Emiliano Galván was born in the beautiful Buenos Aires city of San Antonio de Padua in June. His career in the world of music has had an exciting and impressive journey in equal parts… from being a vocalist and guitarist in a pure rock band to, in less than five years, putting a release and two remixes on Beatport‘s best-seller list.

Apart from all of this, there is so much more to discover, this is an interview we’re really looking forward to.

 

 

– Hi Emi, first of all, I’m sure our readers would love to know something about your beginnings in the music world. In the biography of your website, you talk about rock and reggae, for example. In regard to rock we will now talk about the band with which you released a couple of albums and what happened immediately after your professional transition to electronic music. What can you tell us about your trajectory in music (in that bio on your website you talk about twelve years) until the days of Lokesea?

Hi, how are you? Thanks for the space!

I’ve always been a fan of music and the possibility to create my own ideas. Creating music is what I’m passionate about.

I started my first band when I was 18 years old, playing guitar doing metal, trash and new metal. Then I went through several projects playing and singing ska, punk, reggae and rock.

In those years I recorded several albums which gave me the possibility to learn a lot of things that today I apply to electronic music.

Playing in bands is beautiful, but it can be very difficult and exhausting, even more so in a country like Argentina where you always have to row against the current.

With electronic music I feel much freer and happier, without problems and with much more enjoyment. On the one hand I am still experimenting with the different branches of music and on the other hand, I find myself producing absolutely everything in the comfort of my studio, without depending on anyone or anything.

 

 

– I mentioned Lokesea earlier because it was during its existence that your flirtation with electronica began. In fact, both facets, rock musician and producer / dj coexisted for almost a couple of years, if I’m not mistaken. In 2015 you had already been doing sessions and your first track, Mexican Trip, was released. How was that transition? How does Emi Galván live that change from one world to another?

Yes, I started producing and djing in 2015, while we were recording the second studio album with Lokesea at Romaphonic (recording studios in Buenos Aires). At that time, I was in full swing with the band and my electronic project was just starting.

I honestly never thought I was going to end up being a DJ, it was something that just happened. Life was leading me; I just followed the signs.

One of them came at the beginning of 2017, when Hernan Cattaneo played my track Dreams all over the world, that’s when I said: ‘I’m going to dedicate myself to this’. A year later I released Human on his label, Sudbeat.

It was a beautiful change! I always say that you have to reinvent yourself and find a way to be happy. If there’s something that doesn’t make you happy anymore, then it’s not that way.

– This journey through that first (and long) stage of your professional life I think it´s important to understand your meteoric progression from that first release to the present day. In fact, the producer and the dj reach the public with very little time difference, something that doesn’t always happen in the world of electronic music. Having been in a studio before and your long experience in the world of music must have been of tremendous help to develop your career as a producer?

Yes, of course. It’s not the same to start being a producer and dj from scratch as it is to have experienced a lot of years of playing instruments, singing and recording records in different genres. Everything nourishes you with knowledge and experience. The more you study and work, the faster you will learn and improve. All of that plus the natural talent you have plus your own ideas and creativity will define where you are going.

That’s why I always encourage new producers to study music and play an instrument, for me that’s key.

With hard work, patience, and a lot of perseverance everything comes.

– Already in your first ep, You Never, it appears a musical drift that navigates mainly in Progressive, with Deep essences sometimes. Since then, that has been your personal signature, as far as styles are concerned. If we talk about that personal signature in other aspects, I think there is another one that has had a decisive influence on your spectacular rise. That is none other than an extreme care in the execution, in the detail, both in the production and in your sets. How does that work in, for example, the creative process in the studio?

Usually, every creative idea starts in my mind, that’s where I imagine everything. Melodies, drums, upbeats, downbeats, vocals, whatever. I can be walking down the street when suddenly an idea comes to me, which I record singing on an app that comes with my iPhone. And so, I put together several sketches. If the idea persists in my mind after a while, it’s because I really like it, so I make it happen. Which is the hardest part, because in my head it sounds beautiful but on the computer it’s another world.

It can take months before I get a happy result and I’m happy enough to edit it. I’m very careful about what I edit and where. The goal is that every release is special and all the hard work is noticed.

 

 

– Starting from those days, your musical line has been defined by that style that has so many followers, Progressive House. Is it true what they say, that whoever tries Progressive doesn’t want anything else? (Although it’s true that, sometimes, there have been excursions to Melodic or Deep in your music).

Progressive is beautiful, it’s music to my ears and it has a lot of things that I think makes the listener fall in love with it. It’s very melodic and rhythmic at the same time. On the one hand it can be very emotional while at the same time it doesn’t let go with its hypnotic rhythms. At the same time, the people who are part of this great culture make the events unique, thanks to the respect and good vibes that are generated in the atmosphere. Everyone makes you feel at home.

– Since the first ep in 2016, the list of labels on which you have released your productions is impressive, and the list of renowned dj’s that have supported those releases, just as impressive or even more so. Sudbeat, The Soundgarden, Cattaneo, Warren… you’ve achieved great recognition and that’s thanks to your hard and good work.

Next on the list is Dualidad, which you’ve made with D-Nox and which will include an edit by the great Guy Mantzur. It will be your first release of the year 2021, after, as we have reviewed before, having closed the difficult 2020 with three of your works in Beatport’s best sellers list. What can you tell us about this new release, when will it be available?

I’m really looking forward to this new release! It’s my first collaboration with D-Nox. A producer I admire a lot, he was one of the first ones I started listening to when I began with electronic music and he has influenced me a lot. To be able to work with him was a great pleasure. And as if that wasn’t enough, he comes out with a Guy Mantzur edit through his own label, Plattenbank.

The release is available on Beatport on February 22nd.

 

 

– Let’s now talk a bit about Flowing, that radio show that started on Proton Radio in December 2017, which then changed to Frisky Radio. There you can also appreciate Emi Galván’s taste for attention to detail in the production and selection, and the end result is elegant and emotional in equal parts. Has Flowing become just a podcast, that media that offers more freedom and possibilities than radio?

Absolutely. I always liked being on the radio, but being free. That’s why I chose to launch ‘Flowing’ on my networks like Soundcloud, YouTube and AppleMusic for free for everyone and including the possibility to download the episodes from Soundcloud.

The idea of Flowing is to select the best music within my range of musical tastes, ranging from something quiet to something more intense and closer to what a live show would be like.

That’s why sometimes people are surprised when they see me live, because they thought I was much calmer and no, I play all kinds of music. If I like it I play it, I don’t care what genre or label they put on it.

Here you can find all the episodes of “Flowing”

 

– Apart from Flowing, and repeatedly during the worst period of the pandemic, you have left us another experience called From Home to Space, which we were able to enjoy on Twitch. Can you explain to those who haven’t been able to see it what it is about and to those of us who have seen it how you came up with the idea?

The idea came from the need to play and keep creating. For me it’s very important to connect with the public and the internet is a very powerful tool through which you can connect with the whole world. So, I wanted to do a live stream of 2 hours but showing something different from the rest.

As everyone was locked in their houses because of the pandemic, I liked the idea of showing videos of the universe, planets, the big bang, something that I’m very passionate about and that also goes very well with electronic music.

In a world that is so full of tragic news, it was necessary to get out of the house and out of all that noise, to generate a cosmic journey not only to clear the mind, but to reconnect with the source of everything and remember where we come from and that we are much more than we think.

Many people don’t care or don’t know about it. They don’t ask themselves any questions, they just live their lives, asleep.

So I loved the idea of trying to generate a click, a change in whoever is on the other side and hopefully awaken interest.

Here you can find all the episodes of “From Home to Space”:

 

– Inevitably, we have to talk about the tremendous circumstances that have plagued us on a global scale since March last year. Where have you spent the worst months, have you been confined as we have been here in Spain? How has it affected you?

At first, like everyone else, I thought it was going to be a short-term thing, so it didn’t affect me. But after several months of confinement, your creativity starts to dry up and you have no motivation whatsoever. When you stop doing the things that keeps you alive, it gets complicated and morale starts to drop. That’s where you have to reinvent yourself to keep going. Doing streamings in my case, exercising, meditating a lot, cycling, etc.

Luckily, I am thankful that my family, friends and loved ones are well.

Now since November I have been playing again and my soul has returned to my body. Hopefully this will all be over soon.

– Now you are in the middle of the summer there in Argentina. We have been able to see in your social networks that, although it has not been at the pace of past years (obviously), you are having some events, such as the one you did in Santa Fe on February 5th with Nick Warren. In the images on your social networks you can see the measures taken in that event, with separation between tables, etc. How is all this being experienced in the music industry there in Argentina? Are the attendees aware of the situation and do they contribute with their responsibility? What measures are taken as a general rule for this type of events?

Fortunately, as I mentioned before, since November I have been having shows again, little by little. All of them under the official protocol determined by the Argentinean government. With groups of tables of up to 10 people, with distancing and the use of masks.

The event in which I was in charge of the warm up for Nick Warren in Santa Fe, was produced by Lado B Producciones and Day Culture, and it was a clear example that it is possible to organise big events, of quality, respecting all the controls and protocols so that we can all work and enjoy what we like the most, complying with the security rules.

Crises bring changes and opportunities, we have to know how to adapt and reinvent ourselves. We cannot live our whole lives locked up at home.

 

 

– We asked you all this because we want some feedback on how things are developing in Argentina. Here in Spain, the electronic music sector is really affected, the government’s support has been insufficient or in many cases non-existent. What has happened in this respect in Argentina?

Here there has been no economic help as I have heard that there has been in other countries. Art and culture are always at the bottom of the list of priorities of Argentinean governments.

The whole country was working again except for the music industry, until after 8 months they started to open the bars with 30% of their capacity, and then they started to open open air events, something that could have been done in the first place.

When cases started to increase again in the summer, they came close to announcing a nationwide “curfew”. Fortunately, this only happened in a few cities. The current situation is unsustainable, we have to see how we can live with this reality and move on.

– To finish, and taking into account the global uncertainty that is besetting us… What are the plans for Emi Galván’s professional future in the short and medium term? For example, you are on the poster of an event announced for the first days of July in Dundee, Scotland (where appears another of our MOAI PRO collaborators, the Pro B Tech Music label). Do you think it will be possible for it to take place?

I hope so! I’m really looking forward to sharing the booth with the likes of Guy J, Guy Mantzur and Dj Ruby.

I’m really looking forward to touring the world again and having the chance to perform in new cities, as they write to me a lot asking me when I’m going to visit them, so here we go ?.

Travelling and getting to know different worlds, cultures and people that fill you with positive energy is what I like the most about being a DJ. No matter the language, no matter the distances, music connects and unites people in one of the oldest rituals of our history, dancing.

 

We can only thank Emi Galván, undoubtedly one of the most outstanding names in the Argentinean electronic music scene, for the time he has dedicated to us. We hope that the global situation regarding the pandemic will normalize as soon as possible and that we will be able to enjoy his music and live sessions again in this part of the world.

 

---