SoundGym Hero: Klaudia & Matthias

A classically trained duo, merging their background in piano and violin with a fearless dive into the world of EDM, crafting a unique identity as both live performance maestros and innovative electronic producers. Klaudia & Matthias are this month's SoundGym Heroes!

How did you first find your way into making music? 

We both come from a classical background, studied piano and violin here in  Germany. And that’s where we met. We started playing our first gigs and also became a couple. We also started “Klama”, our electronic project on the side. 

For us, the classical world was always a bit tense, there’s hidden rules like no coughing, no clapping at certain times, and so on. But we enjoy performing on stage  and connecting to the audience, we like to make a bit of a show out of it!  

Maybe that’s another reason why we are so drawn to EDM now, everything is allowed!  

Aside from music, what hobbies or activities do you enjoy? 

We are discovering that it’s so important to have downtime and hobbies, especially as a couple that shares their profession. We like to go swimming, go on walks or runs and play dice games. Klaudia really enjoys planning, that’s a great bonus for our duo haha. We just moved close to Berlin and there’s a lot of water around here. Once it gets  warmer we want to buy a Kayak and make trips with it. Very excited for that, pure nature! 

What’s something you're surprisingly good at that has nothing to do with music? 

Getting up early, more on that later haha! Actually we’re quite surprised how good our English is at this point, being from Germany and never really learning it for school back then. Very happy about that because it’s important for worldwide connections and even this interview. We love to get to know new people and enjoy being social.

If you could play or create with any artist, who would it be and why? 

Of course we have each other and can jam every day, it’s amazing. Aside from that, we would love to meet and make music with Ben Böhmer, who is probably our main inspiration. The first time someone showed me (Matthias) his music, I thought it was super boring, haha, but then I listened closer and noticed the little grooves and swing  
in it which really fascinated me. You have to give it a minute and then it opens up. 

Also we really like London Grammar’s music and would love to meet them one day. They’re a bit of a different genre, but it would be such a nice blend!! 

What piece of music gear do you love the most, and what makes it irreplaceable in your creative process? 

Klaudia: For me, it’s my electric violin. Love to mess around with it and try different playing styles like bowing, picking, and flagoulets. Also vibrato.  
Whenever I play, I feel free to experiment with different sounds. I love to layer it,  harmonize with the first take, and build it from there. To me, it’s a very natural process and I always find new ideas.

Matthias: Laptop is too obvious, so I’m going with AirPods Pro! Started producing in  random places last year, like libraries, cafes and at friends’. It’s great to break out of  the box! 

What daily or weekly habits do you have in place to keep you creating?

We are full-time musicians and we have to find our own structure for the day. We get up at 8 am, our morning routine is meditating, making coffee and going for a walk. For us, it’s important to stay away from devices for the first couple of hours. 
To be honest, it’s not always easy to get up each day and do the booking, work on mixes and finalize tracks. But we motivate and help each other with these tasks. 
For us, just playing any drum track and jamming to it is a great way to keep creating.  It’s enjoyable and we can find new ideas without pressure.

What keeps you motivated to continue making music? 

Often, our projects are quite complex with many many tracks and automations. Then we set ourselves the boundary of making a track with max. 30 channels. It was fun, turned out great and got signed to a really good label. So yeah, boundaries! 

Also working with others is great! Started more collaborations lately. It’s a great way  to stay active: we don’t want someone to wait 3 weeks for our stems, we feel  obligated to them. Also we learn a lot from working with others’ ideas. 

What song would you choose as the soundtrack of your lives? 

Tough one! Boring answer is: our music is the soundtrack to our lives, obviously haha... but for us it would probably be classical music. We know it’s not a “song” in that sense, but Beethoven’s symphony No. 7, the second movement. It’s so simple and deep.

If we have to answer with an actual song, we really love “Only For A Moment” by Rezident, probably our favorite producer! This one gives us the feeling: THIS is why we want to make music! 

What's your favorite feature on SoundGym, and how has it helped you in your musical journey?

We have to mention two features! First one: THE COMMUNITY! Met so many great people through the “mix critique” section. And we chat quite often & help each other  out. That alone makes SoundGym so good. 

From the exercises, we really like ALL the EQ games! “Peak Master” and “EQ  Cheetah” have helped us so much!  
Maybe it’s from all the piano playing that I (Matthias) had problems hearing muddy frequencies, because most grand pianos are really really muddy for the player (not necessarily for the audience because they’re sitting elsewhere). I think I got so used to full, muddy sounds from practicing during my studies, that I had to rewire my hearing with these EQ exercises. It helped me so much and now I feel comfortable mixing and mastering!

What’s something exciting you're working on or looking forward to?

There’s so much happening this year, new labels, new collaborations with bigger artists and we’re finally figuring out this piano + violin + EDM thing. We are looking forward to our first bigger live performances this year with our duo “Klama”! 

Also we got in contact with a great singer here on SoundGym, we made a demo and are in the stage of finalizing. It turned out great and we can’t wait to share it with you  guys! 

Greetings from Berlin 
Klaudia & Matthias

You can follow Klama on their Instagram,  website, and listen to their music on Spotify and Youtube. 

 

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