchy enough, I write it down and start a new project.

– What are your top 5 most loved tracks at the moment?

It’s very hard to name top 5, there are lot of amazing tracks out there. Here are 5 of them I really enjoy.
1. Jonas Fehr feat. AMPM – Vice Moves (Let Me Go)
2. Young Squage – Transformer (Steerner Remix)
3. Audien feat. Ruby Prophet – These Are The Days
4. Youngblood Hawke – We Come Running (Vicetone Remix)
5. Kelly Clarkson – Dark Side (Maison & Dragen Remix)

– If you had the chance to pick anyone, past or present, who would you most want to collaborate with?

Since I’m kind of a control freak, I don’t like to collaborate with anyone, I feel like that other will ruin what I’ve made and it would be sad to tell him that in face, not a fan of disappointing people. But if I really had to choose from anyone, I surely wouldn’t turn down Avicii’s collab proposal.

– What advice would you give to any aspiring dj/producers out there?

Don’t ask me for *.FLP, make your own project! 😀
If you know you will like making music, keep pushing yourselves, it takes a lot of time and patience, but the juice is worth the squeeze.

– What is the coolest thing you own?

I would need more precise definition for the word “cool”. Uhmm… I’m not sure if this count as being cool, but I own a professional yo-yo.

– You have been very busy in 2013 .. so what do you have planned for 2014?

Since this year started out very successfully for me, I plan to make it my full time job and keep making songs that people love. It only used to be on a dream level couple months ago, but recent stats have given me to think that dream is slowly coming to end and becoming true. 100,000 likes on Facebook, 50,000 subscribers on YouTube, just to name a few things from my imaginary check-list for the 2014. 🙂

Where can I find Tobu…

Facebook – Website – Twitter – Spotify – Soundcloud – YouTube