‘Skyline’ marks Makebo’s most extensive release since restarting his career under his current moniker in 2018. It follows a natural progression which has seen him release on Shanti Moscow Radio, join the Fidem Community, and even sign a remix to the legendary Anjunadeep records. Despite his short tenure in the melodic and organic house spaces, Makebo has already seen support from some of the genres’ biggest figureheads—including Guy J, Hernan Cattaneo, Gabriel & Dresden, and more.

Hear from the artist what makes him tick as we caught up with him about his influences, passions, and more.

At what point in your life did you have that moment where you said to yourself “This is it. This is the type of music I want to create?”

There was this kind of feeling after watching Lee Burridge’s live set at Robot Heart – Burning Man 2013

Please list some of the most influential LPs on your creative outlook and output:

James Lavelle – Oneworld Unkle mix BBC radio one 10/10/2003

Anthony Pappa – Balance 006 Disc 1

Trifonic – Emergence

Hidden Orchestra – Wingbeats

Bonobo – Migration

Moderat – III

What key pieces of gear/software are you using to define your sound?

I have fun with stock plugins for mixing and create sounds with standard Phase-4, Polysynth, FM-4 synthesizers. Recently Bitwig updated the last version to 3. So we have a lot of things to explore for example their new instrument The GRID. And when we need music instruments like strings we use Kontakt Library. We enjoy editing group channels with T-rackS 5 emulations of classic EQ’s and compressors lately.

What is your opinion on the ever spreading sub-genre vine? Are there too many? Do you think there’ s perhaps a sub-genre that doesn’t get the attention it deserves?

Are there too many? Perhaps.

People frequently ask us about the genre of our music. We always answer: “electronic dance music” and name artists we like.

Nowadays it is easier to define the genre by name of an artist. Each artist is sub-genre.

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, what do you prefer?

Currently, I give preference to studio work and think it’s about time to change DJ sets to live shows.

As a music artist, it becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between the art and the business. Is there anything about the music scene that you would personally change?

We would probably change one thing. All artists should be more open to people and help their listeners to be more experienced in the music field. They should instill a love for music not for brand.

We always open playlists of our sets, recommend interesting events, discover new artists and invite them to our city when possible.

Any new or upcoming artists on your radar? Who shouldn’t the world sleep on?

We believe in the success of our Russian friends Zakir, Makebo, Amonita.

What can we expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects or gigs in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?

We just finished the new remix of Ishome – Kentavr for dikommmusic. And we are waiting for the release on Rune Recordings with our breaks remix of Soul Pixel – Andromeda.

At the end of October, we are planning to organize a party in the castle where we will present even more new tracks and will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of our radio show Sonar on Proton Radio.

Famous last words?

Listen to music which gives you goosebumps