In collaboration with Decibel Festival, I’m honored to share this brief interview I did with Four Tet. His productions stand tall on their own, humbly  showing that words are not always necessary. You can catch his live performance on Sunday, September 4th, 2011 at the Decibel curated, Bumbershoot After Dark. Thanks for the time Kieran, and see you in a few days!

Promo video above created by Cameron Jessup

INTERVIEW

DD: Any interesting new developments, or techniques in your current performances?

I’ve got some new songs.

DD: Any exploring you plan on doing while in Seattle for Decibel’s, Bumbershoot After Dark?

No, I’m going to be there less than 12 hours.

– Jimi Jaxon 

DD: My buddy and label mate Sphyramid is very hyped on your music! Thanks to him for sparking my interest. What are you up to right now?

I’m just back in from Spain where I did 3 days of recording for a sports car commercial – pretty hyped on this one because I’ll also do the music and all the sound design for the final spot. Music wise, I’m currently working on some new stuff and still figuring out what I’ll do with my finished album “Asymmetry”. The artwork is done, a nice video is in the making and the tracks will be mastered soon. Also, there will be a remix for Taprikk Sweezee coming out soon on Error Broadcast which I’m really looking forward to – turned out to be a melancholic piano tune with some deep basses dropping in. Hopefully, there will also be a video for that one. ;]

Basically, I spend most of my time building my new studio – rented 220m² in the heart of Hamburg together with a partner and we’re building two control rooms and two recording stages from the ground up. There really is a shitload of work and money going into this monster, but it still feels like one of the best things I’ve done in my life. I’ll hopefully be done with my control room by the end of the year so I can start working on new Skyence projects as well as client-related stuff for my company Audionerve.

DD: How long have you been honing your musical craft? The depth and diversity of your songs is astounding.

Haha, I really like the word “honing” in combination with musical craft.

First of all: Thanks! I’ve started producing when I was around 13, sampling snares from my fathers Phil Collins records, hehe…
But I really don’t feel that way about the diversity and depth of my productions and maybe that’s the reason why I always try to push it to the next level. I’m really pissed off by the way music is treated in mix and mastering nowadays. 90% of the new stuff I find sounds like shit – not musically, but sound wise. There is so much ambience and depth getting lost on the way by cranking up compressors and limiters like there’s no tomorrow. People need to learn how to use those millions and millions of plugins and hardware and start working on sound more consciously…ah man, I could go on for hours, haha.

I must say, I learned a lot about myself and my behavior when it comes to sound while I was producing a lot of neuro drum&bass some time back – there was a time when the musical side of it suddenly moved back and it was just about who’s got the most agressive snares and reece sounds. I learned a lot about equalization and making way for certain sounds in the spectrum. This is also the case when mixing rock or metal productions. You want that wall of guitars to be upfront but the drums have to be punchy also, and for me there is no compromise. If you listen to actual metal productions, you’ll find that kicks and snares both sound like *click*. I hate it! So, why not give it some more headroom in the mix and master and let those sounds live?
I don’t know who said it: “Good mastering starts with songwriting.” True!

DD: How has 2011 been for you musically, compared to past years? Where do you hope to go from here?

I think the interesting thing about 2011 was, I started to collaborate with other producers/musicians. I almost never did that, because I have just too rigorous of concepts when working on music – I like to be in control of what is happening. It’s the same when I’m sitting in the backseat of a car – I always have to lean to the side to see straight through the windscreen – I need to see what’s going on. There are maybe three drivers in this world that I trust 99%, I can even sleep while they’re driving. This behaviour can be a bad thing, but it also ensures me that, when something goes wrong, I am the only one to blame. And I like it that way.

Next good thing is, that I’ve been working on some really exciting projects with my company Audionerve. I really learned a lot about working on sound for moving images – it’s a whole different process. I hope there will be a lot more exciting projects and clients in the coming years.

Oh yeah, not to forget “Insct”, the track I did from recording bees and crickets in the italian alps and dolomites. Johannes Timpernagel did a reactive music video and we suddenly had over 150k views on Vimeo, got awarded at some festivals and wrapped up a live act which premiered at Lunchmeat Festival in Prague. What a rush!

In the future, I want to do a lot more of those projects. I think the concept of releasing an album is not relevant anymore (even though I don’t like that thought). People want to get more out of music and partying. It’s not enough to release an album with 15 tracks on it, of which 4 are skits and 3 more are not 100% to the point, there has to be some additional value. You had that with the artworked sleeves on vinyl, you had that with 40-side booklets on CDs – but what about the digital stuff? Nothing to grab, smell, feel, taste…just 0s and 1s. So I want to add more to it with videos, tutorials, making of’s etc. We’ll see where it goes.

DD: Can you remember specific periods where you experienced musical epiphanies or leaps in your creative process? What sparked these?

Oh yeah! Especially 90’s Rap is still running through my veins. Sometimes I think every human being has it’s heart beating at a certain bpm range, and mine is definately around 90, haha…Also, the feeling of 174 bpm Neurofunk from 2005-2009 by the likes of Phace, Noisia or Misanthrop really gets me every time. Turn on “Hot Rock VIP” by Phace and I’ll be shaking my arse like there’s nothing left to lose, haha….Oh yes, and listening to Burial’s first album for the first time while walking home in the rain in Hamburg. He’s one of those producers that created something completely unique. I love his work!

DD: What words of encouragement do you have for producers inspired by your work?

First of all, it’s a good thing to be inspired by other producers/musicians! Just don’t forget you’re doing your own thing. And never ever ever ever even think about making music for something else than the love of it!

Skyence Guestmix for Rhythm Inc.
http://www.rhythm-incursions.com/2011/06/06/skyence-rhythm-incursions-guestmix/

Skyence Guestmix for Bassmusic
http://bassmusicblog.com/bass-music-mix-15-skyence

Skyence BandCamp
http://skyence.bandcamp.com/

Skyence Soundcloud
http://www.soundcloud.com/skyence

– Jimi Jaxon 

DD: How are you Mr. Airwolf?

A: I am very, very good! Besides being good, I am just really busy and overwhelmed with all this work I’ve managed to get myself into haha.

DD: Ok that remix you did of “We Run The Night” is phenomenal. I know this will be popping up in future DJ sets of mine here in Seattle. How did you approach this remix?

A: Thank you! Im really glad you like it! I’m not entirely sure when I first started it, it kinda just all plopped into place, which I was really happy about. Nothing worse than sitting on a remix that goes no where, when you’ve worked on it for so long (which is what I’m facing right now with another remix I’m working on for artist Urchins). 

DD: I’ve been hearing some radddd stuff from AUS, what’s it like down there?

A: It’s actually really good, I enjoy the whole oz music scene. I think it’s great. Theres obviously a lot of amazing stuff coming from overseas too, and from the stuff I’ve heard that should be coming out within the next few months out of oz. There’s so much more amazing music to come out just in time for summer (down here) which is great!

DD: What’s been your favorite song to produce so far?

A: Out of the tracks that have been released, I would have to say my remix of Sydney Band ‘Slicker Cities’ called Paradise. It’s kind’ve like two songs in one really. I kinda switched up the middle into more of an upbeat, fun tune. But it’s fairly old, so the production skills wern’t up to scratch back then haha. 

DD: How would you describe your connection with electronic music? 

A: Married for 48 years with a few fights over the years, but still in a strong relationship. On a producing point, I don’t play any instruments, just self taught. So i’m like a 1 year old, smashing keys on my hardware like a fool, hoping something will start to sound some-what musically good. Then I kind’ve take things to midi, to fix it all up really. On a DJing point, I love it. I play a lot of my tracks in my sets. On a listening point, Not so much a close relationship, Really just into my funky 70s and 80s. Really into My Brothers Johnson, and Chic etc.

DD: Plans for the rest of the year?

A: My EP should finally be out, just putting the final touches on it for release on the Australian label ‘Sweat It Out’. Releasing one track on a Compilation EP for ‘Common Trolls Recs’, and also releasing a single with Trumpdisco, which I’m super excited about! Such a really good club track! So, lots to release, lots to finish, and touring at the end, which I cant wait for !!

DD: Last words?

A: Check out my photo blog if you like drunk chicks and if you’d like to see random other shit I  do in my life – www.airwolfparadise.com . Like me, follow me, email me and thanks for sticking around and reading my rambling on xxx

Find Airwolf on Soundcloud and Twitter

Stay classy Seattle, 

Jimi Jaxon

DD: So I’ve gotten to know you through Rubix, he’s been featured on my blog quite a lot of the past few years. Very happy to see him hook up with you! What do you love most about your label, No Brainer Records? 

M: The good thing about your own label is you can sign exactly the music you love the most, unless someone else signs it first of course. For me it’s not so much about a pre definied style of music, but about a certain vibe I want in the music. This certain vibe can also be found in my dj sets. I know it’s not that common anymore, with most dj’s playing only one genre: only house, only tropical, only bangers, only breaks. Also, many clubs are forced to do these genre nights. I try to break these genre boundaries with the music I do on No Brainer. It’s a tough job to do it that way, but I still haven’t lost hope that people understand, and moreover appreciate the open minded attitude of the label.

DD: How did you come to build this roster of artist releases? Do you first connect with a lot of these people online, or maybe through shows? 

M: I got sent tons of demos before I even had a label. A lot of young producers asked for advice and I was always trying to help when I had the time to do so. I had some material laying around when I started No Brainer Records. Additionally, I contacted some people I knew to send me tracks, and encouraged people to send me demos if they thought it could fit on No Brainer. So send me your stuff and gimme two weeks to answer. But before you do please make sure it’s not something that doesn’t fit the label at all. No Brainer certainly doesn’t do trancy stuff, full on distorted stuff or dubstep for example.

 DD: How if any has your environment growing up influenced your current production style? I see your from Germany, and these songs have a very tropical feel.. 

My music never really reflects a german lifestyle. Even when I started with funky breaks in 1999 on my soon to be re-released first album ‘The Spirit Of Malente’, you wouldn’t notice that I’m from Germany. Also the name Malente is a city in northern Germany, but it doesn’t sound german at all. The name Malente fits to my music. It’s changed through time very well, and captures the positive vibe and fun gained from playing around with styles, synths and samples. Germany has a minimal impact on what I do. I feel far more european or global.

DD: What’s the most important to you as an artist? 

The freedom to put out what I like, when I like it. This is sometimes difficult. It can often be confusing to the listener and is arguably bad for my career. All this means I would recommend releasing a tropical and a techno tune and a re-releasing an old funky breaks album within a month to any other artist. But I am Malente and when I have the freedom to do it, I’ll just do it and don’t give a fuck. I do gotta say that I love all the fans who understand that attitude and dig all my releases.

Respect.

No Brainer Records on Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud and http://nobrainerrecords.wordpress.com/

– Jimi Jaxon

DD: How are these wonderful songs put together? A lot of sampling? Hello by the wayyyy

IN: Wassup!? For me, this question is really about the way our minds perceive and structure music.  I’ve been experimenting with samples for 20 years now, and so the way songs come together for me first has been a process of working on my perception of sounds.  For example, music can be experienced by sitting and listening to a record in a small room.  This is the common way we experience music today, but this is a modern experience of music.  Conversely, take for instance when you sit in a park and listen to the ambient sound of birds and traffic and wind.  There is music in the perpetual knock of raindrops, in the sound of traffic ridden busy streets, and there are even other songs contained in songs you hear.  The way they come together is through re-interpretation.  It’s how an actor brings a character to life.  I’ve been working on my perception for a long time.

DD:  That sounds like where I’d like to go! I wanna be on your wavelength. What got you interested in producing?

IN: I am witnessing you on your journey and it’s a path you are carving.  Respect my brother.  

To be honest, the thing that got me most interested in producing I think was my connection to the natural world.  I have always been very interested in other animals.  I think life has always been sacred for me.  Life contains beings in different pieces of body technology that are all connected to one giant soul whether you are a frog, or a tree, or a human.  This idea that we are all permutations of oneness inside a macrocosm we call the universe, inspires me to work within the microcosm in my art and show how one piece of music contains all sorts of permutations.  My view is that it makes my existence a conduit for the creator.  The greeks called it the muse.  This is the essence of hip hop and I am proud to be a part of this vibrant culture.  I produce because it acts as a way to explore the depth of my spirituality.  The interest in producing music stemmed from a need to explore myself.

DD: What kind of mindset/drive do you wish to have as an artist? 

IN: I let it come naturally.  All I want to do is work and to be honest, it is all I do.  My mindset is a constant negotiation.  Emotionally, art is something humans use to express our being, but it comes from a deep understanding that our being is one with the natural pattern that all beings grow in.  Western science calls this pattern the fibonacci sequence in the microcosm of smaller beings and life that we observe, and labels this same expansion the big bang in the macrocosm.  The metaphor of inception is a common theme that connects us all in this reality.  Indigenous culture understands this inherently through daily negotiation and observation of the land, without needing the clumsy numbers of western science to understand the concept.  Therefore this pattern, which exists in the very root of our existence, expands outward in the same fashion as an extension of our selves.  Whether we band together and call it “culture” or a “gang” depends on the power of relationship in whatever manmade existence we are building for ourselves at the time.  Presently we are under capitalism.  The system cannot overwrite nature though.  Art will win.

DD: Yes it will. What’s something you refuse to lose as an artist? 

IN: Not sure I can even answer this one.  Art is about loss and change to me, because art is a metaphor for the process of life which ends always with a change of state.  Everything is created forever and remixed, but every being dies and turns into something else.  This fact is self evident in everyday life but, because art exists as an extension of ourselves, what is commonly misunderstood about art is that human expression reflects this natural life cycle.  There is no permanence.  For example, one of my favorite things about hip hop culture is that this self evident change of state is expressed through the creation of slang within the rigid rules of English.  Extending outward from English for example, are words which keep the language ‘brollic’ while also reflecting what is eternal about the natural world.  It’s our duty as humans to continue this process of expressive change in order to keep mankind civilized and in sync with the natural system that governs us, and steers us away from virtual reality systems that are manmade such as capitalism.  The artist and digital theorist Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew wrote, “The acts of creation and expression through metaphor and metonymy extend outward, as they do for everyone, to define and modulate all other facts of creation and expression.”  So if metaphor is the essence of the communication of nature’s pattern then it resounds in quotes such as Ernst Fischer’s “In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay.  And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.”  Further, artists have tried for eons to explain this concept which is why the oft quoted Marc Chagall said, “When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God-made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art.”  I like to think of my art, which I express through sound and music primarily, as a way for me to extend beyond a natural existence and color the world in a positive way that connects me with the same spirit that creates all.  With that experience of creation, I feel that I am blessed with a better understanding of my place as a being amongst many others in this reality while simultaneously losing myself and letting the great spirit of creation work through me.  As an artist I am trying to lose myself to find myself.

Impossible Nothing on Twitter, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp * 6 releases posted!

– Jimi Jaxon