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#InDepth Interview with Zerotonine for his release Polaris on Above Allternative


Fresh sounds from the studio of Zerotonine! His crossover style led to this Progressive Trance track "Polaris" where his crisp sounds and driving vibe will make you melt!

Supported by Cosmic Gate & Roger Shah, out now on Above Allternative / Above All



We are super happy that Zerotonine has accepted the challenge to answer to our interview and definitely his answers are must read for fans of electronic music and aspiring music artists as well. 

Dimitri: When did you start your involvement with electronic dance music and which music style you are more affiliated with and why?

Zerotonine: After a few of my friends and family started to give me more and more positive feedback on the music I made back in the day I decided to take the next step and follow my passion. Since 2011 I started to really work on my skills in FLStudio, which I already fooled around with since Fruityloops version 3 which was in 2001. From 2011 onwards, after being inspired at festivals like Tomorrowland, Hardwell's - I Am Hardwell, and DVLM's Bring Home The Madness 1, 2 & 3 shows in Antwerp I was infected by that genre and picked up the pace. Back then I was mainly producing Bigroom / EDM.

Dimitri: Did you had the opportunity to attend any kind of music production course or are u completely self taught? Do you consider that is essential for any artist to complete any production course?

Zerotonine: Completely self taught, I'm the type of guy that cannot sleep until I get devices or techniques or applications to run the way I want them to run or behave. If it is my motorbike that needs some tuning my PC that needs a tweak or my DAW and VST's that I need to learn by heart to get the sound I want, it doesn't matter, I will dig deep into how things work. Side-chaining to get a groove right, compression to get the loudness and richness it needs, eq'ing and mixing to make it release worthy. In the end it's all about a bit of talent and technique, and techniques can be learned. These days Youtube tutorials really speed up the learning process which in my case was helping me out a lot. Zen World, KSHMR and even Jordy Dazz his streams were all sponged by me which eventually led to tracks worthy to release. A production course can help of course but these days all the knowledge you need to produce is for grasps online, if you search for it right and dig deeper. The music production industry is a perfect eco system for meeting friend producers and sharing knowledge, I always refer to it like riding my motorbike, bikers wave to each other when you pass them by on the highway, in the music industry the same behaviour applies.

Dimitri: In which label was your first ever release and how did you manage to attract the attention of the label?

Zerotonine: Blackout, which was my actual first release back in 2016, was published via RouteNote, which does not distribute to Beatport so to get there I started to connect to more and more producers via some facebook EDM Bedroom producer groups / pages to actually learn and understand how to properly release a track in this industry.



 My first actual Beatport (label) release BackSlash was signed by Stell Recordings, a label that I found via a good producer friend of mine that told me about labelbase.net and the way he got off the ground. Labelbase.net is a good place to start when you have zero connections and need the email addresses of A&R's willing to listen and connect with you. How I managed to attract the attention? Well I tried to make the best Mastered version possible back then of my track BackSlash, and together with a Presskit with my story and some pictures in PDF format I sent it to the Stell Recordings A&R's email address and things started to roll. They contacted me and actually offered me my first contract.

Dimitri: Please pick for us your Top 5 tracks that you have produced and you consider them as being highly important for the progress of your career indifferent if they were commercially successful.

Zerotonine: I made hundreds of tracks to begin with before my top 5 releases. But my first track, Blackout, was the one that gave me that kind of euphoric feeling after it was finished, it was something special and still is, to me for sure. 



You take a listen again and again and put it aside. And if after some weeks the track still sounds interesting and when it still gets you off your feet that is ' the sign'  your 'cue' to get it out into the world, at least with me that was the case. For me that is the moment to start sharing your track with other producers, friends and family and see how they react. If it's good it's good, if the feedback is not good, thank them for being frank with you and listen to that advice. Use that feedback to keep pushing yourself to do better, to nail that proper release in the future. Every producer I know has had that feeling of their first and newborn tracks, that they are huge and will do good for sure.., but face it all of the tracks we make in our first years around sound good to our own ears, but are really really crap compared to the industry standards. But if you keep pushing you will eventually reach some milestones. BackSlash was my second release, same story, it gave me a good feeling and vibe to share. 



My tracks Viper, Shankara and FckdUP! same story there, I eventually signed them to another label after some feedback on the projects by their A&R, raising the bar some more and learning more about the tricks in producing and releasing. No idea of what the reach would be, I just kept pushing to get my releases out there.



Dimitri: Let's focus on Polaris out on Above Allternative sub label of Above All. Please tell us from where did you got the inspiration for the track?

Zerotonine: My latest release Polaris was actually a project that I worked on, on and off. I started with making the arp bassline and the chord progression after listening to some of Paul van Dyk's Vonyc Sessions tracks, don't remember the exact ones actually, I listen to them when I am out for a walk of riding home from work. I wanted to focus more and more on trance, because of the fact that I find trance to be more like melodic and emotional. Arrangement-wise it gives you room to tell a kind of story when set up properly. Which is in some way different compared to the 'everybody fu^*king jump', hands in the air kind of production value of most bigroom setups. So yeah Paul van Dyk's Vonyc sessions really got me inspired to make this release, thanks for that Paul ;-) #legend

Dimitri: How long it took you to produce Polaris and was an easy or difficult process?If you have faced any difficulties please tell us about them and how did you resolved them?

Zerotonine: Well I just checked the actual project time (lovely functionality in FL Studio) it reads 17 hours and some minutes but over the course of 8 to 10 weeks I guess, around that amount of time. I made some side versions which I saved as a new project so it could be a few hours more actually not sure there, but lets say 8 to 10 weeks in the end of last year 2017. The basic elements of the track were there quite quickly actually, but to me it needed some proper elements and fx, proper eq'ing to get the mix right, and some arrangement detail changes to really nail it. Finally I did the mastering on it too which took a few hours as well. But with the proper mastering vst's these days, some good ears (after some good rest) and by using proper monitors + sub and a pair of headphones (Love the BeyerDynamic DT770 Pro's) it is possible to get the quality needed and necessary RMS/LUFS values. It's always a matter of personal taste and that of the A&R but after 6 years of producing a few hours spent on mastering should do the trick, don't go crazy and don't let your ears fool you.

Dimitri: Which was the biggest challenge that you faced during the production of this superb track?

Zerotonine: The 'biggest' challenge? Hmm let me see, there really was no super 'big' challenge during production, I had a lot of fun making it. Come to think of it, a challenge was maybe to find the best label for the track to eventually release it I guess. What I did know is that with this track for which I received a lot of positive feedback from my surroundings I wanted to try and take a leap from the current labels I was signed to. I needed to get out of my comfort zone because in my life I''ve learnt that nothing grows there. So with that at stake I started to share and discuss ideas for releasing Polaris with different A&R's and friends I met in the industry so far, asking them for advice, A&R's especially, they know how the business works and first and foremost they know how to find each other too, genre-wise / production value-wise. In this process I learned a lot, it's all about connections and being kind to them, helping them out and eventually they will help you out too, it's a simple question of give and take fuelled by a passion we have in common. Put in the effort to get something back. A&R George Anthony Ray (Midnight Coast / Abstract Label-group) gave me some good pointers to raise the production value of the track a bit more. George listened to it and came up with the suggestion that Above All Records has got this kind of vibe going on their roster, the kind of vibe which Polaris possesses. Finally Above All Records, run by Matthijs Duijm and Janco Krale gave me a warm welcome and offered me a contract. And as they say the rest is history.

Dimitri: Can you describe to us the steps that you went through the production of this track and of any other track?

Zerotonine: For me it is never a certain amount or certain steps that I take, for me it is about having fun just jamming and playing on my keyboard, recording midi, ditching it, reworking it. For me it's starts with setting up some vst's and proper sounds via presets and tweaking them to my likings to get things going. Sometimes it's a melody that comes first, sometimes it's a nasty bassline that kickstart's things. During this process I use my personal template (grown through the years) in which I can quickly assign the channels to my mixer and eq'ing & fx'ing them etc.  When I have a certain pattern that sounds good to me I start to work on the arrangement. And after the arrangement is there is start to work on the final mixing process followed by mastering to polish it up. The mixing part being the toughest and most precise piece of the puzzle.



Dimitri: When Polaris finished did the label accepted it as it was produced or did the label recommend you to do some changes or fix certain things?

Zerotonine: In the case of Polaris, Matthijs listened to it and asked me to make an extra radio edit, because he already liked the Club / DJ version of Polaris.

Dimitri: Is Polaris an original composition or is it based on a template from another track produced from you or another producer?

Zerotonine: It is a 100% original.

Dimitri: Is the quality of Polaris higher than your previous one? If yes in what ways this track sounds better than your previous one?

Zerotonine: The mixing and mastering maybe a bit better than earlier releases I guess. The feedback I get these days is of a more professional level too for sure which helps adding more dynamics or to push the quality. But for a producer I think the hardest part is to choose the right moment to stop and release a track. In fact it is never done, you can always improve a track to try and make it better, it's that good old 80-20 rule. You can burn so much of your time in that final 20%, or you can say, the heck with it, let's release it!



Dimitri: Do you have any friends or relatives that you send them the track before sending it to a label? If yes did you have to do any alterations as a result of the feedback you get?

Zerotonine: I have a few DJ friends that test my releases for me now and then and yes they give me feedback that I then use to make changes. But for Polaris this was not the case, I let my (producer) friends and the A&R's verdicts come naturally.

Dimitri: Describe to us the studio that you have produced Polaris? What is your favourite hardware and software set up? Do you have in mind any new gear that you wish to get in order to raise the quality of your production?

Zerotonine:  I have one room in our house set up as my permanent studio, which is not acoustically treated even but has no big issues, it doesn't really need bass traps etc. Over the last 6 years I kind of got to know how my home setup sounds and I started to trust my monitors and headphones and a handful of reference devices. My most important reference devices are actually my car, and my trusty iphone earbuds which are unforgiving when it comes to a nailing that final mixdown. I am using FL-Studio on a bootcamped iMac 27" together with the Focusrite Forte soundcard, a pair of KRK RP6 3G's combined with a KRK 10S sub (that I can disable and enable). Besides that i'm using the ATH MX50's and my other and favourite set of headphones the BeyerDynamics DT770's 250ohm version connected to a SMSL headphone amp (Thanks to Michael aka Unimi for giving me the advice) for my final mixdown and mastering reference gear. You actually do not need all of this to raise or up the quality of your tracks, but having them and getting to know them and especially trusting your setup is the most valuable and important part. There is no 100% monster setup i think, and there never will be I guess. It is all about what you do with it.

Dimitri: Do you master the track yourself or the mastering is task for the record label? Do you understand mastering as being essential?

Zerotonine: It is very essential, it is a craft based on techniques and techniques can be learned. I read many books on mastering, the best one is hands down written by Michel Holtgreve (DJ GreyHawk). You need good ears too, and a proper interpretation of what you hear. Your ears are like compressors, during long production sessions your ears can fool you, as long as you know that and take a good rest to prevent ear fatigue you are good. If you doubt your own mastering skills, get in contact with some local mastering engineers, they are there if you look for them, the one around the block here is DaGoose, Jeffrey de Gans, super nice guy, super knowledgeable.



Dimitri: There is a growing trend of vinyl coming back for good. Would you like to see this track released on vinyl or any other of your future tracks? Do you prefer digital files or vinyl?

Zerotonine: Digital or Analogue vinyl are both ok to me, i like the fact that the physical aspect is on its return, I guess we people just like to collect physical stuff. The good thing of vinyl coming back is the bigger space you get for the artwork to shine! 

Dimitri: Do you have any future releases planned and when will be released?

Zerotonine: I have a few lined up for release later this year, next one up will be released around the summer.

Dimitri: Best piece of advice you got in relation to your career so far and best tip you learnt recently to make your tracks better.

Zerotonine: Closely listen to the feedback you get, take every bit of feedback seriously. Use your networking skills, connect to as many people in the industry as you can. Fact: not one single top 10 artist has made it solely on it's own, it's your connections that make the magic happen or at least give you a better shot.

Dimitri: Can you share here your tips or more elaborated advice for any new artists who may read this interview and wish to get involved with the electronic music industry.

Zerotonine: Do it for the fun of it based on your passion. It will take at least 6-10 years of your life to produce properly if you do the grind right. Don't think you are there, you are never there, keep innovating and producing. Don't let anyone discourage you along the way, and trust me discouragements will come, even from the ones you least expect it from, just talk about it and move on, remember it's your passion. People outside the EDM industry do not care or know anything about your passion, take that into consideration when you are having a chat with them about your passion, forgive them, they are unconscious about the subject, don't hate them for it ;-) just smile. There will be sacrifices along the way, at these moments, take a breather and go on with your plan. And connect, connect, connect. Cheers.

Thanks so much to Zerotonine for sharing his insights and valuable knowledge with us.

Thanks to Above All Records crew for organising this interview.

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