I haven’t really followed Oleska for a long time, but these two French guys have immediately captured my attention. Then, after I downloaded almost all of their tracks, after I featured their latest remix of Nam’Pa’s ‘High’ here on EDM Assassin, I thought it was the right moment for an interview, in order to understand where they came from and especially where they are going.
Note: As you may notice, Oleska’s English is a little bit off but that’s too be expected and we love them regardless! The interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
– Before kicking off with the questions I think it’s better that you present yourself in a few wordsto the (unlucky) people who still don’t know anything about you and your project ‘Oleska’.
Oleska is a french DJ’s / Producers duo made by me, Olivier, and Axel, in order to make and play music we love.
– I think that everyone agree about the fact that to reach a good quality level it’s necessary to spend a large amount of time practicing, but nowadays we have a lot of example of artists like you, who, still in young age, reach an impressive qualitative sound. Where and how did you learn all the technical knowledge about producing, mixing and mastering? Did you attend/are attending a specific production school or did you only practice in your free time?
We learned all the basics in a DJ’s / producers school in Paris and it’s exactly here that I met Axel. We finished this school one year ago, after that we learn by ourselves with practice and looking after all the tricks that can be found on the internet.
– You might have heard about the Zac Efron’s word in the trailer of ‘We Are Your Friend’: “All you need is a laptop, some talent, and one track” .
First of all what do you think about these words?
Secondly, what are your studio equipement?
Haha I think this is bullshit. Of course the computer is our main tool for composing and it takes some talent, but you can not build a DJ career with a single track. A track can make you famous, but you have to continue to prove with other good quality stuff that you are still in the race.
Our studio equipment is composed by a Macbook Pro with Ableton live 9, a pair of Yamaha monitoring speakers, 3 headphones (V-moda, Audio technica and Beats pro) and..that’s all.
– Who are your all times idols and who are inspiring you in the actual scene?
Oh my god, there are so many ! My all times DJ’s idols is Daft Punk, Justice, Armin van Buuren, Madeon, deadmau5.. And I actually love Flume, Madeon, Porter Robinson and Club Cheval, yeah it’s weird, because that’s not really what we do for the moment (haha).
– Now let’s talk about the ‘freedownload practice’. For someone this is a way to sell off the products, used by lazy people who don’t want to waste their time sending demos to the labels. For others is the future, a way to fight illegal downloads and to eliminate time barriers between artists and fans. I see that you always release your material in freedownload so what’s your opinion about it?
We put our songs on free download, because the music must be free. In this way our songs are very easy to access and consequently our fan base is continually growing. We have many proposals from labels who want to sign our tracks but I do not see the point if the fame and the quality of the label is not recognized. We send our tracks at labels which we find interesting, and we already have some ideas about where sign our songs.
– Time to discuss about your latest Nam’Pa’s remix. In the Soundcloud’s description you wrote: “We make music for fun and passion, don’t be prisonners of one style”.
To me these words sounds pretty strongs, like a critics towards those ‘genres foundamentalists’ who always attack their idols when they try something new. Were you thinking something like that when you wrote this words or I misunderstood it all?
I was thinking exactly in this way. People shouldn’t attack artists who want to do something different. I hugely respect producers that create different things.
–You have also defined the track as ‘the future’. Can we expect that your style will follow this amazing direction? Are you already working on new material? Can you anticipate us something?
This track and it’s genre are unique, but trying something different is definetely our style right now.
A new track is coming with Kidswaste, it is always different but pretty like in Odesza style, and we will released more melodic house tracks like Road Trip or Bora.
– Can you segnalate some collegues emergent artists which is better to keep an eye on?
It’s not a surprise for me to say Kidswaste, Nam’Pa, Madd & Jass, and I also love the works of DEVI and Kultur.
– Dream collaborations/club/festival?
I would love to make a song with Absence or Petit Biscuit. And I don’t care about the place where I could play, I just dream to play in front of as much people as possible!
– Favourite food?
BBQ RIBS !!!!!!!
A big thanks to Oliver from the Oleska duo for their time and for his celebrity in responding to this interview. I suggest to all those who have read this words to follow this young talents because I’m really sure that with their temper and skills will be a big deal in the future. Now Check out their Soundcloud profile for tons of wonderful free music.