Swedish producer Johan Ilves has been a lesser known face on the tech-house scene up until now. He made his Kinky Vinyl debut this June, with minimalist bomb ‘Disc Legion’ and its hectic Greg Kobe B-Side decimating speakers everywhere since its release.

While the techy trainspotting cliques have been nodding their heads and scratching their chins in collective approval, Johan has been picking up masses of DJ support from the likes of Hernan Cattaneo, Asle and Kamishake, as well as earning rave reviews for Disc Legion in magazines such as M8 (8/8), Update (5/5) and i-DJ (4/5). Early August sees him return to action with another Kinky Vinyl pressing, ‘Campfire Stories’.

We catch up with Johan to get the low-down on his impressive new release…

You’ve stormed onto the scene with quite an impact, how does it feel to be getting such good reviews so early on in your career?

It feels wonderful! I’ve been working a lot to improve my mixes over the last 7 months, and now I’ve started getting results. I didn’t expect reviews this good!

“Disc Legion” is a very deep, moody track. Are you like this in person, or is it a side of you that comes out when you sit down to produce?

Well, I am an overthinker. When I’m producing I can clear my head of thoughts, put my feelings in the music, and sometimes it gets moody, sometimes not.

What inspired you when you were young? Has it changed dramatically over time?

The bleeps from the TV-speakers while playing Nintendo 8-bit must have done something to my fragile little mind. My first big inspiration was the video game music and I remember how as a kid I recorded it on my cassette deck and tried to mix it from tape to tape, ha ha! I always loved the Japanese cartoon movie themes from the 80s, as well as Michael Jackson and The Prodigy; Growing up in a small town in Sweden it was hard getting my hands on good electronic music. When I started DJing I was totally into progressive psytrance, but later I moved to Stockholm and got a much wider perspective on music.

You have been providing the soundtrack to some of your brother’s World of Warcraft videos online, how much has this helped you reach an audience beyond where you would normally look?

I reached out to 84,000 gamers around the globe with the last movie, pretty impressive. It’s usually rock music on those movies and there has been some mixed feelings, but plenty of good feedback and people asking where they can buy my tunes.

How has the Swedish house scene been shaping up lately? Are there any emerging trends we should know about?

Eric Prydz’s megahit “Call On Me” opened up for house music in Sweden. A few years ago you could only hear house in the bigger cities of Sweden. Now, here in Stockholm, the scene is getting better and better! Many talented DJs and producers live here and often show up at the local clubs. Any trends? I don’t like trends.

Who do you respect the most in the tech-house scene at the moment?

Trentemöller, John Dahlbäck, Aril Brikha, Samuel L Session, Dave Dk, Phonique, Gui Boratto, my friend Greg Kobe and more..

What other tracks are you really enjoying at the moment?

‘Micky Slim – Feel Like Dancing’ makes me freak and ‘Petter – Some Polyphony’ makes me moody.

Campfire Stories is quite different to Disc Legion, with an almost Spaghetti Western sounding hook, what inspired this?

Spaghetti Western, ha ha! I heard from one friend it sounds like a Russian folksong and another saying it’s like a sci-fi movie theme from the 70s. I love putting a cinematic vibe into my tracks and people can relate it to what ever pops up in their heads. I get a lot of inspiration from movies I watch.

Kinky Vinyl obviously have a lot of time for you, with Disc Legion only just hitting the shelves and Campfire Stories due to come out early August. Does this strong relationship help you focus your production work?

Joel Xavier at Kinky Vinyl is a very kind dude and has treated me very well. The relationship with the label is always very important and yes, it helps me focus on my work.

What’s next on the agenda for Johan?

I will finish some remix work, celebrate the Swedish midsummer and hopefully produce a dancefloor destroyer!!!

Johan Ilves ‘Disc Legion’ is available now from all good record stores and to download exclusively from Beatport.com and DJDownload.com. Keep an eye out for ‘Campfire Stories’ early in August.

Words : Gavin Leversuch