DJLarge

Direct Drops “Sehnsucht” with AK: Monstercat-affiliated electronic musician Direct, aka Joseph Lyncheski, got his start when he was messing around with sound at the age of eight.

“My family had a couple of cassette recorders and a Casio keyboard which I have vivid memories of recording and tracking vocals overtop,” he says. “I’m sure it was quite bad. I asked my parents to buy me FL Studio for my 13th birthday and started experimenting with electronic music production. I began taking it quite seriously throughout high school when I found dubstep and drum n’ bass through friends. It became my desired career path before my 18th birthday around the time I submitted a track to Monstercat, the label I primarily work with now, and was accepted.”

The artist says that he tends to bounce between genres.

“[I] tend to pull from the UK garage and future garage sound and turn it into anything from chillout to more upbeat house tunes.”

Obviously, Direct says that the pandemic had a huge impact on the electronic scene, shuttering some venues. But the scene remains vibrant.

“When I speak to other artists about this, they either tell me they just stayed focused and worked on music throughout lockdown, or they felt quite unproductive,” he says. “That being said, I’m personally very excited about the current state of electronic music. There is a lot of energy coming out of the pandemic. Crowds seem excited and eager to take in new music, and I think because of this, a new wave of up-and-coming artists are breaking into the live scene who were not present before the pandemic, myself included.”

His latest single is “Sehnsucht” a collaboration with AK.

“I personally tend to write music and figure out the meaning later,” Direct says. “Sometimes there is a feeling there that you aren’t quite aware of while making a tune but one that becomes very clear after it is finished. Sehnsucht is a German word meaning longing or desire. When AK and I were discussing what the title should be we brought up the feeling of a journey or some sort of gateway into your own thoughts. A turning inwards or self-reflective feeling. We felt like ‘Sehnsucht’ fit that feeling that we were trying to get across. The collaboration unfortunately had to take place online. We live quite far apart. I am in the US and AK is in Germany. Earlier this year we were toying with the idea of collaborating again for the first time in five years. AK sent over a few ambient pieces that he created on his iPad and I picked one and it became the start to the tune.”

Looking ahead, Direct says that he is always working on new singles.

“But I am finishing up an EP right now which is filled with tunes I worked on throughout the pandemic,” he says. “If all goes well, I hope to have this out sometime in early 2022.”

Direct Drops “Sehnsucht” with AK: The “Sehnsucht” single with AK is out now.

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