10 Questions With: MOTi

His name has been sprinkled throughout the electro industry over the past 2 years, and now he’s working to make it stick. MOTi, the name often associated with Quintino due to their track, “Circuits,” has already come through with two huge tracks in 2013 (“NaNaNa” w/ Alvaro + “Back to the Acid” w/ Tiësto).

MOTi’s first single absolutely tore up the house charts in the first quarter of 2013, as ‘Krack,’ electro house at the highest level, put this young talent on the map with his hard-edged, floor-filling sound. He followed up this hit with an official remix for Emili Sande’s hit single “Next To Me.”

But MOTi hasn’t been content to dabble only with house music. Even the hip-hop charts were not safe, as his ‘Hello’ remix for the Stafford Brothers ft. Lil Wayne was an absolute hit, and yet another display of this up-and-comer’s incredible talent.

I was able to ask the man 10 questions, ranging from his pre-gig routines, to how his collaborations flowed. Check them out below!

1. When did you first discover dance music?

My first experience with dance music back in the day was with UK Garage. In 2004 a friend took me to a party where Derrick May was playing, after this night I was totally hooked on house music! Two years later I started producing and after a while I had my first record deal, which was a release on vinyl! 

2. In the recent months, young guys like Martin Garrix (17) and Julian Jordan (16) have been making huge contributions to house music and beyond. What is your take on the entrance of young producers into the industry?

It’s really cool to see that house music is for all ages now. And especially that these youngsters can make such good music is fantastic and very promising for the development of electronic music. The future looks bright and the production level will only rise.

3. Who has been your biggest influence throughout your musical career?

That is without a doubt my father. He is a very creative man but has chosen for a job with a more steady income. He is now retired and concentrating on art.

He has always encouraged me to go for my dreams. Perhaps because he wanted to make the same choice, to follow his dreams much earlier in his life.

4. Can you compare the creative process of your solo tracks to that of your collaborations? Do you prefer solo or collaborative tracks?

When I’m working on a solo track I often start with a specific idea but as the track develops I keep changing key elements till I’m happy with the end result.

It hardly ever happens that I finish within 4 versions of a track, most of the time I’ve made at least fifteen versions before I even start on the final version.

When I collaborate it’s different, while producing you judge the creations of those with whom you are working with. I find that a lot easier than reviewing my solo records.

You build the track piece by piece until you are both satisfied with the final result. The hard thing with collaborations though is that you need to have a musical connection with each other.

Without this connection you can work on a track for days without making any progress.

5. How did you and your recent collaborators (Alvaro and Tiësto) come together to begin those tracks?

With Alvaro:

Spinnin Records hooked us up over thru e-mail and we were both interested in doing a collab together. I had this ‘NaNaNa’ vocal thing in my head; I made a one-minute setup and sent it to Alvaro to work it out.

He started doing his magic on the short setup and changed a lot of elements for the better. The drop went from a simple demo to a huge festival banger! We only met two times in the studio, the first day we created the breaks and the second day we finished the final version.

NaNaNa video:

With Tiësto:

I had a track together with Quintino on Tiësto’s “Dance (Red) Save Lifes” compilation. During the release of that compilation Tiësto decided to follow everybody who worked with him on the project.

We got in contact through Twitter and I started to send him unreleased tracks. He liked the new tracks and played some of them in his sets worldwide, we decided to do something together for his upcoming Club Life CD. We tried all kind of setups and eventually we came up with an idea for an Acid club track. No big breakdowns for a change, just a heavy drop and a more minimalistic break with a lot of techy production tricks that keeps the drive going on and eventually builds up in a huge climax throughout the whole track.

Back To The Acid:

6. Do you have any routines or superstitions that you do before gigs?

Not really, most of the times I’ll just take one drink before the show and I’ll be fine!

7. Can you describe your process of mastering and road-testing your tracks?

I often ask my neighbor Kenneth G to listen to the track before I road test it, our doors are open most of the time and we listen to each others projects a lot to give advice.

I also test a lot of my tracks in my car. I’ll play the track on repeat and just drive around and really focus on listening to the track.

But I always hear room for improvement, even after the official release. As a producer a track is never really complete and finished, I think you just need to let it go at some point.

8. How do you deal with the toil of a DJ’s life? (All the partying, travel, etc.)

I try to eat healthy, get enough sleep, work out and run at least 3 times a week.

9. What tracks do you have prepared for the summer?

There is a lot coming up but I can’t name any titles yet. I’ve got 3 solo tracks and a collaboration with Quintino scheduled for release now. The first upcoming release will be a solo track on Tiësto’s record label Musical Freedom!

10. Where can we see you perform this summer? 

Throughout Europe and hopefully this year also North America! For all the latest dates & news check his Facebook.

Thanks Dance Rebels for having me!

You can stay updated with MOTi‘s releases just by following him on Beatport.