Surefire providers of hypnotic grooves and deep, dynamic soundscapes, Hard To Tell – or Roy & Roi as they’re otherwise known – certainly know how to bring the heat. Conjuring up elements from all cultures and eras (from Detroit techno and house to cold/new wave, via breakbeat and electroid dynamics) the pair syncs with the flow of the moment and amplifies its grip on the listener’s soul with every bar. Drawn to immersive club narratives that think outside the box and challenge the status quo, their compositions span the fringe between muscular functionality and hedonistic suavity, nimbly moving the cursor from oneiric etherealness to heavy-duty, steel-clad punch.
Following a brace of career-defining releases on TAU and Innervisions at the end of last year with their ‘Love Pedal’ EP and ‘Last Forever’, the duo now returns to Adana Twins’ long-standing imprint alongside Yet More, with their new single ‘Voila’. We caught up with the guys to find out more.
Read the interview below…
Hey guys! 2023 looked like an incredible year for you both. Could you share your highlights?
Hey guys, we are very happy to be here with you! Yeah the last year was crazy for us, with a lot of new music and shows in places that we wanted to be! The highlights were our new EP on TAU “Love Pedal” and our last release on Innervisions “Last Forever”. We also had really good time playing all-nighter sets at Volt Milano & Sisyphos Berlin .
How did you both join up together?
It was actually six years ago that we opened our project as a duo. We realized that we love very similar things in life and music, so it just made sense.
You launched “Last Forever” as part of Innervisions’ Secret Weapons Part 16 VA compilation. How does it feel to link up with Innervisions?
It feels amazing to be able to release our music for the second time on such a big label like Innervisions! We really appreciate all their hard work and very unique selections and we’ll keep working hard to have more things with them in the future.
You dropped the Love Pedal EP in December. Can you share your inspirations behind the project?
So the “Love Pedal” EP is our debut release on Adana Twins’ TAU imprint. When we worked on this title track we knew we wanted it to be something different and not only “dance floor” tunes. In the EP there are a lot of emotions and you feel the mix between melancholy and uplifting vibes. We used a lot of live percussion recordings and also a lot of sounds that we don’t usually use (like the trumpet sound for example) that we feel make it special.
Can you describe your creative process?
First of all we try to sit in the studio at least 3 or 4 times a week. We always focus to bring something new to the table, like a new sound or a different wave. We spend a lot of hours listening to music from the past and from present day and we take a lot of inspiration from both. Each one of us tell our own vision and feelings and then we start to make music. If we get stuck on something for too much time we can just move forward to new project till we got it 🙂
What artists do you take inspiration from?
Actually there are a lot of artists that have inspired us over the years. We love the sound of Detroit techno of the 90’s 80’s; artists like Robert Hood, DVS1, Laurent Garnier, Kenny Larkin and more.
Looking ahead what can fans expect from Hard To Tell in 2024 in terms of performances, collaborators and projects?
In 2024 we will have a few more nice releases in labels that we love. The first release will be on January 19th on TAU; a collaboration with our good friend and broski “Yet More”. The tune is called “Voila” .
Beyond that, all we can tell you is that there will be a lot of new music and collabs on the way this year! Also we will make few more all-nighter sets around the world and we really look forward to seeing all of you somewhere soon! It’s gonna be a perfect & interesting year for sure with a lot of new adventures, so stay tuned 🙂
Listen to the track here…