Infected Mushroom Talks 90s To Now & Nonstop Tour Schedule In iEDM Interview

Together Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani have been traveling the world together performing across the world as one of the best selling groups in Israeli music history. Their psytrance electronic style music takes you through a psychedelic journey, even if you're sober. Paired with their incredible stage designs and awe-struck visuals, it's only appropriate this duo called themselves Infected Mushroom. 

Their production has been a unique progression in electronic music since they formed in 1996. Their defined style has made a name in dance music, creating a cult following of fans who can't get enough.

The first EDC I ever attended in 2015, they blew me away with their performance that I had to see them again. Later that year they made a tour stop in my hometown and I was even more wowed. They performed in these giant pods with whirling visuals that take you to another planet. 

Fast forward to 4 years later and the duo is still crushing festival sets across the world with a non-stop tour schedule taking them to 20 different countries this summer. 

iEDM got the chance to sit down with Infected Mushroom at EDC Las Vegas 2019 to talk about their creative journey together. 

iEDM: You guys have been playing EDC for many years. What are you excited for this year? Hopefully the stage gets opened back up.

Erez: Exactly. That's what we're excited for.

Amit: We're hoping that our set will happen, but there's a wind advisory. You have to keep it safe so it is what it is.
 

A post shared by Infected (@infectedmushroom) on May 19, 2019 at 5:06am PDT

iEDM: Definitely. Safety first. The weather is crazy this year. You guys are definitely pioneers in the electronics scene and I love your production. What inspires your set up?

Erez: It's always changing honestly and now we start just customizing it to our own needs really. When it started, we learned from whoever we were following at the time. It's names that you might not know.

iEDM: Like who?

Erez: Like Shpongle for example. They just did their last show.

iEDM: I was there! 

Erez: Oh yeah? So Plus 40 is the big influence on us for sure in the beginning and all. There are many other names but he's a big one, and Dream Theater too.

iEDM: That's cool. Is traveling with a big production like that difficult?

Erez: No. We have our guys and everything's working. Our current set up is the lightest setup on Earth. We have a lot of shows. This is just a DJ set, so tonight it's the easiest thing. Just two tiny speakers and in your headphones that fit in your pocket and that's it. It is insanely small, basically everything we need is in our pockets. It's an amazing achievement. The live shows are more. 

Amit: We try with the new light setup to keep it minimal so we drop two mixers lately. Now we're all computer based, sound card kind of live set. It's more easy to travel with. Because of the high volume of shows, it makes our lives easier.

iEDM: I know. You guys are playing in 20 different countries in your upcoming tour.

Amit: Yeah. Oh my God. 

iEDM: That's crazy. What stops are you most excited for?

Erez: I like to come back to Australia. The Russia tour is going to be lots of fun. We're going to have good food too. We have some really amazing chefs in Russia.

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@bliss_music on 🍄 in China

A post shared by Infected (@infectedmushroom) on May 24, 2019 at 12:15pm PDT

iEDM: You guys played clubs around the world. Do you have any that you want to shout out as your favorites?

Erez: Favorite clubs? Definitely Sound in LA is a great club I must admit. It's a small one but really good sound. For me I like Sound.

Amit: I like Ministry of Sound in London and Bootshaus in Germany, Exchange LA and Green Valley Brazil.

iEDM: Those are the ones. Bootshaus is one that I definitely want to go to.

Amit: Germany, yeah. That's massive.

Erez: China consists of insane clubs. I don't remember the name but the design and just going there and everything's LED everywhere and they do all these visuals and its just amazing. It's so very different than the rest of the clubs of the world. It's like a different planet sometimes. I highly recommend that you check that out.

iEDM: Do you have a favorite festival?

Erez: I like Burning Man.

iEDM: Burning Man? Yeah.

Amit: Burning Man, EDC, Tomorrowland. We do every two years in Burning Man.

Erez:  Yeah, every two years.

Amit: I'm looking forward for Boomtown Fair in London which is kind of the Burning Man of England. It's pretty cool.

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Until the next time @burningman @opulenttemple @infectedwow

A post shared by Infected (@infectedmushroom) on Sep 1, 2018 at 7:40pm PDT

iEDM: Cool. That sounds fun. You guys have known each other since the Nineties, how did you guys meet?

Erez: We met through a mutual friend. He was a DJ and he produced us. We tried to do one track together and that led to another and another and we said okay, it's going somewhere, let's to find a name. It was just before ninety-six and in the year ninety-six we came up with the name.

iEDM: Who came up with that?

Erez: He (Amit) did. Basically we stole the name from another band.

Amit: Pretty much. 

Erez: We're Jewish after all.

iEDM: Now you guys are known for it and have a cult following under it so that's good. 

Erez: They said it was a small band that got disbanded and they each went to different places of the world. So we said, "Nobody's using this name. It's such a good name. Let's use it." They were like a school band kind of, whatever.

iEDM: Yeah that is a good name. You guys were both classically trained in music?

Erez: Yes.

iEDM: What instruments did you start off playing?

Erez: I was playing the organ.

Amit: Piano for me.

iEDM: That makes sense. How did that transform into psytrance together? Were you doing that before?

Amit: No I came from the rock world, punk, the U2 bands and that genre but I was a keyboard player. Electronic music came to me as natural. I used to listen to artists like Gary Numan even before trance. When trance started in Israel I knew that's what I want to do. But then to go there took a little more time. We met, me and Erez, started doing music in a weird computer program back in the day.

iEDM: What was that?

Amit: It's called Impulse Tracker.

iEDM: I've never heard of it.

Amit: No, no no. It's like good for you.

Erez: Written by Jeffrey Lim.

Amit: Written by a bunch of nerds who did a bunch of nerdy stuff with numbers. 

Erez: It looks like the matrix when you look at it. It's like totally weird

Amit: Then we bought our first keyboard and took it from there. Then Infected Mushroom was born.

iEDM: What are you guys working on now?

Erez: New music, new collaborations. Right now, I don't know if I can say it, I guess I could say it. We're doing a collaboration with Mr. Bill and Freedom Fighters and lots of interesting collaborations coming up.

Amit: Yes, a lot of new collaborations actually like Vini Vici. 

iEDM: Is it going to be your usual style?

Amit: You know what? Yes and no. There is no usual style.

Erez: I don't think so. When we collaborate we try to incorporate, to get from the other artists as much as we can so we will not sound Infected, even though it does many times. But we try to avoid it, you know?

iEDM: Yeah, keep it different. What artists are on your radar right now?

Erez: On our radar? We are so busy to be honest. We don't have time right now. We always want to collaborate with rising artists. If someone wants to collaborate with us, we most of the time say yes. 

Amit: New up and coming, for us at least, is Rising Dust, which we're going to do a collaboration with them in the psytrance scene. 

Erez: It's fun to do collabs with new generation, you know? Kind of more fresh, kind of the same, not necessarily the established ones. It's normal for us sometimes.

iEDM:  That's good. Keeps it fresh! 

Thank you Infected Mushroom for taking the time to chat with us! We look forward to new music and those new collabs! Visit their SoundCloud HERE. 

Check out more iEDM exclusive interviews from your favorite artists HERE! 

EDC 2019 was incredible! Check out our 10 Highlights From EDC 2019 HERE and iEDM's Top 10 Totems From EDC HERE. 

Festival season is in full swing! As you prepare for your next event, browse our FESTIVAL LOOKBOOK for outfit ideas and inspiration! Need more ideas? Read Outfit Ideas: What To Wear To A Festival In 2019!