Hey MNTL, great to have you with us today! How are you doing and whereabouts are you speaking to us from at the moment?
Hey, I’m good thanks. I’m at home in Belfast and literally just back from a busy ADE in Amsterdam. It was a really productive trip and felt great to be back there for the first time since 2019 (due to the pandemic).
How’s the music scene been doing there recently?
Sadly the music scene in Belfast hasn’t fully recovered after the pandemic. A lot of clubs and promoters have had to play it safe with just local DJ’s or ‘safer’ big name DJ’s. So I feel we’ve lost an edge here, where we had exciting events happening most weeks before. There’s always lots of new talent coming through, so I think this will just be a transitional period for music and clubbing here. When it does come back though, it should be worth the wait!
We’re pleased to speaking with you ahead of your upcoming remix for Sasch on Vibe Me To The Moon. Congrats on a wicked remix here. We’d love to hear how this opportunity first came about? Thanks, I’m glad you like it. The remix was actually made back in 2018, but has taken a long time to come out unfortunately. VMTTM basically just hit me up for the remix as they were fans of my work and thought I could bring a nice new take on the track for them.
Have you worked with Sasch before? And what was it about the original that inspired you to take the remix on?
I had never heard of Sash before, but when VMTTM hit me up with the original, I knew that I could do something nice with it.
Could you run us through the creative process behind you remix?
Remixing can be tough sometimes, I always like to keep the general vibe of the track in there, rather than just making a nearly new track and calling it a remix. I generally need to hear a few main elements in the original that I can keep in track to keep the soul of the track intact. Then I build from there. I always try and have a retrospective house sound in my tracks. A sound that doesn’t rely on gimmicks and will stand the test of time. So for this one, I wanted to create a nice chunky drum sound so that it will work well in the clubs. Then my baselines are always pretty heavy and rolling, so that’s something that always lets people identify my sound in a track.
In addition to MNTL, you’re also known under your primary Montel alias. How do you differentiate between the two?
My Montel output was always House, but as I started to work with bigger labels and DJs, it started to get tougher and harder. It got to a point where I knew that I needed to create a new outlet or brand for this. I didn’t want to use a totally new alias for this as many big names were playing my tracks, so I decided just to start MNTL for more Techno inspired, tougher sounds.
What piece of advice would you offer to aspiring producers?
There is so many new producers coming through just copying what’s in the Beatport top 10, because they think if the famous artists they copy, then they will also get famous as this sound seems to work. So its really important to just make music that “you” really like and don’t worry about what other people are doing. Some of the most exciting artists and Dj’s out there are the ones doing things differently. So definitely staying true to the music you love and not trying to just make big obvious bangers to become famous asap.
Thanks a lot for chatting with us today and we wish you all the best. To round things off, is there anything else upcoming from yourself that you’d like to share with us?
Check out my own label Montel Records, where I have lots of nice new stuff lined up over the coming months!
