Hello guys! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today! How are things going and whereabouts are you both based right now?
All good, we are both living in Amsterdam but are now in a little transition where Julien is looking to move to Lisbon. So let’s say we are currently in between the two cities, the best of both worlds.
How is the music scene doing there at the moment following the pandemic?
Amsterdam took a lot of time to get back on its feet in terms of festivals and parties, I think we were the last ones to open clubs after midnight in Europe, which is quite ironic considering the festival culture we have in the Netherlands. In Portugal on the contrary, the had more common senses, beach clubs and terraces were open, life was quite enjoyable during pandemic.
We’re pleased to be chatting with you around the release of ‘Ashes of Snow (The Rebirth Of The Phoenix)’, your forthcoming debut on Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels imprint. Congrats on this! What can you tell us about this release?
We made that track for our friends from Yamba beach Club in Lisbon, who saw their place burned down last summer. Their story moved us, and inspired us to compose this track that has a parallel story with a phoenix that rebirth from its ashes, stronger and more colourful.
On The Banks of The River is a song about Caparica, the beach side of Lisbon where we spent so many sunsets and nights filled with love.
How did the release find its home Crosstown Rebels and how does it feel to be part of the label’s discography?
Damian got touched by the story as he also knows the beach club and its team. He asked us to release it there. We are super blessed and proud to become part of one of our favorite labels. And we are super excited to be celebrating the release on June 11th in Ibiza for his Hii Residency.
Can you run us through the creative process behind these tracks?
It started with our band at our studio in Amsterdam, we had created some drums loops, inspired by latin jazz, and had already a groovy baseline in place. Then the concept of Pheonix got into our heads, and we searched and got interested in the history of Phoenixes, culturally, historically, through different tales, ect.. from which, Thomas wrote the lyrics. The song then took another dimension after a long break, where the sound of the guitar resembles the phoenix slowly rebirthing leading to the big drop where the sax and synth takes you into a feeling of flying to freedom.
Completing the release, londstanding UK artist and Circoloco resident Clive Henry provides the remix and takes ‘Ashes Of Snow’ in a characteristic minimal direction. What were your reactions when you heard Clive’s take on the track?
Smooth and minimal, it gives a new dimension to the EP and will reach out a whole different audience than us.
As a brother-duo, we’d love to hear the story about how you first formed Parallells and what inspired you to do so?
We used to play together as kids already with our dad and uncle. Then we threw some parties and even had our own music festival in Eze village (where we actually met Damian for the first time). When we finished both our studies, we gave each other 2 year to kick off our duo of two brothers, musicians and producers being aligned and equals, as two parallel lines.
What’s next for Parallells?
We have three more EPs coming this year with the re-release of How Can I Resist with Fulltone and a Patrice Baumel remix, a collaboration with Nicolas Masseyeff on DGTL Records and our A Day In Essaouira EP with Moga.
We are working a lot on our “A Day In” videos series with 10 new episodes coming monthly from this summer onwards
Thanks a lot for chatting with us guys and congrats again on the release. To round off, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Keep it groovy! Stay happy
