The Partae: I’m really glad that you guys are here on behalf of AR:TE as a DJ duo, but also as a representative of the party and festival scene in Ljubljana and Slovenia with your label SOLVD and with the Butik festival.
Let’s start with your DJ careers. Can you summarize your journey as a duo? How did you get together? Where did you come from as solo careers?

Alex: We both had solo careers before. I started playing and making music in 2012. I was drawn into producing as something to clear my head, to be with myself, to put out things that I was not able to do on a personal level, and simply to enjoy the creation process. At some point, I realized that if I started deejaying, that could also progress into something more in the future. In 2016, I started with a couple of friends, the SOLVD project: a series of events in Ljubljana that quickly evolved into an actual label.

Teo: I started making events and playing drum and bass when I was 18. In the beginning, I was playing mostly abroad. I used to be a windsurfer and I travelled the world for it. Wherever I went, I played house music in exotic clubs. Because I was a foreigner, I could say “Trust me, I’m a good DJ! Let me try just for one night.” Then I was given the opportunity to show my skills and they booked me more often. I was a resident DJ in clubs in Brazil, Vietnam and Egypt. When I returned home to Slovenia, I became a huge fan of SOLVD parties from the beginning. I was the number one fan of Alex.

Alex: Actually, there’s a video from our first party and he’s dancing like crazy!
In 2019 we changed our SOLVD team a little bit as we were looking for new residents to join us. A common friend mentioned Teo, we knew each other but we never played together. During the first party of the year, we spontaneously tried to play together and the energy clicked and that’s how AR:TE started.

Teo: Since then we have been playing (mostly) together.

The Partae:  What are your influences? Are there specific people you got inspiration from?

Alex: I grew up with hip-hop. In high school, the Viva channel was broadcasting some electronic music videos and that caught my attention. From that point on, electronic music took my heart. I always liked Kerri Chandler, Karizma and DJ Spen, those old house heads. I was also influenced by the UK sound because it has this edginess, groove and dub-deep vibe surrounded with lots of energy. Right now I don’t have a favorite artist because it’s so many influences drawing from.

Teo: When I was younger, I was really into jazz, funk, soul and blues. Since I used to play piano as I kid, I take music inspiration from this organic sound. Then, as I mentioned before, I got into drum and bass. My love for drum and bass came from liquid and jungle, nothing too aggressive or punchy. Especially, I was a huge fan of Brazilian artists like DJ Marky, DJ Patife, and other main artists like Calibre. But in the back of my soul, there was always house music. In the following years, the drum and bass scene became a bit more aggressive, going towards Neurofunk and liquid was falling down. I felt betrayed. I just couldn’t be there with this kind of sound. And I said, “Fuck it!” and I focused on house music. During all these years I have been developing my sound non-stop. I don’t play a specific sound but I play a lot of different genres. When we play as AR:TE, we play a bit differently than solo. Alex is a good deejay and producer with his own sound. I am Teo with my own sound. When we come together as AR:TE, we push each other to explore deeper, to be more curious and explorative. This is AR:TE’s vision.

The Partae: You guys are representing the Ljubljana and Slovenian scene with organizations like SOLVD and also Butik (which is located in Tolmin). Can you describe what makes it special and what challenges are you facing?

Alex: In the late 90s, Slovenia was quite on top of Eastern European electronic music scene because we had one of the best clubs in probably Europe: Ambasada Gavioli. It was built in 1995. It was running for 27 years, until 2021. Even international stars like Richie Hawtin said a couple of years back that if this club were in a place with better infrastructure like Ibiza, it would be top 3 in the world! In addition, you had a couple of cities in Slovenia known as “rave cities”. So the following and interest from the public was massive. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 2000s, the regulations started to be tighter and it slowly became more difficult to run a club and make a profit.

Currently, the Slovenian scene is at a good level regarding the quality of individual DJs, producers and collectives in several different genres. However, we are lacking the infrastructure and support at a national level in both acceptance from the mainstream public and government institutions. We have a shortage of clubs. There’s only one serious club for underground music: Klub K4 in Ljubljana, where we do our SOLVD parties. Other than that, there are only minor locations in the rest of Slovenia. Also among underground festivals, it’s basically only Butik on a larger scale. There are other projects but they’re smaller in scope, just aimed at a couple of hundred people and organized by local enthusiasts.

Other genres such as Balkan music for example do not face the same challenges because they are more widely accepted by the general public, so they can organize events in every place.

Teo: Another big problem is the commercial events. The tickets are not too expensive so they attract more people, especially young ones who are not yet musically educated. Those types of events are the entry gate to the festival and party culture for most people due to their availability and accessibility, but they book always the same artists. People end up listening to this kind of music and thinking “Ok, this is it, I’ll enjoy this.” They don’t proactively search for new sounds. That’s what we try to do with our events: to provide new music to people and welcome them to our community. At every party new people are coming and they’re like: “Whoa, what is this? Is this house music? Whoa, I didn’t know, I love it!”. As the Slovenian music community, we need to be more adventurous and braver in booking and promoting underground sound.

The Partae: Let’s talk more about Butik Festival. What factors have made it such a big success?

Alex: Our initial idea when we created Butik was to have a place for the community where everybody feels welcome. Music is the perfect tool for inclusivity because you cannot have competition. This is our advantage: We welcome everybody, we are inclusive.

Teo: What makes Butik special is also our team, not just DJs, but everyone else who works here, who represents the real soul of the festival. At the party, everybody comes, everybody is happy, everybody is dancing! Sharing this positive energy is highly contagious for everyone else around.

Alex: Another important goal for us is to provide a way for people to always discover new artists. We don’t want to be a festival where the lineup stays the same over the years. We have a rule that we repeat a single international artist maximum of two years, but not more than 20% of the lineup. This way we can push local talent first. International acts are a nice complementary aspect, to draw attention. When guests come here, they start enjoying the sets from the DJs that they didn’t know. And when those are Slovenian DJs, that is the best that can happen! For local artists there are not so many options, so we try to provide them with opportunities to play.

The Partae: Do you think that an international project like Butik works also as a way to teach the Slovenian people about the international underground scene?

Teo: Yes, absolutely! Butik is quite a young festival and it is getting recognized not only abroad, but also in Slovenia. People are talking about this festival and the underground scene with enthusiasm. It spreads organically with word of mouth, which is the best way to promote it. And it’s slowly gaining traction. We are really proud of it. This is one of the main goals of the festival. Groups of underground DJs and insider crews start getting recognized, and collaboratively building a strong community.

Alex: At the moment in Ljubljana, there is a healthy relationship between the crews. The majority of us work really well together. Even if often we don’t necessarily like each other’s music, we respect each other and understand that everybody has space in this community. Right now we are in a good position and hopefully, we can build something together. Here in Slovenia, there’s a major festival called Ment Festival. Originally, it was a festival for bands, but now they are expanding to electronic music as well. This year it was the first time they organized a panel to bring all the Slovenian crews together and discuss the problems we are facing and how we could solve them together. This kind of initiative gives me more positive thoughts that we can make it together.

The Partae: Do you see any collaborations to promote the underground scene outside of Slovenia, also in the Balkans?

Alex: One of the main goals for the future, is to create a sort of organization where we would all work together: artists, organizers and promoters from Balkans, from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, etc. To the Western world, we are perceived as a sort of minor area and they don’t see us as an important market. Artists from these countries don’t have the same chance as somebody from the Netherlands or the UK for example. We see it as a challenge, but also as a huge opportunity: if we all work together, then it’s not only the Slovenian market of 2 million people, but it can translate into a market of roughly 20 million people including all the people from ex-Jugoslavia countries.
The same applies to event organizers. We could join forces and share flights and costs to bring international DJs to play here in a sort of tour: on Friday certain artists could play in Ljubljana, on Saturday in Zagreb, the week after in Belgrade, in Skopje, and then all of a sudden we can become interesting for them. Of course, this is just a vision. Right now we have connections with a couple of groups that we are working closely with.

The Partae: Let’s look towards the future. What are future expectations and plans for SOLVD, AR:TE and for Butik?

Alex: Butik is working on a super interesting project in collaboration with the Lighthouse Festival, an Austrian festival in Croatia that has a similar vision. We’ll jointly organize a musical holiday experience in Zanzibar next February. It will be a mix of partying and relaxing for an entire week. It’s a super cool project because I haven’t or I didn’t see many times that the two festivals joined together to make a project. We’re also working on other projects such as a club tour, however, we want to keep it a secret for now.

Alex: For our SOLVD label, we started our 8th club season at Klub K4 just recently with Gene On Earth. We plan to do approximately 4-6 events in one year, and we also plan to focus on other markets to host showcases. We’ll also work on our second label release however, we don’t want to rush ourselves. Regarding our AR:TE project, we had quite a nice summer with gigs in Slovenia, Italy (After Caposile), Croatia, etc. We did our first “release” an edit of classic track “Presence – Work On Me” which was released digitally via SOLVD. It got really nice support. We have some other edits in the pipeline as well as the first EP so we should have plenty of exciting projects in the future.

Teo: Regarding the SOLVD events, we will definitely continue to make parties in Ljubljana, in Slovenia. But the next step is to grow internationally and play in different countries with our whole crew. Since we are five DJs in SOLVD, bringing all of us to a place in Europe it’s difficult and expensive. Every one of us is developing very fast in just a couple of years and we need to keep promoting ourselves as a solo to consequently bring the crew along. Together we can achieve this!

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/trommelmusic/premiere-1-elisa-fiorillo-ooh-this-i-need-arte-edit-slvd000?in=alex-ranerro/sets/elisa-fiorillo-ooh-this-i-need

Bandcamp: https://solvdmusic.bandcamp.com/track/elisa-fiorillo-ooh-this-i-need-ar-te-edit

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axm7DoEXCYg

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/alexranerro/

https://www.instagram.com/matejucakar/

https://www.instagram.com/solvd.music/

SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/alex-ranerro

https://soundcloud.com/teothedj

https://soundcloud.com/solvdmusic

Can you share a bit about yourself and your journey into the music industry?

I’m Archer, I make pop-electronic music! I started making music back in 2018, sending Garageband demos I produced on my phone to my friends (they were notably terrible). That’s kind of where I discovered a style of writing lyrics that I really enjoyed. From there, I found a producer to work with to create my first track ‘Malibu’ and the rest is history!

Congratulations on the release of your debut EP, ’23’! What inspired the title, and how does it reflect the theme of the EP?

Thank you so much! ‘23’ is one of those numbers that appears everywhere for me – for instance seats on flights, hotel room numbers, my graduation number etc (it’s all a little spooky) It also felt right to name the EP ‘23’ in 2023, when I was 23 years old. I think there are definitely themes of reflection in the EP. Considering I started making music when I was 18 and I’ve always pondered the release of my future EP, ‘23’ really made me reflect on the last 5-6 years and where I’ve come and where I’m going sonically and in my music.

Could you walk us through your creative process when working on the songs for ’23’? How do you approach songwriting and music production?

Each song had a different process. For example, Whispers was a demo I originally wrote and produced that I then sent across to Tristan at Studio Ninety1 to produce properly. Then with tracks like Bittersweet and Star, they were both tracks entirely written and produced in studio sessions – so really developing and tweaking sounds and lyrics as I went!

Who are your musical influences, and did any specific artists or genres inspire the sound of your debut EP?

I pulled a lot of different influences. I’ve always been a big fan of Billie Eilish and Mallrat, both of which operate in the pop space but are very different sonically. I do love pulling inspiration from lo-fi and hiphop!

If you had to pick one track from ’23’ as your favorite or the most personally significant, which one would it be, and why?

I love all the tracks but I think Whispers has to be my favourite. Since writing it, I’ve spent many a car ride listening to it and shamelessly screaming the lyrics. I don’t want to toot my own horn but there’s something about the bridge that just hits different.

Are there any collaborations on ’23,’ and how did those partnerships come about? What do you think each collaborator brought to the project?

I worked with two amazing artists on the production and lyricism for the EP. The whole EP is produced by Drest who is an amazing artist in his own right but also helped work on production and lyrics for ‘23’.Obviously, the EP wouldn’t exist without him. I also worked with Riverine – who is an incredible producer – on Bittersweet. He definitely brought a whole new level of depth into the track and really elevated the production in the chorus especially.

How do you feel you’ve evolved as an artist from your earlier work to the creation of ’23’? Are there any significant changes or growth you’ve experienced in your musical journey? 

I think that ‘23’ is a whole lot more considered than my earlier releases. I think in the beginning I would create a track and then release it, create a track and then release it. With ‘23’ it required a lot more consideration and planning which I think allowed me to evolve, as it forced me to step back and really think about what I wanted the work to be.

The visual aspect of music is increasingly important. Can you discuss the visual elements accompanying ’23,’ such as album artwork or music videos, and their significance to the overall project?

Absolutely, in all my writing there has always been organic/nature references. In the beginning it was references to the ocean and the waves and then when I moved up to the Gold Coast and was really exposed to those elements – I think it more came out in the feeling of EP. It was really important to me to keep some element of nature in the EP, so if it wasnt with explicit references then it was going to be in the visuals. The EP art was shot in Tallebudgera Valley in the Gold Coast hinterland. It’s a very beautiful place! My photographer, Evie, and I, really played with themes of reflection using a mirror in the majority of the shots. A lot of the Spotify canvas’ play with this idea as well as they were shot on the same day.

What were some of the challenges you faced while working on your debut EP, and how did you overcome them?

I think one of the challenges I faced came from being in the studio and creating songs from scratch on the day. It was something I’ve never really done before as usually I have all the lyrics planned out before standing in front of the mic. I think it really forced me to try and get as vulnerable as possible when it came to writing so I had to put my nerves and my anxiety aside and just try and open up for the music. 

How do you hope your audience will connect with ’23,’ and what emotions or messages do you aim to convey through your music?

Any way someone finds a connection with my music is good enough for me. I just hope people can relate to some of the tracks and maybe apply their own meanings and connect in a deeper, more personal way. 

With the EP released, do you have plans for live performances or a tour? What can fans expect from your live shows?

Yes! I’m back home playing my first show in 2024 on February 17th at the Leadbeater in Richmond! I can’t wait to play all these new tracks live for the first time. Fans can expect a party where we laugh, dance and cry together. 

Looking ahead, what can we expect from Archer in terms of future projects? Are there any upcoming releases, collaborations, or new directions you’re excited about?

I’m taking a quick break until the new year and then I’ll hopefully be back in the studio writing some new music that people can boogie to!

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‘Happily Ever After’ is described as a love-fuelled indie adventure. Can you share the inspiration behind the song and the story you wanted to convey through its lyrics?

Yes absolutely! It was inspired by a relationship I was in at the time, we had moved in together in a little place on the corner or Orrong road/cambridge street in Caulfield north, Melbourne. We taught pilates at the same yoga and pilates studio, and to be honest, it was the most safe and secure I had ever felt in a relationship before. She really did accept me for me, and love me for me and I had never felt that before. I used to spend Sunday afternoons writing all day while she was in the studio, id write clean, run around the house, while a chicken curry slow cooked in the kitchen. I had been playing around with this idea of a song, and she came home that afternoon and it all just clicked for me, I was in this position where my home felt like a kingdom, like no one else was allowed in but us, I was better than I had ever been (mentally/physically/emotionally/spiritually) I was grounded and I was safe. And I was like I could do this for the rest of my life, like happily. And I realised in that moment how young I felt, this like giddy feeling with no restraints, and that forever young line made sense, I had always thought it mean something completely different, I seen people get older and keep partying, and continually ride themselves off, almost like screaming we’re never growing up, and that always confused me because I didn’t feel like that was true for me. And In that moment of clarity it was like ahhhh thats not being young forever, staying curious, staying playful and continuing to learn is how I stay young forever, and if we do that together, in our own way, that I think is how we make it a lifetime.

“Cambridge” is your upcoming album, and ‘Happily Ever After’ is its second single. How does this track fit into the overall theme or narrative of the album?

I always wanted to create something that has the full scope of the human experience within it, with this album I think it has a very wide representation of that over a 3 year period. Obviously there is endless subtleties of the world within and around us , but I think this album represents/touches base on almost all of my experience over that timeframe, I say this because that’s what the theme is, exploration and curiosity of life, and this song fits in as an idea and a feeling of what love is and what it might mean to build .

The song touches on the experience of growing old together. Can you delve deeper into this theme and how it influenced the writing and production of ‘Happily Ever After’?

It really was something I not only never thought I would experience, but just couldn’t see how it would be possible for me. Now I still haven’t grown old with someone and the relationship that I wrote the song about has been ended for a few years now,
but this song represents a moment in which I understood how it could happen, in that moment I understood what it might take for myself to meet someone in a position where we could grow old together. To stay curious, to be playful and to continue to learn with someone for a life time or like how the lyric goes, to stay young forever. And that moment of realisation was one of the most memorable moments of my life.

In addition to being a musician, you’re also a meditation teacher. How has your personal journey of resilience and redemption, overcoming addiction through meditation and yoga, influenced your music, particularly in the creation of ‘Happily Ever After’?

For a long time I felt like it was all just the same, the actions in which I choose to participate in directly effect my life, its like the old saying you reap what you sow. So for me, Having a practise in Meditation and yoga helps me feel centred, it helps me stay grounded and it helps me make decisions in alignment with whatever my truth may be. I think the world gets a little fuzzy for us all, and it becomes really hard to hear that truth if we’re not paying attention. Yoga and meditation help me pay attention, therefor allowing me tune in and experience my life fully, and then express it through my music.

Could you share some insights into the themes and messages you aim to convey through the upcoming album ‘Cambridge,’ especially focusing on the elements of resilience and redemption?

I think the main message within resilience and redemption would be to learn how to listen to your truth. Those words aren’t said specifically in the album anywhere but really what are we all searching for? I think for most people that answer would lead back to certainty or security, it definitely seems to be a common theme in my life. we want to be certain of our choices, we want to be certain of our success, we want to be certain that everything is going to work out and be ok. we can never know the answer to those questions in the way that we would like it to be told, but as cliche as it does sound we already do have the answer, our own truth, the one thing that is always available to us. now the world might get a little (or very) noisy, and the static in our mind might get a little to loud for us to hear or feel that truth sometimes, but regardless it is always there. My constant question has been, How can we find it? Or how do we cultivate enough awareness to strengthen it like a muscle within our body?

For me, its been exploration, exploring what it means to be right, to be wrong, to succeed, to fail, to feel my emotions, to ignore my emotions, to find peace through action, to find peace through inaction, to express ourselves, to suppress our expression, and it seems that all of this is done either with a conscious awareness or without a conscious awareness, regardless we move on and we live and get up and try and we book mark the things that we learn and along the way, and hopefully we can accept ourselves even just a little in the process.

I think true resilience comes from the exploration and acceptance of ourselves. And learning when to be hard on ourselves and get up and get on with it, and when to sit and allow ourselves to rest.

In a world where the moral compass of a human being seems to be measured so precisely with no flexibility to account for any outside factors, I think its very important to explore your own inner workings and find your own truth for yourself, and within that cultivate resilience to be you.

‘Happily Ever After’ seems to embrace a positive and hopeful tone. How do you use your music as a platform to spread positivity and inspire others, especially those going through challenging times?

This does have a positive tone! I cried a week ago when I realised I was putting out something that was just like pure joy and bliss, I think id been so close to this song for such a long time that I had separated myself from its essence a little.

This question really stumped me if I’m honest. But I think I spread positivity by always looking on the lighter side whenever I can, that’s something I have always done in my personal life, not like ignoring the hard times or pretending evil doesn’t exist, but by understanding that there is always a positive, it might not show up immediately but if your patient and open enough to see it, it does always works out in the end. I also think it shines through me just being myself, I love what I do, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, and I am genuinely stoked to get out of bed in the morning and go to work. I have days that are really hard too, we all do. But I think that enthusiasm and that love shines through the content I make, the music I make, the lyrics I write and just in the way I show up.

Mental health awareness and addiction recovery are causes you’re passionate about. How do these themes weave into your music, and what messages do you hope to convey to your audience regarding these important issues?

The message I want to convey to my audience is that mental heal is in everything we do, we cant separate it from our whole being, which I think is something we have gotten wrong for a long time. Getting to understand ourselves as a whole being is the only step forward. Our society seems to be obsessed with the mind. It seems to be the part of our experience that we give the most clout to. But I think that the only way we can move forward in a way thats free from addiction and chronic mental health conditions is to look at the human as a whole being. These things weave into my music because they are apart of me, every song I have written is from the perspective of a guy exploring what it means to be him, with absolutely no idea what he’s doing, all he knows Is what has and has not worked up until this point and he is trying his best to understand and accept himself. There are a few songs on the album that are very clearly about mental health and addiction struggles, and you can hear it lyrically and you can also feel it musically, but I think in some way they are all about me trying to understand the fluctuations in my mental health and trying to understand why I can be so easily roped into things that distract me and really take me away from my life.

Can you discuss the creative process behind ‘Happily Ever After’? How did you approach the musical arrangement and production to capture the emotions you wanted to convey?

Alsolutely! So I wrote the chord progression and lyrics back in 2019 In my home studio just off Cambridge street, my partner at the time had just gotten home from teaching pilates at the yoga and pilates studio we both taught at, and I remember I had been playing around with a few ideas that afternoon, but when she walked in and I looked at her, the idea really came to life.

I think demo’d the song and sent it across to my best friend Aaron Schembri in 2020, it was the middle of a lockdown. He then wrote those guitar melodies, and bass and keys you can hear and we go it all down at the end of 2021/start of 2022. Its been a long time coming.

As you embark on this love-fuelled indie adventure with your music, what do you hope listeners take away from ‘Happily Ever After’ and the upcoming album ‘Cambridge’?

I hope they can feel a little bit of themselves in the songs, we are all so different but we are also the same, and I think music really highlights that. I hope it provokes more exploration within themselves and also in the seriousness of what life can be, I hope it also adds a little lightness to their steps. Its all ok, and it always will be.

How do you balance your roles as a musician and a meditation teacher? Do these two aspects of your life inform each other in any way?

These two aspects absolutely inform one another, I have always looked at it like this. Meditation and yoga are the tools that help me experience my life to the fullest, they also allow me to reflect on my life more honestly and thoroughly than I otherwise would, which in turn helps me turn those experiences and reflections into the art that I see. For a long time I just said yoga and music are the same to me, and I never quite understood why, and then one day I realised this dance that they were flowing in and out of and I realised.

‘Happily Ever After’ seems to celebrate the positive aspects of life. How do you use your art to bring joy and reflection to your audience, especially in the context of the challenges you’ve faced and overcome?

I think bringing a lightheartedness otherwise serious situations is one way, I mean don’t get me wrong, there are songs on this album that are serious as well. But I think for the most part approaching those more heavy handed subjects with a little more lightness is one way that I bring a light side to my audience, and another way is that within my lyrics and I incredibly reflective. I mean I am in my life and I think that its represented in my lyrics, the dedication to bring the best possible product to the people who listen to my music

In terms of your advocacy for mental health awareness and addiction recovery, are there specific messages or resources you would like to share with your fans, encouraging them to prioritize their mental well-being?

This is a really great question, there aren’t really any direct messages or resources. What I would say is, try a bunch of different avenues. No one avenue works best for everyone and for me personally its been the exploration of all these different tools, practises and practitioners over a very long time that have lead me into being the most grounded person I have every been I am still a maniac, don’t get me wrong hahaha, but I understand and accept that life is ups and life is downs and we do the best we can at each moment we arrive. So yeh, id say try all the different things that are out there and find what works best for you. Flexibility > rigidness.

Also, Don’t ever underestimate the power of moving your body, eating good whole foods, and creating support systems around you. I know these things are easier said than done when your in the pits of hell, but there is always a way out and that way out is always available to you even if it doesn’t look or feel like it.

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