Powerful mingling of sounds inspired from all over the world and a cool attitude to top it off! Restless Leg Syndrome have us asking to be infected! Read our interview below.
Describe your sound in three words please!
Global Turntable Beats
How did you first meet and create the ‘Restless Leg Syndrome’ group?
We first met at a DJ-Competition where Chrisfader & Testa participated and d.b.h was judging – back in 2003. We are all from Tyrol originally but when we moved to Vienna we started to collaborate on tracks and releases. Although we are from different generations, we have a similar background and approach to making music, since we all come from DJing in the first place. Our first record was called ‘Swapping Swinger’, followed by ‘Dabke’ and ‘Roote’. 2021 our fourth and biggest project, called ‘Totem’ (incl. Venom & Falcon) will be released.
Tell us a few words about your new EP ‘Falcon’?
We started working on the tracks for our releases 2021 over two years ago. Basically we wanted to produce a follow up for our arabic-influenced record ‘Dabkeh’. Since we collected lots of samples and inspiration on several trips to the MENA / Swana region, we made a bunch of tracks and will release four EPs resulting in a double-vinyl in 2021. ‘Falcon’ ist the second part of this journey and represents everything we stand for: hard Beats, Turntablism, Dancefloor-Material and nice Samples.
What story are you telling in your latest song ‘Represent the Fucking Planet’?
It can be interpreted in multiple ways, in a classic hiphop sense it’s about us representing our crew but it’s also about the various influences being reflected in our music, you could also take it as a statement for bringing people together in times of hightened nationalism, represent the fucking planet, not your fucking country.
The drop in ‘Represent the Fucking Planet’ is magnificent. Is there a drop that you wish you had composed yourselves?
Thank you! Sure, ”Orang” from Ivy Lab & Two Fingers for example
Your music is based around sampling. The art of sampling changed dramatically in recent years. Today there are platforms offering sound recordings in a netflix style subscription-for-access model. How do you think having such an easy access to samples affects the quality of produced music?
Nothing wrong with that, if it helps realising your ideas quicker why not? It’s about how you use a sample in context with other sounds and how you process it, the source of the sample is not that important, regardless of what sample you use, the challenge is to make it your own, no matter if it comes from Vinyl, Splice or Youtube.
We think that your music corresponds to different audiences. In what state of mind do you imagine people enjoying your songs?
In the beginning our focus was completely towards the dancefloor, but now the song idea is more important to us.
As a result, there are different tracks with various moods – some for the headphones, a nightly drive or to dance in a club. It should result in a good mix.
Much of your work features a blend of Western and Middle-Eastern elements. How well and in what ways do you think, should someone know a foreign culture to do them justice when incorporating its elements in their work?
This is a key question for us. Especially as Europeans getting inspired by music from the MENA / Swana region. I guess in the end everybody has to know for himself but for us it was clear to have a in-depht involvement with arabic culture mostly by meeting and working with other artists from the region. In addition, we got a lot of experience through our several trips over the last decade. This can be the basis for a subtle way and respectful approach.
Thank you Restless Leg Syndrome!
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