SoundGym Hero: Roi Reggev

A passionate music producer and jazz guitarist, loves outdoor sports, and seeks to create soulful, genuine music. Roi Reggev is this month's SoundGym Hero!

How did you get into music?

When I was 11 years old, Eric Clapton came to the Kinneret and gave a performance. I saw him arriving in a speedboat and later, I climbed the fence and saw him playing. I decided then that I wanted to be like him. I studied jazz guitar at Thelma Yellin High School and later at Rimon Institute, practicing 8 hours a day and had the chance to play with incredible musicians. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to listen to Radiohead and Sigur Ros. So, at about 33, I realized that I should try to make the music I like and not the music I should play. I was a bit slow on that.

Ever since, I'm trying to spend as much time as I can studying sound and production. Lately, I am working as an independent producer for Artlist.io, which has a huge royalty-free music library, and also having some really interesting collaborations with jazz musicians around me - this time as a producer/guitarist/synthman.

What do you like to do for fun outside of working on music?

I like sports; I practice classical boxing and run a lot in nature. I really like camping with my wife, and most of all, I like drinking beer and then listening to music I especially like on headphones. It really gives me insights into what makes music move me - and I try to apply it in my own music.

What's your most useless skill or talent?

I think I used to make the best Turkish coffee! I mean it! I wish you could taste it for yourselves! But it's useless now because I stopped drinking coffee.

What inspires you to keep making music?

It's a good question! For me, I can't spend more than a few hours without music around me - as a listener or as a music maker. Ayelet, my wife, is a DJ and has an incredible knowledge of music genres. We listen to a wide variety of music in our home.

When I get into the studio and start playing with an idea on the guitar/Ableton, I am looking for something that will excite me in the same way as the music of other artists that I like to listen to. I really love music and need it to surround me as much as possible.

And also - interesting collaborations! I have a few right now and it's so much fun making music together!! It gives so much motivation!

And I'm always looking for new collaborations with experienced and serious musicians! So if you're one of them, contact me and let’s check the idea of making some amazing music together! I really want to work with strings, horns, Middle Eastern and Eastern musicians!

And the internet has made it really easy to make music from two far edges of the globe!

If you could sit down to a session with any artist, who would it be?

If I can pick only one, I would say Jon Hopkins, because I love his music and his sound design abilities. It's hypnotic for me sometimes to listen to his album ‘Immunity’. But I would really like to sit with Aphex Twin and Nigel Godrich as well.

Any habits you have before starting a session?

It depends on how long I can be in the studio each day, but if I don't have a nearing deadline, I will always do one Syntorial lesson to focus my ears and my mind on synthesis, and then I'll do the daily exercises of SoundGym + Eq Mirror and Balance Memory. Then, if I can, I’ll try to transcribe a loop of 4-8 bars that I liked from the great artists I listen to.

After that, I feel really focused and calibrated and it's really fun to work.

If you could pick one, what would be the theme song of your life?

That’s one of the hardest questions ever… I can’t pick one... But Radiohead’s ‘All I Need’ will be one of them for sure, because it is an incredible song with incredible production and performance, and I really relate to the lyrics.

What is your favorite piece of music gear you own?

I would say it's my Suhr Classic T guitar.

What is your favorite SoundGym feature?

For me, Balance Memory is the greatest feature of SoundGym, among the other great exercises it has to offer, because being accurate with levels really improved my ability to get better mixes.
But I can't ignore Eq Mirror, which was also (and still is) a game-changer for me, and really improved my mixes.

What does the future hold for Roi?

Well, I hope I don’t sound over-spiritual, but first of all, I hope to make music that is more genuine to my soul and spirit - to be able to express myself better and better with each passing day, and never look at music from a money or fame point of view.

Never from the outside, always from the inside.

Having said that, if other people listen to it and feel something, get something spiritual or emotional out of it, it would make me really happy! The more the merrier!"

 

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