We recently caught up with one tech house’s leading artists, Mihalis Safras. Having released on majority of the heavy weight record labels, as well as performing all of the globe it was great to finally catch up with the man himself.

Let’s first start by talking about your new EP Afrodance being signed with Moon Harbour- how did you link up with them?

‘Hey Matthias, this is Mihalis shall we do my new EP on your label?’ Haha. Literally that was it. Moon Harbour is a label I really respect and was actually one of the few that I haven’t released so far. So there was no better option as the label style was exactly what I was looking for with Afrodance. Expect much more from us soon…(that sounded tad cheesey huh?:)

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What inspired you to produce Afrodance? Did you picture a certain club or crowd while you were making it?

I never picture crowds or crowd reaction when I produce as this will make me look like a jukebox producer. I wanted to present a summerish 2 tracker as I had a lot of pumpin stuff so far. To be honest lately I have been going more to modern-day tech house so Afrodance is back to my roots with a vocal and huge riff. When I was producing it I was dancing, so that was the inspiration for me too. 

Do you have any other releases planned for 2019?

I have tons of releases, just need to pencil them with my team and decide how and when we want to get them out there. Of course you can expect the eighth collaboration between me and the legend Green Velvet soon, and as we speak I’m working on stuff with Matthias Tanzmann. Plus I have remixed the huge Red Alert tune by Basement Jaxx that will also be out in 2019. 

You make a lot of collaborations with artists, like your good friend Green Velvet- is there anyone you have not produced a track with but would like to?

I am happy where I stand now and I select the people I want to work with. As strange as it might sounds I wouldn’t like to work with any other acts at the moment and would rather focus on finishing some solo EPs. Of course that doesn’t mean that there aren’t acts I admire and in the future would like to do something together, like Darius Syrossian for example. The good thing is that you can work with someone and the result ends up being one million times better than if you had produced it alone, or sometimes vice versa… it’s always an experiment. 

Where can we catch you performing the rest of this year?

It’s been a busy year so far, touring in the States, Washington, Los Angeles with Lalaland Relief family… then some more European shows in Italy and Spain and back to US for EDC Orlando, Golsrush Festival, Chicago etc. too many to mention but very excited to go. Best way is to just follow me on socials and the rest will follow too.

https://www.facebook.com/mihalissafras/videos/464672800957271/

What is the most satisfying thing about being a DJ/artist and what is the most testing?

Seeing people smile and dance while you DJ is a wonderful feeling. That feeling is even better when the music being played is produced by you. Same feeling is when you sit in the studio and out nowhere you produce this bassline that makes your eyes like eggs. Then you feel like you invented the wheel. All in all we all know that Dj life is a strange life basically cause of the inner issues that loneliness creates, in addition to the fact that our scene is too competitive. This is a cocktail that sometimes makes you lose control in a good or bad way. I prefer to stay grounded and move on day by day as being a DJ and enjoying it is a gift! 

As a producer in the studio, you spend a lot of time alone in the studio- how do you motivate yourself and stay on top of your workload?

You need to be organized, which a lot of artists are not. That’s why I have the same project with a million titles. I learnt my lesson and since then I have to be organised as hell by keeping notes etc.

Do you have a favourite piece of gear in the studio that you always use when producing tracks? And is there something you wish you never bought?

Novation Bass-station and a few days ago got the Model D. Lets see what it is about, I’m really excited to use it in my next production. Of course could type a huge list of my favorites VSTs. On the other side I wish I had never bought these three cheeseburgers from McDonalds last night… honestly hahaha.

Who’s your favourite artist right now?

Kink.