02)How was your favourite authors and bands when u was a child ??
Hard to say,
really. I didn't buy records so I couldn't care about the names and the
titles. I lived in a village and the records I liked seemed unavailable.
So I'd tape music from radio stations. A lot. I was a sucker for tape mixes,
and there was 3 shows on the radio that would play them. And then there
was a lot of pirate stations that would play italo and electro (altho me
and my friends called that 'rap music', even if there wasn't raps on it).
My brother and also a lot of my friends in school were caught by the synthesizer
music virus, and we'd copy eachothers tapes. Between us there was a strong
compitition of who'd tape the next great song to impress the others with.
So all of us were eager and taped hours and hours of music. But it was sounds
that made me a fan of the music, not the artists.
Now I do buy records and I buy a lot of stuff that I already liked when
I was a kid. A lot of the italo, electro and chicago house I taped during
my childhood I'm buying now on vinyl. I still have difficulties in finding
music because I don't remember the names, and it turns out most of the stuff
I liked as a kid was pretty obscure then and is even more obscure now. Now,
in retrospect I could give you names of artists that I apperently liked,
but at the time names didn't matter to me.
03)Many times your style is definite 'staccato-minimal-electro-nic
sound'. Talk about this strange definition.
Staccato is a way to play notes. The notes are very short and seperated
and played in a rhythmic fashion. A lot of my music seems to have this way
of staccato programming, and especially on my early music I'd spend hours
on getting a nice staccato melody. I did it a lot on my electro songs, but
even in the music I make now I still put in some staccato melodies.
04)You live in Holland: how is the music-scene from
your country ?? Many cool electro productions come from Holland...
I guess from the outside, for instance if you life in a foreign country you might say there is a dutch scene with all the labels and shared interests and mutual sounds, but to us it doesn't feel that way. If there is a scene we aren't aware of it, it doesn't happen conscious. We just make music and the ideas accidently meet. To us it's all organic, it's just something we do. Like a lot of people we are music enthousiasts, but perhaps we translate our enthousiasm in a different way then most people. We try to pick the things we like out of the entire history of electronic music and add something personal to it, make it our own. I think what we all want is to show people there's more to electronic music then just dancing the night away. Electronic music can be fun and with soul and passion without becomming elitist, vulgar, purist, or plain dull.
05)What
do u think about the actually european music-scene ?? Do u like it ?? (here
u can write some names of your favourite dj-producers-labels etc)
I don't really know what's happening in Europe, most of the stuff I hear
(besides music made by personal friends) is music I hear in clubs. I must
admit that I hardly hear anything new that really triggers my attention,
not even within the genre that I really like, most of it is pretty boring.
It seems almost as if a lot of the records that are made, are made without
reference, passion, vision and fun. As if that music is made because the
artists could make it, not because they really wanted to make it. Luckily
there are exceptions, artists like for instance Luke Eargoggle, Raiders
of the Last Arp, Bangkok Impact, and so on. They seem to be sharing a mutual
passion but are able to make the final results sound different yet equaly
interesting.
06)For many productions you work in studio with Legowelt. How was born the contact with Danny Wolfers ?? Talk about this extraordinary collaboration.
Danny (Legowelt)
and I met in school. He's the one that got me into making music by selling
me an Amiga computer and giving me some samples of his musical equipment.
I think that especially in the beginning we were of some influence on eachother,
on the way we regard music. He was already producing for years when I started,
so if I had a question I'd turn to him. I think questions turn into ideas
and eventualty into productions and I think we both learn from that somehow.
When we make music together, we just do it for the fun of it. We're just
two kids playing, making up stories so the toys they play with don't seem
so dead. We think up a theme, or a specific way to produce a track, we connect
a few machines and start playing.
07)One
of the projects realized with Legowelt was Macho Cat Garage (on Viewlexx
and Downlow): do u think that in the future this project will be again on
vinyl ??
Macho Cat Garage... they sold their synthesizers because one of them was
told by God to sign up for the Indy 500. With 187 laps they finished twenty-first
wich was good, but not good enough to win price money nor to impress the
sponsors who by contract backed out, taking all the money that was left.
God never spoke to them again either. So I don't know... Perhaps if they
sell enough spare parts in their shop the MCG team might make music again,
but it's more likely they'll take another shot at the races. There was a
few tracks that we recived a while ago that could have been done by the
Macho Cats, but it turned out to be the Chicago Shags: an 80's Chicago street
gang of juvenile delinquints who put together a demo-tape with equipment
they obtained loansharking some smalltime Latin producer with a shoe fettish.
08)You
had played over the world: where u have found the best feedbacks from the
people ??
Soon I'll be playing in one of my favourite cities: Gothenburg. The Kenataurracing
label is opening a club there called Racetracks and I'm very much looking
forward to play there. The Gothenburg music fans are really good fun, they
are very enthousiastic which makes it so nice to play for them. I love that
city.
Another place I really loved was Glasgow, it could really be compared to
Gothenburg. Enthousiastic, open minded musiclovers. I was really amazed
with those guys, I do hope to go there again some time, either to visit
or to play.
In general it could happen anywhere tho, it's not like one city or club
has a better audience then the other. Organizers don't book you because
they think you'll bore the audience, most organizers have a pretty good
idea of what will work and what won't work with their audience. Most important
to me is to satisfy an audience without doing any consessions. If I can
do that, I'm happy.
09)Do u know italian music-scene ?? Do u like it ?? I know that one time u had visited Rome....and do u like a collaboration with italian guy ??
I like the stuff
that Mat101 / Raiders of the Last ARP do. I saw Marco Passarani dj a few
times and I met Alexander Robotnick once, that's all of todays italian music
scene that I know.
It seems to me all of these guys have fun in what they do, they're all music
freaks and connaisseurs, which I can only appreciate.
I went to Italy once to play live. It was in Rome on a very rainy day so
I think they didn't get as much people as they hoped for, but the guys that
got me there were really into the music. That's what I remember best of
that visit: the enthousiastic people that I was surrounded with. It was
good fun, I would love to come back and play on a not so rainy day.
I don't see why I couldn't team up with an Italian guy. A collaborations
is some sort of musical friendship, for me it can only start because of
mutual interests. The country one lives in is not a factor in these days
of modern communication technologies.
10)Many time I've read the name Brian Chinetti ... your origin is italian ??
No, that's all coincidence.
11)Talk
about your forthcoming releases and new plans.
I don't have any real plans. I just do whatever seems natural at the moment.
Right now I'm making several versions of one track. Not because I'm out
of inspiration, but to see in how many ways the same idea can come to different
results. Then there's a new album coming on Crème, called 'The Garden'.
Hopefully it will be released before the end of this year but I'm not sure,
theres some things I might want to change. And I'll be doing some stuff
for compilations, and some old stuff will find its way on compilations.
And for the rest... whatever comes my way, wether it be live performances
or studio stuff. My only plan is to keep on doing what I like, keep on learning
and enjoy making music as long as I can.
12)Have
u any idea about the possible new trend of electronic music ?? Many people
talk about the minimalism and the return of acid house ...
I never really took an interest in trends, I can't be really bothered with
them, not anymore. I used to get somewhat upset if music I liked would become
part of a trend and misinterpreted as being 'just another funny craze'.
But no more. Perhaps I'm fooling myself, but I think that if a trend is
over, there will always be a few people that understood the essence of the
music and will continue to be passionate about it. And that's good. For
me, it's all just music. I like to make it, I like to listen it. Trends
can't be part of that, they temporarily close your mind for other interesting
things.
13)Your
studio is the icon of analog-instruments: why u prefere old equipments ??
What do u think the modern software for make music ??
I like to listen to older music because somehow it has more charm, it's
better produced, you can hear the musician not only in the composition but
also in the production. If music is a painting, the production is the personal
signature. I like the way older equipment colors the sound. Maybe I'm just
nostalgic, I don't know... I'm not an analogue synth freak persé,
I don't own that many analogue synths. I just like cheap equipment. I like
equipment that is underestimated, I like to try and get the best out of
synths nobody else wants. I hardly pay more then 200 euro's for a synth
or a drumcomputer, with 2 or 3 exceptions. Most of the time it's just that
old synths that are so cheap, that's why I have them. I'll use anything
I can get my hands on and proves to be interesting to me.
I like entering a studio and seeing all these synthesizers inviting me to
have some fun: it was what I dreamed of when I was a kid. I find hardware
inspiring, I couldn't imagine not owning any hardware synths at all. I grew
into hardware, and I did try software but with not much succes. Analogue
hardware has it's own charm, it's own sound, it's own color, it's own richness,
it works on a level that's hard to emulate with digital techniques.
I don't oppose of people making music with only software. It's just that
to me hardware is the most natural way to make music, it feels better. So
I use what I think works best for me and I take it other people do the same,
wether it be hardware or software or a combination. Everything has it's
own purposes, you just have to use it at it's best, make the equipment that
you own part of the ideas: you can't be Vangelis with only an SH101 but
with some creativity you can get a long way, and in the end develop your
own unique style. Because eventho equipment is part of the inspiration,
the biggest problem with uninspired music isn't the equipment used, it's
the person using the equipment.
14)Many
guys talk about the death of vinyl: do u think the same thing ??
Nah. There will always be group of enthousiasts who prefer vinyl, and who
will enforce some peer pressure on those who start doubting. No serious,
as long as there's enough people with an interest in vinyl, there will be
a market. I never gave it much thought, I don't know the arguments of people
who think vinyl will die. Like I said before, I only buy old stuff, most
of that stuff was never released on CD so I'll always be forced to play
records. Ofcourse I could be playing mp3's I ripped from the intnet, but
I'm also a bit of a collector. I like hunting records in obscure backstreet
stores, it's part of the hobby. I couldn't life with the idea of playing
music I didn't really own, that I didn't find after searching piles and
piles of records but downloaded with only the click of a mousebutton. You
could say that if emotion is the only factor that could decide between the
life or death of vinyl, vinyl is in a crittical state. But then you'd also
underestamate the power of emotions.
15)Thanks for your time. Now u can leave one message for italian guys.
If you don't
like what you do, chances are that nobody else will like it either.