#LabelWeek: Interview - Ofenbach

Few days ago, we have show you Ofenbach's cover video for their track "Around the Fire", featured on Crosswalk Vol. 1. We also had the opportunity to ask Dorian and César few questions.

Can you introduce yourselves and your project Ofenbach? Why having choosing this name?

Dorian: Hello, I'm Dorian. I'm 21 and I live in Paris. I started music quite young - I was playing the trumpet. Then I stopped playing it at 11 and decided to learn playing the guitar. I started composing at about 13 years old. This surge for making music, creating melodies has always been a part of me. I find it very exciting to take my instrument, sing and do whatever I like.

César: Hi, I'm César. I've always did music either playing the piano, the drums, the guitar or singing. This surge for making music appeared quite early to me - it's a need for me.
We choose the name Ofenbach in order to show our love for all kinds of music.

What made you want to produce music? 

This will came out with the surge for independancy in terms of choosing sounds, or different sound-treatments, as well as the desire to be able to  create and harmonize our songs at home with our own software, sound card and instruments.

How would you describe your sound? 

We describe our music as modern pop with hints of acoustic and electronic sounds. The most fitting term would be Deep/Pop to us.

You know each other since childhood and you have kind of grown up together musically speaking. What are your individual strenghts and weaknesses that enable you to strenghten Ofenbach?

Indeed we have met when we were 11 and we've been into several pop and rock bands before focusing on something more electronic. All the things we've done together enable us to widen our musical universe - and to multiply our influences of course.

Dorian: On my behalf, I would say that my strengths are tenacity, passion and resolution and my weaknesses would be restlessness, obstinacy and sometimes over-sincerity ahah.
César: One of my biggest strengths is my ability to adapt at any kind of musical genre. One of my weaknesses is to be untidy - in music a little bit of precision and order is more than efficient!

How did you end up joining Crosswalk Records? What made you urge for it?

A big check... Just kidding! More seriously we were already into Crosswalk when they approached us and we were immediately excited  because we thought that their style and artistic direction fit what we want to do. It could be a opportunity to widen our horizons. Moreover, we thought that Crosswalk has the potential to become an important label in this new wave of Deep House / Pop.

You did a lot of remixes - if you had the opportunity to remix any tracks, which one(s) would you choose?

We'd like to try out a remix of one of Jon Malkin's new songs or even a new track by James Bay. Those are just examples.

What are you next plans?

We're currently working on original tracks - just the two of us and also with different collaborators. We're very excited to be able to make you listen to it. Then the video clip for Around The Fire is soon to be released and a remix we did for a big English act is set to be released soon via Decca Records (Universal UK). Finally, we rehearse for our upcoming gigs - which are becoming more and more numerous!