Lavier is an experimental bass producer making genre-fluid electronic music. He joins us for our 39th guest mix with a sampling of unreleased tracks and tunes from artists he loves. Read on for our interview, and listen to the mix on our SoundCloud.
Tell our readers a little bit about yourself.
Howdy! My name is Dylan Evans and I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I produce electronic music under the name Lavier but I enjoy working on a pretty wide spectrum of other genres, whether it’s for clients or just collaborations. I listen to everything from sad indie bops, to old country music, lo-fi, future beats, dubstep, and a bunch of other experimental bass stuff. As a result my influences are all over the place, but some of the big ones are Flying Lotus, Teebs, Tsuruda, Eprom, and Ivy Lab. I’m the co-founder of a music/art collective called Less Than Family, and am also involved with The Undergrowth, PUSH Collective, and More Creativity Records.
What are you trying to showcase in this mix?
This mix is a pretty healthy blend of Lavier originals, peppered with tunes with some other producers I’ve really been digging lately, such as JKuch, Dabow, Buzz Junior & Ashez, and the homie Druid from Asheville, NC. I wanted to reflect an abbreviated version of what my live sets are like. Those sets usually cover a ton of stylistic ground, so it was really interesting trying to get everything I want into a nice short little mix, but I’m pleased with how it came out and hope that whoever listens might get turned on to some underground artists they may not be familiar with yet. Expect a bit of everything including melodic soundscape-y tunes, lo-fi house, 90bpm slaps, 128bpm weirdo trap, and more.
How do you approach the creative process?
I don’t really control when my ideas happen, but since I work in a variety of styles I can usually sit down and find inspiration for something in at least one of the styles I enjoy making. Sometimes I start out with a sound design session and a melody or pattern will pop out of the randomness of modulating synths, effects, or drum sounds, but other times I sit down with a more defined musical idea of what I’m trying to create and I work to get that initial idea from my head to the DAW as accurately as possible. I think everyone should be able to find whatever method works best for them. Lately I have been trying to refine my work flow a little more, because I do tend to get pre4y messy in Ableton. It has been really great to no,ce how having more organized project files can help me visualize and execute cleaner mix downs.
What should we expect from you this year?
In April, I moved from Boone, NC (my home of 6 years) to Pittsburgh, PA. A lot of the early part of this year was spent working and planning for this, so I had to take a bit of a step back from writing. Now that I’m settled up here, I hope to get back to working on more music and start scheming on some sort of body of work, whether it’s a collection of singles, an EP, or an album. In addition to making new music, I’m really hoping to get involved in the Pittsburgh live music scene and start building an audience here. I love, love, love playing live shows and would like to get back behind the decks when it’s safe, whether that’s in PA or with the gang in NC or really anywhere I can hop off to for a weekend.
Where can we hear from you?
I’m on all socials at @laviermusic — I tend to use Instagram and Twitter the most. You can find pretty much all of my music on Spotify, Audius, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp. I love to hear from people who find their way to my music, so don’t be shy!
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