Debuting in 2013 with the „Half Age EP“, Weval have since released two more EPs and in 2016, their sonic expedition moved deeper into uncharted territory with the self-titled debut-full length „Weval“ – not a mere collection of interchangeable tracks, but an organically flowing record with emotional heft and a narrative thread.
We had the chance to speak with Harm and Merijn about how they are using Reason to produce their electronic landscapes. When you load up a brand new Reason song, what’s the very first thing you do? It depends on the mood we want to build, but mostly starting with chopping up a organic drumbeat. What’s your favorite thing in Reason? Dr. Octo Rex – can’t do anything without this tool. Do you have any special Reason production trick that you always use? When we discovered the tape distortion setting in Scream, in combination with reverb (especially if you put the reverb before the distortion) we were extremely happy. That’s one of the first things we discovered, after that we felt a lot more confident about our sounds. We still use this technique. The three most used devices in your Reason rack? Dr. Octo Rex, Scream and Redrum. What do you do when inspiration just isn’t there? How do you tackle writer’s block? There is no simple way to tackle a writers block. If it’s really there for a long time, maybe then it’s time to do something totally different outside of making music, which gives you some new input.What’s the best music making tip you ever got? Never boost a digital equalizer, especially above 500 Hz. It can destroy a sound and make it sound harsh. If we want more presence we cut out the lows instead of boosting the highs.
What’s your all-time favorite album? Haha, that’s impossible to answer! Maybe it’s the first Connan Mockasin album, or Radiohead’s In Rainbows.
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