With a string of successful career releases on the likes of Afterlife, All Day I Dream, and Balance Music, and a hugely successful world tour in 2022, prolific Argentinian producer, composer, celebrated recording artist and live act, Juan Hansen, now looks to open his 2023 tally with the announcement of his latest solo offering, Higher EP.
Positioned amongst an elite group of artists who manage to comfortably straddle multiple musical reference points, Hansen fuses electronica, analog instrumentation and organic soundscapes with remarkable deft. We chatted with Juan Hansen about his new EP, previous releases, inspiration, and future plans!
Hey, Juan Hansen! Welcome to CelebMix! For those from our audience who are not familiar with you, could you introduce yourself?
Hello! First of all thanks for having me today. I’m a musician born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I felt attracted to musical instruments since I can remember and played drums for a long time in some local bands. Some years later I switched to the guitar and finally fell in love with music production after a friend of mine gave me my first midi controller. I have listened to electronic music since I was in school but made the transition to playing an electronic live set five years ago. Now I feel blessed to be able to play music all around the world, get to know other countries and amazing people.
You are starting 2023 off with a bang with your brand new EP ‘Higher,’ could you tell us more about this project? Which single from “Higher” EP are you the most proud of?
I don’t know if Im prouder of the track Higher, but I definitely know that this one is more emotional for me, I see people having this kind of nostalgic but happy feeling while playing it live. When I wrote the lyrics of the track, the music took me to that exact same place. It talks about dont giving up on something or yourself and trying to get to a higher state of mind.
How is “Higher” EP different from your previous releases?
The A side ¨Higher¨ is super different from my previous releases, is a breakbeat downtempo track and I have never released something like this. I tried to take my vocal recording to sound as an old sampled piece of music on top of a chopped drum recording I made a long time ago and found on a lost hard drive. The B side Ïrreplaceable¨ was born from a live improvisation while shooting a video in Tulum, Mexico and is a more organic drum sounding track with lyrics that evoke an internal struggle for balance. This one would be more in the line of my previous releases.
Who are some artists, of any genre, that you’ve had on repeat lately?
I’ve been listening to Bicep on repeat now, I totally love their sound and their approach on electronic musical structure.
From your experience, what’s the most challenging, and the most rewarding, aspects of working in the music industry as an artist?
The most challenging is for sure not sleeping too much! sometimes finishing a show and having to go straight to an airport to make it to the next city. I always needed my eight hour sleep to be functional and now I am re educating my body to be able to be sharp sleeping just a little bit.
The most rewarding thing is definitely to see the people reaction to music that I spent so many hours making, and the thing I enjoy the most is making music in the studio with a good cup of coffee:)
What was your biggest highlight of 2022?
Release wise maybe the two releases in Afterlife and the chance to remix an Argentinian band I’ve been a fan since forever called Babasonicos.
What are you most excited about in 2023?
The releases that are coming! I cant wait to see how people reacts to this music. I have some originals and some collaborations with amazing artists who I respect so much. I really can wait to put out all of this music.
Juan Hansen – Higher EP is out now via MEIOSIS: https://lnk.to/JHHigher