“My father was into jazz in his younger days,” explains the otherwise affable bloke. “That gave me an awareness of music from an early age. It taught me the basics about the guitar, but my interest from when I was about seven, was focused on the early eighties’ electro breakdance hip hop scene.” So many instruments, C64s, Atari’s, samplers, 1210s and ideas later, the man finds himself in his native Copenhagen quite content, but looking forward.
“This city is not a very big place, but there are quite a lot of cool things happening here. I don’t know much about it all, because I’m not here so much in the weekends to participate. But there are a handful of promoters booking tech house acts from the German scene, and those parties are quite popular. I enjoy playing at home from time to time too. It is always a nice familiar feeling when you kind of know everybody. But my scene is more outside of Denmark really. Although people have begun to appreciate my music more and more here too, my biggest audience so far has been concentrated in Germany. The scene in Germany is huge.”
Indeed, that energy is channeled into a creativity to create music of literally any kind as long as he is feeling it. And regardless, his insights into music generally – and particularly his eclectic view on his craft, are profound. “A sound should have a bit of an edge or something that gets me going emotionally,” he explains. “Also, I am very inspired by all kinds of folk music. It has a nerve and a sense of deep honesty that I admire. I rarely have a plan when I start a track so it can pretty much go anywhere. I also have a few space disco synthesizer electro type of tracks in the drawer, which I’m currently looking for a label for. They are quite different from my other stuff, but I’ve put just as much soul into them. Recently I made a commercial remix under a different moniker for some guys in Ibiza. The original has this very over the top soul house vocal sung by Kathy Sledge (Sister Sledge), so I skinned it down to the part I thought was essential, and made a kind of eighties nostalgic space disco house track out of it. That was a great opportunity and nice challenge to work out of the box. I love arpeggios and melodic retro synth stuff, sometimes bordering to the cheesy.”
Yet musically, that man doesn’t like to pay much attention to genres. “If you asked me right before a gig, I would probably encourage you to have a listen, judge for yourself, and then come and tell me afterwards how you would describe it. Sometimes I’ve called it cowboy-tech other times desert/circus-tech or just experimental music with a four-four beat. On Beatport it is tech house.”
So then what drives the desire to be different, to awaken the listeners mind as he terms it? “I want to create and communicate a story and an atmosphere so that the people can add to it, dive in and be a part of it. You should be able to hold a mood and a feeling from that process of creation. It should be something you can share with a crowd who are open and curious – but also to experience that same mood together. Make us all have a collective feeling for a moment. It might be a high goal, but it is very rewarding when I feel it accomplished, and quite unique for this art form, that you get a super direct response from your audience, compared to let’s say a photographer who is also communicating moments and atmospheres, but rarely gets to see the impact it has on the receiver.”
Finally, he is excited on the eve of his first trip to Australia and unsurprisingly, is expecting to deliver something different. “Come with an open mind and we’ll take it from there,” he chimes with some confidence. “I like to go from cumbia-like groves into spaghetti western inspired stuff to north African desert vibe and so on. Lately I’ve actually also dared to sneak in some of the more synth driven tracks that I mentioned before. I use a wave drum to add dynamic/organic feel, and sometimes also vibraphone and western guitar sample based on keyboard, while adding loops and grooves to the transitions to keep a good flow and continuity. I work a lot with the story and the build up in order to give the crowd a good journey. Come to Fourcolours, and you will see.”
BY RK
