Interview e - Andreas Ecker
It is actually Andreas` fault that the main piece of equipment in my studio is a KORG OASYS. Therefore, Andreas is indirectly responsible for this weblog. It is only right and fair then to invite him to be the first German speaking interview partner.
Before we start though, those of you who are interested in how we met should take a look here - although in german only: http://www.musicianslife.de/2006/11/11/virtuelle-kollaborationen/
blogasys: Andreas, can you tell us a little about how you got to be where you are today, as it is not actually a typical music journey?
AE: Pleasure, but as I`m old, I`ll need more than 3 sentences. When I was 8 my parents sat me at the piano. A little later, at 15, I discovered a passion for rock and pop. I began to play drums on the buckets of a well known washing powder manufacturer and became a drummer. I started my first band in the middle of the seventies. A bit later, in another group, I bumped in to a bass guitarist who was constantly “elated”, and in this higher level of consciousness, wanted to be a drummer. So we swapped and I became a bass guitarist. Even today I still prefer to build up my pieces from drums and bass.
In the middle of the eighties I signed, as a member of “Scala”, my first recording contract with ZYX. The disc sold all over the world and reached a high slot in the Hong Kong charts. We have, however, never had any money from the record label and I don`t suppose we ever will. It was still an exciting time though. For 2 years we spent nearly 24 hours a day in our cellar studio. We hardly saw the sun, but instead the first sampler and the DX7, and whatever other technical sound equipment was about at the time. We pulled them to bits and inspected them down to the last screw. When you think of the possibilities that modern instruments offer today, it is almost impossible to imagine pushing a piece of equipment to its absolute limits. As the band fell apart due to personal excesses, my dream collapsed and I was really down for a while. Since then I work mostly alone. The experiences with our record company have cured me of making music just to be rich and famous. That just distracts you from the important stuff. It is better to find your own style and develop yourself further. I`ve needed more than 10 years for that, the whole of the nineties. Lately I`ve managed to work successfully with other musicians; AntOnWax, Lavinia Jones, Sebastian Swigon and a sound aesthetician form Vienna, who I am not allowed to name here because it is still a secret.
blogasys: (laughs) now comes a strange question, but for someone who is so subversive it is justified - why do you make music?
AE: Music makes me happy, it helps me to keep my soul in balance and there is always something new to discover. Music is mystic, communication with the unknown, a parallel universe which reflects our life and makes us complete.
blogasys: Which music and musicians have influenced you and why?
AE: People who listen to my music often make comparisons which amaze me. They name composers from whom I have heard very little or nothing, e.g. Jean Michel Jarre or Dead can Dance or Enigma. My inspiration is more form Frank Zappa and his Mothers. Rich in ideas, virtuoso performances and crazy guitar solos. Then the later King Crimson, from the 80`s onwards because of the hypnotising polyrhythm structures. The Belgian avantgarde of the 80`s and 90`s: Asqak Maboul and COS. It is fresh and humorous and also virtuoso music without a corset on the style.
blogasys: You are now by the online label Magnatune but you also have your own label, how did that come about what kind of stress was involved?
AE: It was actually quite stress free. I simply sent my CDs to Magnatune and they took me on. My own label is just a homepage which Sebastian Swigon set up for me with a great deal of love for details. After I found out how difficult it was to run your own record label here in Germany I distanced myself from the whole thing. The amount of energy, time and stress that you need to fight with the bureaucratic hurdles and the partly monopolised system that we have here would rob me of the most important thing, the enjoyment of making music.
blogasys: and it is still not enough, because you have now began to concentrate on the visual sector? What brought that about and what can we expect from you in the near future?
AE: Yes, that is really a beautiful new field of action. 3D animation had always interested me. I first tried it out in the middle of the 90`s. At that time my computer needed a whole month for 15 seconds of film! It was Sebastian Swigon who led me to rediscovery. With my contact to him and his work, I am up-to-date with the graphical possibilities. The “painting” of my new CD cover has really got the ball rolling.
For my first video though, I`ve needed three months! I had to get to know the program to begin with, and you need one of those big, thick handbooks for that, (something which I always found a waste of time for the synthesizers). The reward is large though, exactly like the music. When you have the finished work in front of you and you can sit back and relax. I have just had the chance to see my video on a 2×3m screen, via beamer. It totally blew me, and I am very critical about my own work and not easily satisfied. However, this larger-than-life concept has something. At the moment I`m collecting ideas for my next video. Because, although fun, it is an enormous amount of work from beginning to end, with a lot of intense concentration, I`ve had to knuckle down.
http://www.marsymusic.de/videos/Industrial%20Blues%20V3.wmv
blogasys: can you let us have a quick look at the equipment that you are using at the moment?
AE: of course, Mac DUAL G5 1,8GHz, Steinberg Cubase2.2, Moog Voyager (was warmly recommended by a friend from Vienna and I couldn`t live without it), Oasys.
blogasys: and then it was vice versa…
AE: Nord Modular G2, Melodyne, waves, TC and UAD-plugins, BFD Drums, AVOX, Trilogy, Stylus,GRM-Tools, Marleaux-Bass, Steinberger Bass, PRS-Guitars, Orville, Liquid Channel and a 15 years old Mackie 32/8/2 Pult. Also Mackie HR824 speakers that are really fun. On the technical sound front I like to put lots of compressors behind each other, work on succinct parts is with the Sony Transienten-Modulator, or for a softer effect the Dynamic EQ from TC. For the Master I use almost always the Valve-Interface from DSound, that lends the whole thing a big warmth.
The Oasys was my latest, expensive buy. The price had frightened me off at first, but one day it pulled me, like magic, in to the last big music store in my area. I listened to it and ordered one right there and then. If there is a weak point, it is that due to the high audio quality and the extent of the successful presets, you don`t have to play around much to find the right sound. The modulation through the Vector stick, the karma function and the high quality effect battery lead quickly and easily to your objective. Because of this I`ve only scratched at the surface, and can only say that this piece of equipment, apart from the Moog, is the first hardware sound generator which I can`t complain about, and I don`t have the feeling that most of the presets need to be adjusted beforehand. Simply inspiring; but of course, it doesn`t replace everything. My clavia G2 and the Moog complete the set perfectly.
blogasys: Your productions identify themselves with very succinct vocals, how do they come about?
AE: As a base I prefer World vocal Phrases, the English lyric samples that are everywhere in the music market are too common. I can`t hear, “I love you baby yeah yeah” any more.
blogasys: (laughs)
AE: sometimes I take apart the phrases with a slicer and put the syllables back together in a different way. The phrases are then matched in to the song by Melodyne, a second and sometimes a third voice is generated on top. To sharpen the singing I like to use character, a TC-Powercore Plugin and then the vocal compressor from Waves. This combination is quite easy to do and very effective. Double effects are worked through the Melodyne. To make the voice more intimate, a Vocal-Effectspur with a pinch of Antares AVOX, and pass me the breathing sound simulator please. I`m very economical with Hall. With slower pieces I like to use Waves-Multitop Delays so as to spread the singing around the space. The work with live singers is much more fun of course. You just have to find them somewhere nearby. German singing is not my thing. I get quickly in to difficulties with the “message” and bad English is almost worse. Luckily I`ve got to know AntOnWax and they let me have a few Lavinia Jones recordings. The work was a lot of fun and the contact to both of them is still good. There will probably be more The-Headroom-Project-Remixes with Lavinia in the future, and when there is enough material it will go to Magnatune.
blogasys: Thanks a lot for the interesting interview Andreas, and especially for the insight in to your working techniques.
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translated by Caroline Radolf
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Andreas’ Label:
http://www.marsymusic.de/
magnatune:
http://www.magnatune.com/
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