By Camila Álvarez
Zev Eisenberg and Gadi Mizrahi aka Wolf + Lamb, met in Williamsburg in the early 90s and have since toured the US from coast to coast, including numerous appearances at Burning Man in the Nevada desert. Since, they’ve taken their turntable game around the globe, dropping sets in Germany, England, Mexico, Poland, Holland, the Garden Festival in Croatia and the renowned MUTEK in Montreal.
They created The Marcy Hotel, a New York nightlife gem that’s not only a hotel, it’s the birthplace of many artists they helped develop. They’ve mixed dozens of tracks, from minimal techno, to pop, to jazz, and in 2010 they released an LP called Love Someone; a sensual trip- slow, but fluid at all times, as only the best of deep house can do. Last year they stamped their name in the famous album series from the !K7 label, DJ Kicks, and are currently holding down a residency at The Electric Pickle.
Zev is a vegetarian and the brain of the duo. Ironically, his name means “wolf” in Hebrew. Producing and seeing his musical offspring flourish are the things he enjoys the most. Gadi is the sensitive side. He’s the heart. His name means “lamb” but he’s no victim by any means. On the contrary, he loves being on the prowl for geniuses such as Nicolas Jaar, Soul Clap, Deniz Kurtel, Tanner Ross, Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves, and Slow Hands, whom feed their eclectic label. Both are putative fathers. Their specialty is the adoption of artists, with whom they cook up some of the finest jams to offer the world in one of the freshest electronic menus out there.
New York and The Marcy, more than anything, were the cradle of your greatness. Why did you decide to leave the city and come to Miami?
NY is still our home, both of us till go to Brooklyn multiple times a year. Zev and I decided that when touring gave us enough money to live in a place with good weather, we’d do it. Miami is a really relaxed city and it gives us the opportunity to focus in on producing when we’re not touring. Two years ago we finished the DJ Kicks mix with Soul Clap in Miami; last year we made a large portion of our mini album in the same place.
One day, when you sent a track to Lee Foss through YouSendit, you had the idea of having an online community in which all artists in the label can share their creations. How has it evolved?
Sharing music and projects has become an integral process for keeping all of our team members on the same page. We like to get involved in everyone’s projects. It also helps having all of our sounds evolve in tandem, even if we’re not all together.
They say you’re much more reluctant than Zev regarding letting tracks slip out of the family so they’re free for the world to download. How do you manage this?
We’ve been publishing music for years and that’s not a problem. We’ve reached a midway point for both of us and we’re all happy: us, artists, people that buy music, and those who steal it!
We know that you like change, and that you’ don’t like being trapped in categories. What concepts are you exploring this moment?
I feel like we’ve always been playing with the idea of slowing down the tempo of the music we make and play. Deniz Kurtel’s music has a more exciting tempo, compared to the music that’s been coming out of our labels. We’ve also been having fun with a bit of reggae/dub and dancehall.
How would you describe the music scene- sound as well as atmosphere- what are you’re proposing?
We always thought house parties were the holy grail: everyone’s happy, smiling, and everyone knows each other. People aren’t dressed for impressing others, and no one is trying to be someone different than who they are. The reason why they all meet-up in that place is to connect with other people and dance until sunrise. Translating this to a place with 600 people is difficult sometimes, but if you know what you’re shooting for you can get pretty close.
You’ve performed at Burning Man in numerous occasions and you’ve said that this festival has really influenced your life as artists. How has this experience been?
Black Rock City is the shit when it comes to self-expression. Besides naked people, there’s moments which really change the “human experience” and that inspire in levels we’ve never felt before. Since we’ve been going for more than a decade, naturally we can see how it’s become a part of our spirit and our art, of course.
Aside from Wolf + Lamb you already have other labels. Tell us about them...
Each of these four labels takes on very different functions. One is for emerging artists and the other is for publishing edits and covers from, mostly, music from the past. Everyone’s on the same wavelength, even though one of their labels can diversify itself and open pathways for the other ones to follow it for some time.
What have you learned about music that the world still doesn’t know?
For us, music worked out through relationships as well as content. When we invest our time in someone’s music, we want to develop a relationship we’d like, with the people we love.
