Since the release of his second studio album last December, Offenbach based DJ and producer Rey&Kjavik has been arranging a follow up release in the form of remixes. The first of which will come from Vril.
The German artist is also changing things up with his RKJVK imprint, having released his own music exclusively on the label, 2019 will be the first time he welcomes original work from other producers.
We spoke to him about the forthcoming remixes, what’s to come on RKJVK in the near future, and what inspired him to choose his current moniker. Find the full interview below.
So how are things going in the life of Rey&Kjavik right now?
I’m healthy, happy and surrounded by my beloved ones. Life is good to me, thank you!
Your name is a play on the Icelandic city of Reykjavik, was that random or is there a story behind it?
A bit of both, I was watching soccer a long time ago. It was the game between Iceland and Germany in Reykjavik and I fell in love with the name of the Icelandic capital. It was a time when mobile phones weren’t packed with apps to organize our lives, so I had a black paper notebook where I wrote all of my ideas in and the name Reykjavik was one of them. When it came to the moment of finding a name for the project I came across it in my notebook and let me tell you I still love it and how it sounds.
Your Mountiri LP came out December 2018 and will be getting a remix EP soon, how did you select who would be involved?
I always work with artists I meet around the world, people I shared great moments with or have the same vibe or mindset. I will start the three remix series with Vril, a German guy who I met in South America on a great festival called Tatacoa. We had the same flight with a little plane to the Colombian desert and now we have a new piece of art. That’s a very natural process of things coming together, which I love, because you can’t plan them in any particular way.
And what was your reaction after all the remixes had come back?
To be honest, there is just one final remix in by now, because I don’t want to pressure any artist releasing on my label with a release date. I want everyone to be happy with their final result. My reaction to remixes will always be a positive one, because I decide upfront who I trust and who I send the stems to remix my music. If I did not like the result of an artists remix I had decided to send the stems to in the first place, the mistake would have been made by me in the moment when I sent out the music and not when I received the final remix. This lets me always be satisfied.
Your RKJVK label is about to release music from another artist after being exclusively for your own tracks, what made this come around?
Also this decision happened very naturally. In the beginning, I did my own label because of the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do music-wise or art-wise and not asking anyone else but myself for approval or having any release schedules or label politics to be involved in. In the last months I did get a lot of great unreleased tracks from friends to play in my sets and SIS ́s remix for the Turkish rap artist Gazapizm for example was and still is a highlight in my sets. Wherever I play it, people love it, so I asked him if we should release it and here we go with an official remix. The original track has over 150 million plays on youtube, so it was difficult to make that happen, but my great team and me helped him and I’m very happy for this freedom my label gave us in this case and that’s just beginning as there is much more to come.
And who can we expect on the label in the future?
What I can say is I will be on it for sure and everything else is still a secret – even to me. I’ve never been the kind of guy who’s loved to do name dropping or who has had big plans when it comes to music. I had the best results in life when I lived for the moment and followed it and not when I focused on what would be next. Most important for me is if the music on RKJVK holds a lot of emotions. If we are trusted with what we do, we will deliver love.
Anything we didn’t cover that you want to mention before we finish things up?
You can’t follow a tïger on social media, but be patient, it ́s ok. One day you will meet.