Interview by Ryo Tsutsui (HigherFrequency)

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HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : It’s been 2 years since you last came to Japan. And this will be your first time playing at Womb. What are your expectations for Womb and have you heard anything about the club before?

Carl Cox : A lot of my DJ associates played there a few times before, one of them being Ritchie Hawtin and Christian Smith plays there a lot, based on his CD compilation dedicated to Womb, he has a lot of heart and soul for this club. For me being the first time there it’s really exciting cause I don’t know what it’s going to be like, I have to always create the vision of what it can be like, and hopefully the expectations of what I think is higher once I play. People can always say “I had a great night at Womb” but I don’t know what that is until I’m actually there and feel the energy from the people and what I give to the party, then I understand. So from this point I can’t say what it’s going to be truly like for me, but what I can say is that I brought myself here, my heart and soul and my music to Womb.

HRFQ : Recently your sound has changed a bit, you’ve added some electro house and minimal into the mix, however you’ve maintained your one-of-a-kind “Coxy groove” is this due to your technique?

Carl Cox : I’ve always been able to get the very best out of all types of music whether it be funk, soul, house, techno, whatever. I’ve always been able to put all these elements together and create my own style, my own vibe, my own passion and feeling of creating a night of music. I’ve never really been a slave to one sound, apart from a lot of people feel that my music is always more of a techno orientation, meaning hard, fast energy. But then when I play House music it has that hard fast energy! I can’t get away from the energy of what I create. It’s just something that’s been within me all my life when I play music. And it’s quite funny because if I play minimal it still has an energy, if I play techno it has energy even more beyond itself. So I like to think that even though we have many titles of different styles and genres of music, that I put it under one umbrella of it just being music, which is created and made and compiled by me, Carl Cox, is what creates my style. So I have a feeling for all types of music but able to relate that type of music into the dancefloor purely based on it’s energy from my point of view. Armin van Buurin can play exactly the same record as me but I would play it in a completely different way. Not to say it’s good or bad it’s just the way I play it. It’s something which I’ve been able to control, develop, understand and get people to know that if I am playing that record because I believe it’s a good record, not because it’s minimal or techno or trance, in the end a good record is a good record, and that’s what I like to think I play, good records.

HRFQ : Ever since you started DJing, you have had such a wide variety of sound, how do you manage to keep finding good tracks from all sorts of genres?

Carl Cox : Well I’m very fortunate to be able to travel the world and within me traveling the world I always meet DJ’s and producers making new music, a new sound from Greece, or from the Baltic islands, all these different areas of people making music and I’m definetly one of the first DJ’s to get anything created from any of these countries, which I enjoy. Peru or Brazil someone’s always making or doing something, and if I hear something and I play it, and I know for a fact that I’m the only one that has it, then I turn that into a Carl Cox record. but meanwhile because of the radio station Global, people send me music to my house or send me files to my ftp site so everyday I’m always getting sent music. And sometimes if I’m looking for a specific sound or track which I like, I go to a website [beatport/trackitdown]. But I have a lot of music sent to me from all over the world and if they’ve made something that they feel that I’d like, then they get it to me by hook or by crook.

HRFQ : Do you actually listen to everything you get?

Carl Cox : I try to, but there’s so much music I could spend 6 months just listening to each and every individual track, so I basically put my music in files or CD’s when I have some downtime, 2 or 3 hours, I make my marks on the CD’s or download the file. Cause sometimes for 1 record there are 10 mixes, so you have to go through all those mixes to find the one that suits me, all the other music I won’t play and that one mix I will play, so to go through those 10 records will take 10-15 minutes to find one record, so it’s time consuming but it’s necessary for me to have new music for sure.

HRFQ : Your labels Intec and 23rd Century have a huge fan base here in Japan and many people are waiting for some new releases however they havn’t released any new tracks for about a year, are you planning on releases stuff next year?

Carl Cox : With the two record labels that over the last two years things have changed from making records. From the pressing plant, to packaging, and artwork all of this now we don’t create anymore because we can not sell the records anymore. Times have changed where people used to go into a record store and buy a record to now wanting to download that record directly onto their mp3 or onto their computer to play. For me, when I made Intec 50, vinyl base, that was a mark of an era for what we’ve created from Intec over the last 9 years. And 23rd Century records was also my label for releasing Carl Cox music and anything else around that didn’t suit Intec would be on 23rd Century. But now I wanted to take a step back to see how I could still find music, put music out and promote it but from a digital point of view. For me it’s now not Intec Records it’s Intec Music, and 23rd Century Music because it’s going to turn itself into a download site. Somewhere where you can pick up your new music from a mp3 point of view. But the way of the future now is this way, which completely changed everything when pressing plants and distributors like Amato going down, it’s just showing you exactly what’s going on out there. And I didn’t want to part of a sinking ship in some ways so I kind of stopped everything while I felt it was necessary and now to do my research and development it has taken one year and then next year you’ll start to see Intec Music rise again with new music from what I’ve been collecting over the year of producers making music for the label and also my own sound as well, my new album will come out on 23rd Century and things like this have started to happen. So I wanted to take a step back for 1 year just to see where everything is and then to think it’s now time for 23rd Century and Intec to become what I believe it can be as a company that still believes in music. It’s a difficult and long process because people who used to buy records still want to buy records, but I find it really hard to carry on creating a label and spending this amount of money on people who want to buy records because it’s too expensive. Times have changed, for the better in some ways because people are still interested in buying music, just not from a vinyl point of view anymore. So I’m just moving with the future with releasing music from my record labels now. For 1 year I was losing 4 to 5 thousand pounds on each Intec release, which is a labour of love for me but for my accountant it was just losing money so I had to come to a conclusion of now having to stop, step back, cut my loses and move forward with creating a whole new way of maintaining Intec Music, which has been easy but necessary.

HRFQ : In a past interview you said “To become a Top/successful DJ you must make a track, release a record and make it hit” do you think this works with just a digital release?

Carl Cox : It maintains to be the same because over the years there are more and more people that want to become DJ’s, so 5000 DJ’s how does one DJ become successful. The only way to jump out of that is if you are able to make a record which the public like. For instance, Fedde Le Grande, nobody knew who he was 10 years ago but everyone knows him now because his 1 hit record that all the DJ’s played putting him in the arena of the next wave of new DJ’s coming through, without it he would still be along side the 5000 DJ’s. He was very lucky and fortunate, it doesn’t happen to everyone but you have to try to do it, try and make that record, try and make something that makes you unique or individual and that represent the reasons why you wanted to become a successful DJ in the first place. I’ve always been a DJ that just loves to play music whether I’m successful or not, so that’s where your heart has to lie, you have to understand the reasons why you are doing it in the first place. If you have that then being successful shouldn’t matter too much because you’re doing what you love anyway but no one’s going to say “don’t try”, keep the momemtum of your spirit based on your DJ’ing ability but your inroad to success is trying to make that record heard. Meet as many people as you can, send your music to everyone, inundate people with your music somewhere along the line something has to happen, it all depends if you really want and believe you can do it.

HRFQ : For the past couple of years, you have DJ’d the New Year’s countdown in Korea, which isn’t very well known for their club music scene, is there a special reason why?

Carl Cox : The first time I played in Korea I had a really amazing experience, purely based on I’ve never been to Korea before in my life. I never though that my success as Carl Cox had reached as far as Seoul and I didn’t know what to expect when got there, but I found that it was half westerners and half Koreans that were into the music. It’s also the only time I get to play in Korea so it was important for me to have somewhere where I felt it was necessary for me to be at the change of the year based on that Korea is probably the last place I’ve got to play. I’ve played Japan many times, China, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Thailand, all these places I’ve played many times but Korea no. so it’s kind of like me giving them a little bit more than I would anywhere else based on the time that I chose to do it, and to feel happy about that. And they really appreciated it. Also my schedule allows me to be on this side of the world before I go to Australia for my 2 month rest. I have a house in Melbourne in which I enjoy the summer, so it’s also on the way home in a sense

HRFQ : Could you give a message to all your Japanese fans?

Carl Cox : Japan for me has always been a place I’ve really enjoy playing, I felt that the people really know their music and with that I’m able to play some of the best sets here. I always feel that the Japanese crowd really appreciate good DJ’s who play good music so I’m always excited to be here and to play new music for the Japanese crowd and they always push me to play the best here so I enjoy the challenge of playing Japan for sure!!

Listen to Carl Cox at hrfq.com

Interview by Nick Lawrence (HigherFrequency)

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HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : What’s exciting you at the moment musically? Is the new wave of club music going around in London doing it for you at all?

Damian Lazarus : The past week I have mainly been listening to the 2nd Radiohead In Rainbows cd, a compilation that friends made for me called the ‘Amalgamation mix’, an album from the late 60’s by an artist called JK & Co and tracks from the brand new Pier Bucci album.

HRFQ : You are well known for adding a few kooky tracks into your sets but when does eclecticism turn into self-indulgence?

Damian Lazarus : I guess when people leave the dancefloors laughing at you, you probably have a problem – fortunately that hasn’t happened to me yet. There is a very fine line between self indulgence and playing artistically, I like to think that during a 5 or 6 hour set I’m allowed to push the boundaries of common sense once or twice.

HRFQ : How about the Lazpod, has that scared any die hard fans off or are you getting a good reaction to the change up in sound?

Damian Lazarus : I’ve been blown away by the positive reaction to Lazpod, I’m just very happy that the people that come dance and party with me in clubs are open minded enough for me to tickle them with some very strange music. Nobody really wants to listen to techno all day and the Lazpod shows are a reflection of what I like to listen to when I’m not preparing DJ sets or considering releases for Crosstown Rebels.

HRFQ : Listening to it, sounds like you are doing a bit of a Pete Tong and really enjoying it. Any plans to get into radio?

Damian Lazarus : I did some radio recently, some late night shows on Kiss FM and Radio One had me in for some demos but I don’t think I fit the bill for the ‘next Pete Tong’. I think Lazpod is a perfect radio opportunity; I get to record it in my own time, in my own studio, with my own music – what could be better?

HRFQ : Vinyl is having a really tough time at the moment. What does it mean for the labels and the whole dance music scene?

Damian Lazarus : Every record label is needing to assess its business plans right now, with distribution companies closing all around us and many people preferring to buy an mp3 over a vinyl 12” there are issues that definitely need to be dealt with.

HRFQ : You are now coming out to Tokyo every year for Crosstown parties, any plan to start something up more regularly with more of the crew making the trip over?

Damian Lazarus : Well the residency at Yellow is perfect as it is a perfect room for our music and our spirit of partying. The last trip I made with Jamie Jones and the party was incredible, this time around I’m flying solo and will play for most of the night alone – Yellow is one of the only clubs in the world where I really love to do this – the people are so relaxed and exciting and cool and the atmosphere is killer.

HRFQ : Smoking has been banned in UK clubs so is coming to Tokyo, where smoking still rules, a blessing or a curse?

Damian Lazarus : I like to play and smoke!!

HRFQ : Last time we spoke you mentioned you may try your hand at producing and in another recent interview you mentioned it again. When will we get to hear some of this home-made Lazarus magic?

Damian Lazarus : I hope to release some of my own music in 2008. Watch this space for more information soon!

www.damianlazarus.com

Interview by Ryo Tsutsui (HigherFrequency)

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HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : You are quite well known that you have been influenced by latin music but could you tell us the story how you got in to electronic music?

Luciano : I was born in Switzerland and I moved to Chile when I was like 9 or 10 years old with my mother. I started with guitar and played in a band and the first encounter with electronic music was when I was playing funk music, there was a French band I was fascinated with because they replaced the drummer with a drum machine. This was the first step into machines and things like this. Also I was always visiting my father that was living in Switzerland, and I had a friend who came back from Italy and brought a tape from a House party, and at the beginning I was not really attracted by that but after it somehow got more into it, and brought vinyl back to Chile and this is when I started to make parties and meet people, we were like 4 people making electronic music in the beginning. I got more into it through Martin Dandy Jack, also Ricardo who was coming from Germany to visit and he was always bring records.

HRFQ : Your DJ play is very emotional in parts, but your releases shows much more of your minimalistic side, do you intend to do that?

Luciano : What I intend to do with my music is to always try and do something that pleases me, and that I feel something for. I will never make a track completely mentally with a formula or something like that, it always has to produce a feeling or something inside of me. And for what I produce I wouldn’t say its minimal music because I have a lot of detail in the music that I do, it’s more like timeless music beacuse normally I do very long tracks like between 10 to 16 minutes so what is minimal in my music I think is the development, how an element comes and goes. I think this is what takes more time than for example pop music, which is like 3 or 4 minutes and you have everything in a short time, I try and put a lot of elements in between lets say 15 minutes.

HRFQ : Last year we experienced your great popularity in ibiza. Has ibiza become very special place for you?

Luciano : Well I think since the 60’s or 70’s Ibiza has been a very special place because of the geographical location, people from Europe and all over the world come to this island to party. Its always had the spirit and it still exists today and I think that’s the most special thing, also it’s a beautiful place, you have sun and beaches. And the music scene is really good because people go there without time, when they go out they don’t think “I have to go back because I have to work” they really go there to party and have a holiday and all these elements together make a big boom.

HRFQ : Could you tell us about your live unit Narod Niki ?

Luciano : The Narod Niki is a project that Ricardo started and its like a band jam session. The idea is to put like 8 people together and to make a jam session. One of the more important things about Narod Niki is that we always try to hide the names behind the project, we always try to move and integrate new people, and to really keep a secret identity somehow. Its very complicated, because when you are on stage and everyone is together its about really trying to reduce yourself to one element, don’t start to compose because normally everyone there is used to composing one track with all the elements but you are a part of Narod Niki you have to think as an instrument, so you have to make one part of the track, the others will make the other parts and its about the feeling and communication that we have between all of us to create one song. You have to be very discreet and at the same time you have to really feel what goes on at the moment and always think what you can import to the track and what you can take out. For me the best one we had was the live we did at the Montreal Jazz festival, with Carl Craig, two guys from Basic Channel, Ritchie, me, Ricardo, Zip and Dandy jack and it was really good, we played for 4 hours, its always long sets, its not something you can do in one hour.

HRFQ : We read that you are one of the owner of the cafe post26 in berlin. Could you tell us how it started?

Luciano : Actually it started on a really bad story, I had a studio in Berlin, just under the café. And before that was a Turkish guy running the café. One day I was making music and the guy was going crazy because the room was going “Boom, Boom, Boom” and then he came down with a piece of mental and I opened the door and he wanted to hit me and suddenly the police and the owner arrive and it was big trouble.Normally when you do music, you’re always the first guy to be throw out of a place, and this was the first time that the owner of the building was fighting for us! Basically she was like “No, they are super creative people, you Turkish guy can’t hit people like this, I throw you out!” then the owner offered us to do something with the café, and we’ve never been into things like this and we decided lets try and do it. So in one week we built an internet café. Suddenly we were all making coffee and sandwiches, and the studio was down and that’s not what we wanted to do, we want to make music not coffee! So we decided to open only for special occasions like record release, Birthday parties and pre parties, this was really nice. There was a sandwich called Big Luciano!!

HRFQ : You play a lot in Berlin too, could you tell us what you think about the scene in berlin?

Luciano : Berlin is like the emerging scene of electronic music, you have a lot of people from all over the world moving to Berlin. And Berlin is really special on the party scene. This is related to of course all the artistic activity in Berlin, but it’s also related to when it was divided (into East and West) and when the wall fell down Berlin had no details about closing times, and you could party whenever until whenever you want, in any places because there were so many empty buildings, it was super chaotic at the beginning, this chaos created a lot of art and creative people. This was the principal motor of Berlin, you had complete freedom and people were coming from all over because it was so cheap. At the moment it has around 2.5 million people but can have 5 million people so you have a lot of spaces, rent is cheap and you have everything you need. I think this will change soon because so many people are moving there. Its good because you have a lot of creativity but many people are doing the same thing in the same city. And some people who move to Berlin forget where they are from. But it’s a great city, there is an amazing musical culture, in design, photography, architecture in everything.

HRFQ : Whats your next plan?

Luciano : I’m going to be working in the studio in January and February, and I’m going to be working on my album. So I took off two months, and this hasn’t happened for like 8 years where I’ve taken off 2 months just to be in the studio. So that’s my next plan that I’m really looking forward to. I’m going to make music with reason, just because I love music. So I’m going to make like 30 tracks and then compile downtempo maybe dance music, I don’t know. But for sure in the album I want to integrate instruments and vocals and I really want to push it further.

HRFQ : Could you give your message to fans here in japan?

Luciano : I’m super thankful to be here!! I’m always excited about coming to Japan. I’m super attracted to Japanese culture, and when I leave I feel an empty space, and I really want to stay here, there’s something magical about here.

Listen to Luciano on hrfq.com
Luciano Interview (Nov 2005)

Interview by Ryo Tsutsui (HigherFrequency) _ Introduction by Nick Lawrence (HigherFrequency)

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HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : Could you tell us little bit about your musical background?

Stonebridge : It’s interesting, I started as a guitar player actually, I had really crap bands in the suburbs of Stockholm, and we didn’t have a singer so we were just jamming. I was always more interested in chords, so there was another guitar player, he did the solos and I did the chords. I always wanted to jazzy when they wanted to go rock n roll, so we never actually went anywhere with that band. After that I took a little break from music, to study, and I started to collect records. Then my sister was graduating, and in Sweden you always have graduation parties in May, so I played my sister’s party because my dad wanted to save money, and I loved it! This DJ thing was great! Luckily I printed business cards and all her friends booked me as well. So I played for a whole month then I decided to open a club. Then I started to bring an old synthesizer to the club, it was an old Korg Monopoly and I did simple things like effects and stuff. This was in the early 80’s. Then I met other DJ’s and we set up a studio together, we called it Swemix, and we started to remix, from the beginning it was very simple editing on tape, but the more stuff that went into the studio the more complex it became.

HRFQ : After your first month of DJing, you started your own club?

Stonebridge : Yes, me and a friend went around to restaurants in Stockholm and the second place we went to, a chef came out and said “that’s great because I was thinking about opening a club”. We lied and said we knew everything about clubbing, we can take care of this, we didn’t have any clue, but we were so lucky, because the guy was inexperienced himself he let us do our thing and luckily people came to the club. It was called Fellini, and we actually wrote a letter to the director and got permission to use the name.

HRFQ : What kind of equipment do you use to produce music?

Stonebridge : It started with the simple stuff, at one point, I would say the peak of my studio was in 93, I had four racks of outboard gear, big mixing console, speakers, effects and everything. Then we switched from Atari to Mac and Logic, and in those days audio was two tracks, couldn’t really use it, then something called session 8 arrived so you could record 8 tracks, then Pro Tools came along, 16 tracks, it was sometime in the era, around 98, I realized I’m not using this whole board, I’m mixing in the computer, it’s just creating a lot of heat, so I sold the board, and every year I sell something of the old stuff so I only have two racks left. Basically it’s Logic with Pro Tool hardware on a Mac, that’s what I use. I do have some analogue gear, I kept some like the Juno 106. Everything is in the box

HRFQ : Looking through your DJ schedule you have a residency every month in Stockholm which credits Stonebridge and friends, what kind of party is it, and who else plays?

Stonebridge : I didn’t use to play Stockholm at all, cause when you’re from somewhere and you play there, people think he’s a local guy I can see him anytime, so that’s the problem when you’re local. So I decided when I was offered a residency at this beautiful club why don’t I bring my producer friends to Stockholm, we work in the studio then on the Friday night we play this thing together, that’s why it’s called Stonebridge and friends. I’ve invited Thomas Gold from Germany, Chris Kaeser from France, Mischa Daniels from Holland and Funky Junction from the US, that was the first half year, now I’ve started to invite other people like ATFC from England. So it’s my residency but I want to give people a bit more so I have an English warm-up DJ called Lil Joey, then it’s the international guest in the middle and then the last two hours are myself. It’s going well.

HRFQ : About your new album “Music Takes Me” how long did it take you to produce?

Stonebridge : It’s funny, I thought about that the other day, my albums take about 8 months, for some reason. It’s because when you start you don’t know you’re going to do an album, so you do a couple tracks, and then the way I work is I make the instrumental track and I send it to singers that I like and they write the lyrics and record a demo, then I produce the track and when I feel the track is ready I bring the singer over and we record it. Usually the first 4 months you might have 3 tracks not even with vocals then all of a sudden sometime after 5 months you start to think “I need to finish” so you don’t do as many remixes or slow down on the touring and then it’s this intense period of like two or three months when everything gets done. All of a sudden you have ten tracks!

HRFQ : Why did you make the title “Music Takes Me”?

Stonebridge : The first album was a nightmare because we didn’t know what to call it, we tried everything, if you come up with this fancy title people think who does he think he is. It was actually the Hed Kandi guy that said “why don’t you pick a track and make it the title”. I thought “Music Takes Me” is a really good title because it can be anything, it doesn’t say much but it can say a lot.

HRFQ : What kind of feeling are you trying to express through out this album?

Stonebridge : Well it’s a feel good album I suppose, maybe romantic even. I try to keep my lyrics very simple and not educational. I hate music, especially dance music when you’re on the floor and political people going to war, saying you shouldn’t do this or you shouldn’t do that, I don’t think the club is the right forum for that.

I decided I don’t want to sit and think about what people will like, because I think people are smarter than that, like this pop idol stuff, it’s sounds manufactured so I try to be very organic, I just do something I like myself and hopefully other people will like it too. I think you can tell when you listen to music that’s made from the heart rather than the brain, so I try not to over think the process. I’m not a very experimental guy, so I stop myself if I feel I’m going a bit to weird, I try and keep to the center of things.

HRFQ : Did you feel any pressure when you worked on this album?

Stonebridge : None, well the pressure was that I didn’t have a label when I started,I was on my own label. Because I was signed to Hed Kandi and they were bought by Ministry of Sound and with Hed Kandi, their idea was to do artist albums just to do your thing, whereas Ministry of Sound told me they don’t do artist albums, they do hit singles and hit compilations, so miraculously they let me go. So I decided to make another album and I hooked up with Armada. Then I finished the album without any pressure and got really good feedback.

HRFQ : Which do you prefer producing or DJing?

Stonebridge : For me I have to do equal thirds of remixing, producing and DJing. Because if I DJ too much then it feels empty, I need to create. But if I only remix it sort of giving away your music, the other artist gets the credit. Now I’m touring a bit more than I should but it’s a big world so it takes time to go everywhere. I found the balance. I’ve also found that with remixes you can be adventurous and try things out but with my own music I’m a little more conservative.

HRFQ : Any messages to your fans?

Stonebridge : Keep it Funky!!!

Don’t let the name fool you, Leitfaden Schallplatten is the newest Japanese label to enter the scene. Promoting cross-cultural interaction between Japan and the west, the first release on the fresh Tokyo label comes from Bavarian brothers Gebruder Teichmann. Teichmann got their break when their track ‘Dance And More’ was picked up for Kompakt’s “Speicher 25″.

Leitfaden Schallplatten began its life as a party promotion group, recently culminating with infamous parties at Club Maria and Bar25 in Berlin featuring the finest Japanese talent performing amongst the German underground.

“The Number of The BEAT” will be released on Leitfaden Schallplatten on November 24th.

Tracklisting
01. Auftakt
02. Un Bug (feat. Alice)
03. Interregio
04. Dance And More (album version)
05. Zwischenspiel
06. 606 The Number of The BEAT
07. Intermezzo
08. Minimal Scheissegel (feat. Alice)
09. Hopla Hop
10. Nick
11. Karacho
12. So Dance (feat. Alice)
13. Start
14. Whateverman
15. Startup [Japan Only]
16. Jodel
17. Inviolata Version
18. Nordler (Live In Osaka) [Japan Only]

Gebruder Teichmann Interview
Listen to Gebruder Teichmann on hrfq.com

Not a particularly awe inspiring month for London but still plenty of fun to be had if you haven’t blown all your funds on fireworks for Guy Fawkes.

9TH NOV (FRI) – Bang Face XIIX @ Electrowerkz
If you can brave the new rave vibe then Modeselektor should be worth checking out at this gig in Shoreditch. Despite a pretty shonky video clip effort which is like an unholy matrimony of Groove Armada and Chemical Brothers minus any sort of budget, their new album “Happy Birthday” is all killer.

16TH NOV (FRI) – Milky Disco feat Lindstrom & Prins Thomas @ The Key
If your ears are needing a vacation from banging techno could be a good idea to pop along for a slice of what the kids are calling space disco. Lindstrom will be playing live so will be a good chance to hear some of his choice cuts.

17TH NOV (SAT) – Phonica Records 4th Birthday @ Unit 7
Celebration time for the London stalwart Phonica Records. Jamie Jones, Simon Riggs, Ryan Shaw and Hector all on board to make sure the music is spot on for the night although sadly no Heidi.

24TH NOV (SAT) – K7 Records @ The Key
21st birthday of the influential K7. Swayzak should put on a nice show as no doubt will improv master Four Tet aka Kieran Hebden. Could be worth giving Hot Chip a chance aslong as they promise to play ‘Down With Prince’

SAL BY CORROCHE PRESENTS CROSS MOUNTAIN NIGHTS THE 6TH ANNIVERSARY feat. ADAM BEYER @ WOMB, TOKYO

Photo by Mark Oxley

Interview and Introdcution by Nick Lawrence (HigherFrequency)

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HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : How much of your life did your new album “Pan-O-Rama” consume while trying to get it ready for release?

Pan-Pot : At least one year, from collecting ideas until the final mixes and getting the coordination stuff done. Already two years ago we spoke about this album with Anja Schneider and Ralf Kollmann, so the album was a slowly growing project. Investing a lot of time and work, we’ve been using as much time as possible.

HRFQ : Why do you think you were chosen by Anja Schneider for Mobilee’s first ever
artist album?

Pan-Pot : We talked about the first Mobilee Album done by us almost two years ago.
Probably Anja trusts in us and our music. We’re working very close together, in fact we’re working in the same office/studio space. Anja heard the whole process of the album and gave us her feedback on all tracks during working on it.

HRFQ : When listening to your music there is a certain width and depth in terms of
soundscape which is something many producers fail to achieve. How important do
you think this is in dance music?

Pan-Pot : Depends what kind of music you want to call your own. We really like dark
atmospheres and soundscapes but trying to keep it in an interesting mood for the dancefloor. So it fits to our music. Darkness is definitely not a must have for good dance music; it’s a question of taste.

HRFQ : The last track on the alum ‘Faces’, has a very different sound to most of your
music. How much was this the influence of collaborator Vincenzo?

Pan-Pot : Tassilo and Vincenzo worked on this track with the aim to involve a piano.
The track may sound different but still includes our sound favorites.Vincenzo is a very talented musician and a brilliant piano player. “Faces” shows the combination of Vincenzos house roots and Pan-Pots musical preference.

HRFQ : You guys are kitted out with your sunglasses on the new album cover and
everyone seems to want a Magda haircut or a Luciano moustache. How much has
the techno scene become about image?

Pan-Pot : We’re having the moustaches for more than four years now, cutting it every week and our hairstyles seem to be the same for also four years now. It’s good to see that people take care of themselves, their look, their image. There are
people who copy and people who are copied, fuck it, that’s life. We don’t have the time to think about that too much. If there’s somebody who’s having the same haircut like richie hawtin or luciano, why not? it’s funny but we don’t judge it. Nobody has the patent on a haircut or a moustache.

HRFQ : The press-release for the album says you guys have become successful in just two years, has it really been that easy?

Pan-Pot : No, we’re releasing for two years now, but we worked together since we met each other 4 and a half years now. so double the time. Now, it’s possible to go live with what we’re doing, it used to be quite different the first 2 and a half years. Most of the time we were happy to have enough money buying food.

Pan-Pot ‘Pan-O-Rama’ is out now on mobilee

End of the interview

Mobilee Official Site
Pan-Pot Myspace
Listen to Pan-Pot on hrfq.com

Interview by Ryo Tsutsui (HigherFrequency) _ Introduction by Nick Lawrence (HigherFrequency)

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HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : How did your show at the Labyrinth festival compare to your club set?

Cobblestone Jazz : Certainly it’s a different environment. Its nice being in a contained space of a club, everybody supports and you can really feel the energy a lot more. A festival is also very cool because its in nature and more open so I think it makes the music different.

HRFQ : How did you three start to play together?

Cobblestone Jazz : We met in Victoria, and we would put different groups together. We met back around 1997. We started playing in a group called Modern Deep Left Quartet with the Mole of Soul, then we moved away and the Mole moved to Montreal, and we formed Cobblestone Jazz after that.

HRFQ : Could you tell us a little bit about the process of how you make music?

Cobblestone Jazz : We kind of like to focus around just going in the studio and all playing together at the same time, kind of like a Jam situation. It’s more interactive, try and be as open as we can. A lot of the times we start playing, we let ourselves go allover everywhere, and when we find something that really clicks we use that put it all back together again and then mix it. The main thing is that we aren’t writing part one at a time, the nice thing about the way we’re writing is that because it’s all being done together and multi-tracked at the same time it adds a bit of a different feel than doing it separately.

HRFQ : How often do you play together?

Cobblestone Jazz : We try and schedule a couple months out of the year to really focus on what we’re doing, inside that there’s a lot of touring that’s happening, we’re all quite busy though and we’re living in different places so we don’t see each other as much as we’d like to probably but we usually do two or three tours a year and then spend a couple of months in the studio, doing more production. When we’re going to be touring our album in October I’m going to have a studio in Berlin so we’re gonna try during or in between the tour to spend as much time in the studio as well.

HRFQ : How long did it take to record ’23 Seconds’?

Cobblestone Jazz : It took about two months to do it which we felt was a bit rushed, but what ended up happening is first we went in some different directions and created some music that wasn’t quite what we wanted to have. We produced a couple of nice things at that time but then we took the instruments that we play live and sticking with that and after that the album came together really quickly, in probably six weeks.

HRFQ : Could you tell us about some of the most memorable shows you’ve done?

Cobblestone Jazz : Probably Montreal Jazz Festival was pretty good, Soundwave, it’s an outdoor festival near where we lived in Victoria, this year in particular it rained very hard almost the whole time, we played a set there and right when we started, it stopped raining for about half an hour, part way through it started to pour again but people kept dancing and having a good time. The parties on the west coast are very different than the rest, a lot of people driving up dirt roads for hours and camping. It not so organized but it very ragged.

HRFQ : Do you have any specific plan about what to do next?

Cobblestone Jazz : Well we just got signed to K7! So we’re releasing our album in a few weeks then we’ll be touring. Then I think we’ll be making another album or maybe some more EPs on Wagon Repair. But we’re going keep doing what we’re doing, record and tour, everyone has there solo projects too, but with Cobblestone, we’re going to make some music, tour it, take a break, let the solo people do what their doing, then when we get hungry again, go in and share it.

End of the interview

Listen to Cobblestone Jazz on hrfq.com
Labyrinth Official Site

Kook Kook : Lopazz

Latest album from Get Physical and film composer Lopazz which ironically enough is as fresh as it gets at the moment despite the retro feel. ‘Share My Rhythm’. ‘Discogs’ (delightfully titled for all us nerds) and ‘We Are’ are definite highlights transporting your mind back a decade or two while your feet stay firmly planted on the dancefloor of today. Could do with a touch more cowbell…but what album couldn’t?

Click more for the tracklisting

Tracklisting
01. Volvoice
02. Discogs
03. We Are
04. Bottleneck
05. Credit Card Receipt
06. Play In My House
07. The Old Days
08. Share My Rhythm
09. Wet Sweat
10. Wasted Days
11. 2 Fast 4 You
12. MP In Love

Listen to Big City Lover on hrfq.com
Listen to Get Physical on hrfq.com