smle Bring Their Unique Sound To Lowly Palace

Live electronic duo smle (Ruben and Lewis) enjoyed a breakthrough 2016 with standout performances at Ultra Music Festival and Moonrise festival and staple releases like “Halo” featuring Helen Tess on Monstercat. The guys have now kicked off 2017 in a big way with the release of “ Overflow ” on Trap Nation’s Lowly Palace. We caught up with Ruben to discuss the new track, the duo’s work with Helen Tess, and their plans for 2017! They also share an inspirational story about how the organic growth of a SoundCloud upload led to the smle project!

How did “Overflow” come about? How did you come to work with Helen Tess on this one?

Tess has always been a close collaborator on our project so this instance was no different. We’re always beyond ecstatic to work with Tess; almost every time we get together for a record we create something special.

When did Helen’s vocal factor into the production? Had you already built some of the track or did you build the track around the vocal?

We prefer starting songs with vocalists from the very beginning and writing it together to make sure the song complements the vocalist’s range and writing style as best as possible. Additionally we feel if all of us are developing concepts and experiencing the same emotions as the ideas progress, we’ll all be more on the same page as far as the direction and general feel of the song.

You’ve now worked with Helen Tess a few times. What do you like about her voice and how it goes with your productions?

We’ve always loved vocalists with thin and almost breathy voices, and therefore the first time that we heard Tess's voice a couple of years ago, we immediately fell in love with what she brought to the table.

Can you tell us about yourselves and how you came to work together as smle?

We’ve been writing music together since our freshman year of high school (so sometime during 2008). However, it wasn’t always smle, let alone electronic music. We would come home after school and write metal songs in my garage and sequence them on a program called Guitar Pro. Eventually we downloaded our first DAWs and kept writing music together. Throughout the duration of our high school days, we would send each other new songs almost everyday. We had a project before smle, and upon peak frustration with the direction of the project we began smle as a stress reliever and uploaded our first song “ Everyday ” to SoundCloud with no promo, PR, or anything, really just for the hell of it. The song ended up growing tremendously organically receiving an overwhelming amount of support and we haven’t looked back since.

What do you like about working with one another? What do you think is the biggest strength that you each bring into the project?

We’ve been best friends and also working together for almost ten years, so the aspect of a stable infrastructure is highly advantageous; we’ve definitely developed a very solid rhythm to our workflow over the years. There will always be hard times, but knowing we won’t burst into civil war over issues is comforting and reassuring. What’s beautiful about the partnership is the different influences in music that are brought to the table. Lewis delivers very strong melodies and has a keen ear/eye for concepts that are memorable and easy to hold onto. On the other end of the spectrum, having been in rhythm sections for most of my life, I bring in a strong rhythmic foundation to our music as well as handle more of the technical stuff [i.e mixing & live set configuration]. Our individual strengths in musicianship come together to provide a very solid foundation to build upon.

What were some of your highlights from last year?

2016 was amazing to us, and playing Ultra as our first show ever in our hometown Miami was absolutely incredible. Additionally our tour with Bro Safari was a life changing experience. He’s a great mentor and a great friend. On top of those incredible experiences, having our first main stage appearance at Moonrise Festival was unforgettable.

What has you excited for this year? What do you hope to achieve by the end of the year?

We’re beyond excited to go on a North American tour with our talented friend WRLD this March as well as release a TON of new music through some of our favorite labels that we’ve been preparing for the year. By the end of the year, we hope that our message will have reached as many people as possible, no matter the cost.