Just a few years since the fruition of Vicetone, the dutch duo have experienced success that many aspiring producers can only wish to sell their souls for.
Racking up multiple HypeM #1’s, rising through the ranks of the DJ Mag Top 100 poll, performing on multiple tours, performing at internationally renowned clubs like Ushuaia Ibiza and Ministry of Sound London, Pacha NYC and Avalon Los Angeles as well as festivals such as TomorrowWorld, Ultra Music Festival and Electric Zoo, and releasing multiple Beatport Top 10 charting singles, its safe to say that the duo have made their mark in the global dance music scene.
Just recently, Vicetone introduced their new original “Don’t You Run,” featuring the hypnotic vocals courtesy of Raja Kumari. In case you didn’t know, Raja Kumari is a massive up and coming Grammy nominated songwriter from India and “Don’t You Run” was the second single from their recently released EP – Aurora.
We caught up with the duo to speak to them about this track, their UMF 2016 set, touring plans for 2016 and loads more! Here’s what they had to say. :)
Varun – Hi guys, thanks for taking time out to speak with us! How has the past year been for you?
Vicetone – Last year has been amazing for us. We got to play festivals all around the world and have gathered amazing support from fans. This year is going to be even bigger though!
Varun – Your set at UMF 2016 was the highlight for us this year! Which was your personal favorite set at the festival?
Vicetone – To be honest with you guys, that must have been our personal favorite as well haha! It’s always a great feeling to be back in Miami for Ultra Music Festival and the crowd gave us great energy during our set at the World Wide stage. Amazing feeling!
Varun – Your new single ‘Don’t You Run’ featuring Raja Kumari has been well received by fans! Can you tell us how the collaboration came about with ‘Raja Kumari’?
Vicetone – Yes we are very happy with the response, especially since we took this song into a different direction than we normally do. We used to do big writing trips here in Los Angeles a couple years ago (before we moved here) and our management set up this session with Raja during one of these trips. It’s funny since we prepared a few instrumental tracks we definitely wanted to play for her and ‘Don’t You Run’ wasn’t part of that list. After a while she said: ‘Play me something that you wouldn’t normally play in a session like this’ so we put on the instrumental for Don’t You Run and she loved it! Fun fact is that the instrumental was actually called ‘Aurora’ and that’s how we came up with the name of our EP!
Varun – Also, what defines the Aurora EP with respect to your sound and music?
Vicetone – Making the Aurora EP has been one of the most fun and refreshing projects we’ve done so far. Having the opportunity to make different sounding songs with amazing artists and writers is what motivates us to make more music. With the Aurora EP it felt like we had more creative freedom. Instead of releasing 1 song we are putting out multiple songs in one package. It’s a collection of tracks where we want to introduce our fans and other listeners to new sounds while keeping the essence of our own style alive. They are all very melodic and every song has it’s own vibe and energy, which we think defines the music that we make.
Varun – Do you plan to explore newer sub genres of dance music, with your style, over the next few years?
Vicetone – Music is something that is constantly evolving and so are we as producers. We are very excited about the new songs that are coming out this year, they are sounding very different, yet still energetic and very melodic.
Varun – You recently posted about Armin van Buuren being a major inspiration to you, since you guys started out! How do you plan to inspire upcoming artists in the scene with your brand of music?
Vicetone – We always thrive to bring something fresh and unique to the world and we hope that will inspire new producers to do the same thing. It’s amazing to see how some of these new producers are gaining popularity by bringing fresh music to the table. That’s what we love about music! It’s always evolving.
Varun – What’s next for Vicetone on the touring front? Any plans to tour India this year?
Vicetone – We are currently doing a big ‘Aurora’ Tour’ with shows all over North America and Europe, which is going great at the moment! India is definitely one of the countries we can’t wait to play in. A lot of our fans are based in India and have shown amazing support over the last few years so coming to India to play all of our new and old music is definitely one of our priorities!
Varun – What are your 5 essential tunes at the moment?
Vicetone –
5 essential tunes we are listening to at the moment from other artists are:
Gazzo – What You Waiting For
Morten – Beautiful heartbeat (Deorro Remix)
Zedd & Aloe Blacc – Candyman
Chocolate Puma – Listen To The Talk
Josef Salvat – Open Season (Gryffin Remix)
You can listen to “Don’t You Run” below.
