Read the YOGS Interview below and share it on social media.

Please tell our readers who you are and what you do?

My artist name is YOGS. I use to produce under the name YOGI for many years (since 2000). I recently made the tough choice of re-branding to YOGS after I noticed many other acts using the name "YOGI". I was born and raised in Chicago. Being the birthplace of House music, I fell in love with the dance music scene early on. I started DJing in the early 90's. I would play everything from hip hop (back when it was good ? to euro, to new wave, to chicago hard house, to underground music. I played what I liked, and I still believe in that idea. Genres are just to make categorizing in stores easier. At around 2000, I began to produce, and I released tracks on my own imprints (vinyl) Ohm Music, and Noir. I focused more on production rather than DJing. As only a hobby still, I only produced music during rare free times. Toward 2010, I began devoting more time to production, and in the era of digital music, started a digital label Lotus Music Group. I had sub labels off of that to focus on specific genres. I produced all forms of house, trance, bigroom, EDM, trap and techno. Some tracks I signed to other labels such as Moody Records, Street King, Broken Records, Manufactured Music, DUBTRXX, and Shift Axis.
I changed gears once again, and started to focus more on my beloved House music (in all its forms). I put out music on Water Tower records, and most recently, introduced the 42 North imprint. I hope to release the variations of house that I enjoy. I hope to also put out some harder techno, as I have always enjoyed that as well.
I have never lost my love for DJing as well. And in this era of pre-programmed, over night DJs, I see a clear lack in the true art of DJing. I really enjoy mixing styles, and classics into fresh sounding sets. Anyone can play every big tune set at 128bpm. It takes skill to vary things up in an organic matter.

How would you describe your influences and how have they changed over the years?

As a teenager I grew up listening to Bad Boy Bill's mixes on the radio here in Chicago. He was my biggest influence back then. I am glad to see that he is still a success domestically and internationally. Another influence was a guy by the name of Carlos who worked at the record store I frequented. His taste in music was superb. He would always point me in the direction of the hottest tracks, and future hot tracks. He went on to his own gigantic success story. You may know him as DJ Sneak ?
Over the many years, I can say that my influences did not change much. If anything, I just added more people. Names like Derrick Carter, Cajmere/Green Velvet, Todd Terry, Adam Beyer, Joris Voorn, Mark Knight, Harry Romero, Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Carl Cox, and yes, even Yanni have been there from the beginning and still influence me today in different ways. Newer additions (not necessarily newer artist) like The Black Madonna, Hot Since 82, Claude VonStroke, Tiga, Patrick Topping, Ben Remember, and Adrian Hour have struck my fancy over the past few years as well. I know that I am leaving out a ton of people. Those are just the very few that came off the top of my head. Good music is good music. I don't care who produced it. I often times, purposely don't look at the artist. I people the masses are far too quick to jump on to a track just because "so and so" made it. To me, that does a dis-service to the progression of the scene.

What´s new right now?

The upcoming EP "House Trails" contains 4 tracks, from the deeper Veritus, to the more tech house Body Mover.
You can listen to them all here:
https://soundcloud.com/yogs42/sets/yogs-house-trail-ep-42-north
The release will be a Beatport exclusive on March 1st, and will then hit all the other outlets two weeks later on March 15th.

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Are you a superfan of anyone? How did you become a superfan? Do you remember how you become a fan and what turned you into super fan? Have you ever thought about why you´re such a fan?

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What was the biggest mistake you made when you started making music and what would be the number one tip you could give to a newcomer musician?

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How do you get gigs? Can you share any tips?

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Do you have good promotion tips for other musicians?

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Do you have insights on how to grow your audience on soundcloud that you want to share with our audience?

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What has been your biggest challenge right now? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

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How do you personally discover new music?

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Once you discovered new music, do you tell others about the new music/artist you discovered? If yes, how exactly?

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What is your number one tip to improve your music production or songwriting skills?

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What is your best tip for those who struggle with finishing their tracks?

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We meet again in one year. What has changed?

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http://www.soundcloud.com/yogs42

http://www.facebook.com/yogs42

http://www.twitter.com/tweetyogs

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Enter your questions to the artist in the facebook comment section below.
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