Production and DJ duo Don Fuego have more than made a name for themselves in the world of electronic music. In just one year they’ve carved out a reputation for providing “the most fun you’ve seen anyone have onstage”, and pulled in heavyweight support from the likes of Zeds Dead, ACRAZE, Dimitri Vegas, Hamdi, Odd Mob, Walker & Royce, Desert Hearts, and Ambrose.

Childhood friends whose close relationship has translated into the studio the pair, who made their release debut on Tomorrowland’s in-house imprint Smash The House, returned to the label with recent banger ‘Find A Way’.  

With a sound that blends tech house, mainstage and world music, we wanted to get the inside scoop on their studio set-up, including what kit they can’t live without, what their favourite sounds are, and what piece of kit they’d kill to get their hands on…

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• ‍Kit list – what have you got in your studio?

Favorite things for creating would be:

Moog Mother-32

Moog Grandmother

Apollo Twin X

Tom Morello Fender Stratocaster

Lots of old Guitar pedals

Technics 1200 MKII

Akai MPK 249

Baby Blue Condenser Microphone

And most importantly… a Macbook Pro ;)

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• ‍What pieces of equipment did you use to create your most recent single?

After programming the drums and original chord progression into Ableton, we recorded Mahdi’s vocals using the Baby Blue Mic, after some processing we had the main melody and bass line and decided to record those using the Moog Grandmother synth. This added a much warmer and authentic sound to the record because you can’t automate on an analogue synth, its all live sound design in each take. You can find these sounds in our latest single “Find A Way” out now on Smash Deep Records.

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• ‍What piece can’t you live without?

The Macbook Pro is the mother ship and couldn’t live without it.

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• ‍What piece don’t you have but you’d gladly kill someone to get your hands on?

Either a Nord Stage 3 or an Arturia Polybrute.

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• ‍What plugins do you use?

We use a number of plugins for different purposes in our creative process but the ones primarily for sound design would include Serum, Sylenth, RC-20, Valhalla (Shimmer, Room & Vintage) pretty much all of the Fabfilter plugins, and all of the Soundtoys bundles, as well as too many to list from UAD. Couple odd ones would be Sonic Charge Synplant, Output Portal & 3 Sigma Audio Tactical Nuke. And of course, Kickstart 2 ;)

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• ‍What’s your favourite sound to use in your music and how do you create it?

We really enjoy creating FX sounds by manipulating the sounds we already have in our track (leads, bass, vocals etc), can create sweeps by making a long decayed reverb of a sound and reversing it, as well as risers by having a delay feedback into itself on a sound and changing the decay time to mess with the pitch. Glues the track together using existing sounds to create FX. We love getting experimental in the studio on how much we can “ruin” a sound and usually something very cool and unique come out of that process.

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• ‍What’s your creative process in the studio?

Since we are a duo, it's always collaborative. Sometimes Mahdi will have an idea to share, sometimes Corey will have an idea to share, or sometimes we just start from scratch together spitballing ideas in a secluded cabin in the woods. It’s always different but usually has a cohesive theme of just letting the sounds unfold into whatever the song wants to be. We also believe in completely starting over from something if it takes a turn in a direction we think is not right for the track.

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• ‍Who’s your favourite person to collaborate with in the studio?

Each other

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• ‍If you could collaborate with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

Corey - Eddie Van Halen, his process of experimenting with what sounds he could make on his guitar and amp was very similar to the process we have of creating a sound, destroying that sound and seeing what comes of it. A very fun and spontaneous way of creation.

Mahdi - Michael Jackson, inspired me in artistry, singing, dancing, living larger than life and I would learn a lot working with him.

Together as Don Fuego -  Daft Punk, these guys have been a huge inspiration for us over the years since childhood, and as a duo we think that would be the dream setup to work with another duo in the studio who are the masters of sampling and loop game. We would learn a lot and could bring something different than what they're used to the table.

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• ‍Give one studio secret/tip to our Collabhouse producers…

Vibe of a studio is an underrated and yet super important factor to creation and can influence how you write as well as what you’re writing. Setup lights, maybe have a good view from the studio, or maybe try to keep a “travel studio” that’s just a laptop and some headphones. You never know when that inspiration might hit ya when on the go and it's super fun and inspiring to plan writing trips to get out of your comfort zone in a new area to try and create.

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