Swedish duo Cazzette has taken the dance scene by storm with their ever-evolving dub house sound. Alexander Björklund and Sebastian Furrer have been producing and DJing together since 2011, and have made a name for themselves while donning their infamous cassette tape masks.
The boys first met online via MySpace and shortly after, connected with Ash Pournouri, who is best known for his involvement in bringing Avicii to stardom. Since then, they have dropped a number of top dance hits including “Beam Me Up,” “Sleepless,” and the infectious “Blind Heart.” Throughout their quick rise to success, Cazzette released their debut album (“Eject,” in 2012), produced countless remixes and bootlegs, and have managed to consistently put out a monthly radio show with quality music picks.
The duo are currently working on the final touches of their upcoming EP, which will feature a mixture of house, R&B, and disco sounds. It’s no surprise that Cazzette blurs the lines between genres in both their productions and performances. Case-in-point: their recent performance on the Ultra Live Stream while rocking the festival’s Main Stage. The set included an upbeat flow of hip-hop, trap, and funky house grooves. Prior to that, they played at a couple of other Miami Music Week events including the Heldeep Pool Party and the Dancing Astronaut Stage at No Sugar Added.
We caught up with the duo last week while in Miami shortly before they headed off to Ultra, and during our short but information interview, Alex and Seb spoke to me about new music they have coming up, how they found their sound and more.
Check it out below, and enjoy!
Welcome to Miami! How’s your week been so far?
Cazzette: It’s been quite busy, but not as crazy or stressful as previous years. It finally feels a little bit calmer. We didn’t book as much. We have a lot of shows, but we’re only here a few days this year, not a full week.
Have you premiered any new music yet, or are you saving that for your main stage performance at Ultra later today?
Cazzette: Yeah, we’ve premiered a bit. We played out one of our new singles yesterday, but today we’ll be playing a lot more. The reception has been amazing too, so we’re really happy.
Talk a bit about your relationship with Avicii and how he’s helped you out, especially in the beginning of your career.
Cazzette: When we first started touring we were opening for him, so it was nice having him on the road with us. We don’t talk a whole lot anymore because we’re each doing our own thing and we’re both super busy. Plus, he lives in LA and we live in Stockholm, so it’s difficult. We’ll send him new music once in a while for advice, but we mostly work with the people in-house in Stockholm and get their advice.
Speaking of new music, you’ve said in the past that “Sleepless” was the first track that you did that you actually really loved. Can you explain that?
Cazzette: We support all of our music, but when we started out we were very young. We were curious and hungry for the industry in general because everything was so new. When we started touring, the word “EDM” didn’t even exist. We were trying a whole bunch of different things out and it takes time to find your sound. It took us a while to find what we really loved.
How would you describe your sound now then?
Cazzette: It’s definitely a lot more chill. We don’t stick to genres though. We take influences from what we love and feel at the moment and whatever comes out in the track, the only thing that matters is that it’s a good song. We don’t care about genres anymore. It takes out so much creativity from the production process when you get stuck in a genre. A lot of people are like, “oh, we have to have this beat and this kick drum,” but you don’t need to. That doesn’t mean it will be a better song. We don’t have any rules we follow, we just make what we like.
What do you have in terms of new music coming up?
Cazzette: We have a new single coming soon, it’s called “Together” and it’s similar to “Blind Heart” and “Sleepless.” It’s more like R&B-ish with a lot of soul in the vocals. It should be out in May or late April. After that we’ll have an EP with “Together” and a few other songs. It should be about 5-6 tracks. We want to have a concept around the EP, too, which we’re still working on. That will drop in June or July.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Cazzette very much for taking the time to talk with us.