Berlin based duo Mat.Joe have become a staple in the underground scene in recent years, with their trademark crispy house beats paired with rhythmic Soul and Hip Hop elements. Having already become an integral part of the core artist team at Nhan Solo‘s fast rising house imprint Mother Recordings, they now make their debut on Mother’s sister imprint Superfett Records.

For the people reading this who haven’t heard your music before, how would you describe your style, and the key elements that define it?

We call our music or style ‘Crispy Urban House’. It comes from our huge Hip Hop, Rn’B, Soul and Funk background. Before we started Mat.Joe in 2012, our main productions were beats for some local Rap artists. Our sound is not only House…it can be more techy or techno, but you always hear the urban influence.

Some key elements are definitely some urban samples like some old soul vinyl samples or just an ‘ohhhhh’ from a classic Hip Hop jam, plus some subby bass lines and some rough drums. Also big fan of percussion.

Your most recent release was the “Tun Up”EP on Superfett – the sister imprint of the amazing Mother Recordings, which is about to celebrate it’s 5th birthday. You have been a key artists on there for a while – how did that collaboration come about and will you be working more with this team moving forward?

Mother Recordings or Nhan Solo was the first person in the electronic music scene, who showed love for our first tracks we did back in the days. So we did some releases, which worked out really successful. We love the label and the artists. Everyone has something special and it’s great House music. When Nhan told us about his new imprint Superfett Records, we said: “Let’s do it!”
And yes we are working already on our next EP on Mother Recordings, scheduled for late September.

How does your release on Superfett differ from the music on Mother Recordings? Is it a different vibe?

It’s definitely more techy. When we have sent our tracks in the past, sometimes it was already more Tech house and Mother Recordings were more into House. With Superfett you can go harder, which is great, because also in our sets, we are always trying to bring a big diversity between different styles of sounds.

Could you talk us through your creative process for the Tun Up EP, and list any specific equipment you use to bring sounds to life?

To be honest… we’re touring a lot… so this EP came up on some flight and hotel sessions haha.

For Tun Up we added our analog synth Moog after we came back to Berlin, the rest was made with some good plugins like Arturia and u-he stuff.

Adelante is a funny story! Last year we toured in Ecuador and went to Quito. On the after party in a car, we hung out with this crazy girl and started to record her vocals. It was super ruff and definitely too much weed hahaha. Anyway, so we worked out the vocals and made the track. Used some plugins from u-he and Native Instruments for example.

Tun Up was made in Cubase and Adelante in Ableton. Plus like always we added some Mat.Joe madness.

You have also released on world class labels such as Defected and ElRow. Do you think there has been a key moment or turning point for you career wise?

Definitely a great goal achieved, releasing on those labels. We also have a great relationship and playing some great shows for Defected. It’s the strongest House label in the world, so we’re more than happy to be a part of the family.

One key moment was playing more on the magical island haha.

How do you find working as a duo – do you both have specific roles, in the studio and on stage?

It depends… from the production side both are trying to work out some ideas and finish it in the studio or doing a track together. Sometimes it’s not so easy, because one of us doesn’t like the bass or something else… but we always find our way.
On the stage we play back2back… if one of us is in a super mood, it’s sometimes more than 1 or 2 tracks and the other one has to drink or do some fancy body vibrations. Hahaha!

Could you give some advice or words of wisdom to any aspiring producers who would look to your music for inspiration?

Always do music with passion and love. Going with trends is nothing we would recommend. We both work hard on our music and really appreciate every one who is showing love. So it’s a journey and it’s not coming from today to tomorrow. Keep it real and you’ll see.

Do you have any other big projects you are currently working on, or exciting tours or shows in the pipeline?

We are working hard on new music and planning our own label this year. It’s called PRÏMA and will be only Mat.Joe stuff, collaborations or remixes by other artists.

We are playing a lot of festivals and a couple of Ibiza shows this summer. We just did Electric Forest in the USA and Fusion Festival in Germany. Both were super cool. In the next few weeks we are doing Tomorrowland in Belgium or Sonne Mond Und Sterne in Germany.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today, we like to finish our interviews with a couple of questions that are a little bit light hearted… without getting too personal, could you tell us something most people won’t know about you?

Hahaha… we love ice cream… kidding… everyone knows it!

Mat was working in a serious bank and insurance company before he focused more on music…so a tattooed skater guy in a suit with a lot of people, who couldn’t understand his lifestyle.

Joe was a Hip Hop DJ back in the days and also was singing in a Hip Hop and RN’B project. We both love sleeping and pizza slices.

You don’t need to mention names, but what’s the most “outrageous” thing you have ever seen in a club… was it something outrageously brilliant, like a blindfolded DJ mixing seamlessly and scratching with their elbows, or something outrageously cringe-worthy, like some embarrassing drunken raver urinating on the dance floor?

Ohhhh damnnn…saw a lot of weird and crazy things, but will never forget this super high lady in the club, who was rolling on the dancefloor and you could see her half naked going wild. Ten minutes later, she had to puke over the whole bar, and then fell asleep.
But there are so many stories… it would take a while haha. And we did definitely some weird stuff while we played as well… oops….

> You can buy the Tun Up EP HERE.