During Lollapalooza last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to meet a duo I've been a fan of for a long time, Tritonal. Chad and Dave had just pulled into Chicago from New York City and were taking in the atmosphere of their first Lollapalooza. “It's our first time here and we're super excited!”, said Dave. After talking with the guys about the stage they would soon be playing on (Perry's Stage), I felt like it was a good segue into the questions.
With your progressive touch, stage production is everything as far as queuing the crowd. I've heard you guys have a big part in your own production?
Chad: We're involved in our visual content. We run synced video. We run video that has been prepped. Sometimes in an entire set you won't see the same visual twice, sometimes you'll see a rehash of a typical world or logo schematic. For the most part Dave and I love digging into our visuals. They've been a big part and influence of our overall brand and show.
It's fun man! Any time that you can line it up visually and orally, and they're in sync, it's a cool experience to the listening. It's very sensory heavy.
You guys are such a great mixture of Progressive, Electro and Trance. The past few years we’ve seen an explosion of Trance music in the music scene. As guys who have had a great history with Trance, does this bring a smile to your faces?
Dave: Our roots have always been in Trance. The thing that we take from Trance is what we love, which is melody. Taking some of the rhythm, taking some of the things we feel that we had fallen in love with and to put it into some Progressive and some Pop. That's the kind of change that we've wanted to see ourselves as artists because it changes the vibe and it changes the dynamic that we feel that we can explore. It opens up doors for us too.
Chad: In terms of Trance having a resurgent, the type of Trance that has had a resurgence is not the type of Trance that Dave and I ever made. In that sense I feel like it's gone backwards stylistically. I would say that bigger than ever right now is really banging 140/138, full-on stuff. Even Psy is massive right now. Early days we tip-toed a little bit into 138/140, but what we built a career and a presence on was much more Progressive, meets Electro, meets Complextro stuff. Stuff that was dialed back I guess. Groovier. We don't look at it as the type of stuff we were ever making.
In terms of the genre itself having a re-flux, I think that's amazing! You see a lot of acts that were really big that were having a little bit of a down flow that are surging back again. That's awesome!
Also Read: What is Lollapalooza?
You guys have collaborated with other duos like yourselves as well as solo producers. Do the numbers matter to you guys or is collabing just collabing?
Dave: An artist is an artist. We do like to keep things fresh and if we feel like someone is kickin' ass and we love their work and are really inspired by it then we'll say ‘Hey let's try to do something with you'.
Bringing it over to the vocal side of things, a lot of your tracks feature some sort of spotlight on vocals. You guys have worked with some incredible vocal talent. Phoebe Ryan on “Now Or Never” is a great example. More recently you’ve had Emma Gatsby on “Hung Up”. What do you guys look for in vocalists?
Chad: A huge part of Tritonal is the songwriting. You look for a vocal that you connect with emotionally. I think Dave and I lean towards vocals that are sexy and just feel good when they wash over you.
Finally, for as long as I’ve had Soundcloud, I’ve been listening to Tritonia. With Soundcloud making the news so much lately, does it worry you about all the work that you’ve put into the platform? I believe you still have Tritonia on Sirius correct? And your website?
Chad: If it (Soundcloud) went away tomorrow it wouldn't affect Dave and I's touring directly, but it's a great site that we have a lot of followers on. It's an investment that we've built. We've engaged there, we've done work there, we've done premieres there. There has been an investment on our brands behalf into that service. It would be nice if they could get it figured out. Where they could come up with a system for DJs and for producers, and where they can get the whole ‘white flagging' figured out.
I'd like to thank Tritonal for taking time out of their busy schedule last weekend to meet with me. Catch Trintonal's latest remix – The Chainsmokers X Coldplay – “Something Just Like This”, which is out this Friday!
