Kyau & Albert – 15 Years The Album”Special VMM feature Interview

March 10, 2012 | Posted by Editor in Cover Artist, Interviews No comments

The beginning

Where did these masters of dance music find their thirst and love for the groove of the dance floor and how did it all begin. Well from what I have discovered it was in the summer of 1994, Ralph and Steven finally met for the first time. They produced their first tracks together for a live performance and realized that they had a common perception of music, and decided to try their hands at producing more music together. The result was their first single called “Let me in” released in 1996 and the Duo was born. From then on they became known under the artist name of Kyau vs Albert and decided to combine their two studios and they founded a music production company named “Euphonic” in 1997, signing Sonorous aka Rough Mullar as well as well established Ronski Speed. Now all the strong foundations were laid and the world was their oyster and they could begin to spread their Euphonic Kyau & Albert sound around the world.

15 Years celebration

Over the last 15 years Kyau & Albert have captured the hearts of electronic dance music fans around the world with their distinctive powerful production and evocative unique male vocal which often features in their tracks and many people don’t realise is that of Steven M Albert they are truly a dynamic duo with many talents. Also during the last 15 years Kyau & Alberts cutting edge and energy behind the decks DJing and their quality music production has gained them a position in the DJ Top 100 and in 2011 they ranked in the top 40 in the world at #37. They have also won awards including, Beatport Music Award for the best selling Trance track on Beatport in 2008 for their Kyau & Albert remix for the Cressida single “6AM” and they picked up an IDMA also from the Winter Music Conference to add to the collection. The German duo also have their highly successful “Euphonic Sessions” Radio show which is syndicated on 24 FM stations around the globe and have well over 27,000 podcast subscribers in iTunes to date. They have played in most Award winning clubs and dance music festivals around the globe and continue to push the Kyau & Albert movement.

The Future

So now on to the future and with 2012 being another awe-inspiring year for Kyau & Albert the DJing German Masters of dance music see’s them blasts into 2012 with tremendous potential and looks to be one of their finest years ahead yet. We are promised even more huge releases on the horizon which are sure to set all our audio systems a blaze once again and dance floor bouncing across the globe. Described by MTV Europe as “the biggest DJ band in the world”, Ralph Kyau & Steven Moebius Albert celebrate their 15 year anniversary with yet another sensational album release. And soon to hit the download stores in March 2012 the “Kyau & Albert 15 years The Album” which will not disappoint and will have the Kyau & Albert name striding further forward for years to come.

The Interview

Hi Kyau & Albert hope VMM finds you well at the start of 2012! And in this exclusive VMM Interview we would like to find out all about what we can expect from you both and all your new projects for 2012 to celebrate your 15 years of Kyau & Albert with the launch of the highly anticipated “Kyau & Albert 15 years The Album” so we would like to know all about the album and what’s next for this German Trance dynamic duo!

VMM Q: Kyau & Albert after 15 years of making music what keeps things fresh in the studio for you both ?

Ralph Kyau: Firstly we still have a lot of fun in the studio making music and we are both very open-minded people and this is why we think we have worked together so well for the last 15 years. Technically each song and remix for us has a different story to tell, so every production has some freshness for us and we love being creative and working together.

Steven Albert: We often say,“ it’s the magic moment“ we try to look for in every track we produce. When putting a new track together we mostly search for the main melody or vocal hook first, and we making a lot of raw demos and experiment playing around with ideas. The rest is production skills and trying new productions out at our gigs.

Ralph Kyau: In general we have a quite simular taste, but very often we have a different view on the track, which is quite effective for getting a well made production or simply find the best results. For example, if one isn’t sure in the first minutes, the other one might notice the killer hook.

Steven Albert: Sometimes the flow is so good, everything works well, so the main parts of a songs are finished very fast, on the other hand some tracks we finished after a various tries or even take years from the first demo to release. So making music keeps you definitively fresh! And if we are tired of studio work nowadays, we just take a break and never set us under pressure anymore. In my opinion also deejaying on the weekends is a pleasant change to sitting in the studio and it also clears your mind and stimulates creativeity.

VMM Q: The forthcoming ’15 Years The Album’ features the most recognised and loved Kyau & Albert hits so can you tell us who you have you chosen for the remix duties, and why have you chosen these dj’s for this iconic album release?

Steven Albert: All the remixers are favourites of ours, whose productions we like to play.

Ralph Kyau: For exmaple on the album there are remixes from Mat Zo, Arty, Stoneface & Terminal, Tritonal, Cosmic Gate. But we also reworked a few tracks by ourselves too.

VMM Q: So you have many of your classic tracks featured on the album but can you tell us more about your new material that will also be featured on this iconc project?

Steven Albert: As we don’t see the 15 years anniversary either as the end of our carreer nor we didn’t want to have a classic remix album, we included two of our most recent hit singles from 2011, ‘On The Way’ and ‘A Night Like This’, and additionally did a brand new vocal single for the album called ‘This Love’ for the album, which is rotating everywhere right now.

VMM Q: Kyau & Albert you have recently collaborated with dance heavy weights UK DJ producers Above & Beyond on projects and fellow German Superstar DJ Paul van Dyk for a brand new track that will be out on PVD’s next studio album. So can you tell the VMM what’s it like when you get such talent in one studio is it difficult at all as you all have strong visions for your music how do you work all together and is it fun!?

Steven Albert: We have known both acts for a very long time now. I mean not only playing a couple of events together, knowing them in person. Paul was the first who supoorted us in 2000, invited us uncountable times to his German radio show. And this was before we had our international breakthrough. The Above & Beyond team are good friends now and we worked together on many label releases between our label Euphonic and their Anjunabeats label. So when it came to the point to work together, we were both, quite relaxed and also super excited.

Ralph Kyau: Any collaboration is an interesting experience, where you can see how someone works. The difference to our normal studio work was that both productions took much longer than normal, with many interruptions and a lot of interaction and communication via the internet but we made some great tracks together.

VMM Q: Kyau & Albert you have inspired many to hit the studio and create music, so the VMM would like to ask if you could give 3 top “production tips” to our VMM viewers that they can use when they are creating their next dance track?

Kyau & Albert top studio Tip 1: don’t use too much elements – reduce to the most important ones

Kyau & Albert top studio Tip 2: test arrangement and mixdown in the club (gives always alot of input for the final production)

Kyau & Albert top studio Tip 3: use good studio monitors or even monitors you know very well, that you can hear all the little things during the mixdown

VMM Q: So Kyau & Albert when you are not in the studio or on stage you are working hard at your record label Euphonic so can you tell the VMM viewers what can they look out for in 2012 from this classic Trance label?

Steven Albert: There will be new singles by Stoneface & Terminal and Ronski Speed soon. Ronski’s release will be getting a massive Kyau & Albert remix, and just out on Euphonic is a collaboration between Dennis Sheperd and Talla 2XLC called ‘Two Worlds’.

Ralph Kyau: Of course there will be new Kyau & Albert productions before the Summer and we are already working on a new vocal single with Steven’s voice, but we have also is a female vocal track planned. Last but not least we really wanna do a new collab with our friend Marc Marberg so look out for that.

VMM Q: Now it has to be said congratulations on the success of your radio show ‘Euphonic Sessions with Kyau & Albert’ how does it feel to have such a successful show and what do you think is your magic recipe that makes your show such a massive hit for trance fan’s around the globe?

Steven Albert: Every month we are happy about the growing number of our Podcast subscriber. The main concept of the show is to simply play the music we like. We don’t care about names or labels. We enjoy to pick of unknown artists and also tracks, which are not played on all the other radio shows.

Ralph Kyau: We want to stay a bit unique and unpredictable with the radio show. For me our ‘Euphonic Sessions’ is a kind of discovery channel of Trance & Progressive!! Haha

VMM Q: You have been in the industry for over 15 years and have surely heard the sound of Trance change over that 15 years and many of the big named DJ’s are describing their Trance sound as melodic Dance, and Cinematic Trance so do you think it’s time for a change and new name of Trance and how would Kyau & Albert describe their Trance Sound now in 2012?

Ralph Kyau: I think there wont be a dramatic change, it’s more a continuous progression all the time. Most times it’s more a mixtures of styles, when we talk about progression. Name-wise it’s hard to introduce a real new name. I really like to call our style Neo Trance, but don’t know if people really care about names, because in the end it’s just about if a track touches yourself or not. And additionally from the DJ view, if a tracks also works on the dance floor.

Steven Albert: For me it’s more a thing of moods or moments with past and future productions, as having a proper plan for the sound of the year, if you know what I mean.

VMM Q: VMM would like to know do you have plan’s to tour the “Kyau & Albert 15 years The Album” and where we can find out about venues, dates to see Kyau & Albert perform LIVE in 2012?

Steven Albert: We are doing and already did a few selected 15 Years K&A events. Unless we take time off, we normally deejay almost every weekend.

Ralph Kyau: To be up to date with our all confirmed gigs and more, people should check out the dates sections of our homepage www.kyauandalbert.com or follow us on facebook.com/kyauandalbertofficial

VMM Q: Finally you have achieved so much in the last 15 years which is celebrated on the release of “Kyau & Albert 15 years The Album”. But can you tell VMM what goals have you both set yourself for the future and the music and brands of Kyau & Albert / Euphonic?

Steven Albert: Still being a small part of the development of the EDM world and having fun with it.

Ralph Kyau: If we’re not losing our creativity, I believe our future will be brighter than ever before, because slowly but surely we are becoming wise men! Haha

The VMM thanks Kyau & Albert for taking time out for this interview and we wish them both success with all their forthcoming releases and projects for 2012. Also don’t forget to check out the “Kyau & Albert 15 years The Album” Competition and Album Review also in the March issue here at the VMM.

Kyau & Albert – 15 Years The Album