Kell16: I’ve always loved music. Michael Jackson was my first musical hero when I was a kid. That magic that he and Quincy captured was so awe inspiring for my little mind at the time. It’s a magic that stays with me to this day. I was influenced by my mother’s taste in hip hop, heavy metal, garage rock, grunge, punk rock, R&B, and gospel. My mom was all over the place. My father gave me a respect and obsession with the 80s that stays with me and inspires me endlessly. Naked Eyes, Pet Shop Boys, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Joe Jackson, The Clash, Fleetwood Mac, The Mo, SPARKS, Daft Punk, N.E.R.D, Pharrell Williams, etc… It really is endless when it comes to my father’s influence. My uncle gave me a greater love for Hip Hop, and I’d probably have you cancelling this interview with my talk of my musical influences in that genre that I love the most. My life changed when I heard “Earthcrusher” by Mr. Lif. It was over for me then. I’ve been weird ever since.
Smoove : My Father was into music when i was younger. He was in a band called ultimate choice. He played really great music when I was a kid also. So i was drawn in on how all the music made me feel good . It stuck with me ever since then.
How did you achieve such a Great sound in a short time?
Kell16: Flattering of you to say so. It took us two years to make the Why Her EP. It was more about taking the sounds that we’ve loved since our childhood, and mixing them into our own aesthetic. Everything we did had to have a hint of 80s flair and a respect to the legends that we constantly and consistently draw inspiration from. It wasn’t a game for us at first. We had fun crafting the sound but it was very hard to make sure we were coming into Neon Vice as authentic creators and not merely copying sounds that we’ve heard over and over. GoldFrame and Kaya Boran, our two unofficial members of Neon Vice, helped us out a great deal and we are forever grateful to those two guys for loving the process as much as we did, and lending their talents to our vision.
Smoove: First of all thank you listening to Daydream we really appreciate it. Glad that you loved it. It’s a special intro for us. Me and Kell have always been into bands and artist from the 80’s. Bands like The Tubes, The System, Twilight etc the list goes on. We love Synths! Moog bass lines and analog drums just feel really great to us, so we literally just pull sounds from stuff we like that moves us. When we are creating, sometimes we are like, “Yeah! That sound!” or “Yes! Those drums are great. Let’s try to create something with those elements in mind and make it our own!” Our Creative process is really just vibing off each other. Good energy is contagious. I will have my sounds up running through stuff I’ve made. Kell will hear something he likes and it instantly sparks up an idea. He will start zoning out. Phone in hand continuously writing. I will be mumbling melodies I hear. The process is just bouncing back and forth ideas until we find something that sticks. Then Boom, we got a record!
Going over your soundcloud we can see you like experimenting with new sounds. Can you tell us more about your studio setup and some of your favorite plug-ins / Instruments.
Kell16: I just need a mic. I play piano in my free time and use Logic to make beats, but this is where Smoove can shed more light than I can.
Smoove: My studio set up is very simple. I work from my home studio in my apartment, but it’s just my monitors, laptop, midi board, hella plugins and just a clear mindset/focus on what I’m working on. Very minimalistic approach, but the outcome of it is BIG! For my favorite plugins, I really really love the Arturia Oberheim SEM V synthesizer. Those synths make me so happy man. They are wicked! I also love the Arturia’s DX7 plugin as well i pull a lot those 80’s sounds from there. The Minimoog. That’s my baby. I love just tweaking around in the VST and making my own sounds. RIP Bob Moog thank you for what you did. You were a mastermind.
Your music sounds very organic and authentic. Do you play any live instruments?
Smoove: Thank you so much. That was the whole point to our sound. Like I said earlier just pulling sounds that we liked from certain songs and kinda just making our own with it to make it just what you said. Organic and authentic. We want people to hear our music and be like, “Ah!! That’s Vice! I Know that sound anywhere!” Piano is the only thing currently right now. I started taking piano serious like 3 years ago. I’m still a learning. I’m a student to it. But I want to learn drums and bass guitar. I’m gonna make that a goal of mine. I want to get started on that soon.
Kell16: You don’t want to hear me play anything live. Haha. I’d be put to shame (for right now).
What are your musical goals for the future?
Kell16: To make this my full time job. I want to inspire people to go for what they envision in their mind. You can manifest anything in this life if you want it bad enough. So, a few more Neon Vice albums, some solo albums, get on a soundtrack for a major motion picture or major video game (Get at us for Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red! Come work with us!)
Smoove: To keep putting out great quality music. Take Neon Vice to the next level so that we can eventually tour. Make music my primary job.
What are your goals for the coming months? Any upcoming projects we can get excited about?
Smoove: Release some more music. I’ve been consistently working on piano lessons for the past couple weeks. One major goal i want to do is learn a song a day. Another goal I want is to get more and more people familiar with Neon Vice. We are working on a project, another EP called Sync: Victoria. It’s some heat on there. Don’t have a date for that yet, but it’s brewing. We will keep you guys updated on that. Keep yourselves locked in with us. We have a website that you can get all the updates on. Neon-Vice.com
Kell16: Getting some live shows in, is absolutely the goal. Sync: Victoria, our next EP, is getting worked on as we speak. We’ll be in touch on our instagram and twitter, as well as Neon-Vice.com. Why Her EP is out now. Thank you for rocking with us and please stay patient. More is on the way.
