Well hello Dava, welcome!

Hey Colin, thanks for taking the time to chat.

Of course, I'm very excited to discuss your latest release "Invisible Patterns," but first, let's start from the beginning. You're based in Freiburg, Germany. Are you originally from there?

Yes, I'm originally from Freiburg. I was born here, then I moved to Berlin for a few years. Another smaller city two or three years ago then I moved back here because my family and friends are here.

For many of us, from across the globe, generally speaking, what is life like out there and how is the music scene?

In general, the Electronic Music scene where I'm from, South Germany is not that big. We do have some nice festivals. We also have a nice subculture going, but it's not as big as in Northern Germany, for example. Here in Freiburg, we have a small Drum and Bass scene going and a few crews, which is actually quite nice. Every week some raves are going on somewhere, illegal or not, outside or indoors. There's always Drum and Bass but also Jungle, Neurofunk, Jump Up - all kinds of subgenres are going on, which is great, but it's mostly small events. You often see the same faces.

The smaller scenes are always great, quite humbling, and appreciative of what you have. Even I have heard a lot about the scene there and I’m US-based.

You began releasing music in 2018, six years ago. So how long have you been producing music?

2018 was the first proper release where everything started for me. There were releases under several different aliases and different projects since 2011 or 2012-ish, that was the beginning. I needed a few years to hone my craft, but 2018 was the beginning for Dava. I released a free download. From there, with Beatalistics Records here in Freiburg, I started releasing for real. The first time I opened a DAW was around 2010.

What kind of music were you creating before Dava?

I used to play a lot of guitar. I played in a few bands. I played in a Rock Pop cover band, and I was part of a small Funk band. Ever since I started going to clubs, I think I was 15 years old or something like that. It was my first time at a rave and my first time hearing Drum and Bass and Dubstep. That's when I wanted to start making Electronic Music. For a long time, I tried to produce Dubstep, but it sounded horrible those first few years. There was no Splice and not so the countless number of YouTube tutorials like you find today. I had this cracked version of FL Studio from a friend of a friend. Everyone was exchanging new ways that we'd discovered to do wobble basses. It was a really slow learning curve back then.

Was there anybody that inspired you back then?

When I first started out, Rusko, Skrillex, and Pendulum were a big inspiration for me. In general, 2010 was the time when I discovered the UK Bass music scene and fell in love with the sound.

You've released on a lot of labels so far, Beatalistics, Celsius, Four Corners Music, Influenza, Love for Low Frequencies, Midas Touch Recordings, Skankandbass, Transparent Audio, etc.

How did you link up with Transparent Audio as it seems like it's become a home for releasing your music?

It was totally random. I still have to ask Thomas, the label chief, why he wrote me. I don't know how he found me because it was four years ago when he dropped me a message in my SoundCloud DMs. He was like, “Yo, I'm starting this new label. I was doing another label before, a Dubstep label, but now I want to do Drum and Bass. I like your music. We have this and this artist already on the label. Do you want to join us in creating this new label?"

There were a lot of people writing similar stuff, asking for music because they're starting a new label. The last few years, so many people started new labels because I think the entry is so easy now for starting a label. I was always like, I don't know, I'm already on these labels. I don't know if I need to be on thirty different labels.

Something about what he wrote me... I can't remember exactly how he wrote it, but it was really professional. It was like, “I have this person and this person on board and we want to have a big family. Do you want to be a part?” I was immediately hooked.

Most of the other labels were just dropping a DM on Instagram with a really basic message. The way Thomas approached it was really professional and the back catalog he had with his other label and all the artists that were on board already. I was like, “Okay, let's do it, let's try this out.” I did the fourth release and the first EP on Transparent Audio. Then one year after, I visited him for the first time in Bristol. We were writing almost every day and now, he's one of my best friends! It started out as a SoundCloud message, and now it's a friendship. He’s coming over for the album launch party next month here, which is really nice. Shoutouts to the b:side crew who is organizing the event with me.

That's going to be a wonderful night I bet!

Tell me about your relationship with the producer Tweakz and how you guys connected.

One of the first times I saw your name, I believe, and then I got hooked on your music. The two features on the ‘Obsidian EP’, the two features ‘Four Minutes’ and ‘Maybe’ featuring Slay and EJ Kitto.

We met via Instagram. Back then, I met a lot of people because I did this one thing. I did a 30-day producing challenge around 2020-2021, right before Covid happened. The challenge was producing one song every day and I did also an Instagram post every day. I had a lot of engagement with that and a lot of producers writing me and saying, "Oh, that's cool," and stuff. That's how I met Tweakz and SiLi as well.

We wrote a lot. I visited SiLi a lot of times and Tweakz visited me here in my hometown. We had a lot of similarities and kind of the same upbringings and interests. We were chatting a lot and sending each other music. We have a weird way to work. It's always, I start one half and he finishes the second half. It's really easy. I always tell him about an idea, and then he's polishing it to perfection. With ‘Maybe’ for example, that was one of the tunes I did for the 30-day challenge. Originally, I recorded a meme about this one dog with silly noises. I resampled that and made the song with it. He really liked the song and wanted to work on it. Then he removed all the meme sounds laughs. There was just the brasses, drums, and the bass. Then we asked Slay if he wanted to put some verses on it. Then we got EJ Kitto on board to sing on it.

It was really spontaneous. It was right before Slay was popping off as well and now he’s releasing with big names. That was really random and fun. I was really sad that the song didn't pop off because we had, unfortunately, a really bad start with that EP. The label released the whole project one month too early. It was an accident. It shouldn't have happened. After that, a lot of premiere channels jumped off and said, “Oh, sorry, you already released it.” There was less promo than expected for the release, which was sad because I still think I play this tune at every gig. It's a really nice vibe.

Personally, it’s become a modern classic jungly-liquid track for me at least!

Yeah, Redeyes was also playing this one live and wrote to us because he liked the song so much. He put it on a Spotify playlist as well. Maybe the song would have gotten way more attention, but now it's at least a good story!

Since then, you've had collaborations with Framer and Yannons on Transparent. How did those collaborations come about?

Transparent Audio is a big family now. We have this roster consisting of the guys who’ve been there since the beginning, like Felov, Yannons, Spektiv, Framer, Geostatic, all the crew. We always had these meetings on Discord where we just hang out, get to know each other, play video games, and talk. That's how we all started to have a connection. The first time I went to Liquicity Festival 2022, I believe, was where I first met Marteen/Felov and Brandon/Framer. That's where we were all getting closer.

I met Yannons the first time I was in Bristol. It was a few weeks after Liquicity. I flew over to Bristol because there was a 1985 Music night at Motion. We went there all together. I was meeting Thomas for the first time. Felov came over. Yannons invited me to his events - Bassface. That's where we worked on our tune for Midas Touch Recordings - ‘Bonanza.’ We did that one day before the event. It was a little fun one sampling from the classic Bonanza: The Movie. It's like an old spaghetti western.

Right, let's talk about the mini-album! "Invisible Patterns," what's the inspiration and meaning behind it?

It's a little bit hard to explain. Basically, the last 2-3 years were the time I started the LP. Originally, it should have been an EP that should have come out two years ago, but I was not happy. Then I had also some personal issues where I wasn't feeling that well, so I stopped doing music for a few months. That postponed it for another year. At that time, I reconsidered how I do music, why I do music and think about if I really want to do music. I realized for the first time, making music should be fun. I don't want to be dependent on it. As you know, I have a job where I earn my money and I don't have to worry about not having money or something like that. I'm not dependent on music. But there was always this feeling in the back of my head, this plan to start to live from music, be a full-time musician. I studied music and I still have some music jobs. I have some DJ gigs. I'm also working as a freelancer, but it's only a 50/50 thing. I'm not dependent on it. The last one or two years is where I decided to do it for fun and stop caring so much. I realized I can't influence how the music is going to come out. In the sense that when I produce music, let's say I produce 10 tracks, only one of them is a banger. I can't control that. I can't control what is the vibe and what is not and what people like.

That's what I call these "Invisible Patterns."

It's like something in the back you can't really control and you can't really know what it's about, why a certain track is a banger or a vibe. There are some tunes that are so simple that make you think, why is that so good? Or why do I like it that much? When you can't put a finger on it. I made hundreds of sketches, loops, and even full tracks that I was not happy with. But these LP tracks were the few tunes that were stuck with me. Well, they're a vibe or I have a really good connection to them. For example, the one I did with Geostatic. He did a gig here and visited me for the weekend, and we had a really nice time working on music together.

We were hanging around, drinking coffee, going out to eat. Then we had this one hangover day and we did this one tune, and it was instantly a vibe. I was playing around on the piano. We had this one riff. It's done. One day tune. The same with Felov. He was also visiting, and in one day we made two tunes. Every tune has this personal connection.

Always great to have that personal connection and experience together.

Tell me more about these collaborations. How did the track "Locked & Loaded" with Limmz come together? He’s popping off at the moment big time.

I'm really tight and cautious when it's about working with vocalists. It was a challenge, it's the first tune I ever did with an MC. I'm always trying to find a vocalist that I also have a good connection with. I always found having good communication is half of the work. I had so many tries with good vocalists but just didn't click. With Luke Truth and Limmz, it was really easy. I asked if Thomas had recommendations for me and he was showing me Limmz’s music, which I really liked! Then he connected me on WhatsApp and we wrote. I sent him this tune. The original tune was a little different, actually. It was way harder and had a lot of bass sounds. Then I sent it to him and he rapped on it, sent me stuff back, and I liked it, but it was really fast as well. I changed it up a little bit. Gave his vocals more room. Right now, he's doing his thing. I really like that he's so well-versed with several genres, Garage, Dubstep, and Drum and Bass. He's doing his Grime music as well, of course. So yeah, looking forward to what he's doing.

Was it that way also linking up with Luke Truth?

Yup. Historically, I’ve always backed off working with vocalists. Instead, I used already processed vocals—put it in, easy. So working with a real vocalist this time around was also a good workout for me, like comping vocals, mixing them, and also going back and forth with Luke Truth, making adjustments until it came together into something we both liked. Also a recommendation from Thomas. I was really surprised. Luke is amazing. We'll definitely come back to him for a future project. Crazy good folk.

You mentioned how the track "The Way I Feel" with Phil/Geostatic happened earlier. Similar story behind it?

Yeah. He came over to Freiburg and I had this event going, Pressure Nights. It was the first edition. He was playing on a Friday, and then on Saturday, we were really hungover. I did a really nice German big breakfast. Then we just hung around the whole day, talking and going for little hikes in the Black Forest. Then came back and we did this tune. It was a no-brainer. It was a few hours and it was done. We arranged the whole thing in like two or three hours. After that, we did some final touches, mixing, sending it back and forth. But it's really a vibe. With Felov it was the same thing, I had him for another Pressure Night event and then we ended up making music together. For me, it’s important to be comfortable and to have a nice time doing music.

Yeah, "The Way I Feel" is a very pristine, ethereal liquid roller, whereas "Can’t Find Us" is more of a traditional soulful roller. I love it.

Tell me about "Low Rider" and your work with SiLi.

I’ve been to SiLi’s place several times. He has a really nice little studio in Bern, Switzerland, where he's from. Then it was time for him to visit me. We arranged that and we had a whole weekend. We have so many collaborations flying around. We’ve known each other for three or four years now, and we never managed to finish one of them. The "Low Rider" track was one of them as well. The problem is with SiLi and me, in comparison to Tweakz and me, I'm a perfectionist. SiLi is also a perfectionist. Tweakz is a finishing machine. You give him a track and he's doing a full song in a day, fully arranged. I'm still sitting there with my eight-bar loop because I don't like the snare. SiLi is the same. It's always when we meet, we're like, “Oh, that's really nice. Let's just sit on this kick drum for 2 hours.” It doesn't work. For the LP, we were missing one more tune. It was one month or two months ago, Thomas, Phil, and I sat around in Discord listening to my SoundCloud. I have a playlist with a lot of unfinished ideas. We listened to them one by one. Then there was one tune with SiLi, and they really liked it. I was like, “Okay, now is the time that we finally finish one tune.” I went crazy with it for three or four days. In the end, I got there. I'm pretty happy with it so well that it's finally happening.

Thanks for the rundown on the collabs, it's amazing seeing you work with so many talented producers. Your solo tracks on the LP are fantastic as well. Tell me a little about "Original Is…" That one is definitely a favorite of mine.

"Original Is…" is the oldest tune on the LP, it's two years old. One of the first signed, I was sending Thomas this tune immediately after finishing the first version of it. It was a big puzzle because there was so much sound design going on. I was playing around with this crazy effect pedal I had back then where you could do crazy feedback loops. I also used that feedback pedal for my first EP on Transparent Audio. Almost all of the intros in the first EP were almost exclusively made with the feedback noises.

What was the device?

I already sold it because I needed the money. But it's called Jomox T-resonator, the second version. It's like a little bit of a one-trick pony. It always sounds the same, but it sounds really good. Maybe that's why I sold it. But it's a really nice little machine. It creates really crazy feedback loops. You don't even have to put sounds in it. It's just doing crazy feedbacks on its own. It's really fun. If I ever get a modular system, I would definitely get the modular rack version of this pedal. To come back to "Original Is…," this was like a puzzle. I sat on this tune for two years, on and off. It was one of these tunes where I was loving it and then hating it for months. To be honest, that was just a part of how I approached my music at the beginning. In the end, I just let go of it.

I'm happy now with it after not hearing it for a few months.

This LP is definitely the end of an era. The end of this version of Dava because I don't want to produce music like this anymore. For me, I think I have this one barrier I can't cross because I'm always too critical of myself, and that's why I don't evolve. At least that's what I feel like. For the next releases, I don't want to make any promises anymore. I don't want to care too much anymore. I don't care about any big labels. I'm loving Transparent Audio, and Love For Low Frequencies, with Nymfo, who is a really nice guy, really helping me out. I want to stick with them. Maybe when there's something popping up, I don't want to say no to everything, but I don't want to put pressure on myself. I want to experiment and do some music I like. For me, the LP was the last project I did where I was working the old way.

Understandable! You've been working on this project for a long time so this is an ode to your old ways, extracting the best from your vault of music.

It's funny that you're saying vault. That's how my folder is labeled on my computer. I have three music project folders on my computer: sketches, the vault, and releases. Sketches is like everything I do on a daily basis, even if it's just a kick drum or I've designed a bass line, something like that, or even eight-bar loops. The vault, in that folder, all the tracks come in, where I'm feeling a certain vibe. That's the vault!

Do you have any plans on branching out/back into other genres after this?

Definitely. I always did other music. I have some other aliases and some secret ones where it's just experimental, I don't want to tell anyone about just yet. I'm also working as a producer for my job so I always have to do several genres. I'm working for marketing at the moment, doing music for companies, mainly for commercials. It's always different, for example, hip-hop, reggaeton, ambient, several genres. I really want to branch out with my Dava alias. It's really encouraging for me because I see now that it is accepted more than before. Back then, I think people were weirded out or didn't know what to do with the project. Now people are more open to different directions. I always loved UK Garage and House, for example. I have some tracks lying around, and also Jungle, so I will definitely go more into those directions, but I will also always stay on the deep minimal and liquid side of Drum and Bass because that's what I love the most.

The styles within the subgenre Minimal Drum and Bass are limitless.

You said you were making some marketing music for companies. How is that going and do you make a solid income from doing these projects?

It's sometimes a really soulless business in the sense that... Not every job is like this, but many jobs are like, “We like the sound of The Weeknd, please do something like The Weeknd.” That's it. No experimenting, no communication. That's why I'm a little bit annoyed about the business. I'm not doing that full-time. I'm branching out right now, actually, a little bit more because the thing is, being a freelancer, you never know when the next job is coming. Sometimes I have a really good income, especially in the winter. Christmas season is crazy. I'm overworked as hell and in the summer it's a struggle because there's not enough contracts.

I see. How are gigs coming along for you?

I would say for a lot of people, they would see my schedule and think I don't have enough gigs. But personally, I don't really like traveling a lot, and I would hate to go on a gig every weekend. I am a really introverted guy, I would say. I like being alone in my safe spaces. For me, having a gig a month is the perfect thing right now. It could be more, but I'm quite happy with it because I don't have to do something about it. I don't have an agency. I don't have to ask someone. The gigs often come via friends and other DJs, for example. It spreads word-to-word.

Do you have a musical philosophy when approaching music?

I talked about it a little bit earlier with the name of the LP. For me, music is all about patterns. I don't care that much about if there is a story or concept. I think because of my musical upbringing, because my father was a big music nerd, but he was growing up in the '60s, so I was listening to a lot of Jazz, a lot of Psychedelic Rock, and Prog Rock. What I love about this type of music, especially psychedelic rock, you could say, is the repetitions. I mean, that was the start of it for me. Everything that is good about Techno, Drum and Bass, and all the Electronic Music, which is loop-based, you can find a lot in Jazz and Psychedelic Rock. I love hearing little patterns, repeating patterns, or small changes, small things, simple things, a cool noise or chord.

You could call it minimalism. I'm in love with it not only musically but also visually in the arts. I love minimalism, abstract art, and stuff like that. It's about being natural for me - it's like how I would walk through a forest; there's a tree, there's a bird, and there's the pathway I'm walking on. For me, that's how I feel like music is. It's like a world inside my head. Like in the forest, I'm like, “Oh, there's this cool pattern, there's this cool sound,” and it's simply making sense for me. That's how I approach music. Every genre can have that. A vibe is a vibe. I don't care about technicalities that much.

Any future plans that you have coming up soon?

In the future, I want to do things more independently. I love labels, but it's also really exhausting sometimes to work with other people. It's really nice sometimes to do everything how you like it. I will do more design and more of my own artworks. For example, on this LP, I did a lot of the designing myself. Kenzura helped me with the animation and layout for the artwork. I want to do more design and be creative in general because I was always super focused on just doing music for so long and doing Drum and Bass that now I'm tired of it. I started drawing pictures again, and I'm starting to do more photography as well as designing. I want to approach art more holistically, naturally, and combine it with my music as well to possibly self-release, who knows.

Do it. Now's the time for sure. Well, thank you so much for all the insights and best of luck with everything. Will keep in touch!

Thank you for your time and for listening!