Artist Profile // Archi†ex

Meet Architex. A classically trained duo, who bring musical diversity and world class production to Front Left. Working together for more than seven years, their collaboration formed on the foundations of good music and a passion for creating. The Front Left crowd was captivated by their first ever techno track, Rattlesnake, when it shook the Red Rattler dancefloor last year. Back for more, the boys are set to release their brand new EP “All Night” at the end of May.

You’ve both been producing music for ten years, and have worked on and off with each other. How did the Architex project itself start?

Jerry: Dean and I for a number of years were kind of aspiring production partners - we wanted to get each other’s skills up and we drove each other to produce better and better. I think when we reconnected with music, it was just for fun at first. We had both done a bit of traveling around Europe and had absorbed a little more of the culture and the club scene. As soon as we told each other about our different experiences and the different sounds and styles we’d grown to like, it was reconnecting to see if we could write a new style together. Once this started to take a bit of shape, we become more serious about it.

Dean: This was all in the time that club music started to change into generic bass music and we got a little uninspired by it. When we saw what was happening in Europe, we really liked the culture there and were inspired by the people who were going out just to dance, listen to the music and have a good time. Architex really came about when Chris and Kiran hit up Jerry with their idea for Front Left, and they were looking for artists and wanted to involve us. We were always working together, but it was never something we really wanted to push because we didn’t really have one style - we always made so many different types of music. Chris and Kiran sort of helped us to fine tune it by providing an outlet for techno. So we thought - let’s do it.

So you've experimented with different genres and styles before. How has that influenced the sound you're producing together as a duo? 

Dean: Personally for me, trance, drum and bass, house, electro, classical film music, soft rock - the list goes on. 

Jerry: For myself, early on it was definitely hip hop and a lot of instrumental hip hop. I listened to artists like Nas, and while I loved the raps, I was really infatuated with the beats. That got me going first. Then we both met through bass music and dubstep, so we saw the whole wave of that. We really got into it when was underground and deep, and really a bit like the vibes of techno. Then it changed into the massive thing that it is. 

Dean: Yeah, the parties that were on back then - everyone there loved the music and were there to dance. Then it hit the mainstream world where it got overpopulated. 

Jerry: Considering we both came from writing mainly heavier types of music before, with the Architex project it was about finding something that had a good beat and a good vibe, but not mosh pitting or too aggressive.

What do you think the most essential component is to your music, that one thing that you always need in the studio?

Dean: To be honest, lately we’ve started to go back to making sure we’re enjoying it. Every time we step into the studio to work on new ideas, we make sure that we’re having fun. We jam out a lot of ideas. We don’t sit at the computer to come up with anything - we try to stay off it as much as possible. For us, what’s essential is just enjoying it. 

Jerry: Yeah, these days it’s about setting yourself up in the right vibe to feel creative, opposed to a tool. When you love it so much, you can make your beat out of a pencil and table if you really wanted to. But without the vibe or someone inspiring you through saying “come on make a cool sound out of a pencil” - you would never really do it. So, I think it’s about getting yourself into a creative zone that’s happy or joyful or whatever your feeling, and then it comes out naturally. For us, it’s the vibe and setting the atmosphere. 

Dean: And then we jump onto the computer when we’re ready to get it sounding as professional as possible. We spend so much time trying to refine our sound on the computer, that these days we try to make sure the song is written before we even go near it. That’s really quite important to us.

What's your typical process when jumping into the studio together? 

Dean: We set up all of our gear, get a beat playing - then one of us improvises a bass line or chord pattern or melody. If we feel within 15 minutes that we’ve locked into the groove - and you can really tell when you hit that vibe point - we keep going with it. Then within half an hour, we move on to another idea. We kind of keep doing this until we’ve exhausted our creativity for that session. Then we’ll go back and listen to those individually and see which ones we really like, and that’s when they become songs - when we find ones that we really like. We try to get as many ideas out as possible, then revisit those. 

Jerry: It’s kind of going through, painting a two minute idea by adding different sounds and effects, then stripping it back to a bassline and see how it works as a drop. For us, we can tell in two minutes if it has the right substance to make a whole track. 

Dean: We’ve gotten to the point where we know what the song can turn into. So even though it may seem like a little clip, between the two of us - we can see where it’s going to go in six minutes. 

Jerry: Then we look at which songs are more melodic, which are more raw, which are more cerebral - it’s a process of narrowing the songs down to the ones that give us the best emotional response. It’s critical listening. But can’t fall in love with the idea too much before writing the track, because that can also kill the creativity. You’ve got to like it, but not kill yourself with it...you kind of have to let it live

How is working together as Architex different from some of the solo projects you've both worked on in the past?

Jerry: For me, sometimes being a solo artist in today’s contemporary music sphere, when tools are so accessible to everyone - we can all express ourselves, we all want attention and we’re all competing for everyone to hear our songs. It can take out a lot of the love and fun, that you got into music for. You got into it because it was a friendship thing, you were sharing a feeling with each other. For me, it was losing a bit of fun because it became very job like and making critical decisions as one person can be hard. I wanted to make it more fun and have people around me, to help create that vibe that inspires me. I’m selfish [laughs]. 

Dean: There’s a sort of vibe that happens when you're working together. You feel that moment, and you can both tell when there’s something good happening. It’s a feeling you don’t get when you are by yourself. You’re sharing a vibe. Between the two of us, because we have a lot of the same influences and we listen to similar music, it’s very easy for us to go - “I like that, do you like that?” - boom, and make a decision. I think when you’re by yourself, sometimes it might take you two hours to make that decision. And then there's always a little bit of doubt about whether you made the right decision, and you waste a lot of time. Between the two of us, someone is always driving the ship. It works really well with the energy levels and keeping each other inspired.

How did the Architex project originally become a part of Front Left collective? 

Jerry: We’ve always been quite good friends with Chris and Kiran, from playing different parties with them in the past. We’d been chatting overseas about bringing a bit of a concept back home, because we took a massive slug with lockout laws. People had to be a bit more original with things again. We met through a common desire to want to push it further, explore some new sounds and push some local people. We all love our craft and we’re very dedicated, but we don't always have the right party to play to. As soon as I found out about Front Left, we were both so keen to come on board and give some purpose to the music that we were writing. I think that’s the thing, the collective is really what’s holding and pushing everything forward at the moment. We see the work that the boys do for the look of the show, and make sure the parties have a really cool visual aesthetic - that’s what we love. 

Dean: It inspires us to create music when we see how passionate Chris and Kiran are about their vision for Front Left. They're really trying to make something special, and we’re happy that it’s something we can help contribute to and grow with.

You released Rattlesnake on Front Left’s label last year, where did the inspiration for that track come from?

Dean: To be honest, that was the first techno track we had ever written. I think it was influenced by a lot of the different genres that we liked. We wanted to make something crazy. 

Jerry: Rattlesnake was a track that helped kind of get our production levels back on how they were. It’s like an athlete practicing for a game - with production, if you don't do it for a while, you forget all of the techniques and cool tricks that you have up your sleeve. So​ ​for that tune, we needed to figure out our combos, sharpen our skill sets again and see what we could do. It was about making something that was going to be a show stopper, that had people scratching their heads like “what was that? What did I just hear?”. I love hearing tracks out like that, which are so unique and strange. 

Dean: It’s definitely something you don’t normally hear in techno. When you go from producing different genres, to techno, the sound design is a bit different. It was a really good one, to throw us in the deep end.

Your set to release your second EP ‘All Night’, at Front Left’s first birthday later this month. Tell us a bit more about the release.

Dean: We kind of drafted up about 20 demos for this. There were a couple of different styles in there, but we went through them and refocused on the best ones. The concept of ‘All Night’ was to have songs that represented different parts of the night. We have a tech house song that was written for around 12am to get the party started, then there is slightly heavier one for about 2am and then more of a tripped-out 4am track. 

Jerry: Yeah, it’s the different energies of the night. Whether you’re trying to take people really down to a hard hitting, abrasive journey, or you're trying to lift people’s spirits. The EP provides different elements, for different progressions of the night. 

Dean: There’s always a time and a place for a song, and I think when you see someone who plays a great set, they’re always playing to that moment.