Photo Credit: Tom La “Two People Click Photography”
I was lucky enough to chat with Dillon Wong and Mathew “Kaz” Kazmierowski, better known as Eminence, this past summer. Since then, these two have been making major moves. After receiving some coveted support from trance leaders Cosmic Gate and Armin van Buuren, their recent single “Volcano” has reached #27 on Beatport’s Top 100. The guys were nice enough to let me steal away some of their time to let WRR readers learn a little bit of who they are and why you should be looking out for their name.
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I already know the story of how you two began collaborating and I find it rather interesting, can you explain the story to those who don’t already know?
Dillon: We met through a friend of a friend on an online radio show that did EDM music. Kaz did the trance portion and I did the electro. I loved trance since the beginning but the only opening was to be an electro DJ. So I asked Kaz if it would be cool if I played some trance tracks in my set and it was alright. We started talking about production and we found out that we both produce as well and we showed each other our tracks. The rest is history!
Kaz: It worked out! (laughter)
Dillon: Our first track together was made the next day and Eminence was born!
Why trance? There are so many different genres of music, why did trance stick with the two of you?
Kaz: It’s comfortable. It was what I was stuck doing for a while and Dillon transitioned into it. He always loved it too.
Dillon: I produced hip-hop first but when I met Kaz I was already making dance music. Trance is what brought us together that’s why we stick to it now. Of course we still produce others as well. Whatever we are inspired to do at the time we’ll make.
How would you say your sound has evolved or changed since the two of you started back in 2010?
Kaz: It has changed greatly. It was very minimal, very progressive. To the point where the melody is played for less than a minute and then got right back into progressive stuff.
Dillon: Yeah we started off very minimal. Very bass heavy tracks back then. Literally it would just be a kick and a bass line. Very progressive like Kaz said. Now we do very uplifting tracks, with electro basses. We just dabble in more sounds than we did before.
There are a few remixes/bootlegs/mashups featured on your Soundcloud ranging from Zedd to Dillon Francis to Avicii. How do you conquer merging different music backgrounds together?
Dillon: You kinda build an ear for it after doing it for a long time. Especially when you’re DJing you have heard so many different tracks before but when a song plays you think “Oh, this kinda sounds like this!” or you play a transition in your head that would work well together so why not make it a mashup or a bootleg? When we make remixes for them we think, “we could make this part so much better,” and we take that part out and play our own stuff, like instruments, on top.
Kaz: We replace the weak points of some tracks with strong points of other tracks.
Do you have any remixes/bootlegs/mashups in the works right now?
Dillon: We have a really cool mashup that we are going to release next week for free. Yeah, you’re gonna have to wait for that one! (laughter)
Having already shared the stage with some big names, such as Myon & Shane 54, Tritonal, Showtek, and Marcus Schossow, can you share any interesting stories?
Dillon: Tritonal are probably the nicest guys I have ever met. They are really down to Earth dudes and it’s not a front either. They’re very loyal to their fans. They stay after to sign autographs and take pictures. The girls that try to get with them, they automatically have to push them away. Its crazy.
Kaz: All the girls try to jump on them. (laughter)
Dillon: They’re just like, “oh yeah, we gotta go!” laughter There will be so many groupies. Chad is married and Dave has a girlfriend, so it’s good to know that they don’t fit that dirty DJ stereotype.
You two have already made rather big deals, such as signing some previous releases to Monstercat, Blackhole, and Spinnin’ Records. Recently you have received attention from Wake Your Mind Records by Cosmic Gate. Has this been a major transition for you?
Dillon: It is a huge transition. From Monstercat to Spinnin’ was not a big transition and actually I felt that Monstercat was more supportive overall of our releases. They would promote our stuff more than Spinnin’ Records did. When we got onto Wake Your Mind, the promotion is ridiculous. We receive so much support from the trance family right now. Its awesome.
What was the initial reaction when you heard your recent single “Volcano” playing on Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance 639?
Dillon: Kaz….(laughter)
Kaz: Oh man, I was sleeping at the time. laughter All I could hear in the other room was “THEY’RE PLAYING IT. HE’S PLAYING IT. DO YOU HEAR THAT?!” I was like…”What’s going on…?”
Dillon: (laughter) He was sleeping and I literally turned it on as soon as he played it. It was perfect timing. I was on the phone and my friend was like “Oh, is it going to get played?” “IT’S ON RIGHT NOW! I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU!”
Kaz: Then I just come out of the room and he’s like, “Yo, did you hear that?!” “yeahhhh.” (laughter)
What do you think are some differentiating factors that set you two apart from other emerging/fresh trance DJs?
Dillon: We kinda dabble in different genres as well. So we do progressive house, of course electro house and even big room. So we kind of use sounds from the different genres and we implement them into our tracks. That’s what we do to kinda standout. We don’t really keep the same sounds. Kaz usually makes new sounds as well for us to use which is refreshing.
You already have some strong backing with your “Eminauts.” Can you describe the typical Eminaut, other than a loyal fan?
Dillon: Anyone can be an Eminaut really. (laughter)
Kaz: Gotta brand yourself as an Eminaut.
Dillon: Yeah, you just gotta brand yourself. You just need to go pound Eminaut and you are one of us. We accept anybody for the cause of dance music!
Can you tell us and your Eminauts about anything exciting that is in the works currently?
Dillon: We have the mashup that is due next week and we’re working on a few collaborations tracks and a few originals but we can’t talk about it or else we’ll be killed.
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Be on the lookout for their upcoming releases and listen to their weekly podcast, Eminence United, every Wednesday!
Buy “Volcano” on Beatport now! http://www.beatport.com/release/volcano/1199479
Connect with Eminence:
https://www.facebook.com/EmncFB
https://www.youtube.com/emnctv
https://twitter.com/EminenceUnited
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