Contirbutor
Following their debut release of 2023 ‘Elysium’, we sit down with the heads of Volante Records, Orient Heights aka DJ Tao and Greg Venezia.
Hi guys, it’s great to have the chance to speak with you today. For those who have yet to hear your sound how would you describe it?
We’d like to say that at heart we are melodic techno guys but we don’t want to pigeonhole our sound down to just one genre. In the past, our releases have straddled the lines between melodic techno, progressive house, and deep house. We still think we are in the early stages of the evolution of our sound, and we’re excited to see where this journey takes us!
You have just released your single Elysium on your very own Volante Records, what is the story behind the track?
We’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from the Swedish progressive house scene of the early 2010’s and it’s had a profound impact on our sound. Specifically, Eric Prydz, Jeremy Olander, and Fehrplay were some of our biggest inspirations when we started producing, and we wanted to create something that served as a nod to that golden era that meant so much to us with Elysium.
How does your sound working together differ to your own solo works? Do you take on separate roles when working together?
Greg: I had a pretty sizable catalog as a solo artist, a lot of my finished productions still sounded fairly experimental in nature, and didn’t really work as tracks that could be successfully played in nightclubs. Our music as Orient Heights is definitely much more suited for live shows, and Luke has found really creative ways to implement his own style in our productions and DJ sets in a way that fans have received really positively.
Luke: While I had played around with music production before I met Greg, I didn’t have anything quite ready for primetime until we started working together. He’s taught me so much about how to structure compositions and I’m really proud of how our sound has come to evolve since our first track.
Luke: My wealth of experience as an open format and an opening DJ has added a very unique creative element to our productions and live sets. One of the things that make us stand out as a duo is that our sets often feature elements one might be pleasantly surprised to hear included in sets beyond the traditional norms of what might be considered ‘proper’. While we definitely try to push our creative boundaries as a duo and bounce a lot of things off of each other, we are absolutely united in our vision for how our sound shall continue to grow.
Do your musical backgrounds differ?
Luke: While we both started off with classical music backgrounds at a very early age (violin at age 3 for Greg, piano at age 5 for me) – our musical paths when we reached adulthood could not have been more different. Greg attended a music conservatory in Ohio, while I quit classical piano to pursue a career in DJ’ing. Inspired by hip hop music at an early age, I initially started off his DJ career as a hip hop DJ. I’ve spent the last 12 years honing his craft as a versatile open format DJ with expertise in multiple genres, playing in clubs across the United States as both a headliner and as an opener for bigger acts. I discovered his true passion for electronic dance music during the beginning of the great EDM boom of the early 2010’s and began dedicating more of my time towards playing and creating house music. When I first met Greg at one of the festivals I was playing, we clicked almost immediately when realizing we both loved progressive house, and we became joined at the hip ever since.
Greg: As Luke said I’ve been playing and writing classical music for a VERY long time. At conservatory, I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the road that classical music has taken me down. My disillusionment with the rigidity and lack of opportunities within the modern classical scene coincided with my discovery of electronic dance music, which seemed to be everything that classical music wasn’t. While it was equally competitive, there were no rules, no boundaries, and so much more room for creative experimentation. Every act had their own unique sound and the freedom to evolve as they saw fit. When I discovered progressive house in the form of Eric Prydz’s first album, it was off to the races! I think both of us being classically trained definitely helps with our approach to our productions, and it’s something we will probably continue to lean on moving forward.
Take us into the studio, what is your current set up like?
Working totally in the box these days. During the pandemic I got a new M1 Pro Macbook and have since switched from FL / Windows to Logic / Mac. I really like the Logic workflow so far, although sometimes I do miss FL’s piano roll. My go to synths lately have been Diva, Arturia Pigments, Serum, and a bit of Logic’s ES1. The Soundtoys and Fabfilter plugin suites are my favorite that I’ve tried so I use those in probably every track.
What more can we expect to hear from you this year music wise?
Our next release will be coming out soon on a label that we really respect, DearDeer. We’ve been playing those tracks in all of our club sets, so we are really excited for that to come out – there’s a remix from Kiko (such an underrated DJ from France) that we just absolutely LOVE and can’t wait to share with everyone. For the second half of the year we hope to begin unveiling a vocal house tracks with one of our super talented friends Kiara Janae. One thing that’s great about Boston: there are so many talented musicians in this area!
Are there any standout gigs where we can see you play?
We actually just finished playing one of the biggest shows of our careers playing with Yotto and Anden at Brooklyn Steel last week. Our next show is opening for Mathame at our hometown club of Bijou Boston at the end of March, and we have a very exciting summer lineup that we can’t wait to share with everyone when we’re finally allowed to. Our friends at Real Talent Management have been absolutely incredible keeping our schedule busy across the east coast; we owe a lot of our early successes to Binoy Shah and the Real Talent Management team!
Pick up a copy of Elysium here.