Live PA @ Sunstorm (Olomouc, Czech Republic) 26may2006
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First comes the most typical: How did you become interested in electronic music, and how did you become particularly interested in the more industrial-influenced styles heard from you now?
For me it was the most natural step going from punk rock to techno. I very much adored the energy of punk but was not all that bonkers about the drums and guitars. I preferred the sounds of Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre. And well, (some) techno has the balls of punk and the sounds of Kraftwerk. Why am I into industrial styles? Because it's got the most balls and is yet thought provoking! So you want to be aggressive/intense without being musically boring... Well it seems most people think music is either somatic or suggestive. This does not have to be the case. Your biography says that you began producing music at age 14...What tools were you using, and what type of music were you creating? Any chance of us getting a sample of this early work? (I doubt it, but worth asking...) I was using Cubase on an Atari. I will never let anyone hear what I first did but I can tell you this much: one "track" had samples from Nirvana, Beavis and Butthead, Indian folkmusic, and James Brown. Hahaha It's obvious that your music contains much more intricacy than a lot of other dance-oriented music. How do you work around the requirements of the dance music approach to produce the detail that you do? What comes out comes out. Most of the material I make is not techno at all but unfortunately people only want to release dance music, so what you hear is my most "commercially viable" stuff. It's interesting for me to hear techno described as "commercially viable," and it's demonstrative of the different music scenes in the US and Europe. So do you work with the intention of creating techno or do you create something and then later add what makes it "commercially viable" as dance music? Is there any chance that you'll release (whether online or otherwise) any of this music? I must admit that some of my favorite moments in the PA are those in which the driving 4/4 falls out, particularly moments in the 2nd half and at the very end. The stereo work and atmospheric production are great. Well there is no denial that there exist millionaire techno producers. Maybe no one makes big bucks on selling records, but the bookings that come from making a "hit record" can spawn quite a big sum of money. Most stuff I do starts out as something totally nontechno and then I try to add some dance elements to it. Sometimes it works, but mostly not haha. This is a big reason for me having all these collaborations (Archae, Reeko, Brethren, etc...). When I work with someone else I can more easily put my ideas into this techno context. I actually do want to make techno as I love mixing it, but it is just that it feels so distant to me to program dance rhythms. What have you been using to produce your music? I went from almost all hardware to all software. It is fun to use hardware but in the end I get the most output if I use software. And I find that the limitations are far fewer when using software. So what software do you use? Cubase SX, Ableton Live and quite a few VST plugins (my preferred being FM7 and Battery). What type of visual art/artists do you find most inspiring, and why? Mark Rothko - less is more. Terry Gilliam - BRAZIL! Hieronymus Bosch - he knew the truth. Coum Transmissions - someone's got to do what no one else wants to do! Salvador Dali - more his life than his works. Other than artists like Surgeon, Reeko, Regis, etc., which electronic musicians do you find most interesting? That is a tough one. Well as always I guess I should mention Philip Glass (hit and miss but usually divine), Boyd Rice (mainly as NON), Coil (you know!), Steve Reich (structure), Liaisons Dangereuses (the original techno) and Recoil (Alan Wilder). I noticed Steve Reich mentioned in your biography and Philip Glass listed in one of your monthly charts. How much of an influence is 20th century minimal composition to you? Very much. I am not sure whether it affects my musical output or not, but for me as a person they are priceless. The idea has crossed my mind that some dance/electronic musicians (particularly in techno) may relate their work to composers like Reich/Glass/Adams/Riley to compensate for a lack of complexity/aesthetic validity. Do you feel that this may sometimes be the case, or that the comparison is typically used soundly/legitimately? Your music does not depend on influences but on your own intentions and ideas. Everyone interprets everything differently, so basically *insert generic congo loop techno producer name here* could easily be heavily influenced by Steve Reich while *insert generic "dark" techno producer name here* could be so by Madonna. I do not think my music has any of the complexity or structure of Reich or Glass. What you are saying about people mentioning these names to compensate for something else could be true, but I doubt it. I would however easily state that such is the case with Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Nitzer Ebb, etc. These names are kind of hip right now. The Britney Spears track in one of your charts surprises me. I haven't heard it. Let's hear what you have to say about it... Well I rarely hear the pop music of today but I stumbled across this somehow and I was stricken by how insanely addictive it was. Pop music will soon reach its target-instant and total mind control. Why did you decide to give me the Bergara set (which is outstanding BTW) instead of the one you were originally going to give me? Well the one I was to give you originally was my first ever live PA and I wasn't really happy with the structure of it. This one has a better and more somatic flow. Is your Swedish home base/scene particularly important to your musical career, or do you feel more connected to Birmingham, Spain, or international techno in general? The country/music connection is irrelevant! What matters most is your intent. Is there anything you consider political about your music, whether overt/didactic (as recently criticized in a letter by Daniel Wang) or whether inherent in the performance/distribution context in relation to traditional musical forms? My music is not (at least not intentionally) political. I have some side projects that are though. What are some of these side projects, and what political viewpoints do they promote? Sorry I cannot tell yet. List 5 interesting (no "best of," just momentary/off your head) tracks for me (and the beloved readers) to download/buy. I'll list 4 whole records instead: Reeko - Emergence Eleven (Emergence Records IOU11) Luka Baumann - Poslije (PSNZ PSNZ001) Sigur Ros - Split Sides Performance (iTunes) Archae - Genealogy (Maracas MAR007) Boyd Rice - The Way I Feel (Caciocavallo CAL04) interview by bijan for droid (email) may 25, 2004 |