“I think environment can really help you establish a new language,” says Siki Im, the German-born menswear designer and one half of the newly minted musical duo Jvlivs/Erving. For their debut, “EP_001,” Im and the composer Casey Mullen exchanged their New York City home base for a studio in Berlin’s electronica-rich landscape. “There’s a huge scene there, which I think helped us approach the songs a little differently,” Im says. “But it was also just a pure space where we were able to do music every day, which felt really good.”
On “EP_001,” pulsing, glitchy beats lay the foundation for Mullen’s haunting piano pieces, while Im’s evocative vocals quietly float in and out of the mix, making for a heady soundscape that’s frighteningly easy to get lost in. “There’s a beat, but it’s not really dance music,” says Mullen, who cites bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, as well as minimalist composers like Phillip Glass, LaMonte Young and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as touchstones. Much like Im’s designs, Jvlivs/Erving’s music juxtaposes traditional elements and modern details to create something slightly unexpected. “It’s about all sorts of opposites: cold and warm, hard and soft, modern and traditional,” the designer says.
As for the band name: “That was all Siki,” Mullen says. “It’s a play on Julius Erving, who’s an old-school basketball player that I really love and admire,” Im explains. “I thought it would be quite funny to take a sports figure and make different music, to clash it in a way. I like the idea of people thinking it’s going to be rap music or something. I love stuff that’s kind of out of context.” With a full album already recorded, Mullen and Im are now turning their attention to Jvlivs/Erving’s live set. But don’t expect the duo to wind up providing the live soundtrack for Im’s fashion shows anytime soon. “I feel like the songs exist in their own space,” Im says. “And none of the music we make is very, um, energetic. It’s no good for the runway.”
