SOULFLVR is a product of Germany’s flourishing house music scene. While he’s been DJing since his teenage years, his skill set as a producer came full circle in 2018. He’s now taking the reigns on the genre and creating stunning masterpieces that hit the emotional side in whole new light.
SOULFLVR didn’t start his journey simply by playing gigs, he was a sound engineer which created a connection to the TV industry. His roots with analog sound programming runs deep and is directly tied to his eventual switch to Serato Scratch Live.
Take note of two of his latest releases that speak to his unique, uplifting and soulful sound profile. Let’s start with “About Tonight” that fires on all spiritual cylinders. Backed by classic a bass line that make up the deep house bangers we all know and love while the lyrics ties everything together. It’s always refreshing to hear a track where the lyrics sound so crisp.
Prior to “About Tonight” SOULFLVR released “Easy To Love”, that easily reminds me of a new age Kaskade redux tune. It’s a bit more subtle, but also, much more melodic. Again, he hits all the right notes with the lyrics and synths that toy with the thickest of emotions.
When the time is right, I can’t wait to see what “Easy To Love” does to a massive crowd.
We were able to have a chat with, Alex Ruhnau, SOULFLVR to discuss his latest progressions, sound engineering background and sample his selects reserved for late night sets.
Have you been staying warm with your DJing still while in quarantine?
To be honest, this changed my life completely and while lots of DJs started to do streaming shows after the cancellation of their gigs I had another approach. I resigned from my job and jumped into full time music production. Family and friends called my crazy but I wanted to make the best out of quarantine and so I worked in my studio from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. very single day and I produced my greatest songs so war. Coming back to you question, no I didn’t DJ during quarantine but composed songs for my DJ sets that will happen in the future.
What are 4 tracks you would likely mix into your set if you played out tomorrow at 2am?
Nice time for some bangers! Only 4? Let’s make it 5 (ha ha ha)
What is your background in sound engineering?
I’m a sound engineer by heart and I’ve ever been. Starting off at my school time, I studied sound engineering and made the transition from analog to digital many years ago when I switched as a DJ from vinyl to DVS – Serato Scratch Live in my case. At work we soon updated the audio console to DiGiCo SD7 and SD5 digital consoles and I stepped quite deep into programming and setting up those consoles.
What work have you done with TV?
I started off as a car driver for show guests: Giving celebrities, soccer trainers and show hosts rides to the studio. Then I started off as a sound engineer on a different station and was promoted to supervisor of sound department some years ago.
What clubs have you been a resident at?
My last resident club jobs are from my other life when I was into black music and Technics 1210 mk2´s. Since I turned back into electronic dance music I became a booking DJ and for me this was the next step: My resident club is the entire world and I love this so much. I love to travel, to meet different people, explore different cultures and speak through my music to them.
What type of audio experimentation have you played with?
I’m always experimenting but one thing I remember is that I created a fat and rich synth sound by layering about 30 Sylenth1 synths, every single one different to another, to a rich sound. Ok, this is not a very effective way of producing though…
Can you elaborate a little about the message of ‘Easy To Love’ and ‘About Tonight’?
Good question, because both songs are based on the same kind of sentiment: Yearning for a very special moment of love and freedom. I dreamed myself to a beach at the ocean during sunset on a warm day, watching the horizon and hoping for good things to come.
Can you dive into some production talk around ‘About Tonight’? What are the different layers of the track?
What makes it so special is definitely the electric guitar with lots of reverb in it. Reverb/Room/Delays are the key in this song cause its used on almost every stem on different types, length and with to create this rich sound of open space. I layered some atmospheric elements to make this even better and layered the voice stems with different effects.
What is next for SOULFLVR?
First I continue to produce emotional deep house music and I’m waiting for events to start again cause I want to make it to the EDM festivals to bring my deep beach house sound to the electronic music lovers and share the vibe with the crowd.
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