Cinos Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Source: http://www.mandarin.nu (Swedish site) Translated from Swedish to English by Cinos. Hello Ott! Say hi to our readers! - Hey! I'm Ott. : o ] So what is your musical background? How come you started producing electronic music? And why exactly electronic? - I started playing the drums when I was 13. My dad bought a drumset for me, and I terrorized the neighbours for about a year after that. Used to play along to The Specials and The Sex Pistols. I've always liked electronic music because my mom was a dedicated fan of it. When I was growing up I listened to Walter [Wendy] Carlos and Kraftwerk, and the sounds always mesmerized me. When I was a kid, mom used to play Autobahn by Kraftwerk as a lullaby. Then when I was 14 my mom gave me an offer I couldn't refuse; she told me that if I sold my drumset, she'd give me some extra money to buy a synth. So one rainy tuesday I went to Guildford, bought a Roland SH-101, and never left my room again. You've been a part of the scene for a long time now. How do you feel about the way it's evolving? Are we on the way to something that could be called "better" for the music and the artists that create it, or are the happy days over? - In all honesty I don't recognize anything I'd call a "scene". I'm not interested in scenes at all, it's kind of a superfluous concept to me. How are you in the studio? Let's say you've just started a new track, where do you start? (drums, melodies, etc) What happens then? Are there any patterns in the way you work? - It always starts with an idea. A melody or a harmonic concept that tickles my nerves. After that there's usually a rhythm, and the basslines follow naturally. That's as close to a pattern it ever gets. Do you ever think about the listener when making music? Do you ever, for example, focus on giving the listener a certain feeling? Does this ever happen, or do you write your music on the fly, less concerned about the result? - The only listener I work for is myself. I'm not sure how it could be otherwise, unless I borrow somebody else's brain and ears for a couple of weeks. I work with the principle of "If it makes me feel in a certain way, it works on others too". As of now, I try not to concentrate too much on planning, but instead to let my subconscious mind express itself, and then catch that expression. When I think I have enough material for a new track, I let my conscious mind take over, and try to bring some kind of order to the whole mess. When I have a consistent "story", that reflects what I wanted to say, it's time for my favorite part, the final mixing. (translator remark: I think he means mastering) That part is wholly intuitive. The eternal debate on what is "real" live set will always be there. What's your viewpoint on the subject and what are your live instruments? Do you ever do DJ sets also, and if so, what kind of music do you spin? - I'll happily leave the discussion on live music for those who think they know. The guys who care about what kind of equipment is used live, are clearly not dancing enough. In my live sets I have a laptop with Ableton Live, a midi keyboard and a Behringer Rotary Controller. This configuration gives me just enough freedom to improvise a bit, without being ridiculously complicated and horribly unreliable. It works well, and I'm happy with it. If you had told me I'd be a DJ three years ago, I would've laughed at you. It was never my intention to become one, but now I apparently am one anyway, and I love it. It's my favorite aspect of playing at festivals. I usually keep to the rule of only playing my absolute favorite tracks ever, could be made by anybody from Bluetech to Desmond Dekker and Aces, from Boards of Canada to Bob Marley. I'd like to think I play a lot of tracks at parties, that nobody else will. It's about two years since Twisted released your debut album Blumenkraft. Could you tell us something about it? How long did it take to make it, and what are you thoughts about the final result? - It started with me deciding, after ten years of working with other people's music as a freelancer engineer, that it was about time to create something personal just for myself. Not to release anything or even play it to anybody else, but just so I could enjoy the creative process. The track created was 'Somersettler', and the response I received from Twisted and the buyers of Backroom Beats, encouraged me to make more. Suddenly I had nine tracks and realized I had randomly created an album. It took about 18 months total, but as I said, I work incredibly slowly. I think a part of the fun of having a home studio and not have any time restrictions is that you can really take time and go through everything in detail. You have all the time in the world to make it sound exactly like you want. When I listen to the album now, I really like it. Some part are better than others, but it's OK - I experimented to see what I could and could not do, and some of those experiments worked better than others. It seems that the tracks I think are the weakest, also are the most ones most liked by the public, so overall I'd say I did a pretty good job with the album. When will we se a sequel to Blumenkraft? Is a new album already in the works, and if yes, could you describe what it is that's growing in your studio? - If I wasn't here doing this interview, I'd be in the studio and work right now. The next album is taking shape, and I'm all fine in the sutdio where I play with my toys and tie together all the loose strings. I have no idea when it'll be done, but judging from the creative process thus far, I know I'm going to have a lot of fun on the way there. Hallucinogen In Dub clearly got a lot of praise in reviews. How did it feel to remix such golden tracks as these by Simon, and are we going to hear more of it in the future? - It was incredibly much fun. Again, I did it mostly for the fun of it, without any pressure of expectations from anyone. I'd already written a couple of tracks that were going to be on Blumenkraft and was really enjoying the studio work. I have always liked remixing other's music, and so one evening when I was cooking some food, the idea hit me like lightning from a clear sky. I called Simon and convinced him that it was a good idea. I then took my car and drove by him that same evening, and got his hard drive, and started work on Gamma Goblins. Now that I look back on the whole thing, it was six months of pure fun. All the time while I was making the album, I thought I'd be lynched by all the fanatic Hallucinogen fans for destroying these classic trance tracks, so I was quite surprised and happy when it got good reviews. About a sequel to that, you never know. It could happen. Let's see if Simon wants to give me his harddrive after finishing the awaited third Hallucinogen album. You've collaborated with several artists over the years and Simon Posford has been one of the more active ones. Why Simon, and how is it to work with him? - If you keep in mind how long we've known each other, we haven't actually collaborated much at all, to be honest. We've made a few tracks together and that's always really funny, but we usually rather just sit, drink tea, and talk than floating away in the studio. I think one of the reeasons is that we're both constantly on the road. We're always on the way to a gig or something. It's hard to get time when we both are free and not busy with something else. That, and the fact that I take such incredibly long time drives him insane. Maybe someday we'll see another Gargoleyes album. For approximately five years ago you released some house music together with Simon Posford under the MP3 guise. Will we ever hear more house from you? - Hahaha... "Hot for you baby, hot for you...". We had so insane fun when doing that, that it wouldn't surprise me if we did something more one day. Look out for this... What do you prefer to listen to except chillout and trance? Do you think you've been influenced by a certain type of music or any special artist? If yes, which ones? - I don't really listen to chillout or trance, actually. I hardly listen to any music at all at home, but if I play some records, it's probably something with King Tubby, Scientist, Prince Far-I, Augustus Pablo, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Nina Simone, The Strangers, The Specials, Cardiacs, Tortoise, Stevie Wonder, Ian Dury and Blockheads... and more. There's a rumor going that you got a few tattoos that have something to do with your music making? - My mother decided she wanted to get a tattoo on her 60th birthday, and asked me if I wanted to come along when she was getting it. I've always mused on getting a tattoo but I've never come up with anything I'd want to paint on my body forever. I sat down and thought really long on what pictures had meant the most for me through the years, which pics meant the most to me. I didn't want to get a snake, dragon or celtic glyph, since they didn't mean anything to me. I decided to tattoo "MOOG" on my right arm and "Atari" on the left, with logotypes on both. Most people don't get the point, but those who do, really get it. Judging from what we've heard about your studio, you can see there's a certain love to old, analogue, machines. What do you think about the software revolution, and how spread is your own usage of software? - It's about 50-50. Digital technology is very reliable when it comes to recording and replaying sounds without coloring them - but that's also it's biggest weakness. It can easily get a bit grey and boring. I usually use the computer in what it's best at - recording and replaying sounds, and I prefer to use other, more interesting, instruments to create sounds with character. I have a whole rack of old effect units that I use a lot. Analogue flangers, phasers, reverbs, all that. And combined with plugin effects, they can create unique textures. There are things the plugins can do that simply don't work with the analogue stuff, just as there are sounds only the analogue domain can create. I wouldn't be able to do what I do with only analogue or digital instruments. The whole point of what I do is to create a hybrid between the organic and non-organic. I'd want to claim that with the software revolution more people have started making their own music because of the accessibility to virtual instruments. Back in the days every producer had their own sound, and if you compared them to each other, all had different studio equipment. The labels released stuff when you could guess which artist it was because of their unique sounds. Nowadays many artist use software, and the amount of high-quality plugins is a bit limited compared to hardware, so it's hard to distinguish between different artists, because all too many sound the same. This in turn affects the record industry, indirectly. What do you think abou this theory, and what are you thoughts on the subject? - I agree to an extent. Many of the three-hour trance-sets I hear at parties and festivals, sound like they were created by the same guy with three plugins. It's hard, I think, to differentiate a track from each other, and there's a heavy reliance on the same textures. Having said that, I still like when crowd of 3000 people go nuts in front of the speakers, it obviously has to sound good to somebody, at least. I gladly accept that I am wrong and they are right. Otherwisely, the fact that you can get a 48-channel digital studio with synths, mixers and multi-track recording for about £1000, can be considered a good thing in that it allows more people to express themselves with music. Music creation shouldn't be exclusive to the rich. There have been some incredibly talented people who only use a laptop and some speakers, just like there are complete morons with studios in the million dollar range. What's the weirdest thing that has happened you when you've travelling to gigs? - I was picked up by a ladyboy in Philadelphia, woke up on the floor naked, surrounded with smashed glass and policemen in a hotel room in Berlin, and sat and watched a futuristic Mad Max-inspired brass band in Canada, while naked men were skateboarding around us. Then there's Brazil. When I was there recently I got pushed into the ground by five armed men who all yelled at me in portugese and pointed their guns at my head. I was a passenger in car that crashed into a tree and rolled into a ditch in 95 km/h, just to find a full-grown tarantula in my sleeping bag. All in three hours time. Time to cut the rope. Do you have any last words of wisdom to share with out readers? - "Never buy a TV from a panting man on the street". I'd like to thank you for your time and your music. Good luck in the future! - To you as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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