Random Soul Interview & Guest Mix
Sydney’s biggest DJ/production duo, Random Soul aka Yogi & Husky have long been a regular on the UM mixes. They’ve featured on well respected labels such as Salted Music, Nightbird and more including their own Random Soul Recordings. Their distinctive vocal and led, baseline jumping tunes quickly established the pair as firm favourites around the world. When I relaunched the UM blog this year I wanted to try and feature as much ‘local’ talent as I could - and who bigger and better to start with than these two?
Thanks for taking the time out to catch up - let’s start at the beginning - how did you two come together and start this journey?
Thank you for taking the time to chat to us and spread our music.
We got linked up together around 2005 as we were working in a CD/Record store. As we worked and sold records, equipment and even merchandise, we listened and shared music and found that we both had a growing love for house music with soul. Yogi had been djing a little longer and had already started doing some gigs, and I started to tag along to these gigs and play back to back with Yogi. During this time Yogi had also been working on music and had managed to sign a record with Miguel Migs and MFR to their label, Transport recordings out of San Francisco. A little while after that probably around 2006, we decided to jump on the studio together, more so for me to learn the ropes and observe. However, I had jumped into being a DJ full time now and I thought I had some idea’s dying to burst out so we started working on some records together.
What are your greatest influences? DJ’s, people, labels…?
There are so many we draw inspiration from but we’d be remiss for not mentioning Miguel Migs & Jay-J for their early support and guidance in the studio. There are so many others though, Frankie Knuckles, Joey Negro, Roger Sanchez, Defected Records, Brian Tappert, Soulfuric Records, MAW etc etc.
What’s been the highlights of your career so far?
We have had some incredible opportunities, so again it’s hard to focus on just 1. We would have to say traveling around and playing records has to be the biggest thrill. Playing YOUR music to a crowd thousands of kilometers away from where you live and having them react to it, is just amazing. Gigs in LA, Spain (Mallorca & Ibiza), Amsterdam, Miami, Minneapolis and Bali have been the standouts.
Do you still live this side of the world (Australia) or are you based elsewhere these days with your production/DJ schedule?
We are in Sydney, but when we are allowed to travel, we enjoy going where ever the bookings are!
Favourite place to DJ in Australia?
Can’t beat a home crowd. The Rodd Richards events in Sydney have given us some great memories at Café del Mar.
What’s your usual preparation for a set? Picks tracks, sleep…?
Most of our gigs are live these days, so we often like to go through new records to make sure we can layer some accapellas over them and also pick out tracks that Yogi has space to play some keys on. And of course, if we have new vocal tracks ourselves we will make sure we have the right versions so that Yogi can sing the lead vocals around the studio backing vocals. We never plan sets track for track, but it’s nice to have a playlist of 150-200 tracks to consider.
Top tip/s for up and coming DJ’s?
Play music you’re into and spread positive messages. Learn your craft, listen and remember to learn from mistakes.
How do you work in the studio - do you plan tracks or just go in and work something out there?
We often start records with a basic idea, which actually usually comes from a record we both really like that we have been playing. Then we break things down and put our own flavor on it. Usually this ends in writing a vocal, but it also depends on style of track we have started. Some are destined to be sample based and others require us to write something original.
You’re known for vocals in your tracks - do you write the vocals and think of a vocalist, or another way?
We generally write vocals and melodies with Yogi in mind first, however if it’s obviously going to sound better with a female vocal due to the key of the track and the range required, or idea we have for the song, then we’ll start thinking about vocalists. But there’s no point trying to write a song for a voice.. It’s a lot easier for that voice to make the song in our experience.
How do you feel production has changed over the years (good or bad) - do you still get as much pleasure from it?
The pleasure from us is still obvious. We both know when we’re feeling it and we get as excited as we did when we first nailed our first idea. Perhaps the technology has changed a little, but to be honest we still work pretty much the same way we always have. The minute we both stop enjoying something we often move onto something else.
What’s your production set up?
Yogi has a lot of outboard gear and we have a few hardware synths in the studio that we like to use. Generally, we tend to get ideas going quickly with soft synths and samples and then work on the sound scape after that. The creative stage is often started together and then finished by Husky, then returned to Yogi who will finalize the mixdowns in is studio and run everything through his hardware master chain.
Top tips for aspiring producers?
Keep learning, don’t just go out and buy the latest plug-ins and expect to be great. Learn how to use them. Mess around with presets, move things around and see how things sound when you slightly nudge things off a grid. Explore ☺
You have your own label (RSR), was that a way to retain more creative freedom in your productions?
Yes and No. We felt we had a lot to offer through our music and yet when trying to sign to other labels we often got let down by a poor response to no response at all. The wheels were turning too slow for us and when we did sign a record and see it perform well, we never seemed to benefit from our records financially. So we figured we’d see if we can do a better job ourselves.
How do you find the time to run your social media - as DJ’s, Producers and label owners?
It’s not easy, because it sometimes seems that your digital character is more important than your actual skills to some people. But we remain vigilant to posting to fans when we have material that we think they might be interested in. We don’t really have time to do much past that!
Has social media become vital to getting heard or do you think people rely on it too much?
There are probably important arguments for both sides here. In our opinions, Of course the reach from social media is far beyond what we used to have and we find that invaluable, however people should be spending more time creating and less time inflating their ego’s ;)
What labels are killing it for you right now - tracks you’re playing and loving?
It’s always hard to ignore Defected Records/Glitterbox but we also love No Fuss Recordings, Phoenix Music, Bobbin Head Music, Groove Culture, Toolroom, and Let There Be House.
What’s on the cards for the next while - gigs to watch out for?
We are dying to get back on the road and play some shows, but with Covid keeping a lid on a lot of gatherings, that’s probably a few more months away, if not years in some countries. However we remain busy in the studio and have plenty to come!
We have a release on our label RSR, Skylark EP that is dropping on June 5th on Traxsource and June 19th everywhere else. We have a remix for a single from ‘Withus’, which will also be on our label, Random Soul Recordings in July. Then we have just signed a record with Love & Other (Toolroom) that should hopefully be dropping around August. Then another remix for a Dutchican Soul & Stereosoulz release on our label RSR. And we then have a few releases we have been working on with Tinted records that should close out the year for us.
Where can people follow you?
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