We are Sienna Collective. We make chill music. (yep, that's it)
In our interview with Sienna Collective we discuss their forthcoming album Unity that is out 23rd of June. Enjoy their answers and their music too.
Pre-save the album here: https://ffm.to/siennacollectiveunity
1-Dimitris: It would be nice to start by telling us your 3 most important achievements or goals fulfilled in your career so far that you very are proud of.
Sienna Collective: Well first of all we have to explain our background a bit. The whole idea behind Sienna Collective was to be an organic group of musicians that like to collaborate and make chill music. We started out with 4 people, but over the years only two of us really remained. Partly to due to the others having other obligations, but for me and Anja, we really loved working together and creating beautiful music. Our goal is to just have fun making music and if it does well it does well, if not, then not. We know we put all of our passion and love into it and that's what matters. That said, we are kind of proud to have been featured on Roger Shah's famous Magic Island album with our track "Alive"!
2-Dimitris: Why and under which circumstances did you took the decision to start DJing or producing electronic dance music?
Sienna Collective: I (Mark) started messing with music production when I was 14 or 15 years old. A friend of mine at school was doing it and I was so intrigued that one day I went to his house and we spent an afternoon making something together - I was hooked. My father always had a soft spot for dance music so growing up I've listened a lot to it and that's how I decided I wanted to make that kind of music too.
Anja has a totally different background. She's musically trained, used to sing in a band and makes chill-out and ambient on her own. Our two backgrounds combined is what makes our music so special, we think.
3-Can you note down the top 3 producers that have influenced your decision to get involved in the electronic dance music scene and you admire and respect them very much?
Sienna Collective: That's a really hard question to answer seeing how we have such different backgrounds. I think what's more important is to be able to hear the passion, love and craft people can put into their music. If that shows, we think it's great. That extends to all genres of music by the way, not just EDM.
4-Dimitris: It would be fantastic to talk about your album Unity that will be out 23rd of June. Please tell us how this album came about and what was the idea behind it.
Sienna Collective: We've spent months, well more like years actually, on it and we're super proud to show what we've created. The entire idea of an album came after we've made a few tracks together and since that felt so good, we kept on making and making. At one point we had about 5 or 6 tracks that were still unreleased, so we decided to make a few more and make it an album. It's called "Unity", because we've united ourselves through music but also our musical background and interests. You can clearly hear the inspirations and ideas in this album and we think it's an absolute fingerprint of what we like together.
5-Dimitris: How long it took you to produce Unity and can u describe the production process in simple steps?
Sienna Collective: The album in total took about 3 years to produce, but the most productive part of it was spent in the last 12 months or so. We have a very slow work flow, because we work over the internet and use different DAWs. That means it can take weeks before one of use sends their stems to the other and back. Sounds insane, but we like it. It gives us plenty of time to reflect on what we've made so far. Do we really like it? Is it worth spending more time on it? It also gives us more time to spend on other projects and music.
6-Dimitris: Did you had any particular difficulties accomplishing that particular track or any specific technical challenges or obstacles that you had to overcome during its production.
Sienna Collective: Well like I mentioned before, we work over the internet so that's already a challenge, but we manage. Other challenges were mainly discussing what direction to take a track in or figuring out what it needed. We've had very little bumps in the road to be honest!
7-Dimitris: Albums are always a very hard and difficult goal to achieve. Did you have moments that you lost your motivation for it and what thoughts have persuaded you to continue till the end?
Sienna Collective: Well, in total it took about three years to produce this album. Of course we had moments without inspiration, but mostly we just took our time and that was the right way to go!
8-Dimitris: Can you pick your top 3 tracks from the album and tell us for each one a short comment?
Sienna Collective: That's like having to pick your favorite child, haha! But, we think Alive is for sure one of our favorites. Impression is one we really like as well due to the heavy synthwave influences and Bliss is a track we consider to be typical Sienna Collective. Relaxing, yet somewhat up-beat. Perfect for a beach club or bar setting!
9-Dimitris: Do you have any collaborators in your album? if yes can you please tell your opinion about them and how it was the experience to work with them.
Sienna Collective: For this album we haven't collaborated with anyone, but in July we will be releasing a remix album of "Unity" with 10 remixes in all kinds of different genres! So stay tuned for that.
10- Dimitris: Which music composition software or hardware you prefer and why? What is your opinion of the latest movement to produce music with more analogue equipment and with less or without any digital software?
Sienna Collective: Everything mainly gets produced in FL Studio by me (Mark), but Anja uses Logic Pro. We don't really have an opinion on the second part of the question, but we do like to use analog gear as in real instruments ;)
11-Dimitris: Do you prefer instrumental dance tracks or you adore vocals? Please explain to us your position and if in your latest production you have vocals tell us how did you choose the specific singer and if it was great to work with her/him?
Sienna Collective: We like vocals, especially since Anja uses to be a singer, but for our tracks we want other sounds to take the spot light.
12-Dimitris: If you really like to produce vocal tracks which vocalist/singer or lyricist on electronic dance music you aspire to work with?
Sienna Collective: Hard to say. There are many good ones.
13-Dimitris: Do you believe that artwork on your latest track is good and do you believe that artwork can attract listeners or record buyers? Can you mention the best artwork of a track ever released?
Sienna Collective: It's something we thought was cool and fit the theme of our album. If it speaks to us, then it's good. We don't really care if other people like it or not to be frank. We like it.
14-Dimitris: Can you pick your top 3 record labels including the one released the track that we discuss in this interview and give us a short comment about them?
Sienna Collective: So we mostly release our music ourselves, including our album, but we have to give a shout out to the folks of Black Hole and in particular the sublabels Magic Island and Elpida. They are excellent!
15-Dimitris: Do you have your own record label? if yes tell us when did you set it up, the reasons behind this decision and your top 3 releases on the label so far plus 2 or 3 releases that we should look after from your label.
Sienna Collective: Well, no, but also yes? Since it's so easy to publish something yourself nowadays you can kind of look at it as being a private label, right? That said, we've been busy contacting a lot of people and there will be remixes of our album tracks coming. More on that another time, but I think that's a bit like having a label!
16-Dimitris:How much time do you spend promoting yourself in your social media and you see this as essential tool for self promotion and getting bookings too? Which social media is the one that seems to work better for you?
Sienna Collective: Social media has ruined the music industry. Good music used to find itself to the top, but now it doesn't even matter if your music is good, if your social media skills are on point you have a chance. Obviously we do social media too, because you have to. For that we like Instagram most.
17-Dimitris: Many DJs who are producers too they offer online masterclasses or teach to music production courses. If you are offering any of these services please tell us about it.
Sienna Collective: Yes, I (Mark) run a mixing and mastering service called Green Heart Audio. You can contact me through my linktree! https://linktr.ee/greenheartaudio
18-Dimitris: Can you describe your music as certain music genre such as trance, house, techno or your music exempts these categorizations? What is your opinion about hybrid styles and the artists who are attempting to mix influences from various genres in their tracks?
Sienna Collective: I don't think we really can define it to one thing, but we like to call it organic house or trance ourselves. A housy or trancy foundation with organic instrument on top of it - Yeah that sounds like it, alright.
19-Dimitris: Is your music business your full time occupation and are you able to make a leaving out of your music business (DJ/producer/label owner/teaching or mastering tracks)? If not what other jobs are you doing in order to support your income?
Sienna Collective: Definitely not!
Dimitris: Your message & wishes for Flux Bpm Online readers.
Sienna Collective: Thanks for reading everyone! We hope to have piqued your interest in our album and we hope you'll love it as much as we did making it.
Thanks to Sienna Collective for this awesome interview.2. Bliss
3. Comet
4. Impression
5. Oblivion
6. Alive
7. Mosaic
8. Echoes
