DJ Vidis – real name Vidmantas Cepkauskas – is strolling through the streets of Lithuanian capital Vilnius in lazy autumn afternoon sunshine. Sighs of contentment ease along the long-distance phone line as we finally connect. It’s a supremely laidback atmosphere not unlike that conjured on Vidis’ radical new album Changed, recorded alongside friend and production partner Mario Basanov - real name Marijus Adomaitis.
The pair were introduced as recently as 2007, mutual friends noting their prowess within the Lithuanian music scene – Vidis, in terms of the dancefloor; Mario, a national pop-producing treasure – and deciding they were made for one another. It wasn’t long before debut track Test was released, under the considerable patronage of Gilles Peterson, and Mario & Vidis’ unified profile started to grow.
Zip forward to now and a debut album is before us, confidently reflecting the epic, cinematic ‘slow house’ sound with which these two Lithuanian creative types have swept all in clubland before them. Changed is both subtle and seismic. Early ecstatic reaction to sampler material suggests Mario & Vidis are about to explode; their choice of title seems so prophetic….
“The result [with Changed] and first reaction is great but we won’t let ourselves be overawed with what follows” Vidis begins. “We’ve never been hyped. We’re not Nicolas Jaar or someone. Therefore we feel no pressure or expectations about the future; we believe we can stay grounded, working as we always have.”
So where does the duo’s serene, contemplative attitude towards the dancefloor come from? House music continues to shake off the faster, darker, minimalist tendencies of recent years gone by; nonetheless those trappings still remain, and, in turn, contrasting output such as Mario & Vidis’ boldly stands out.
“We’ve always produced sad music” Vidis says. “Mario and I often joke about making melancholic music to dance too; it’s an interesting contradiction for sure. It’s partly based on where we live, Lithuania is a cold region and there’s isn’t always sun like today; we have bleak winters.
“At the same time, there’s something about making music in minor keys. There’s a perception within the dance community that if you always make happy music then you represent a shallow music maker. For us there is something interesting about not being happy; we can explore serious attitudes and ideas, and establish ourselves as serious, creative artists. But that is a black-and-white view and it’s not always so simple.”
Certainly, Changed is more than artful house groove. It is bold as brass - spanning two discs in order to convey all of its authors’ rich and detailed vision. Whilst one CD offers trademark M&V beats, the other explores bleepy, far-flung electronic soundscapes, fathomless gothic soul, haunting tech-pop and twisted computer jazz; amongst other challenging ideas. What were the boys thinking?
“We never intended to make such a big first album” Vidis laughs. “We just had so many ideas and demos, reflecting our interest in extended dance instrumentals and original vocals played over experimental downtempo sounds. We didn’t think they sat so well together on the same disc; they required the listener to make quite a shift, so we hit upon making the album a double-disc project. It made the whole project much more involved for us but we were able to say a lot more.”
So much more; which probably makes sense when you consider the pair’s very different backgrounds. Mario has always been tightly linked to the mainstream Lithuanian pop industry (although he has, during the past two years, chalked up underground disco releases for Needwant and Future Classic); Vidis, on the other hand, is a veteran of his country’s underground dance scene. Mario is a trained musician; Vidis is not, building his early reputation at MTV Baltic (he still works for the network) before establishing himself as DJ hero. This Yin-Yang combination of experiences has ensured Mario & Vidis enter the studio with broad minds and striking concepts.
“Our backgrounds are very different but our musical tastes were always very similar” Vidis asserts. “Aside from the various jobs we were doing within the music industry we shared a lot of the same ideas about what made great records when we first met. We approached working together very casually in the beginning but then it was clear we wanted to do more.”
So keen was Peterson on their debut single that he asked to release it immediately via his In The House compilation for Defected. Mario & Vidis hadn’t yet released, or even named it themselves, forced to offer up Test as a stopgap title which promptly stuck.
“We needed to call the track something whilst we were having these speedy discussions with Gilles and then suddenly we realised that the title really did work. The track was a test; an experiment, because working together was unknown territory. We didn’t know how things would work out.”
Peterson’s support for Test and, prior to that, Mario & Vidis’ first ever remix, a delightfully deep and soulful take on Robert Owens and Atjazz’s 2008 number Love Someone, gave them the career lift they needed. Subsequent single, I’ll Be Gone, featuring local singer/songwriter Jazzu, earned Peterson’s support once more and intensified interest in the pair from Ewan Pearson, Jazzanova and Laurent Garnier. The in-demand release, earlier this year, of Mario & Vidis’ titular album track has kept things snowballing.
“We’re not complacent about our progress to date” Vidis confides. “In fact, I’d say that we feel we’ve taken too long to get to this point. But then the electronic music scene is so competitive these days.”
Does Vidis worry about how he and Mario can continue to stand out? Long, beautifully drawn-out ‘slow house’ doesn’t sound like the sort of genre that can fair well in the current digital climate of quick one-track downloads. Commentators talk on about the gradual erosion of the album as music product, fuelled by the busy 21st century consumer’s increasing lack of time to sift through the sheer volume of new material being produced these days and find the beats that move them.
“Yes, services like iTunes have encouraged people’s faster consumption of music,” Vidis acknowledges. “And never has there been a time when so many electronic albums are being released. You can’t fight trends, but volume has also meant diversity and a space for different, ambitious sounds to live and breathe. We feel we have a great concept, and if you’ve got that then you can buck the trend and make an impact. It comes down to the quality of the music.
“Don’t get me wrong. It is harder for younger talents to come through today. I think the dance music scene has reached a point now where there is an ‘establishment’; some of the big artists from the 1990s are still at the top now regardless of how good they actually are. They have the contacts, money and power to dictate what much of the scene around them does. But the electronic music scene has really diversified and there is a lot of forward-thinking music being released. There’s a friction between the two sides but in no way is the future bleak for us, or any other newcomer for that matter.”
Away from forging their own new artistic path, Mario & Vidis are as busy as ever supporting Lithuania’s burgeoning club scene through associated work as local promoters, booking agency, radio station and imprint (Vidis’ radio show and label share the same name, Silence). Of course, their own rapidly developing profile has allowed all of these activities to take on an international dimension.
“Global economic recession has hit Lithuania particularly hard in recent years; many clubs have closed down” Vidis reflects. “We are a small country as it is with poor transport links in and out of the country which further restricts our scene; so we do whatever we can to support it. Even now, the club circuit is bigger than we ever dreamed it could have been 10 years ago, so we fight to protect it and bring in international acts to inspire it. Vilnius has some really high quality and creative scenes, particularly for dubstep, disco-house and heavy beat music. We need to keep nurturing them.”
And Vilnius’ music scene isn’t totally downbeat about recession – perversely, economic chaos has given many within the local music community further opportunity to shine. “I had a day-job at one point,” Vidis chuckles. “I was made redundant and that allowed me to spend more time on the music. I know many others with similar stories. Some things I guess are just meant to be….”
Mario & Vidis’ debut album Changed is due out on Silence Music (Lith) on 21st December.
