Coffee Break with Adana Twins

Since their first big break in 2012 the Adana Twins have established a sterling reputation, refining their sound constantly, pushing  the boundaries of their musical ambition and evolving organically with the passage of time. The German duo have been working together since 2006, merging Benjamin's love of hip-hop and Friso's passion for club music to produce a series of highly-regarded releases that form the foundation of their global success. The Adana Twins are now universally respected as label owners, A&Rs, producers, and inspiring DJs. We had the chance to chat with them to learn more about their day-to-day and exciting projects they are working on.

Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. When was the duo Adana Twins formed and why did you choose this particular name?

Benni: We have to dial back in time to 2004. At that time we both started studying graphic design & new media at the Design Factory in Hamburg. During this time we became good friends and we partied together. Then we started organizing parties for our schoolmates and we thought it might be fun to play music at those parties together, too. One day one of Friso’s friends, he was working within the Hamburg Foo Club, saw us playing together at one of those parties and she liked it so much that she asked us to play at her birthday. Until then we had no name as a duo as we just spinned some records for fun. She said: guys, we need a name for the flyer of the party. In one week. We said ok, let’s think about it. And we met for brainstorming at a Turkish restaurant and ordered Adana Kebab. When the Kebab arrived we said: let’s be funny and just name ourselves Adana Twins for this one night only. Well, it obviously became more than one night. With the new name in our bag we started djing every weekend in a small bar called Pooca. We started at 11pm and ended mostly between 8 and 10 am. This was the best school we could have. We organized parties at  off locations and we were the first ones that brought the ed banger sound to our city. Then one day we met with Andre Stubbs. Back then he was the owner of Neidklub & Baalsaal. Now he is the owner of PAL, home to the who is who of DJs in Hamburg. We were still playing all-night-long once or twice a year. He asked us to organize parties in his clubs. So we became residents at Neidklub and had our party series every Thursday at Baalsaal. To this parties we invited Keinemusik. I think it was their first ever party outside of Berlin. Other guests were Renaissance Man, Surkin, Strip Steve and many more. And by the time we became a bit older our music changed more and more into deep house and we became Residents at Solomun’s Club Ego which brought us closer to the Diynamic crew. During all this time we started producing too and with our ‘Everyday EP’ on Exploited we had our breakthrough and our lives changed completely. The rest is history…

Friso: Yes, as Benjamin said, we started producing music in 2009. In 2012 we released our first successful single ‘Strange‘. It was the kickstart of our DJ career. While we were residents at Solomun's club Ego in Hamburg we invited artists like Mind Against for the first time to Hamburg or Acid Pauli who did a wonderful remix of our song ‘Strange’. Talking about releases… we had two successful songs on Diynamic:  ‘Uncompromising‘ and ‘My Computer‘. The latter was a game changer, pushing us straight from Melodic into the top artists of the Indie Dance genre where we feel very comfortable until today. AT the same time longtime supporter Pete Tong invited us to record an ‘Essential Mixes’ for his show on BBC 1. As a teenager this was merely a dream of ours. This was also the time our long-lasting friendship with Berlin label and club Watergate started. Most people probably know us for the mix release we did on their label. One of the exclusive track was our remix for Patrice Bäumel's track ‘Roar’ which became one of the club hits of that year. Another mile stone was probably our set for Cercle. It’s no secret that the Cercle team is doing one of the best jobs in the industry right now. So we were more than happy to get the opportunity to play a dj set at such a wonderful venue, the Palais Longchamp in Marseille. In our set we also played one of our most successful remixes: the seminal track of the early 90s acid house movement ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’ by Josh Wink. Since the original files from that time have been lost we could give a lot of love to the acid bassline and made two different versions. Josh liked it so much that he was asking us to send our new bassline… what an honor!

You are based in Hamburg, Germany. How would you describe the scene there and would you say it helped you shape your sound?

Benni: We were based in Hamburg. Now Friso moved to Lisbon but I am still here and enjoying life with friends & family. The scene here is very cool. Boys Noize started here, we have the Diynamic fam around Solomun and DJ Koze and Helena Hauff are also coming from Hamburg. And not to forget our good friends Digitalism who recently helped us to find a new studio. Hamburg is a bit more calm than Berlin. In Berlin you have the feeling everyone is djing. That’s not the case here. And I really love this. I couldn’t imagine a life with only DJs around me haha... The city here helped us a lot to grow our sound. Here everything started and our history as bar DJs and club residents helped us a lot to shape and form our sound. But I also have the feeling that the DJs in Hamburg or not so connected amongst themselves. But maybe that’s not true. To be honest. Since we are touring  so much I am not going out so much in Hamburg to connect and like said before most of my friends are not from the music scene which grounds me. I need some distance to the music circus during the week to recharge the battery and to be more focused in the studio.

Friso: As Benni said, I moved South to Lisbon and I have to say that I love it here too. Now, especially in winter, it's a dream to sit in the sun in the morning with a cup of coffee and eat a toasta mista. Also, there are a lot of fellow musicians, there is a lot of exchange and you get to know a lot of people that I probably wouldn't have met on tour.

We are curious about how you work together in the studio. Could you describe your typical process for creating music?

Our typical process is that we don’t have a typical process. Sometimes Friso is doing a song, sometimes I am doing a song. Sometimes we are doing a song together. And since Friso is living in Portugal we have to work mostly remote. Lucky us there is dropbox for exchange and whatsapp for feedback. Haha. But ove the years we found out that doing stuff separately is more effective. I think other duos could not work like this. But we can do. And sometimes it can be very boring when sitting together in the studio when one of us is trying to find the right sound which can sometimes need a lot of time :) But it can be also a of fun to be together in the studio as you can receive straight feeabck and starting playing ping pong with your ideas. So everything in our process in not typical.

What gear/VSTs do you use to produce music?

Benni: So far I mostly do everything in producing the structure, drums or synths  in the box as most of my vintage synth stopped working. But I upgraded with some new stuff and already made stuff like the Remix for Biemans with it our some stuff of our last Diynamic EP. And I just brought the old ones to the service. Cause I am moving into a new studio next week. And there I want everything working perfekt. When it comes to shape the sound i love it to sent the vst to my analog preamp which is custom made from old Siemens stuff and it just sounds great. It bring really nice texture and vibe to it. When I move to the new studio the main thing of the set up will be an old roland m240-r line mixer which will be routed to the siemens amps which are going into the DAW. I bought the mixer mainly to replace the patchbay as this sucks. And I am also really looking forward to get my Juno 106, JX4p and DX7 back from the service. On the vst side I use a lot of stuff from cable guys, soundtoy, U-HE, Roland Cloud, Fab Filter and Izotope. And sooth2 is just an amazing to to clean up the mix.

Friso: At the moment I produce most of my stuff at night on the sofa with the fifth coffee in my hand and not in the studio. There are always different phases in which I prefer one way of working. But I'm also looking forward to finding Benni again in Hamburg in the new studio and to step on the gas together. I think the bottom line is that I just like the variety and I also like the flexibility.

You created TAU in 2018, and in just a few years released high quality EP from our favorite producers of the electronic music scene. What pushed you to create your own imprint and what would you say is the biggest challenge about being a record label owner today?

We founded TAU to have a playground. Were we can try things. Where we can do mistakes we can learn from. Like Spektrum the regular TAU releaes shows what we love at the moment. And when artist release an EP we also love it when they show a different side beside there dancefloor skillz. For example Lehar will release a super nice EP next month. It’s a great mix between dancefloor and listening. There we also made a remix which shows our love for more downstripped music. The biggest challenge is to create the right vibe around it and to find the right moment to create the label. You need to be ready for it and nobody should push you to do it. In the past there were a lot of people who were saying: “Guys, you need a label. Do it.” But it never felt right. But then came the moment  when we had the feeling we are ready for it and then we were pumped for it cause it came straight from our hearts and from nobody else. Beside the time you need a lot of  passion cause a label is a lot of work. In these days it’s not only the music that counts. Even if this would be the best thing. But let’s be honest. In nowadays it’s the whole package started with music and ending up with the image and the story you are telling.

After a few years of releasing other people’s music, you are finally back with an Adana Twins EP on your label: ’Snake Ritual’ - and we have no doubt this one will make a lot of noise. Could you tell us more about the story behind this track?

It’s currently the highlight in our sets. When producing the song I wanted to explore different sounds you are not used to from Adana Twins. A step away from our retro-future sound to a more percussion-driven vibe. When I finished the beat I was playing around with some lead ideas and suddenly I found this flute sound in one of our VST plugins called repro-1 and within a minute I get so inspired that it was super easy to write this earworm hook. Yes, it’s not a sample. It’s 100 percent Adana Twins. After we played it several times we made some changes. In the beginning it was more like a classic break that built up on the flute sound. But I was not 100 percent happy with this when playing it. So I changed the Idea in the break from the flute built up to a tempo change built up with the ARP2600 sound of the track. And this works now super nice on the dancefloor. Proof that it's important to test all our tracks a lot before we release it.

What plans do you have for the future with TAU?

We have super nice releases from Lehar, Aldebaran, Genish and some more coming up and we will also release our first very first remix on TAU which is for Lehar and as said before it shows more our love for downstripped music. We will defo do more showcases in the future and shape the brand itself. It’s a constant moving thing.

We are also working on more showcases, we just had a great night at Phonox in London. There will certainly be some surprises, including a lighting concept for future shows.

Where are you most looking forward to playing in 2023?

So far we are really looking forward to be back in Australia. We haven’t been there since the pandemic – that we all don’t want to talk about anymore. Hehe. So yes, this will be our first highlight in 2023 and our booker just sent us an offer for Hamburg which is always fun.

And last but not least: how do you like your coffee?

Benni: For me a flat white with oat milk and a vegan croissant or avocado sandwich. Yum.

Friso: Likewise, but can also be a portuguese croissant on the side…

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