Vitamine connoisseurs Leo and Quentin crafted an eclectic, love-drenched journey through the unknown sounds of the 90s in our latest instalment.

With a refined taste for euphoric 90’s house and high-energy grooves, they hit the mark by delivering a well-crafted mix that takes us on an energetic trip, making Shazam rethink its existence. Well known with the unknown the French duo continually spoils us by unveiling rare 90’s and 00’s gems on one of our favourite YouTube channels in the spectrum; Vitamine.

While sipping spicy margaritas in Berlin, we caught up with Leo and Quentin AKA Vitamine on their last day of summer holiday. Packed with fresh energy they’re ready to dive headfirst back into clubby season. After wrapping up a satisfying night at Vio PRG’s residency at Renate, the duo heads back to France to continue their voyage.

Hey Leo and Quentin, I’m beyond excited that this is happening after planning and talking about this mix for some time. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you on board. After some crazy months there is a well deserved holiday charging up your batteries as we speak. How’s your holiday been so far and where can we find you sipping margaritas today?

Heyo Jaimy & Oddysee’s readers, I guess it’s now (almost) the end of the Brat Summer for everyone including us. It was a pretty chill summer in terms of gigs for us, summer 2k23 was a bit too much to handle, and this year we wanted to enjoy the other sides of our lives and summer. It’s always challenging to find the right balance between our work and our passion (for music). Q just completed his last step before becoming psychiatrist and I took some time for my thesis and to rest a bit. We’ve just played in Berlin for Vio PRG’s residency in Renate which was a bit the back on track, back to school gig after a disconnected month with the “DJ life”.

This year highlights some very exciting projects you’ve worked on, like doing a radio show for LOTR, your residency show at NOODS where you brought in amazing guests and of course your YouTube channel with a consistent stream of unknown gems hitting the surface. How’s this year been so far and what have you been enjoying the most?

Yeaaa, this year was very interesting in many aspects! We played in some super nice events around Europe where we had the chance to connect with great people and crews. We decided last year to spend more time in the cities where we play by staying 2-3 days even more when we can to add another dimension to our trip, and it really changed the vision and experience of those travels, it’s more about week-ends than actual gigs. Since the beginning of the year we had a few gigs in France’s hot spots too, by being part of the CTW 10 years tour, which was the perfect occasion to come back to Macadam (Nantes) and discover Le Sucre in Lyon, merci again Mai-Linh

About the radio, we are really happy about how our residency is going, we really feel the artists we invite are giving their best to provide an hour between our and their universe. Beside the (international) guests, we always wanted to use the show to promote friends of ours who aren’t necessarily current names of the scene but people we trust 100% and with whom we share the same passion for music. Thank Noods for their total trust since more than 2 years already.

Speaking of the channel, as a big fan of the Vitamine channel I’m very curious about how you managed to create this digger’s paradise, it must have been a journey. Can you take us through the timeline since it started?

Like many projects, it started during the first months, even weeks of Covid haha, It all began with the will to keep connecting with people without having the certitude to get back in a club or a festival anytime soon. Remember how many months we all waited to meet again on a dancefloors, feels like a long time ago but that was only 4 years ago.

So, we were playing records at home on those sunny spring days, and we realized many of them were not listenable anywhere else than on those wax. Being ourselves big fans of channels like No Frills or Maybe Tonight we thought about starting one, with our own touch and tastes. And yea after a bit more than 300 records uploaded later, here we are, proud Dads

As the channel continues to expand, Vitamine Inc. is making waves. With your killer residency show Vitamine FM and some sweet Vitamine club takeovers already secured, what exciting developments can we look forward to? Any exciting things in the pipeline?

At the moment we are writing those words the company is preparing for its initial public offering! More seriously we would say we are not necessarily seeing things bigger, the music industry is a complex one, and it could easily turn into troubles and stressful situations we prefer to avoid by keeping it as a passion and spontaneous desire to make things happen at the right time with the right people.

To keep high quality expectations on the radio and the channel is already a challenge. There are a few events in the making with artists we really like, mostly in France and of course in Romania where we have deep connections with by spending 6 years there between 2013 and 2019. And of course, some nice gigs to come out of our comfort zone, in Spain, Germany and Italy. Leo is also working on the line up of NDK festival (in Caen) for 3 years now, which is a very interesting experience. In terms of music production, Q and our dear friend Rico aka Nurse Erica have started to work on an EP project, this should see the light very soon.

Without a doubt, the hunt for records is something that will keep going strong no matter what. Speaking of which, would you like to share any tips or tricks about your digging routine? What’s your go-to shop, which path do you follow in the abyss of Discogs, and what’s your source of inspiration?

Patience and time are the main words behind those (intense) digging sessions, Discogs is our bigger ally even if it’s not necessarily the easiest platform to navigate on, but it’s full of treasures as you all know. One label or artist can lead you to another one, always check the artist’s alias, the sub-labels, give importance to the years of production to avoid you listening to things you don’t look for (even if sometimes losing yourself on the web can open some hidden doors). We believe also it’s a community experience, we are now linked with people who digs like us and with whom we get the chance to inspire each other (not the Discogs sharks who sell their (bad) rips on Soulseek).

As we previously mentioned, No Frills was one of our biggest inspirations when we started on YT. We would recommend channels like Arlanoa (Eponym channel of our very good and talented friend Arthur), SMELT and Discovery Vinyl, and Instagram pages like Ken Brady (the absolute legend) and Record Reservoir which is also a great digger of 90’s UK-ish stuff.

We recently made a lil digging tour in the UK, 4 days of dusty record-shops around London, and obviously there is the source. Ask for the vinyls who are not stored if you can, listen to the white labels, trust the artwork and look at the name of the tracks and the mixes, a paradise, piano or tribal mix is a must listen!

What can you tell us about the mix you’ve created for us? What’s your approach in putting it together, and what sort of energy should we expect?

It’s a voyage, between the different genres of electronic music we cherish. It’s the result of almost 6 months of digging. It’s the essence of what Vitamine is for us, crackling old records mixed together, from slower balearic proto-house with enchanted vocals to an euphoric (almost club) ending with one of our favorite records ever. It’s a 99% trip in the 90’s, with a single recent track which fit the vibe perfectly. We built this mix step by step, by thinking every part of it to provide the experience of a ride in our musical world. I think we never spent so much time on a mix before and we are really happy with the result.

Finally, to get right to it, I’ll bring this up now since I can already see the track IDs flying in. You mentioned there’ll be lots of blind records involved in this mix. Would you recommend keeping an eye out on the channel and can we expect them to be released on the channel?

That’s a really smart advice to conclude, stay tuned! And thanks again for this opportunity, we spoke earlier about our inspirations, Oddysse is one of our favorite mix series and it’s an honor to be now part of it :).