As they currently hold down various residencies, this Detroit, Michigan, production duo shares their thoughts on DJing, producing, their promotion company Souldega and more ...

So when did Driving Soul come together?

DS: We’ve been tag-teaming DJ sets as long as we’ve known each other. We’ve always been comfortable playing together. It got to the point where we just preferred to play as a duo more then we played solo. After a couple of years of being billed as “Gabe Real and Mike Rhythm” we decided we may as well come up with a name for ourselves.

When did you each get into the house scene?

Gabe: I was first exposed to electronic music in ’94 as a junior in high school. I got pretty heavy into the rave scene and went on to become one of the largest rave promoters in Detroit. From there, I ended up as the booking agent at Motor, and since then it’s remained a big part of my life. Mike: In the summer of ’99, a friend gave me a copy of Mark Farina’s Imperial Dub mixtape and I picked up on it because of my percussion background. I really didn’t love the 4/4 time signature at first, but I kept listening anyway, and after awhile I fell in love with house.

How do sounds other than house affect your producing and mixing of house tracks?

DS: This last year has been a period of growth for us musically. We’ve begun to step outside of the deep, vocal, soulful sound that we’re known for and have been experimenting with different subgenres like chunky, funky house, acid, electro house and minimal techno. You can definitely hear it both in our recent DJ sets and in the studio ... but it’s all just house to us.

How was your promotion company Souldega founded and when?

DS: Souldega was founded by both of us after a 3 a.m. conversation ... about how no promoters in Detroit were bringing in the talent we wanted to see. We saw a niche that needed to be filled and decided we were up to the task. We had a lot of passion for the music and wanted to help the Detroit house scene grow. Gabe already had the promotional and booking background so it was an easy transition.

Did you guys start spinning tracks before getting into the production end of things?

Gabe: Yes, I’ve been DJing for 10 years and producing for four years. Mike: I’ve been DJing for six years and producing for three years.

How much of your own stuff is sampled and how much is studio recordings?

DS: About 50/50. Most of our drum sounds and textures are sampled but we record a fair amount of live instrumentation and vocals.

So what really gets Driving Soul into the studio to lay down tracks?

DS: Winter Music Conference and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival are usually pretty big sources of inspiration for us. There’s something about all the people and the energy at events like those. Not to mention being exposed to a barrage of new music in a short amount of time.