Hell-o all and we hope you’re having a great day so far! Start of the new week and for a change we’ll be starting today’s blogging with an interview, so grab you drinks, cigarettes, food (or whatever else you might need), make a nice banging playlist and start reading cause there is quite some info coming up! This week we interviewed aUtOdiDakT, a name that has been featured on Metalectro quite a few times with his tracks. aUtOdiDakT is based in Stuttgart, Germany and he has already released a number of originals as well as remixes. He’s currently working on some new projects and releases, with his new single “Boredom” being released tomorrow and we can assure you that he is one busy man, so let’s see what we should expect from him in 2013!
01. Hi, would you please mind introducing the man behind aUtOdiDakT?
My name is Andres and i come from a small town in southern Germany close to Stuttgart which is a medium sized city in southern Germany. I love music and I manage the labels Traktor, Mähtrasher and the recently founded Walze Records, I produce music myself under different aliases, I dj and do parties (Kaputtraven, Kaputtdubben and some new series soon). So it’s fair to say I’m a music guy i guess… haha
02. How long have you been producing as aUtOdiDakT and how did it all start for you?
I started the solo project in late 2002 to have a musical balance to my main project at that time which was called IMP-ACT and was a 8-piece live-act mixing metal-guitars with Drum & Bass and Ragga-Vocals. I just needed an outlet for chilled stuff in the beginning which i could do completely on my own without the stressful decision-making process of a band. My first EP came out early 2004 and was stylistically kind of instrumental Hip Hop and downbeat. The band broke up in late 2003, the label that signed us refused to release the album because the new A&R considered it not being “commercial enough” and we couldn’t sign it elsewhere although we had offers… so at that time I started my label Traktor Records to never let something like that happen again in the future and at least release stuff to a small group of people who are interested in it. At the same time I also changed the sound of my solo-project to a wider and heavier basis because the “hard” project i needed a smooth balance to fell apart and i needed the solo project to cover all stylistic needs of mine from now on.
03. I’ll take you on a little trip down memory lane and go a few years back and the first aUtOdiDakT tracks I personally heard and grabbed my attention, like “15 Seconds” and the huge favorite of mine “Chainsaw”. What was the feedback you got for those tracks and how did you come up with the idea of mixing metal elements with electronic music?
It was really surprising to me because i didn’t expect an overwhelming feedback like this, especially for this kind of music. It was a bit surreal to me that these tracks entered the Top 5 of the German club charts for example, because i never considered them to be that accessible to club audiences or other Djs.
I didn’t really plan on mixing these two ingredients specifically, I just experimented a lot with different styles i liked for the “Genres Are Dead” album and just checked if a specific combination was good after i actually finished it. I recorded almost 80 tracks for the album of which only about 30 were released…For example I tried to mix Drum & Bass aesthetics with Electro-tempo, sitar and 303 acid sounds on top or did a Euro-Dance song with Duck vocals if i felt like doing some nonsense in the studio. So there’s a lot of ridiculously strange music on my old hard drives which never got released and never will be, but every track i did was either fun or a learning process i don’t want to miss, in some cases both. I just can’t produce in one single direction all the time although i know that this would be much more effective for getting my name out. It’s a different approach as a producer to me as just Dj-ing: as Dj you kinda see and feel what works and you serve to a certain degree but being alone in a studio is really frustrating if you’re always thinking in a certain direction just to serve someone else or think about what might be clever to do at the moment. It gets boring really quick. I knew from the beginning on that I would like to produce music all my life no matter if it was on a professional basis or just to relax after coming home from a 8-5 job, so i tried to preserve that kind of naive approach that secures me having fun and not seeing it as a job.
I think that’s how the combination came to be… i was totally into metal from 14 years old to about 19 years old and i tried if it would be possible to bring these influences back into the context of my older me some day. And when it was finished i strangely still liked it and thought it should be a single then. My next single “Boredom” will be kinda metalectro too by the way, but i will have to disappoint you that the following singles will sound totally different again…
04. Would you say those two tracks and the “Chainsaw” EP in general was a turning point for aUtOdiDakT that maybe in combination with the long hair gave you a more “metalectro” reputation and image than you were actually aiming at?
Haha perhaps. I mean i always loved playing hard stuff in the club because it’s just the most fun thing to do there. From that point on people expected me to play hard, which was alright because i would have done anyway but before these releases people were more likely shocked by the calm concentrated guy smashing a crowd with fierce stuff… which i really enjoyed since i’m not an extrovert show kind of guy on stage and it’s nice to let the music do the action. I always aimed on a crowd going crazy and bringing an atmosphere like i used to know from my metal and hardcore roots at live venues (mosh pit, stage-divers, etc.) into electronic music clubs just without the showing-off attitude on stage because i’m just not the type and i think this kind of stardom behaviour is kinda misplaced when you’re in fact only Dj-ing music and not playing the most complicated guitar solo in the world.
The reason that i released “Fake Fred Perry” afterwards as the next single wasn’t to not get stuck in a specific trash or metalectro corner but it certainly helped making sure that I wasn’t just as the metal guy who does electro. It was one of my favorite tracks from the album and it’s a real pity it all ended up like this!
(edit: Fake Fred Perry was taken off the market as well as the physical copy of the album because Fred Perry sent a ultimatum to do so before they would take legal action for injunction)
05. Generally speaking you switch between different styles and your sound changes from each release to the next. Do you have any preference and specific direction you want to take aUtOdiDakT to or do you stay true to your “Genres Are Dead” motto and it’s all about the music and how you feel when working on each track/release?
I don’t really switch on purpose, i just try to bypass my brain while producing and focus on what would be fun for me to do atm. So i don’t know what direction I’m gonna head to exactly before i actually sit in the studio and start the next track. But it’s more logic to me as it is to others so from now on i will seperate the finished tracks to different aliases to make it easier for people who don’t necessarily like hard and soft music or electro and dubstep at the same time. Future aUtOdiDakT stuff will stay focussed mainly on Electro / Future Techno but all clubby, hard or bassy. For Dubstep and anything breakbeat in different tempi I just started aUtOdiDuB and for chilled stuff in general i started a new solo alias called Ackermann and a band project called Music to make babies to, with Marlon from Super Super, Knixxx and Rupert Safkin. So it should be a bit easier for people to find the stuff they are looking for stylistically without me having the need to limit myself in the studio.
06. Do you prefer writing original tracks or remixing and why?
Definetely originals! I tend to take forever with a remix and i mostly make the mistake to only take or choose remixes which I really love as original and then end up not wanting to ruin it. Also you can disappoint the original artist with a remix if you freak out too much or don’t keep it functional so it’s not as easy to bypass my brain as with originals.
07. What are your influences/music background? Have you ever played in a rock/metal band?
Sure 🙂 I played guitar in different metal and hardcore bands when i was a teen, later i also played in a Jazz outfit, a Hip Hop live-band and the IMP-ACT project i talked about above. My last band project was a garage rock band which died 3 years ago just before we were ready to record an album because 3 of 5 bandmembers didn’t had the time to take it seriously anymore.
I started with guitar and then slowly got into more instruments like bass, sitar, keyboards, etc. It all came bit after bit, whenever i had the chance to explore a new instrument i did it. For example my parents gave me a sitar as present on my 20th birthday because they saw a cheap one somewhere and thought i could use it…one of my favorite presents i ever got!
08. Do you prefer working only with computers/sequencers or do you get your hands dirty playing and recording instruments? Do you use samples and what’s your opinion on sampling and copyright?
It really depends, in the beginning for example i tried to record guitars and make them sound like synths, later i tried to program synths that sound like guitars and in the meantime i just go for whatever is there and try to make it sound like i imagine it to sound. I mean you can make something out of anything, i saw people making guitar-solo sounds with the reverb of a hi hat pitched and mapped on an MPC. You can literally do almost any exact sound you want out of a completely random source if you know how and you never stop learning.
Recently i recorded a lot of analogue synths which is fun and a totaly different workflow as VSTs because you can’t change and automate everything afterwards which forces you to think a bit more before recording.
When i started with instrumental Hip Hop I sampled a lot because that’s what makes this style: finding a great rare groove sample and building stuff around it. For electro it’s harder to integrate samples if it’s not just a drum hit. Besides that, sampling melodies or longer characteristic sounds is kinda lame in most of the cases. But I’m a sucker for deep pitched Hip Hop vocal chops i have to admit though… haha
In the beginning i tried to disguise that by building words out of single syllables of different acapellas (Shit Your Rack), then I tried to re-voice the samples on my own (Ghetto Nonsense, Bombaclaat), but in general i think it’s okay to use hip hop vocal chops from time to time. I mean Hip Hop was based on sampling, why shouldn’t Hip Hop Samples be a foundation to somethin new?
09. What do you think about today’s mainstream music? Do you agree with Haezer’s “Commercial Music Is Dead” and why?
Most mainstream music was always boring, repetetive, sticking to a formula and calculated. Today makes no difference. The amount of promising producers and acts who get sucked in by trying to do mainstream music might just be bigger nowadays in electronic music. I mean it’s getting harder and harder to earn a few cents with original music sales on an independent scale and there’s a lot of good producers out there who did really great and original stuff in their beginning but then try to adjust their sound to be more accessible (sadly resulting in sounding like anyone successfull at that given time in most of the cases) because they think they need to do so in order to get their name out on a bigger label and make some bucks and i don’t blame them for that! But they just lose my interest and i don’t think that this behaviour is getting them anywhere in the long run, because other people who are interested in music might lose their interest too, but that’s a different story.
I totally agree with Haezer‘s statement in that sense that commercial music (which doesn’t mean successfull music per say, just music made with a clearly defined commercial goal) is dead in terms of having no soul, no beating heart… zombie music so to say. There will always be a market for it though since there will always be people who are either following mainstream media (which is paid by majors to place their stuff) or just not interested in music beyond music being practical… I mean there will always be a market for cheap shit food too, right? 🙂 Same thing… not rich in content but might be practical for certain occassions or seem right for people lacking interest.
10. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?
Yes, the percentage who will actually achieve to make their living with music will get smaller and smaller but there will still be some people making it. At least i hope so. Question is if they need to do shit music or buy in charts or buy fake fans and stuff like that to make them look big just to justify big booking fees (which is the only mentionable income in most cases) and get to tour to earn their living. The critical point to this is the actual customer, if people learn again (what i doubt a bit) that good music is valuable and worth paying for to support and secure the existence of these artists there will always be good music besides the mainstream. If the people continue to think that all music should be free, they will end up with GOOD artists either getting normal jobs to feed their family or trying to do mainstream music, buy in charts, buy fans, followers etc, in order to make a living by touring instead of focussing on doing their actual core business: making good music.
11. What are your plans about 2013? I know you have some releases planned and I have to say that some of the previews I’ve heard sound pretty great too. Would you mind giving us some more info on those and something to look forward too?
I made the new years resolution to release an aUtOdiDakT single every month in 2013! First 5 are already in the bank and have some really great remixes on them as well! On top of that I’m trying to do an aUtOdiDuB single every 2nd month and to finish the Music to make babies to Album until spring (2/3 finished atm). So basically I’m trying to make up for 2012 where I didn’t release a lot because I had to move studio twice and had several harddrive crashes. Since September i now moved to a new studio (was owned before by Martin Eyerer, a famous techno producer who moved to Berlin) and it’s the first time in my life that I actually have a room-in-room studio with a nice acoustic on my own which is completely isolated and i can make music 24-7. It’s like a dream come true and I tried to cut down my own parties and also gigs to a strict minimum to make as much music as possible, but looking at the mechanism i described above i might have to extend gigs and parties again to actually buy food and pay the rent for the studio… lol
12. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?
I mean that’s propably a strange thing to say at a blog focusing on metalectro but I love Mount Kimbie, Jamie XX, and stuff like this at home to cook and chill. Also i love Refused or Queens Of The Stone Age for driving my car and singing along. I used to listen to aggressive music a lot until i had my first studio to cope my own agression, but in the meantime i try to cope by making music instead of listening to it, so if I’m not making or Dj-ing music i’m listening more to chilled or fun stuff in private in the meantime for everyday situations like office work, cooking or reading.
13. You are also involved in quite a few other things besides aUtOdiDakT and you run a record label as well as produce music under another project name. Would you mind telling the readers a few things about those other projects of yours?
Opps I think i already answered this question above… 🙂
14. Live shows, you have definitely been playing quite a few of those. Do you have any favorite place/city you like to play and can’t wait to return to or is the “no place like home” saying true in your case? Any interesting onstage/backstage stories to share with us?
That’s a hard one! Of course I love to play at my own parties since our crowd is really outgoing and kinda educated over the years, we really have a scene of people interested in the music and it’s not a kind of looking fresh and showing-off kind of party, people get dirty, i like that.
Abroad there’s been a lot of amazing experiences and the ones who stuck to my head the most are propably Australia, South Korea or South Africa because they were the most abroad and had a totally different vibe than Europe. Also the people there were really nice and the shows went down great, so i would love to return there of course. But also there were a lot of great venues and parties in Europe where i can’t wait to return too but it’s difficult to just pick a few… Paris, Hamburg, Rimini, Munich, Brussels, Dresden, Vienna… a lot of crazy memories! <3
15. Whom would you dream of sharing the stage or studio with for a day?
Josh Homme and Dj Shadow!!!
16. If your studio was on fire what would be the first thing to save?
The back-up harddrive! Anything else is replaceable 🙂
17. How do you spend your time when not in the studio producing music and what’s a regular day in the life of aUtOdiDakT like?
I’m at the studio every day Monday to Thursday and if i don’t DJ on Friday or Saturday I’m at the studio too. After waking up i go to the office, check mails and do all that boring organisation stuff for the labels and the parties. Then comes the good part of the day at the studio. My body clock is on nightlife mode since a few years so I don’t ever go to bed before 4am but i also don’t need much sleep and i rarely sleep more than 6 or 7 hours. On Sundays i really enjoy cooking and chilling with my girlfriend a lot but also on weekdays i try to cook as often as possible. I’m a sucker for Italian food and i think i got pretty good in cooking pasta in the meantime 🙂
18. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?
I like the word metalectro a lot and i love the fact that i frequently discover new talents here which i wouldn’t have noticed without this blog!
19. Anything else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?
EAT MORE GARLIC!!!