VAVO discuss latest release ‘Right Now’, Billboard charting single ‘Sleeping Alone’ and more in exclusive interview

Having captured the minds of Dance music fans with the flurry of hit remixes and originals, one like they did for Drake‘s ‘In My Feelings‘ with fellow producer Steve Reece or the sumptuous rendition of TheFatRat and Anjulie‘s infectious ‘Fly Away‘, the production duo of VAVO have set their sights on the industry’s higher echelons. Comprising of Jesse Fischer and Alden Martin, the duo have made quite a mark on the scene with their no-genre policy and tunnel vision for success. Their recent release, titled ‘Right Now’ and featuring Caroline Kole, has also done well to set them up for closing 2018 in stellar fashion.

Their remix of Post Malone and 21 Savage’s hit track ‘Rockstar’ also caused waves across the streaming platforms. Not only that, the track also received constant support from their idol Tiesto on a majority of his shows across his tours. Having reflected on the year gone by, we sat down with VAVO to dish out some details in our interview below about their origins, their influences, their chart-topping hits, the flurry of releases in 2018 and of course, the way ahead.

How long have you been producers/DJs for? Tell us about the origin of your music. What inspired you to pursue your career as an artist?

Alden has been producing for about 8 years, and I (Jesse) have been producing for about 3. I was a DJ before I was a producer, Alden was the other way around.

Alden: Seeing the likes of Tiesto, Ferry Corsten etc really influenced me, they were big over in the UK and all over the radio as I was growing up.

Jesse: For me it was Spring Break 2012 in Cancun. Seeing the DJ control the crowds and seeing how crazy the crowds were, is what really got me into it. Seeing one or 2 people control thousands is truly something special.

How did you two met? Who do you consider to have been your biggest influences throughout your career that have made an impact on your productions?

We actually met on Soundcloud back in 2015. At the time, we were both making Big Room on our own and one day we came across each other music and decided we should collaborate on a song. During our time working together, we instantly found our chemistry and said “damn, we make good music together” Haha!

From that day on, we grew both career wise and friendship wise.

As for artists that have inspired us, just to name a few, we would have to say Avicii, Tiesto and Hardwell. Production wise, it was definitely Avicii in our earlier years. We used to make a lot of progressive house and Avicii, in our opinion, was the greatest in that style. That said, as you know, our musical direction has evolved. We never wanted genres to define us, so our biggest mission has become growing as producers/artists and make music that can provide a positive impact on our listeners’ lives. Because of that, we now pull inspiration from lots of artists in many different genres, not only EDM!

Congratulations on latest release ‘Right Now’ with Caroline Kole. How did the collaboration come about? What is the story behind it?

Thank you! We met Caroline when her team reached out to us to remix her song “What If.” They heard our remix of Not A Love Song, loved it, and asked us to do that for her. After its completion, we went down to Nashville for the music video shoot and thought it’d be a great idea to release an original together.

Earlier in the year, Caroline released a version of “Right Now,” and when we first heard it we immediately fell in love with the vocals. In fact, we felt that we could do something really amazing with them. Eager to make this happen, our manager Max reached out to her team to discuss. After a few conversations, we were sent the vocals and began creating “Right Now.” We then sent over a few versions, made a few tweaks, and ended up with what you hear today!

Also, big shout-out Caroline because it’s amazing what great vocals can do for production.

You guys have had great success in the music industry with Billboard charting single “Sleeping Alone”. How did that change the trajectory of your career?

Honestly, charting on Billboard with “Sleeping Alone” changed our trajectory greatly and opened a lot of doors for us. By achieving something like that, it exposes your music to more people, but also adds a certain degree of credibility to your work. For us, it did both, but also confirmed our new musical direction. “Sleeping Alone” was the first original we released in this new style and to see such a strong response was truly unbelievable. From then on, we started to see lots of new fans emerging and engaging with our music, reaching out telling us how our song has gotten them through a bad day, or even using it to host ceremonies. All of this is very meaningful to us and shows this is the path we should take.

Additionally, we’ve seen an increase in shows too! We love performing, so when our music gets out there and our fan base grows, we see more and more requests come in. To us that’s so exciting because, like our music, we want our fans to feel connected to our shows. We put a lot of thought and time into each performance and because of that, we look forward to growing our presence in the live space as well.

During 2018 you’ve released a few interesting records and remixes, including your remix of Drake’s ‘In My Feeling’, ‘No Friend Zone’, ‘Sleeping Alone’ and ‘How Low’ on Musical Freedom to name a few. In summary, how has the journey been over the past year? How has it been different to previous years?

Yes, 2018 has been by far our biggest year and the journey has been absolutely amazing! Our drake remix has amassed a few million plays between Soundcloud and YouTube, How Low saw massive DJ support, and our latest releases, such as “Sleeping Alone” and “Right Now” have taken our career to new heights.

We’d say the biggest difference between this year and past years is that we believe we are finally making our best music yet. We changed up our sound design and have been focused on giving our fans something to connect with. As a result, we received amazing support from them, as well as key tastemakers like Sirius XM’s BPM. In fact, we remember how excited we were when we first found out “Sleeping Alone” was going to be a BPM Breaker. Now to see our new song “Right Now” in the Top 20 Countdown for two weeks in a row is completely surreal!

What does 2019 hold in store? Any hints or clues that we could get about future productions? Any upcoming collaborations or gigs in the pipeline? 2019?

Hmmm…First, we’d like to take a quick moment to thank everyone else who’s been part of making 2018 such a great year! You can expect more music and definitely more shows!