Roy is an acclaimed DJ/producer who is part of a long line of esteemed artists to hail from Israel.

He started his career playing in small bars before working his way up to bigger dance clubs, and outdoor festivals around his home country. These days, with bookings from all around the world, Roy can truly call himself a global citizen…

This is in no doubt due to his beautiful and emotive sounds, which has seen him sign with a wide variety of record labels including All Day I Dream, Lost & Found, and Systematic. And, who can forget one of 2015’s greatest anthems, ’Epika’, a co-production with Guy Mantzur released on the highly regarded German label Kompakt. You will also find his productions from those labels, alongside artists like Lee Burridge, Khen, and Sebastien Leger on this Balance Selections mix.

With many high charting tracks, and collaborations with some of the worlds most respected electronic music artists, you know you will be in good hands with Roy Rosenfeld.

Balance Selections Q+A

Name: Roy Rosenfeld
Location: Tel Aviv
Facebook: https://w ww.facebook.com/rosenfeldroy/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/royrosenfeld
Alias/Producer name: Roy Rosenfeld
Labels affiliated with: All Day I Dream / Lost & Found

My last 3 releases:

Roy Rosenfeld – Rumbala EP [All Day I Dream]
Roy Rosenfeld – 16Yo [All Day I Dream]
Roy Rosenfeld – What Makes You Smile [Flying Circus]

What music did you listen to as a child?
What I clearly remember is that I loved listening to Enigma’s album “The Cross of Changes” back in 1994. I was 7 years old.

There were a few other specific songs or tracks that caught me immediately and I’m pretty sure that they all together helped designing my musical taste, for example:

The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist, Aviv Geffen – With the Time, Hemi Rudner – Melancholy My Love, Three Drives – Greece 2000, St Germain – Rose Rouge just to mention a few…

When was the first time that you realized that you liked electronic music?
It’s safe to say that I was born into the electronic music era. My sister has used to listen to some house music albums (there were a bunch of them in my parents car). I remember she introduced me to Deep Dish’s album, and mentioned a few times Danny Tenaglia. I was 13-14 years old.

I think that my passion to electronic music started in this phase. Already back then I realized that I’m interested in producing electronic music and be a DJ as well.

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?
Back in 2002/2003, I started going out to some famous local clubs in Jerusalem, for example: Haoman 17, HaTa’asia and more.

This is where I was first introduced to electronic music parties and at that time I already realized that I love it.

Sahar Zangilevitch, which is now a good friend of mine and still an amazing DJ, has used to be a resident DJ of Haoman 17 club, as well as Yuval Zach. I loved listening to them playing.

The clubs have used to book well-known international DJ’s on a weekly basis, so it was always exciting to follow, even tho I was underage 🙂

Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?
Each artist I’m inspired from has their own unique touch and access to my soul. It’s usually not a specific track or album, it’s mostly an element and feel/mood.

Just to mention a few: Hans Zimmer, Nils Frahm, Stimming, David August, deadmau5, Sebastien Leger, Lee Burridge, Matthew Dekay, Guy J, Maetrik (Maceo Plex).

What else inspires me is- crowd reactions, time of the season and my personal feelings (happiness, love, anger, sadness, motivation etc) – best music comes out of sadness 🙂

What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?
Just bought YokoO’s first album on All Day I Dream – looking forward to find the right time to listen to it- but it sounds super dreamy, peaceful and interesting from the first listen on the preview.
Looking forward to Yariv A.K.A Stereo Underground’s album to come out next month on Balance! Yariv is a pure soul and a good friend of mine, and his album is simply STUNNING!
Khen still holds the title of the best album’ in my opinion. ‘One Day of Independence’ was released in 2016 on Guy J’s Lost & Found label- I still play some of the album’s tracks in my sets!

What is your current production and DJ set up like?
I don’t have an amazing studio with 30 Synthesizers and controllers.
I use both hardware and software- usually Novation’s Peak and Virus C for pads, arpeggios, high-mid synth sounds and Minilogue by Korg for warmer synth and bassline sounds.
As for DJing I mostly use 4XCDJ 2000NXS2 and DJM900NXS2 mixer by Pioneer.
The reason I play with at least 3 CDJ’s is to keep the drive on during my sets, so i have the option to keep 2-3 loops on while the main track is in the front of the mix.
My sets are progressively built and as for that, it is really important for me to keep the flow on and not let it break too many times.

What releases do you have on the horizon?
I have just released my second solo EP on All Day I Dream. It’s called ‘Rumbala’ and it contains 4 tracks with different moods, but all make sense together as a release.
The feedbacks are simply incredible and inspiring. I’m really happy with this release, and looking forward to play them out during the summer.
The next EP to be released is coming out soon on TRYBESof (a new imprint by Lee Burridge). The anticipation for ‘The Biggest Heart’ is pretty big already as it was played by Lee many times on his gigs around the world. It was featured also on his latest BBC Radio 1 ‘Essential Mix’.
The anticipation for the second track on this EP also exists already. As you probably can tell, I’m excited with this release. You can find it in the mix I did for Balance and it’ll be out somewhere in June 🙂

There are a few more releases to be announced, so, stay tuned…

Where can we hear you perform?
APR 14 @ Parlour (Day-time event) [Toronto, CA] APR 18 @ Drama Club (Rumbala- release party) [Tel-Aviv, IL] APR 20 @ NOM (with Audiofly) [Barcelona, ESP]

Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?
It usually takes me a few days to choose which tracks i want to feature on my sets. Since it’s a ‘listening’ experience and not a live-feel/party experience, I prefer to programming a studio mix, at my DAW instead of recording it ‘live’ directly from the CDJ’s. This is what I did in this case, for Balance.
For this podcast mix I decided to include new music by Khen, Essay, Sebastien Leger, Lost Desert & Lee Burridge, Volen Sentir, Slow Hearts Tom Demac and of course myself, but I would like to give the spotlight to Eli Nissan’s new AMAZING track ‘Arpu’, which is set to be released next month on Lost & Found. It plays a main role in my sets!!!

My Recommendations

The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:
Roy Rosenfeld – The Biggest Heart [TRYBESof]

If I could recommend only one of my tracks for you to listen to it would be:
Guy Mantzur & Roy Rosenfeld, Keinemusik – Epika + Muyé (Roy’s Mashup) [Kompakt + Keinemusik]