Madrid-based duo Disaia shares about the positive response to their most recent album and what’s next for them as a duo, including plans for a South American tour.
Spanish duo Disaia, made up of Victor Morato and Jesús Garrido, has been busy since first bringing the project to life in 2017. Currently based out of Madrid, but originally from the small town of Extremadura, they’ve dropped plenty of music that’s been signed to Jamie Jones and Lee Foss’s Hot Creations, Moon Harbor, Solarado’s Sola, and many others.
Disaia has grown an impressive discography over the past eight years, but just a few months ago, the duo released their most ambitious project yet – an album titled The Sun. This cross-genre collection of tunes is rooted in house but draws influences from all different styles of music, and since its release, it’s generated a positive response from fellow tastemakers and fans alike.
After the album had some time to marinate, Disaia sat down with us to chat about this project, the response to the album, and what’s next for them as a duo. Listen to The Sun on Spotify or your favorite streaming platform and read on for the full conversation.
Stream Disaia – The Sun on Spotify
Hey guys, thanks so much for joining us today. Let’s jump into it! Tell us about your recent LP, The Sun. How did it come about, and what gave you the idea to release it on your label?
Our new album was born from a hangout with friends. We have a friend who is a singer, and he was spending a few days at our place with us. We simply wanted to make music for fun, to try a different way of producing using real instruments. We had a great time working like that. We always had in mind to release an album with many tracks—something everyone advises against—but we had the desire to do it.
The main reason for releasing it on our own label is to preserve our creativity and artistic vision—to have control over the masters, the final sound, the artwork, the videos… We wanted to keep our creative vision as the top priority. Now we can say it’s another dream come true for us. It’s something we worked on for more than a year in a very personal way, and different from what we had done in the past. The best decision was to release it through our own label because of the sentimental value that each of those songs has, and always will have for us.
It’s been a couple of months since the release. How has the response been? What did you hope your fans would take away from the album?
We’ve been very surprised by the reaction from our fans and also from fellow artists in the scene. It was a risky move because it’s a House music album, when we usually attract more of a Tech House audience. But on top of that, it has nothing to do with traditional House—we fused various musical styles into the genre and tried to shape it into something new. The result is that everyone has been surprised, and all the feedback has been positive. As for our audience, I think they’ve liked this new way of presenting our work.
We’ve also reached a new audience that connected with our music. When what you do comes from within, there’s always a reward. Thanks to that, new listeners and our loyal fans can continue discovering more about Disaia.
You’ve had some important releases on Hot Creations, Stereo Hype, Glasgow Underground, etc. What’s it like to release on those labels compared to your own?
Honestly, those are very well-known labels, and the reach they have is much bigger than ours. These giants move crowds, and it’s easier to hit numbers and reach a larger audience. Also, the way they work and the team behind them is impressive… Besides being backed by major artists, radios, and media outlets…
Our label is way below that—it’s something more personal, to release special things like this. We’re constantly evolving. Before, we used to release something every week from other artists. Now we try to space out our releases more, so that in the future we can reach the level of the best labels in the world.
Is there any label you’d like to release on in the future? Any dream collaborators you’d love to work with?
One of the labels we’ve been most excited about signing with since we started in this world is Defected, because of its history and the music it releases. It’s a goal still pending, as there have been several times we were close to releasing a track there, but in the end, it didn’t happen. But we’re patient—we know it will happen someday, we trust in that… Solid Grooves is also on our list of favorites—maybe because of its musical culture in the underground scene. We feel we also need to be there.
As for collaborations, there are many artists we think we could have a good connection with, but without a doubt, we always mention Jamie Jones, ANOTR, or PAWSA. We love them as artists and producers—it would be a huge dream come true.
You both grew up in Extremadura and moved to Madrid to pursue music. How did your hometown and the local scene influence your sound and your current career?
We come from a small village with barely 3,000 inhabitants, and to be honest, the underground music scene in Extremadura is not one of the biggest in Spain. But there are always parties and a loyal crowd devoted to electronic music. Many times, we had to go play outside our region. In our early days, we spent the first years in our village in Extremadura, where we only produced music.
As offers to DJ started coming in, the best places to live surrounded by people from the electronic scene are Madrid, Barcelona, or Ibiza. But it’s not easy to move. We didn’t just choose Madrid because of the music—it was also for other reasons. Those cities always offer more opportunities to grow as artists and to build connections.
How do you stay inspired? And how do you work together to inspire each other?
Our biggest inspiration is the passion we have for listening to all kinds of music. We’re lovers of music in general—that’s where we gather ideas and try to bring them into our productions. Though inspiration doesn’t always strike—it’s more like it shows up when it wants. Being a duo is an advantage for creating, because ideas multiply. But in the end, what really makes things happen in the studio is working every day and having discipline.
What’s your workflow like? How do you work together both on music and as DJs?
In the past, we didn’t always work together in the studio. It’s hard to match both our schedules, so we used to send projects back and forth, and then meet to finalize them 100%. But this whole year working on the album has shown us how important it is to be together in the studio, and that’s how it’s going to be for future productions. When we go to play, we like to arrive hours before to check out the vibe, see the kind of crowd and atmosphere. During the performance, we let it flow—we go with what we feel in the moment, but we always try to keep the crowd engaged and dancing on the floor. We also like to surprise, offering remixes or edits we’ve made. We have a lot of trust in the music we play.
What’s it like running your own label? How much time do you spend on the label compared to your own productions? Any upcoming releases on the label besides your own?
Honestly, we currently only use it to release music occasionally. Unlike bigger labels, we don’t have a team—we handle everything ourselves. It started as a project to release tracks that other labels didn’t pick up, but we believed in, and it went great. We opened it up to other artists and producers who were going through the same situation. We wanted to give them that opportunity too, and we were releasing music every week. It was madness, and we always managed to make the releases stand out in the stores. But over time, we didn’t have the time or energy needed to dedicate to each release. We couldn’t keep up—there was too much demand.
We still receive hundreds of demo emails, but we had to make the decision to pause it to focus exclusively on Disaia. We would’ve loved to continue, but if we don’t have the time and can’t do things right, it’s better to take a break and release less music. Our priority is Disaia.
I read that you want to take a break after this album, but is there any Disaia news you can share? Maybe an upcoming gig or a release in the second half of the year?
Not exactly—we’re still working, but we’re doing it without pressure, taking some distance to figure out what we want to do next. We’re analyzing how the album went, and seeing whether we still connect with that idea or maybe want to create something else.
We’re trying to clarify what our next productions will be. Of course, we already have a lot of finished tracks, but we’re not sure yet if we want to release them or when would be the right time. We keep creating until we find those special tracks that make you feel ready to share them with the world. We can share that we’re organizing a new tour in South America to promote the album there. We already did that in Europe—now we want to play it live in South America. We’re really excited to reconnect with that audience, which is truly unique and special for us.
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