"I do it for my soul": Maor Levi on dance music and production

Musician, producer and DJ, Maor Levi is a young man hugely increasing the dance music stock of his home country of Israel, even though his big, melodic trance style goes over much better with his American and European fan bases than back home. Headliner chats with Levi about his refusal to stop releasing bangers over the last year, the state of trance in 2021 going into 2022, and how fellow Israelis, Waves Audio’s plugins have been a key part of his music and career for a very long time.

“I never had a plan to be a musician,” Levi says as Headliner asks about his first forays into music. 

“What I wanted to do was animation — to draw comics and cartoons. Then, when I was around the age of 12, one of my friends introduced me to DJ Tiësto, and I was really hooked on that music. Trance music is seen as being for adults, and we weren’t really allowed to hear it. It's electronic, it's for nightlife and parties, but I was listening to it and I fell in love. I got very curious about the process behind making the music.”

Listen to Levi’s music and you’d probably struggle to immediately picture a 12-year-old wannabe cartoonist. His take on the trance genre hits all its high points with euphoric electronic melodies and patient build-ups, interspersed with pummeling kick drums and basslines that easily fit the mould of dance music people would ascribe the term ‘banger’ to. 

He found himself signed with Anjunabeats at 15, the heavyweight trance and dance record label. And in a relatively tiny space of time, he has already worked with the likes of Steve Aoki, Skrillex and David Guetta.

As Levi and Headliner discuss the dilemma of releasing epic dance music in a time where people are stuck at home and clubs are shut, he explains why he nonetheless released his stunning EP, Am I Dreaming? With such cosmic tracks as Creator, Constellations and its title track.

“Most of the tracks are bangers,” Levi says. “But also, one or two tracks are more on the progressive and chill vibe. For me as a dance music producer, I'm still going to make dance music regardless [of whether or not clubs are open]. 

"I do it for my soul. Especially during the pandemic — I was going crazy. I figured, if I'm not going to make the music that I like, I'm gonna lose my mind as well. So I figured I'm just gonna do my thing.”

As we discuss how Levi’s love of Waves plugins began as a teenager, he explains that “as I became more professional in the music industry as a 16-year-old, I discovered Waves, but back then I had the pirated version. They’ll forgive me because back then I didn’t have any money to do anything! But Waves was one of the first bundles I installed on my computer, I could tell right away how pro they looked and sounded.

“I think a lot of companies offer the same kind of plugins, but Waves has its own signature. I love using their H-Delay — it’s probably my most used plugin when it comes to vocals and synths. H-Reverb is also very useful. 

"Waves just released the new SSL EV2 Channel and that has been used a lot in my recent projects. It has saved a lot of headaches for me. I'm using all their Multiband Compressors: The C4 and the C6. I also love their MetaFlanger, and a lot of the Abbey Road stuff as well.”

And as synths and drums are such a key part of Levi’s sound, he explains how using Waves plugins gets them sounding at their absolute best.

“I like to use all the Maserati plugins from Waves,” he says. “It's a really nice way to color the sound of the synths and drums. And then I’ll add some EQ with the SSL Channel or the SSL EV. I think the Maserati stuff in combination with the C6 compressor for taming harsh frequencies is a very, very good combo. I love the Maserati GTI on basslines as well.”

Hear such stunning work and production on Am I Dreaming, out now. And don’t forget, when Maor Levi fulfils his wish to be back fully touring, do not miss one of his blistering live sets.