Giving us a taste of Mexico and Peru with their Latin house beats, music producers Saul Serralde and Sergio Cuba are also known as the rising duo Dem2. Their unique style and flow are laidback and soothing to the ear with ambient sounds of nature incorporated into the mix. These childhood friends received attention after featuring on the demo listening show for Space Yacht called Tune Reactor. Along with this success and buzz around their sound, they also caught the ear of A&R’s London Bridge and Hidden hen via Twitch for their singles ‘Woodpecker’ and ‘Buzz Talk’. Releasing the new EP The Rattle via Materialism, we are delighted to present this exclusive interview with Dem2 . Scared of snakes or not, the EP track ‘Rattle’ is a banger that is undeniably addictive with a tranquil beat.
What’s your “secret sauce?” What makes your sound stand out?
We definitely like to explore all kinds of sounds from a fly buzzing, to a human mumbling. And are not afraid to edit and compose a groovy track. This is us letting our creative juices flow. Some of the things that really sets us apart are our original vocals and bouncy basslines. We love making beats with low-end toms as the bass and adding some original vocals on top. We come up with the lyrics ourselves and have a fun time doing so. Another aspect that defines our sound is when we remix and play some of our all-time favorite Reggeaton songs from the past. We really believe Latino House is here to stay and happy to be a part of it by adding it to our music.
Define a successful day in your eyes.
A successful day for us is when we come up with an original idea and complete it. There are days where we dedicate a whole day just to production, throwing ideas left to right. The beauty of being a duo allows us to work faster when it comes to production. We are the most productive when we are together in the studio letting our creative juices flow.
What made you decide to pursue a musical career?
It all started as a hobby honestly, we got into house music at a very early age. When Saul was in middle school back in 2006 he picked up a beat-making game for the Playstation Portable called Traxxpad. From there he starting producing hip-hop beats and eventually worked his way into techno and electronic music by the age of 18. Saul and I (Sergio) met coming out of high school, sharing a passion for house music and attending music festivals listening to our favorite artists. It was only a matter of time when we united and became a duo. I (Sergio) mastered the art of mixing music with CDJs and Saul focused on production. We motivate each other to continue to pursue this musical career.
What would you be doing as a career if you never pursued music?
If we weren’t involved with music, we feel like we would be heavily involved with media production and graphic design, we are computer nerds so something around that area for the most part. We also have a ton of experience in AV for corporations like Facebook.
Pros and cons of the industry from your perspective?
One of the pros of this music industry is the number of good people you get to meet, we have met some of the best people out there. We are very blessed to be working with these people that we now call our brothers, especially our manager Paul Oshiro. He has been nothing but a blessing in our music career so far. One of the cons of being in this industry is there are so many DJs out there, and it can become difficult to stand out or not sound like the next guy. In order to succeed against this, we need to stick to our originality.
Please list some of the most influential albums on your creative outlook and output:
Some of the most influential music to us is really that old-school Reggaeton. Nothing beats that creativity from back then, those good old classic tunes were definitely ahead of their time, they don’t make them like that anymore. Along with famous music albums and EPs from Green Velvet, Tiesto, Afrojack, Chris lake, Walker&Royce, MK, Jennifer Lopez, Boney M, Patrick Hernandez, and Daryl Hall & John Oates.
What key pieces of gear/software do you use to define your sound?
We use FL Studio, mainly stick to using some loud 909s and 808s for our kicks. We then typically always use low-end toms and funky bass notes for our basslines. We like to midi out from various VSTs that we have like Harmless and Flex. We record everything in FL and like to do an effect to our vocals where we make a duplicate and raise the pitch to have them both overlap resulting in this alien-style sound.
Vinyl or CD?
CDs being millennials, tech is only improving and we are happy to be part of the new wave as we continue to innovate.
How has music production changed your outlook on life?
Music production really has us listening to sounds that we didn’t used to care for. When we listen to other people’s music to when we take walks at the park really. Having a rhythmic metronome in our heads playing 24/7 we find ourselves procuring ideas without even knowing. Raving has also become a huge part of our life being in this industry as we invest time and dedication to attend music festivals.
Tell us about your upcoming releases or projects?
We have some really exciting projects such as The LIght which is releasing on Dirtybird for exclusive members of Birdfeed subscription. Also many projects with Space Yacht, Club Sweat, Elevation, Terms & Conditions, Material Series, House of Hustle, and Hot City.
‘Rattle’ features on the Spotify playlist HOUSE_GROUND.fm
Follow Dem2:
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Soundcloud
