Formed in early 2012, funky duo Televisor joined forces to “help re-ignite the disco flame in modern dance music.” With a number of releases across several labels, including Monstercat, EpicNetworkMusic, Kiez Beats, Stardust Records, and more, the discopop/french house superstars have become mainstays in the contemporary music scene. Check out our interview with them below.

FS: Hey everyone! You’re in luck. Today, we’ve got an interview with a pretty fantastic pair of musicians on The French Shuffle. Let’s get right into it, shall we? So, T-E-L-E-V-I-S-O-R. Tell us about the name and why you picked it. Were you close to choosing a different name?

T: Well actually, Televisor means “television” in Bulgarian and my wife (Tom’s wife) is Bulgarian. I’d heard that word a lot so we decided that would be a cool name. Other names, I can’t remember.

I think that was one of those moments where you say the name as first choice and both of you think “nailed it!” I don’t seem to remember that there was a name like “Wild Passion” flying around.

FS: Wow, that’s actually pretty cool! Well, at least you can save Wild Passion for a side project. It’s always fun to ask DJs and producers about the name they chose, but how did you come to create your current sound? Did you experiment with multiple genres in the beginning? Tell us about some of your inspirations too.

T: It wasn’t a case of experimenting I don’t think. We had some similar influences and a love for 80s TV soundtracks, so we just started throwing lots and lots of sounds into a project and basically edited out the ones we didn’t have time for. Throw in the odd synth or guitar solo and you have Televisor!

We also think that we have mixed quite a few genres all together in one pot. I don’t think we are nu-disco and I don’t think we are French house. But sometimes we are both of them at the same time. Find That Someone (purchase here) is not House or Disco, but it has elements of those genres in it.

Then, if you look at Remember Me By (purchase here), you will see that it is just a pop song about breaking up. It’s always difficult though to strike the right balance of how you should sound or how you want to sound, because you have two people writing music, and sometimes, you have two different ideas of how the finished product should sound.

It’s just a case of coming to an agreement and letting both of our influences and ideas shine through and trusting the other person with their ideas, which is sometimes difficult because when you spend hours writing music, that track becomes your baby.

I think that’s where the Televisor sound came from; going in directions with tracks that you wouldn’t have gone in, had you been working on your own. In the end, all the tracks become the baby and we are the parents.We are proud of what we have done and you can hear both of us in all the tracks. So, the child is pretty funky and groovy.

FS: Quite an interesting take on your sound child. It seems like you guys definitely have a fusion of multiple genres and inspirations, and when we first heard your music, we knew that there was nothing out there like it.

So, let’s chat more about your track, Find That Someone. What was the production process like? Was it fun working with Richard Judge?

T: No, he’s a miserable bugger! Haha, no he is a real gentleman and has one of those voices that sends shivers down your spine. The production process was just us messing around with some ideas we had, and then, we ended up with a vocoder voice, which didn’t really do much for the song.

We didn’t think the song was very good, but as soon as the vocals were laid down, it started to shine! It kind of all snowballed from there really and we have had a great response to the track. It just goes to show that you can’t always be sure which songs will work and which ones won’t.

FS: Haha, that’s crazy! We thought the song was very well done, but we haven’t heard the instrumental alone. Richard Judge is quite a talented vocalist though, and we certainly hope you’ll collaborate with him on future Monstercat releases!

So, you’ve been with Monstercat for quite some time now. Are there any artists on the label that you’d really like to collaborate with? We’ve been listening to a lot of Pylot’s work recently.

T: Well, we’d love to collaborate with all of them actually! They are all great at what they do, so it would be unfair to say that we would like to collaborate with just one.

They surely are a great bunch though. The production levels are absolutely amazing, I mean, where else can you find such polished producers and composers? Perhaps, only with Taylor Swift’s writing team! Or, does she write her own stuff?

FS: Haha, understandable. Well, it’s finally 2016! So, there’s more than enough time to get a few collaborations under your belts. What do you have in store for the year? Remixes, EPs, an album, or perhaps, a tour?

T: Well, its much the same as 2015 I guess. Last year was not a very “Monstercat year” for us, as we didn’t really release that much, or at least as much as we would have wanted. We were very busy doing remixes, writing songs with others, and basically coming up with stuff which we were really happy with.

The music industry is a funny old place and sometimes people don’t feel the remix you have done, or they decide that the music you make isn’t for them. This means we have a whole hard disk drive full of tunes that we are trying to find singers for, so you can expect those to pop up.

We would love to tour a bit more and see more of our fans, and we are also sure there will be remixes to come, but at the moment, it’s a case of sitting down in the studio and writing. We have some great tunes ready to go, so let’s see what happens. As long as the fans enjoy it and we enjoy it, then we will keep on going.

FS: Well, hopefully, we’ll get to see you on tour soon! And, we definitely look forward to hearing all of those unreleased sounds – you’re getting us excited! Speaking of 2016, any New Years resolutions?

T: Eat more organic food, go to bed earlier, buy an Oberheim keyboard – I’m sure there were others, but they’ve already been broken many times over.

FS: Final words for our friends viewing The French Shuffle?

T: Thanks everyone for listening to our music, it really means a lot to us! Having people ask us questions and write such lovely stuff about us is really what makes it worthwhile. If you feel like giving us a virtual hug, then please leave us a Facebook message!

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