15 questions with…

Dilip Venkatesh and Otxhello Houston are platinumselling US producers who have produced hip-hop artists including Lil Uzi Vert, Soulja Boy, Lil Skies, Lil Tecca and Gucci Mane. They’ve now teamed up as Late Year to produce their own boundary-pushing tracks that mix soulful gospel with expansive electronic soundscapes. And it all started with Garageband…

Photo: Julie Davies

1 Tell us about how you both got into music production 

Dilip: “Growing up in the Bay area, I was always exposed to music: from Indian classical songs my parents played around me to new American music that my older sister put me on to. I developed an interest in playing instruments early on and picked up the piano and guitar, teaching myself songs that I liked. In my middle and high school years I was always in bands and played a bunch of instruments like saxophone, trombone, and flute. At this point I was pretty heavily obsessed with music, especially rap, and I would religiously download and listen to songs on my iPod shuffle. I began making beats in middle school using Garageband just trying to recreate my favourite rap beats. It got a little more serious in high school when I moved on to using Ableton and began to release my own beats on the internet. Through making friends and collaborating with a lot of other talented people online including Otxhello, I was able to really progress and learn a lot. Ever since then I have just been trying to get better and have been blessed with the opportunity to get to do music full-time.”