Translated material
Pole
The Migz festival has been held a long time ago, but since we are a little lazy, only now we are in a hurry to present to your attention an interview with Pole .
For reference: Pole is the Berlin Stefan Betke, who is a major specialist in the field of producing and mastering electronic music, and is part -time owns the Berlin label ~ Scape , producing the albums of Jan Jeline, Deadbeat and many others. In the late 90s, the Pole project was famous for the trilogy of albums “1”, “2” and “3”, combining in its sound Dub, IDM and Techno. The avant-garde techniques of Stefan Betke subsequently became classic and still flourish in modern minimal-techno.
What do you think, this Migz festival is really needed by young musicians, they extract some benefit from it, or is it just another reason to come to hang out?
Well, those who come simply to hang out and dance - they hang out and dance. And those who go to all these lectures and master classes listen, ask questions-that, of course, it is necessary, otherwise they simply would not have come, but danced and hanged out. Such events reach a new level and develop all over the world. Here, people can not only listen to music (which is also good) but also to talk and learn something from those who have already achieved something and are ready to share experience. Therefore, I want to express a huge respect to the organizers that arrange this kind of festivals. I know what efforts it costs ...
The only thing I want to say relatively specifically this event is probably a big problem to attract a sufficient number of interested audience. In my opinion, this is the problem of any big city - a place oversaturated with clubs, parties and festivals. Today, when it all just started, there were almost no people at all. This is probably also due to the fact that today is Saturday, and it is difficult for people to get together and force themselves to come at 12 o’clock in the afternoon, especially after Friday at night ... But otherwise, as for the organization, everything was done at a high level.
Here you are watching many Russian musicians here today. Your opinion is how different is their level from the European?
I would not say that I managed to listen to and see a lot of anyone today, because I myself conducted a master class and then played. But I communicate with many Russian musicians on Mayspace, and I want to say that there are really many good musicians among them who can work with sound. And yet-in order to truly evaluate the work-it is not always enough to listen to the musician alive, for example, I need to carefully listen to the recording at home, in a calm environment ...
Living performance and recording are very different things. If you notice, even what I played during my life today is not quite what you can hear on my albums. But I can definitely say - you have no less good interesting electronic musicians than in other countries.
How much are you already in Moscow? Managed to see the city, maybe local clubs?
We arrived yesterday, so I'm here the second day. This of course is not enough to see the city. Yesterday we were shown two local clubs - Justo and propaganda. I haven't seen anything else yet. This is the second time in Moscow, last year I played here at the Abracadabra festival, I really liked this event. But you can imagine, I still have not seen Red Square! And today I’m definitely going to look at her!
Do you remember your first performances? What did you feel then, showing people your music for the first time, being an unknown musician?
LLC, of course, this is not forgotten! I remembered my first performance for life! It was in my hometown of Dusseldorf, where I was born and raised. I was very young, we then played a mixture of jazz with hip-hop, and I was Emsey, can you imagine this ?? It was a huge scene at a party to celebrate Christmas. And I knew that my ex -girlfriend was in the hall. Dude, I have never been so worried in my life ... And when I went on stage, I saw her in the front row! And you know what? After the concert, we were together again! Is this forgotten ?? But I was very nervous before the performance ...
And what would you advise young musicians - how to overcome this state of nervousness when you first on one time with the public show them your music, not knowing how they will react?
And I would not advise overcoming this state. It seems to me the opposite - this does not allow you to relax, you are more concentrated than when you have a thousand performances behind you and you can afford to relax. I had such that I was so focused during my life that when everything ended - I just did not feel my fingers ... And this is normal! Since you got involved in it - be ready, this is part of your life!
Tell us about your path from an unknown young Emsi to the gurus of modern electronic music, the founder of the current label-how did this happen, what prompted you to certain changes in your music, was this intuition, accident or something else?
I will tell you what any musician will tell you - either you listen to your heart, or you calculate your career. Of course, in your way you are very helped by connections, acquaintances, parties, communication and so on ... It is stupid to deny and be a hermit in your room with a laptop, although this is possible. You should not shy away, you need to communicate, get acquainted, and introduce people to your work, especially now the Internet undoubtedly helps in this. The case can also play a large role - you can easily meet the right person in the right place at the right place, and this will dramatically change your career.
But as for the music itself - here you will never calculate anything. It must be remembered that your music is part of you, and not someone else, so you should never listen to anyone except yourself. I always stubbornly believed that if you do high -quality music, and put your soul into it, then sooner or later she would find her listener. Of course, the question of how soon this will happen - depends on the promotion. The more you play in the right places, the more the chance that someone will notice you. I know by my own example, at first few understood my music. But I repeat again - I am absolutely sure, by 150%, that real music turns out when you only listen to your heart ...
Tell me how you are going to create a track? And how much time can you leave for writing one track?
Oh, the most difficult thing is always to find an idea. This can take as much time as you like, you will not guess this, this happens by itself. Sometimes you can walk around the city and hear some kind of sound or noise-and the idea of your future track was already born in your head. And it happens that you don’t feel any ideas for weeks, so it can go in vain for a year ... This is the most important, and it takes the most time. But when you felt the idea and brought it to the studio - for me personally, the rest is a matter of technology, technology ...
During the performance, the reaction of the public is important for you, and can the public reaction change your music during the performance, or do you completely go into yourself, concentrate, and do not notice anything around?
Of course it depends! When you see that people are shaking - it begins to download you yourself, and this is reflected in your music. I start playing longer, louder and faster. Well, today, for example, it was cold, and there were few people, so my SET was more abstract and relaxed. It always depends on the audience. Even the same track can be played so that it will be dance, or it can be so that it will be more for the ears, more thoughtful and deep. The same set that I played today - I played a couple of weeks ago at the Faric club in London, at 4 a.m., when the club was clogged to the eyeballs. And the music was stiff and fast. Here is an example for you that the performance always depends on the reaction of the public.
And in your opinion - the reaction of the public in different countries is distinguished, does it depend on the mentality?
Yes, of course. In Japan, for example, the audience is continuous freaks that walk on their heads, jump and furious. On the other hand, I in Russia for the second time - and the last time the reaction of the public was completely different - there were many people, everyone danced and did not hide their emotions ... So it also depends on the place and number of people. On the street, in the park in the afternoon - this is one atmosphere. In the morning in a crowded club - completely different.
Many electronic musicians take up live instruments and begin to play completely different music, or have a site project, where they sit down for a drum installation or play an electric guitar. Have you ever had such a desire?
You know, on the contrary, I had a bunch of other projects before Pole, where I played enough for living instruments, and even stayed Empse. Pole is one of the sides of my music, largely inspired by dabac vibrations. But also, for example, I have a group in which we play industrial, more loud and tough music, with a living drummer and bassist. So I do not limit myself to the Pole project. It's just that at this time I feel more comfortable in this skin ...
The last question that is probably always asked to all musicians is your attitude to mp3? Is this salvation for music, is it death for music, or does it affect music at all?
Well, to speak quite specifically, my personal opinion is bad. I am very, very opposed, I don't like it at all. Well, of course I’m not such a snob, and you can find a bunch of pluses in this: for example, on the beach it is better to lie with the iPod than with the player for vinyl, to ride a great - probably too. But I will never release the album in the MP-3, if only because it affects the sound quality. And for me and for my music, the sound quality is important.
The same Radiohead, who so surprised everyone - then released the CD, and even vinyl, and everyone who appreciates high -quality sound, and not free - acquired this CD or vinyl. Therefore, it will be most correct to say this: not mp3 is bad, but the fact that people do not know how to use it correctly ... People began to think less about music itself, including musicians. And I also think that a lot depends on your education and education, including musical. If you grow in the era of iPodes, the Internet and MP-3, then how do you know about these capacious and uncomfortable discs in boxes at all? But if you know the feeling of fingers holding vinyl, if for you the design of the cover and booklet is not just packaging, then you, downloading the album of the musician or group and appreciating it, you will go and buy it on the disk.
I write music for about 20 years, and, you know, I miss those times when people, having heard interesting music, were interested in the name of the musician. Now for many - this is just the background, listened and forgot. And yet - electronic musicians do not earn as much as Madonna earns. Therefore, downloading the tracks of your beloved musician, at one point you will make it so that he will have nothing to eat, and even more so there is nothing to buy new equipment. And then you will have nothing to download ...
Fragments of Pole performance on migz can be viewed here