Release of the Week: Meditekas

We caught up with Meditekas - brothers Simon and Lars Hoyer, along with Nathanael Teklehaimanot aka Nat Tek - this week to learn more about what went into their debut album, the importance of releasing music independently, as well as what they have in store for the upcoming year.

Can you briefly introduce your project Meditekas?

It started about a year ago. We're Simon and Lars Hoyer, and Nat Tek. We're all playing several instruments and do the MC work. And all of us are equally involved in the whole producing work. We've set up our little studio in Switzerland, and since we're currently outta collar, we spend most ouf our time there, producing new stuff together, or with friends from the UK, such as Meteor179, LoDuke MC, Repokid or the Dammers Crew. We don't want to limit ourselves to just the tree of us.

What can you tell us about your inspirations and creative process for your new album "Safe Oasis"?

We don't really have straight hip-hop roots. Nat Tek brings in some African music and reggae, the Hoyers started in punk bands. We like many different styles, like post punk, two tone ska, mod stuff, and even early psychobilly. Of course we got hip-hop heroes like Boogie Down Productions, Beastie Boys or Naughty By Nature, or UK stuff such as Sleaford Mods and The Streets. Like most of the acts out there we try to do our own thing, but of course one can spot all these influences in our sound.For the album - our first - we didn't really have any goals or rules. We just started, added things, removed things. Asked friends to add things and so on. Suddenly we had 10 tracks we really liked.

For you, what is the importance of releasing music independently?

Well no record company has asked us yet, so we had no choice. After we got dropped by the production companies we were working with in early 2020, we didn't want to have anything to do with big business names anymore, at least for now. And since we had quite a flow producing this album, cooperation with a label would have slowed it down again. We just want our music to be out there. We want to release these songs, so we're free to do more. Plus, we're rather broke right now, and usually, you end up in debt when working with a bigger company. We're just some lads, we can't afford that. A friend of ours helped us a bit with that online distribution stuff, but that's about it.

What are you working on right now / what projects await you in 2021?

Like everyone we have to be patient and see where the world is going... Since we only started a year ago, we've never performed in front of a crowd, and we're not quite sure how to do it yet. But we're constantly producing, so there is more to come.