Dole & Kom have featured their tracks on labels ranging from Bar 25 to Parquet Recordings.

Dole & Kom are a German duo who are well known for their melodic style. Flow Music’s staff have been long time fans of their style, and we are honoured to have them provide the original music for the new release on our record label. We also invited the guys in for an interview so they can tell us more about the release, plus their background in electronic music…

Hi Dole & Kom, I want to start by asking what part of the world you guys are currently based in, and how you feel the local club scene has been recovering after the global lockdown?

We reside in Germany’s capital Berlin. The clubs will reopen in a couple of days, and we hope they will recover quickly.

Is there a story behind how you guys met, and what inspired you to start making music together?

We became friends while working together at a record shop in the nineties. First, we joined forces as a DJ team, and later we wanted to develop our own sound. So, we started buying drum machines and messed around with some synths. 

Can you list some of the labels you have worked with, and what you feel defines your sound?

The first EPs we released were under the alias Clubheroes, and those came out on friends’ label Formaldehyd Records, and later we also signed tracks from that alias to Chicago imprint Relief Records. Soon we started our own labels BCC Music and Trance-America, and after that, we launched Death By Disco in 2005. Other labels that we released tracks on include Force Tracks, Parquet Rec., Bondage Music, Safe Music and Akbal Music, but there have also been many others. Nowadays we mainly work with our good friends at 3000Grad and Bar25.

Your most recent release was on our label Flow Music, and I wanted to ask you about that release… can you talk us through each of the tracks?

Oh, that EP was so much fun to do! Things fell into place right away, which is a rare thing for us. With the track ‘Ties’ the main idea was to make a melow track with smooth sounds, and it started with a bassline that we had leftover from another track. We like the fact that almost everything is hooked on the bassline except for the piano. We also love the way that Uone reworked the track with his brillient remix.

We had a very similar approach with ‘Ophus’, but that one we wanted to be more to the dark side. The melody took a long time, as we tweaked it for quite some time until it felt perfect

‘Aming’ is also pretty dark as well, but that track took the least time to produce of the three, as quickly we found driving energy that we didn’t want to lose by smoothing it out too much.

The common thread on the EP is its modular style synths with analogue sequenced and white noise hi-hats as those things feature in all of the tracks.

What’s your studio set up like, are focused more on digital or analogue bits of equipment?

We mainly produce inside a software program with a few analogues and digital hardware synths to create lead sounds. When it comes to mixdown, we route the parts through our TLAudio Fat Track which warms things up with its analogue valve. 

Outside of music, what are some of your other passions in life?

Mainly spending time with our family and friends, but cycling is also a lot of fun.

Flow Music has a strong connection to the Australian club scene, have you ever visited the country, and if so, did you sample any of the nightlife?

Unfortunately, we haven’t made it to the other side of the globe yet. Maybe this will change as we become more connected to you guys at Flow Music, as we love what you do, and hopefully, some opportunities pop up through our friendship. We have our fingers crossed 🙂

What’s coming up next in your schedule, any exciting gigs or new releases we should be watching out for?

Coming up we have a new release on 3000Grad, which is another tree track EP also remixes by featuring Olivier Weiter, Hyenah and the label owner Mollono.Bass.

After that, we have an EP coming via a label called Inner Shah, which is run by our dear fried Madd Rod from Portugal, and on that will be a couple of remixes by Just Emma plus our buddy Dompe.

We are also looking forward to the summer when the festival season starts. A highlight will definitely Meer in Croatia and of cause the 3000Grad Festival with the whole family.

Thanks again for providing us with your fantastic music, and also running through this interview. Is there a message for fans or anything else you would like to add before we finish?

We want the world to be at peace!

You can pick up a copy of Dole & Kom’s new ‘Ties” EP on Flow Music’s record label HERE