Ron with Leeds are Trance producers and DJs based in the heart of the Ruhr Area, Germany. Known for their emotionally driven blend of progressive trance, melodic techno and energetic club sounds, they’ve released on labels like Interplay, Euphonic, AVA, Suanda, Bemind, FSOE and others. Their tracks are supported by Armin van Buuren (ASOT), Paul van Dyk, Cosmic Gate, Andrew Rayel, Kyau & Albert, and more.
They have delivered official remixes for artists such as Alexander Popov, Kyau & Albert and LTN, collaborated with renowned vocalists like Christina Novelli, and achieved multiple Top 5 positions in the Beatport charts. Ron with Leeds have performed at major events including Nature One Festival, Amsterdam Dance Event and Trance Signal, and their releases have been featured on landmark compilations such as FSOE 500, In Search Of Sunrise 17, and various international samplers.
Hosts of Levitated Sessions (monthly on YouTube) and founders of their own label, SPHERE:16.
Welcome to an exclusive deep dive into the world of Ron with Leeds, the progressive trance and melodic techno duo hailing from the heart of Germany’s Ruhr Area. Known for their emotionally charged productions and chart-topping releases, they’ve captivated audiences worldwide with their signature fusion of trance energy and melodic storytelling. Today, we explore the creative journey behind their latest release, “A Place Between Moments”, out now on FSOE’s Argento label, and uncover the evolution of their sound, production techniques, and future aspirations.
Dimitris: What inspired the creation of your track "A Place Between Moments" and what does it aim to capture emotionally?
Ron With Leeds: In the life of a modern music artist, the days often feel like a rush — from gig to party, meeting to meeting, hotel to hotel. Amidst the chaos, it’s the fleeting pauses that become precious: a moment to breathe, to collect yourself, to just exist. A Place Between Moments captures exactly that feeling — a brief escape where time seems to slow down, even if just for a heartbeat. The track’s energy and mood mirror these rare instants: gentle yet moving, reflective yet uplifting, a sonic space to pause and reconnect with the present before the world pulls you forward again. It’s a musical reminder that sometimes the most important moments are the ones in between.
Dimitris: How does "A Place Between Moments" reflect the evolution of your sound since you first started producing music?
Ron With Leeds: Basically, we're always keeping an eye on what our fans want to hear and what sounds they like. Compared to what we released in the past, our current sound is more "on point". We’ve noticed that the way music is consumed has changed significantly. That’s why we’re shaping our tracks to be more compact and direct nowadays, without losing their emotional depth.
Dimitris: What specific sound design choices in this track highlight your growth as an artist?
Ron With Leeds: One key aspect is how we design sounds to be more direct and impactful. Every element has a clear role, which is something we’ve really grown into as artists.
Dimitris: Which synthesizers, plugins, or software did you rely on most for crafting the core sounds of this track?
Ron With Leeds: It's definitely Serum (2) by Xfer. This plugin so nails it! To us this one is currently the best on the market. The sounds you can get out of it have to much more clarity, impact, brightness and power. It's simply incredible, we just love it!!
Dimitris: How do you integrate hardware synthesizers or drum machines with your software setup during production?
Ron With Leeds: Actually, we have a couple of hardware synthesizers, even if they can't be found anymore in most of the studios nowadays, but we're a kind of a little nostalgic here. And hardware synthesizers create a much more powerful sound than any software plugin on this planet (maybe Serum can ;) ). Anyway, it's no secret that usage is less practical and sometimes cumbersome, which is the reason we're not using them in all of our productions. But every now and then we feel like "hey, this bassline could sound so much better with that icing on the cake".
Dimitris: Can you walk us through your process for designing the lead melody or bassline—what tools, both hardware and software, did you use?
Ron With Leeds: In fact, this time the basic lead melody was a totally different one. One of us had that idea like a year ago or so and quickly draw it into the DAW to be left there for a long time. At the point we came back to it a couple of months ago, we felt like "hey, the melody is still cool and we should keep it for the song, but it doesn't really feel like the lead melody anymore. So we decided to create a new hook around that basic idea we had back then. As the track's concept was meant to be for FSOE Argento from the beginning, we played around with some ideas a little bit, finding something that 100% fits their current sound. We finally found a fitting sound in Serum (of course :D ) and that's how the hookline for "A Place Between Moments" came to life.
Dimitris: How has your use of effects processing—whether through analog gear or digital plugins—evolved, and how did it shape the atmosphere of this track?
Ron With Leeds: The process of using effects and how they treat your audio signal is a process that started from the very beginning of producing music, lasts until today and beyond and is constantly changing as new plugins are released almost every day, new ways of processing or treating your signal and you really need to keep yourself up to date or your quality will get stuck at some point. We feel like we've just made a big step not too long ago, as we just found some new processes, plugins and techniques to treat our productions. It made them clearer, more "on point" and gave much more impact to our sound. Especially for "A Place Between Moments" it has been very important, since that track was produced at a point where we already applied those new techniques and stuff and we think it is definitely perceivable in that particular song.
Dimitris: Did you experiment with any new sound design techniques, such as granular synthesis, resampling, or analog modulation, in this production?
Ron With Leeds: Actually not for this song, as we wanted to keep things more simple here, but absolutely for some of our other productions that you will be hearing in the near future.
Dimitris: How do you approach layering sounds to create depth and texture, and what specific methods or hardware did you apply in this track?
Ron With Leeds: First of all it's necessary to decide whether a layering makes sense or not. If the answer is "yes", it depends a little bit on the desired sound how many layers we use. For "A Place Between Moments" in example, we had like 6-7 different instruments for the hookline. Most important is not to just have a look at a specific sound isolated to the others, because it can sound great, but does not fit the others very well. Or it may fit the others sound wise, but as a layer it's not giving your overall sound what it needs. Mostly we have layers to cover the low frequencies, the main instrument itself and top-layers to stand out and cut through the mix. Also we're always having an eye on the mid and side. A melody can sound great on your headphones or in the car because it has wide stereo sounds, but when playing it in a club or on a festival, the strictly mono speakers can ruin your song, as the melody or other elements can even completely disappear. So we always make so have it all covered.
Dimitris: Were there any challenges in syncing hardware with your DAW or achieving a cohesive mix between analog and digital elements? How did you overcome them?
Ron With Leeds: As said earlier, it's not too easy sometimes to implement your hardware to the DAW. So sometimes it needs time, the internet or GPT to get this done haha. Once they're working it's not a big deal to make them fit the arrangement
Dimitris: When listeners hear this track, what subtle sound design details or hardware-driven elements do you hope they’ll notice that reflect your technical growth as a producer?
Ron With Leeds: We think it’s more about the overall cohesion than any single detail. The sounds just interact more naturally, and there’s a clearer sense of space and balance, which reflects how our production has evolved.
Future Plans:
Dimitris: Looking ahead, we're curious about your aspirations. What exciting plans and ambitions are on the horizon for you?
Ron With Leeds: Well, as you might now for sure, most of the stuff is more or less secret and we can't talk about them in detail, but what we can tell is, that you can expect a lot for 2026. There's 2 big remixes coming by the end of the year, a really nice original track where we collaborated with the awesome NELLY TGM and there's also at least 2 tracks coming on our own label "SPHERE:16". One of them is a HUGE reboot of one of our most successful released year to date.
Dimitris: What are your future plans in terms of new releases, collaborations, or live performances?
Ron With Leeds: At the moment we're in touch with a couple of great and very talented artists and make plans for collab-tunes. So you definitely can expect nice co.productions besides our original tracks. As for the live performances make sure to follow us on Instagram to make sure you won't be missing us in case we're playing near by.
Dimitris: Are there any collaborations you dream of, either with other artists or brands, that you haven’t yet explored?
Ron With Leeds: There are definitely artists we admire and would love to collaborate with, but for us it’s less about specific names and more about the right creative chemistry. When that’s there, interesting things usually happen naturally.
Dimitris: What role do you think AI technology plays in the future of electronic music production, and have you experimented with it?
Ron With Leeds: This is a really delicate topic in our opinion. We have some AI plugins, but only some to be used on our effect chain. We clearly distanced ourselves from having any sound or even whole songs produced by AI. This kind of technical development is not only coming up with good or helpful things - it's also terminating jobs or niches. Besides that, your possibilities aren't endless when producing music with an AI software. You have a certain influence, but you surely can't create a song 100% according to how it sounds in your head. This needs years and years of practice and process an can't be replaced by AI.
Dimitris: What message would you like to share with your fans and the broader EDM community about your journey and vision?
Ron With Leeds: We see our journey as an ongoing process of stripping things back to what really matters—emotion, atmosphere, and connection. That’s what we want to keep building on.
Personal Insights:
To wrap things up, we'd love to get a glimpse into your personal life and philosophy. These insights help us understand the person behind the music.
Dimitris: How do you maintain a balance between your personal life and your music career?
Ron With Leeds: Oh this is tough (laughs). You know, as a modern artist it's not only about the studio-work or performing as a DJ. If you're managing all your social media channels yourself, like we do, it's really hard to make a cut at some point and simply enjoy life. When we're not in the studio or on stage, we always have to have plans for all our social media appearances, think about proper content, (pre-)produce it, schedule it... etc. Even when one of us is on holidays, you find yourself in that situation like "oh, this could be used for a nice post", or "hey, I got a great song idea and I don't wanna lose it", so you may end up in the hotel room with your laptop and stuff and have a quick producing session. Also, we're answering all messages and comments ourselves, so that's a lot of work besides the daily business. But since both of us have dogs, I guess this is a pretty good way to balance, because they are not something that you may plan to handle and then postpone it. You have to take care at specific points, take long walks with them and even while we love it, it's also our duty to do, so we cannot just leave it for later. And this "duty" actually brings a huge benefit" as it "forces" you to take your breaks.
Dimitris: What advice would you give to aspiring DJs and producers looking to make their mark in the industry?
Ron With Leeds: Nowadays it' no longer about doing what you want to. Times have changed and you need to have a closer look at the market then before, so you need to adapt. BUT: Never ever let go of your personal taste. It's your personal mark that makes you and your sound unique.
Dimitris: Can you walk us through your DJing process—from track selection to live mixing? How do you curate a set that resonates with different audiences?
Ron With Leeds: There are different aspects how we curate our tracks for live mixing. First of all it depends on the event itself. In example for a gig on the beach at daytime you definitely need a different selection compared to a huge festival or a club night. Within this selection we always make sure to have melodic stuff, but also more "techno-ish" tunes with more punch and less melody and we separate them into different sections of our set like into, build up, peak, slow down and closing titles. What's also not to be missing is of course a selection of well known classic tunes that hits the audience right away. This gives us a great tool set to build our sets and gives us the ability to quickly react to the audiences' response. While the performance we try to keep an eye on the crowd (even to the very back, if possible) and their reaction to the current song. This helps to notice what kind of sound is working or not and how to adjust.
Balancing Production and Performance:
Dimitris: How do you manage the creative balance between producing new tracks in the studio and preparing for high-energy DJ gigs?
Ron With Leeds: We usually separate those phases quite clearly. When we’re in the studio, we focus purely on creating. And when we prepare for gigs, it’s all about energy, flow, and reading the crowd.
Dimitris: Does your approach to music production change based on the feedback or experiences you gain from live performances?
Ron With Leeds: Playing live can definitely spark new ideas, especially when you see how certain tracks connect with people. But when we’re in the studio, we try to stay true to our own vision and let creativity flow naturally. That’s what keeps the music authentic.
Closing Statement:
Dimitris: Thank you so much guys for taking the time to share your journey, insights, and experiences with us. Your thoughtful responses will undoubtedly inspire and resonate with fans and fellow artists. We genuinely appreciate your contribution to the electronic music community and eagerly anticipate witnessing your continued success!
Ron With Leeds: Thanks for having us! We hope our music continues to connect with people and inspire creativity. We’re excited to keep exploring and sharing our journey with everyone in the electronic music community
As our conversation with Ron with Leeds comes to a close, it’s clear that their passion for music is matched only by their commitment to artistic growth and connection with fans. “A Place Between Moments” stands as a testament to their refined sound and emotional storytelling, offering listeners a rare pause in the rush of modern life. With exciting collaborations, remixes, and original tracks on the horizon, 2026 promises to be a defining year for the duo. Keep an eye on their journey—because for Ron with Leeds, the most unforgettable moments are always just between the beats.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to Dan Stone for organizing this interview.
I also want to thank Ron With Leeds for their incredibly detailed and thoughtful responses, which made this interview a truly informative read.
