You have been releasing so much – do you feel like there is a pressure that you keep on releasing so much?
Honestly, yes. Most of the records that I released this year have been done a long time ago. I used to make a lot of music, two or three songs a day would be no problem. And now I make maybe one song, or two/three songs in three months. So, it’s a strange kind of change, but I guess that’s just part of the life.
When did you start producing?
I think back in 2011 or 2012.
Did you start off producing music as you do now? The style was similar?
That is actually a good question. I should have changed my style a bit more. But maybe I’m not varied enough. I have always loved this kind of old-school house and I think whatever I’ve done since then would be my interpretation of it, in a way.
Stream: DJ Seinfeld – Time Spent Away From U
You produce with Ableton only. Don’t you want to try another type of production?
I want to buy some synths some day, but I think a lot of people spend a lot of money on equipment and maybe don’t really think about the music they want to make. I mean you can do that, of course. There is no harm in buying things and exploring them, maybe learn something new from them. But I just really want to know, I want to have my ideas there before I start planning what I need.
So you often have the idea fixed and then you just do it?
Often I don’t have a whole track planned in my head, but when it comes to melodies and that, I usually have more or less an idea of what kind of melodies I want to have. Then I think I’m really bad at making drums, the beat itself. I really hate the way I make my beats, I think melodies have always been my stronger side.
I read that you started DJing after you put your first records out, or did you DJ also before?
No, I tried DJing but – I think one of my first gig ever was a bit more than a year ago now. I played gigs before but it was just like, I brought my Ableton to a club and tried to do a mix through that. My first real DJ set was, I think, in Arena Club in Berlin. Maybe it wasn’t the first one but it’s definitely the first one that I really remember. I remember I was sitting at the airport, checking YouTube tutorials on how to beatmatch and things, and I was so, so nervous. But, it went well. I really want to become a really good DJ, but after that I just sort of learned as I went along. It’s really fun to DJ but it’s also something that I really want to master properly and be comfortable with it. I am comfortable with it now, but I think the better you are the more freedom you feel when you DJ.
Why didn’t you ever think about doing a live set? That would’ve been easier?
It’s just because I used to have a really shitty computer and it always crashed, so often. I would be terrified if I went to a club with that computer. But I’m hoping to do something more about performing live later on. Right now I’m only focusing on Djing and producing though.
So back to the Lo-fi-scene – where do you see the whole thing going in the future? Because now you know the people, now there is like a “crew”.
I’m not really sure what is going to happen with the whole lo-fi. I think lo-fi, how it has been very popular, that has been the case with a lot of different genres. It’s not really a new genre, it’s just the name, the tag or the term that has been put. It’s not anything new. This music has been around for a long time so I think eventually people will realize that it’s just a different kind of dance music. It’s a bit more raw maybe but that’s it. As for the people that I know within the genre, including myself: I think we’re all going to try and do different things. I never met anyone who tries to conform to a certain sound or who is out there and explicitly tries to make lo-fi. The people I know in the scene are very talented people and have big ambitions for themselves and for their music. I think people are just going to diversify and try and push their sound to a different direction. I think the whole lo-fi thing is going to fade away somehow. But for now, I think it’s introduced a lot of people to music so there is good and bad about that, but it’s just like any other internet trend.
Stream: Robin S – Show Me Love
Your album has a lot of nineties-sounding melodies. There is a certain synth like the one in „Show Me Love“ by Robin S. Together with that dusty sound – is there a certain nostalgia in your music?
Yes, I think nostalgia is a very prominent thing in my music. When I first started listening to electronic music, dance music, that was it: Robin S – “Show Me Love” and all those kind of classics. When I was younger you could listen to some of these really cool house and dance music songs on MTV and it would be amazing. But that music came from a time where I was a young kid and I wasn’t really part of it, so it’s this kind of fake type of nostalgia. It was around me, but I wasn’t part of it. Now, when I look back, I guess it’s conflating with what you experienced when you were younger and also what you wish you had experienced. Because I think since that time club culture and dance music has changed quite a lot. It’s not hard to see how many bad things occur in dance culture nowadays and of course it might have been quite similar back then as well. But I think just the way that people moved, back then – I have a very romanticized idea of how it was in a club in the nineties. I don’t know, maybe it’s not nostalgia, it’s just me trying to imagine what it was like.
