WHAT'S YOUR THEORY?

Both of you are DJs as well as educated musicians. Who is dominating when producing music?
Danny: "I would say I'm probably a little more dominating when it comes to actually writing the music. Dillin really is a never ending abyss of "ideas". Where are we taking this track? How should we transition from here to here? What should the intro / outro be? That's where he really shines. With his classical training, he also has a big influence on all of the melodies in our music. If it weren't for him, I would never finish a track. When I'm tired and just want to go to bed, he'll push me until 8 in the morning saying "You're not going to sleep until this song is finished"."

Dillin: "Well said. Dan is definitely the production guru. I can make a sound up in my head, describe it with words, try to make the sound with my mouth (often giving us both a good laugh), and I kid you not, within a few minutes he is playing me something very close and often much cooler than the sound I hoped to hear. It's amazing. And Danny's drum programming is by far some of the best in the business. He is a master at making original beats. And like he said, I am the drill sergeant ... new tracks always come before sleep!"

What hard- and software platform are you using for music production and why?
Danny: "I've been using Propellerheads Software since the first version of ReBirth, and as their technology got more advanced, I got more advanced. A couple of years ago we made the jump to Cubase for all of it's added features and VST(i)s, but we still use Reason 3.0 on pretty much every track. Mainly, we use it for the drums. I love the Redrum and Dr Rex. We also use the Stylus RMX for drums. As far as synths go, we really like the RGCAudio z3ta+, the Linplug Octopus, the Albino, and Trilogy. The Triangle 2 is a killer free VSTi that can make some really hard, nasty leads."

Dillin: "Right, we love our Cubase and Reason with the Rewire option. I would just add that for the most part we master our own work and use Wavelab, Cool Edit, and Sound Forge to finish a track out. Each wave editor has a few things it does better, so I go back and forth from one to the other."

Your first self released album sounds different compared to recent productions. Was the "new sound" a matter of choice or sort of evolved out of chemistry between the two of you?

Danny: "It was definitely a matter of choice. We just realized that if we keep making music like our last album, our music won't be heard by as many people as we would like. So, we've made a big effort to incorporate lyrics, choruses, catchy melodies and keep most of our songs under 4 minutes long. We're sort of trying to write pop music, but make it our own and break the rules a little bit."

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