Lex Valverde’s move on from the Better Than Lex alias marks a clearer, more focused phase. The sound has tightened, with less excess and a stronger sense of purpose in how each track is built and played. ‘Takatal’, out on Alleanza, lands in that early stretch of a set where things begin to shift up a level, setting the tone without overreaching.
Speaking with The Club Map, Valverde leans into the finer details behind that approach. Much of it comes down to small balance changes that accumulate over time, alongside a selective use of tools such as EchoBoy. His workflow has also loosened, with less concern for rigid organisation and more trust in instinct. There’s also a shift in how he discovers music, with a steady flow of promos opening up new references. It points to an artist refining his process while allowing space for change.
What’s a small detail in your production workflow that probably matters more to you than it does to anyone listening?
Probably how much time I spent on small balance moves. I’m constantly adjusting levels by tiny amounts, like 0.5 dB here, 1 dB there, instead of waiting until the end to make big adjustments or overly process each track. It’s not something anyone would ever point out, but for me it matters.
Takatal sits firmly in that late-night zone. What kind of moment in a club were you picturing when you were shaping the arrangement?
Like 3-4 songs in the set, when the artist is ready to introduce a gear up in terms of energy, without making a huge change but clearly making a statement: „if you are not dancing yet, you are gonna now“
Have you ever had a track completely change character once you tested it in a club?
Long time ago, but actually more with edits, with original tracks I just go with what I did, and move to the next project. But no it hasn’t really happened with me, I think if it did, I would rather start a new track than completely change another track I did before, because the track felt right for me at the moment.
What’s the most unexpected place an idea for a track has ever arrived?
While being stuck in traffic I thought of the melody behind my recent Dam2Dam track, I had to record myself humming the melody on a whatsapp voice note just to make sure I didn’t forget the idea.
If someone opened one of your current Ableton projects, what would probably surprise them about how you organise things?
Probably my lack of organization haha, I used to color code the different elements of the track and have everything in order before, but lately I just run a bit wild, not caring much about organizing, I still find myself in my own chaos, but I think this is also why I struggle to show or share my projects, I feel like it’s when you invite someone to your house and they open „that“ closet, where you put away everything you don’t want to see and if people see it, they would notice how messy you are lol.
Is there a sound or production trick you’re slightly obsessed with at the moment?
Soundtoys EchoBoy! I heard a lot about it before, but I try to be very selective of my plugins and not have 50 different plugins; also it’s 200 bucks. But Soundtoys made a special offer during Christmas, allowing free downloads of some of their plugins, and I managed to get this one. I’ve been using it in every track since, it’s an amazing plugins to add delays.
When you’re digging for music these days, what still gives you that feeling of discovery?
I’m lucky enough to get a lot of promos nowadays, from labels, PR agencies and artists directly. That’s for me my full-on discovery mode, because I get some wild variations. It’s easy when you see a known name, but often I get promos from people I never heard of and those can be quite an ejoyable surprise.
A lot of producers talk about finding “their sound.” Do you think that’s something you consciously build, or something that just appears over time?
I’m not sure if I am there to be honest. I still like experimenting and learning new things, especially since the change of artist name. My new tracks sound quite different from the tracks I made a year ago, still some people say they can hear „Lex“ on them, so maybe I am doing it subconsciously (or just repeating some samples over and over haha), but I don’t stress about it, I strongly believe that music was never meant to be limited.
Looking at the next year or two, what kind of progress would make you feel like this new chapter under your own name is really moving somewhere?
I would love to see me touring into countries I haven’t played before. In a very simple manner, my goal as an artist is to travel the world with my music, so if my new releases, and artist vision secure me gigs in places I have never been that would make me extremely happy.
Takatal is out now on Alleanza
and then 