EMKR Interview: The Future Is Now

We're excited to present a new interview from Andrej who you have probably seen on your timeline through his work as AAV Playlists. He conducted a great talk with EMKR which has been long overdue! Check it out below!

It was about time we talked about EMKR. The Portuguese trio have been making a name for themselves throughout the underground big room scene with their high caliber, festival-ready music and fresh DJ sets. With every release, they’ve been taking it to the next level and along the way, they have gotten a few notable supports from big DJs in the scene such as W&W, Maurice West, and SaberZ to name a few.

First off, thank you for taking the time to do this interview! A lot of us, including myself, have recently become a fan of your music and would really love to know more about the EMKR project. It’s uncommon to see trios! How did it all begin and who are the members?
First of all, thanks for having us! It’s a huge pleasure! Well, we began the idea of EMKR in 2013 when we got a hold of a FL Studio copy on a CD and started messing around with some plugins, and watching a lot of YouTube tutorials. At this time, it was just Nuno and Dinis, both of us sharing the passion for EDM back in the day! Then, in 2014, came the actual beginning of our project. We chose our artist name, started playing some shows, always trying to learn how to “move” in the scene. Two years later, we felt that we needed some more stage presence, so we thought it would be a good idea to add a 3rd member, since Dinis was more focused on producing, and Nuno was more into Djing. At that point, we invited Miguel, who already had his own DJ project aside, to join us. He has been our hype man and 2nd DJ in our live-shows since then!

You guys have been making music for a while now. If I were to describe your sound over the past few years, it would be a unique fusion of big room house and trance. At what point, or with which release, did you feel confident about your sound and the direction of EMKR?
I would say “Alien” and “Ignition” were the tracks that made us feel like we were onto something. I think that both of them were groundbreaking tracks (in 2 different times) and both were tracks in which we tried to incorporate a “theme”. Recently we have been even more confident about our sound because we really love what we’re making and seeing some big names play our music, so it’s something that really makes us push forward!

Could you walk us through the creative process behind putting together and finalizing an EMKR track? What are some of the inspirations you draw from and how do you reconcile that with the sounds you’ve already built your project on?
Great question! It’s not a rule, but normally we start a track with the melody. Just a melody that makes us feel something, either it being emotional or epic, dark, etc. Then we try to build the track around it. Having a lot of atmosphere in the breaks, focusing on how we can introduce the melody but don’t make the listener feel like it’s too much…but again, this is not a rule. We’ve started tracks even by the intro or just feeling pumped by a kick/bass groove! As for inspirations, we always looked up to W&W. Their sound has been something we vibe to a lot! Then FLRNTN (former Graham Bell), Mark Sixma, Justin Prime or AVAO are other artists that we really like and feel inspired by. Nowadays it is hard not to sound like anybody else, so we always try to have our own distinct sounds, samples, presets, everything that we’ve collected over the years and makes us who we are!

It’s undeniable that a lot of us love your music. You guys have already gained support on radio shows from big names like W&W and Maurice West as mentioned before - however, I have to ask you about the big liveset support from SaberZ for your track “Ignition” on the Rave Culture Set this year. What did that moment mean to you?
That moment was incredible for us, as you can imagine. We never would’ve thought in 2014 that a recognizable artist like SaberZ would play our track on a livestream “sponsored” by the #1 Big Room label at this time. It was a huge milestone for us, and we are forever grateful to the boys from SaberZ for that support!

You guys and Intensity Recordings have been growing together ever since the start of their label last year. Your biggest releases on Spotify have been with Intensity, such as “Hypernova” with Nick Havsen and Jetty Rachers. With 7 singles and 1 EP together, what is it like to join forces with Intensity Recordings?
In short, it has been a blast! We have always had an amazing relationship with the Intensity team, even before the moment that the label was found. We knew their vision and their drive so we felt that it could be a great place for our tracks. We were lucky enough to be invited to the A&R team a while after the birth of Intensity and we’re super grateful for the opportunity and to have the chance of giving our inputs on demos sent by other producers. “Hypernova” is one of the examples of how great teamwork can be, and how you can get good songs to be elevated to the best they can be!

With you guys, the future of big room and dance music already seems to be here. If things continue the way they are, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing your name everywhere. What are your current aspirations within the industry?
The “future of bigroom” is definitely well assured, at the first place by the big guys like W&W, Kevu, Blasterjaxx etc. More in the underground, we see ourselves included in a vast roster of producers like G-Sus, TBR, Monta, and many others that are pushing Big Room forward and feel really passionate about what they’re doing! As for the future, we can only keep doing what we have been doing since day one, which is being passionate about music, above all!

Thank you so much for this interview! Any last words for the readers or teases for what they can look forward to?
We’ve got a couple tricks up our sleeve for 2022. Some big collabs, some solos, and some different stuff as well so keep an eye! Thanks for inviting us, the pleasure is all ours!

Check out EMKR’s latest DJ set with Intensity Recordings!

Andrej Vrzic

Writer, Curator, Community Builder