Electronic duo FOVOS talk early influences, Masked Wolf remix, 90s rave culture, & more.

Emerging from New Zealand, electronic duo FOVOS are breaking onto the global dance circuit bringing with a defiant, warehouse-driven style of techno. Industry-leaders such as Hardwell, Alok, Eli & Fur, and Kryder, were quick to support FOVOS’ fast-growing momentum which shows no signs of slowing down.  

Only a matter of weeks into 2023 and FOVOS have already dropped their latest Revealed Recordings release ‘Flashing Lights’ in collaboration with Lister, and have put their FOVOS spin on Masked Wolf’s ‘Butterflies & Bandaids’ in an official remix baring a drum & bass edge.

We caught up with Mario & Lorenzo to get the full scoop on what’s already shaping up to be a pivotal year for FOVOS.  

How can you describe your development as artists in New Zealand? Is there any particular clubs or local DJs who affected your progression in any way? 

The crew at George FM have been extremely helpful in supporting us and guiding some of our choices. We’re very grateful to have that team on board. Sin & Brook, Abeiku, and General Lee are just some of the DJs that have been incredibly influential to us and the scene here. 

Musically, who were your main influences when you were starting out in the scene a couple years back?

Tchami’s music played a huge role in us finally buckling down to make original music. His early work was something so different for the time and it inspired us for years, it still does even though we don’t make music like his. I_o and Eli Brown have also been major influences on our music, especially since they make techno music. 

You have always experimented with different sounds, transitioning between genres on a track-by-track basis, what gave you the idea to try drum and bass on your new remix of Masked Wolf’s Butterflies & Bandaids? 

Living in New Zealand, you can’t escape the D&B scene, it’s pretty much everywhere. We just thought that given the vocals that Masked Wolf provided it would be a good opportunity to finally make a tune that encapsulates our take on the genre.  

Masked Wolf has had some great success off the back of his viral hit Astronaut In The Ocean, how did the remix come about? 

Yes, congrats to him on that major success! We were shocked to be getting the opportunity from his label. The original track came out about two days after we had got the email, so we had to turn out that remix pretty quickly, it was all worth it though as the label and Masked Wolf said they were stoked with how the remix turned out. 

Aside from this new remix, a lot of your recent releases have ventured down a more techno-influenced route. If at all, how has your creative process changed from when you were producing a tech-house sound? 

Yes, we’ve just been going for a few main sounds more recently, although that isn’t to say that we’ll only ever be putting out techno, we think it’s a good idea to showcase a range rather than be predictable. It’s funny the creative process hasn’t changed that much; we still start most of our tracks with the drums and bassline then go from there. The technical parts of making tech house and techno are pretty different though, so that was a bit of a learning curve for us. 

Are there any other particular sub-genres of dance music, or even perhaps wider than that, that you haven’t produced yet that you would like to? Why? 

We haven’t explored enough of what our radio-friendly sound is and that’s something that we’ll be very excited to share at a later date, at the moment we’re still trying to find what that might be.   

You have had support from some of the biggest names in the industry, including Hardwell, Afrojack and Kryder, how does it feel to be recognised by some of the scene’s greats? 

It’s incredible to have the people that we look up to and are inspired by in the scene supporting our music. It’s always pretty surreal to see the clips when they play a track of ours live. It’s good to know that our tunes can stand up to that sort of stage. 

In the future, if you could work with any DJ in the world and collaborate on a track together, who would it be? 

We would be over the moon if we could one day work with Camelphat. 

Where does your affinity for the 90s rave scene come from? 

It’s hard to say really what exactly has spanked that but as we’ve learned about music production, we thought it would be very beneficial to understand what the scene today has stemmed from. Back then, that music was very new and experimental for its time, the production has become refined since then but there is a certain grit to the sound that is very appealing to us, it’s soulful and has character and we think it’s very important to pay homage to that. 

If you could play b2b with any DJ in any club, past or present, who would you play with and where? 

Lorenzo: “I reckon going back-to-back with Carl Cox at Printworks would be absolutely mental!” 

Mario: “I_O all the way.” 

What can we expect from FOVOS for the rest of the year? 

We’re going to try and pack the year out with at least a tune every month or so, we’re enjoying producing at the moment and want to get out as much music as we can. We’re going to Europe at the end of May for a couple of months as well so although we can’t say much at the moment about it, we’ve got some good plans for that time.