Matchy: ‘The crowd in Beirut really knows their way around and how to party’

Can you tell us about your journey as an artist and how you got involved in the melodic house & techno genre?

Music has always been a passion in my life: starting from playing piano as a kid, to producing rap beats as a teenager, finally emerging to making melodic house & techno and touring the world.

Although I don’t like to limit myself saying I‘m a melodic techno artist, I love to mix and produce different genres from some Afro influenced stuff, deep - and progressive house to harder melodic techno. I believe this Setup gives you the right span to cover all sorts of venues from open air to club and react to different crowds. Plus as a DJ it enables you to tell a story and build up tension during a set.

Your label, BEYOND NOW, has gained significant recognition in the industry. What inspired you to start your own label and what is your vision for it?

Thank you. To be honest, initially the idea of beyond now was simply to create mainly an imprint for my own music (you know, it can actually take ages until you get responses from a label and then you‘d wait another year or so until it’s finally released) and for fellow befriended artists.

First 3 years turned out even better than expected, immediately becoming a constant in the Top100 Labels in the genre on Beatport. We will give our best I’m sure to stay on our path and follow our vision as we defined it initially:

“BEYOND NOW - a musical journey in search of an existence beyond the horizon. Music individually crafted by genuine artists. No submission to any given structure, a rebellion against elitist systems. We create a state of mind that exceeds the moment, time- and spaceless. Live in the present but create beyond now!”

Your track "Irreversible" reached incredible success and became one of the most sold Progressive House tracks on Beatport. How did you feel about achieving such international recognition, and how has it impacted your career?

It was an amazing feeling and kicked off my career in terms of playing internationally. What I really loved about Irreversible was that it reached such a wide range of support from Solomun playing it, then on the other hand Lost frequencies played it really often. Although it’s labelled “progressive house” it’s not really the common genre sound and it’s difficult to get sick of it. I guess 4 Mio. Streams solely on Spotify confirm that and the crowd still loves it when I give it a spin.

You have released on renowned labels such as Katermukke, Bar25, and Stil vor Talent. How do you choose the labels to collaborate with, and how important is it for you to work with respected imprints?

I think the scene is changing in terms of labels. Sure, once you freshly start in a scene it‘s really important to release on some well-known labels and profit from their reach. But once you establish yourself as an artist, basically a natural next step is to create your own label (also finding a distribution partner isn’t as difficult as it used to be anymore). It just makes things a lot easier to get your music out to your fans. And that’s exactly what a lot of artists are doing at the moment. Name me any Top100 artist in the scene that doesn’t have his own imprint.. will be hard to find. Therefore I believe Labels as such become less and less important in the following years.

Your latest tracks have consistently performed well on the Beatport charts. What is your creative process like when producing these tracks, and how do you strive to maintain quality in your music?

Usually I spend the colder winter months in my studio, working on different ideas. Out of these I only pick a few that I further develop and test at gigs. Giving me some direction on what needs to be adjusted.

I don’t really have a certain game plan for my creative process. You can’t force creativity, consequently sometimes I have quick ideas that just pop up in my mind. Might be even during travels, therefore I usually carry my tiny midi keyboard around. Sometimes I jam on my piano as well to create some chords or a catchy lead.

I’m not pushing to release music, better focus on quality than quantity. I have some tracks I play in my sets that I wouldn’t release though. I adjust all my productions until I’m fully satisfied and mix and master them with a befriended sound engineer. He’s a complete perfectionist haha.. but yeah in this way a high quality standard of production and sound on any devise from mobile to club is assured.

How are the feedbacks for your newest projects that have come out this year so far, You & I, Lebewohl Remix and Afloat?

As I took a little break from releasing from November until April, I’m super happy that my newest productions have received such great feedback and plays from some of the A list artists in the scene. It feels like switching from EPs to releasing singles on a monthly basis was the right decision.

Tell us about your recent gig at Beirut's B 018.

Beirut is an amazing city, the crowd there for electronic music really knows their way around and how to party. The people in general are really kind and I love the Lebanese food haha.

It has been my second time at B 018 now and both times were incredible. I mean you can basically call the place historical, the industrial flair in the bunker, especially when the roof is open, is amazing. Packed place, crisp sound, lights on point not to exaggerated, that’s how I like the vibe - that club is all about dancing and enjoying the music.

As one of the most successful artists/producers in the genre, what are your future goals and aspirations in the industry? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that you're excited about?

My aim is certainly to further establish my own sound. I find it quite disappointing that so many artists and tracks these days sound all the same. As soon as there’s a new no. 1 track, it gets copied again and again. When I started producing music I followed artists such as Dominik Eulberg or Maceo Plex and they all aimed for ultimately creating their own sound.

I will (still) continue this path and further develop and establish my own unique sound.

Well, that is only my personal opinion but I think the Melodic House & Techno scene could definitely bear a fresh breeze of more diverse sounds.

I’m quite excited about my next upcoming release. Following the club focused track "Afloat" I’m finally releasing my long-awaited single "Be there": A deeper and emotionally touching festival hymn, which features the beautiful voice of Johanson. It’s not my “typical sound”, still one of the most requested IDs since I played it for the first time. It has a dreamy yet uplifting vibe that oscillates between a melancholic mood and euphoria. Besides, Johanson’s beautiful vocals are super catchy. I received so much great feedback and support from artists such as for example Nora En Pure, Eelke Kleijn and many more, I’m sure this is the right “summer anthem” people are going to enjoy this summer.

༺༻

Take a listen to Matchy's latest single ‘Afloat’ below.