Hello Sir, how are you today?
Ah tired. Yesterday, I finished my fourth American tour this year. It was amazing, with a slight exception that the Mexico gig was stopped after twenty minutes! All other parties were outstanding. I’ve started the tour in San Francisco, did a couple of gigs in the USA - then took off to Latin America. The big finale was in Pereira, Colombia. Mad people, loud music, amazing energy, fireworks and everything else. Epic! The one at Mansion, Miami was the greatest surprise on the tour, at least for me! Mansion is a very commercial club, home of big name house deejays. But I made a blast with pure techno, the dance floor was in frenzy. The whole tour was an amazing experience, but I’m tired as hell as I can't sleep on planes. I really have to chill a bit in the next couple of days. My next two gigs are in Bosnia, just a couple of hours drive away form my home - and I’m playing a big indoor event with Kevin Saunderson, Eric Prydz and D.Ramirez in Ljubljana after that.
How has 2010 been for you?
Great. I really can’t complain. My productions are doing great, I’m fully booked - Pereira was my 81st gig and I have some twenty more bookings scheduled till the end of the year. The end of the last year was quite busy with the Australian and North American tour. Also a bunch of gigs on mainland Europe, so I decided to take a break from gigs for most of January. I only did two gigs at the end of January, a very special two-day event at the Ambasada Gavioli on Slovenian coast. Then I spent some time to get use to Pro Tools again. I used to work on that platform in the past and abandoned it on account of Logic some five years ago. But I have had some new ideas how to incorporate the Pro Tools in my sound, so I studied a bit! That proved to be the right move. We really hooked up with my DJ hero Carl Cox this year. He invited me to perform with him at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Global Gathering and Dance Valley. But the highlight was being invited to four gigs at 'The Revolution Continues,' his summer residency at Space, Ibiza. In between I ran my own summer residency at the Byblos, Porec (Croatia) for the first time - and performed at festivals all over the Europe. I won best techno artist at the Beatport Awards, I also struck my first overall peak position on Beatport with OMG WTF! I had releases on Cocoon, Toolroom, EP on Intec is coming out in couple of weeks. A lot of my and 1605 releases did really well this year, my artist album 'Responding To Dynamics' also received widespread acclaim. The new version of Gatex (released just in time for Friday) caused mayhem at the festivals. My label and the whole creative platform '1605 – Sixteenofive' is growing nicely, exposing lots of fresh artists along the way. It’s exhausting but I’m very pleased with my accomplishments this year.
You play The Gallery this Friday, looking forward to it?
Sure. I don't perform very often in London, so it’s always nice to come back to one of the world’s greatest electronic dance cradles - what MOS still is. When this institution announces you as a techno legend, this is an honour. It shows that you’re not just an old fart and that you still have something outstanding to show. The Gallery actually hosted my first international gig this year, so it will be interesting to return for another gig on Friday and wrap the story up. In the last couple of months I’ve moved a bit forward with my sound, now I’m sampling again a lot. In the last few years I didn’t sample at all – so maybe it will be interesting to compare the February set with the one I’ll be playing on Friday. Don’t expect any drastic changes, but there will be some special records on show!
The remix of Sebastien Leger's 'Mixtape' has all the makings of a techno classic! What software did you use to produce – has it any downsides?
Actually it was done with very basic tools, just by editing samples. I didn’t use any virtual music instrument at all. It was done in Logic, without any additional synths, just with basic audio editing tools, additional samples, loops, delays and that kind of stuff. I built the basic rhythm pattern on samples - from some sample CDs. But when I get really good parts of the original track, as in this case, I can do a lot of things with just the basic equipment. And I don’t really see any downsize of this workflow.
Hailing from Slovenia, how does the crowd differ to the London party people?
Not that much. The mentality and habits of Slovenians are quite Western European, our national character is similar to Austrian and German, with a pinch of Balkan spices. But in the UK, you also have a lot of immigrants from the South, West and East - which spices your original character a bit. If we put those two crowds in MOS, I don’t think you could say which is which. The response from the dancefloor would be basically the same. We are all always up for a party! We like to dance, wave hands above our heads and scream loud in support of the DJ, when we hear our favourite tune.
What are the challenges in running your '1605' label?
Thank you for this question! We have some really good projects scheduled for this Autumn, including our 50th release, which will be my collaboration with a young French artist 'Traumer.' Our goal is to become one of the leading labels in the techno scene, known for our own music policy - which is focused on discovering new, fresh talents and getting them in touch with leading names. And that is the statement we want to push. 1605 is not just a label. It’s a wider platform, incubator or networking project that connects the experienced, established musicians with fresh ones that deserve to be supported - because of their ideas and above average output. It’s very cosmopolitan as more artists become involves, but we are focused to bring new sounds for the scene. Artists from the former Yugoslavia are still not getting enough chance to prove themselves, we pay special attention to artists from our region. It’s not that we are making any discrimination, artists from all over the world are welcome - and are in fact already contributing to 1605. But I admit that I’m extra happy when I discover a new gem on my doorstep! This region really doesn’t have any proper business infrastructure to support all the young talents and creative energy, that is present in the old territories. We want to put this region on the world’s EDM map.
With a predominantly techno bill on Friday, what do you prefer about it compared to other eletronic genres?
I produce and play what I feel. There’s no philosophy in there, I feel this is the genre that I can express myself in. I am techno. Techno is who I am. I always listen to my inner voice and follow it where it takes me. I don’t mind what other people say about my music, if they like it or not, the only thing that matters is what I think and what I feel. That is techno. It’s a very energetic, strict, organized, pure, rational thing and I like that kind of sound. But as I am a very curious person, I’m always on the lookout for novelties. I like to say that I produce and play all shapes, sizes and colours of techno music, which gives me room to introduce some house, breaks, vocals and even organic ethnic elements - into what is basically a strict digital sound..
Three words to describe the 'Umek' sound?
Precise, warm and sexy!
What is your favourite Bonfire Night snack?
Huh, now you got me! It’s good to do interviews, so I can learn a thing or two about foreign cultures along the way. Thank god for Wikipedia! Till this moment, I wasn’t even aware there were Bonfire Night snacks. As I understand, Bonfire Night is a very British thing, connected to the traditions of your parliament. But if you refer to Halloween - which coincides with it, that’s a very American thing and hasn't taken off in Slovenia yet. Only in the last couple of years, the shops are trying to push some witch costumes, pumpkin decorations etc. But we don’t do trick or treating. We do that kind of thing in late February for the big carnivals. This is to scare away the Winter and welcome the Spring. Those are customs from Pagan times, but are still a big part of our tradition. Now it is more a sense of folklore, tourism and having time for your family and kids. We burn our bonfires of the eve of May 1st to celebrate workers rights. This tradition is something that we really grew on in the Communist era - but it survived, as a celebration of solidarity among people. Again a nice chance to visit relatives or for an early summer getaway. The only Halloween aspect we have adopted are club nights. As it coincides with a one week school holiday, we also have a national holiday on a November 1st. A great chance to throw a party!
And finally, what fireworks can we expect from your set?
I’ve already given you some fat to chew in the third answer. Actually it’s hard to be precise about what I’ll be playing, I always build the major part of my set on the new releases. I still have to dig out the ones for The Gallery, under the piles of material on Beatport, Soundcloud and promo pools. Now, this might come out as a cheap plug, but I really enjoy playing stuff that is coming out out my label 1605 - as well as my own releases on other labels. We’ve just released Da Fresh’s EP which is amazing. Gambas has produced a track that has all the flavours and potential of OMG WTF. There’s my collaboration with Traumer and Christian Smith also produced a single for 1605, that tears down the walls. Those are some highlights of my current DJ sets. We always promote our own releases, but these really are outstanding tracks that will leave a mark in the world’s techno arenas. As always I’ll be playing all my fresh releases and remixes, some special edits as well as some goodies still being tested. To make it short, I’ll be playing my signature set with bunch of fresh music and some big firecrackers!
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