After having Luciano in their decks, the Fabric series continue to surprise us! In their 42nd edition, that will be out in the middle of September, they invited Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedermann to mix it! The duo from Karlsruhe started their musical career on Sonar Kollektiv and soon they became one of the most successful act of the entire electronic movement. The hit “rej” is the best example of it.
On ‘fabric 42,’ Âme creates a great soundtrack to the last days of summer.
It was with great satisfaction that we interviewed Amê directly to the minimaland.com readers.
Minimaland.com: Hello Frank and Kristian ! Fabric has a great name on the electronic nowadays scene. Do you consider this album a great achievement on your careers as a duo?
Frank: Of course, I think It is a nice opportunity to do a fabric mix cd and when fabric offered it, we were proud, we accepted the offer, and yeah, we did a mix cd for them.
Kristian: Yeah, of course.
Minimaland.com: So, tell us a little bit more about this new work , what can the readers of the Minimaland.com expect from this first release on fabric?
Frank: Definitely a more electronic techno orientated mix cd than we normally do, because was more a tribute to fabric club, with musics popular there and that we played there. Maybe people expected a more housier cd, but I would say it’s more techno orientated than we normally do.
Minimaland.com: Now talking a little bit more about this compilation, what kind of criteria did you used when making the selection of the musics? …with so many good things appearing everyday, this could be a difficult process… and the question is: What kind of aspects do you consider important when making a selection of fourteen musics?
Frank: we went to our record collection from ten/fifteen years before till now and we choose like forty / fifty tracks that should be on there, which are not so well known and weren’t on every compilation in the last ten years, so we had like forty tracks at the end, and then the listening department from fabric said ok, we got like twenty six tracks ready for the compilation and out of that, we choose the eighteen tracks which fit together, I’ll say. But I realize that the problem in these days, with internet, file-sharing… People are really educated, so they know everything and to find a special selection for a mix cd is really hard. We always try to keep an eye on what’s going on, so I hope we are a little bit further ….than the rest!
Minimaland.com: So can we expect this to be something played by the Âme duo around club gigs, or is it something to be appreciated with some kind of different mood?
Frank: Yeah, it depends you know, if we play in bigger clubs we’ll definitely play more like that, and if we play in smaller clubs, we’ll play more housy. It always depends on the venue and the party, I would say, the crowd.
Minimaland.com: Changing a little our way now… Your productions are acclaimed under nowadays electronic clubbing scene. What’s it like to hear some of the biggest DJ’s in the world playing your musics?
Frank: That’s a nice feeling! (laughs). You know, after all this years you get used to it a bit, but still I’m happy when I watch somebody like last…. It was Los Monegros (www.monegrosfestival.com) like four weeks before?
Kristian: Three or four weeks
Frank: Three or four weeks before when Laurent Garnier opened his set with a track from us, I was really happy! I felt proud at this moment!
Minimaland.com: Oh yeah, at Los Monegros desert festival?
Frank: Yeah, we’ve played at Monegros and after we finished our set, I watched Laurent playing, because is a good friend and he released a record in our label, then He opened with a new record from us and then it was like… A great moment!
Minimaland.com: What producers and DJ’s do you admire and draw influences from?
Kristian – Too many, maybe! There so many.. We are listening to Luciano or some Romanian Guys, like Buda, and we deeply like some older stuff from Chicago, Detroit… also we are always listening to completely different music like more experimental stuff and also out of the electronic context like Terry Riley! And it all comes together in our music! We try to live in our music!
Minimaland.com: And how did you started to feel the appealing of today’s electronic world? Some producers say that’s like the calling to be a priest!
Frank – I started listening techno music fifteen… ohh! Longer (laughs) eighteen years ago and I always follow the music so it’s nothing really new.. The first big boom was in the beginning of the 90’s and I was more a raver but now we are behind the scenes, and in front of the scene, actually.. so it changed for me but it still the same music I’m listening now. Maybe it’s a little more developed than fifteen years ago but it still has the same feeling. And if you watch the scene, the main “keepers” are still the same
Minimaland.com – Yeah! and off course you can see that evolution cause one of yourselves has a record store isn’t that true?
Frank – Yes!
Minimaland.com: Speaking on appealing… do you feel the vinyl appeal? Cause with today’s uprising of playing and producing methods, with new hardware and software appearing on the streets everyday, easing producers and dj’s performances, do u still prefer analog over digital when mixing?
Kristian: The thing is that we always produce our music in a very analog way, you know..with not so much pluggins. So we love Vinyl, we love to play with vinyl, and we really don’t want to to use our computers on stage (laughs).
Frank: …hmmm .. the computers and the new technology are not the enemy, you know? Well, we don’t like it, so we don’t use FinalScratch, Serato and things like these… but it’s not the “enemy”!
Minimaland.com: And producing?
Frank: Hmm… I think it’s more the combination. We are not afraid of the new technologies, so we combine both. The good side from analog technology and digital technology
Kristian – I guess it’s more trying when you’re doing.. you know, sometimes we are sitting in the studio doing stuff a few weeks, and it could be that we follow the first idea that we have with two tracks to compete more with each other, and suddenly it’s filled around.. and so we just let it out. Not such a construction thing, but in a certain way more spontaneously.
Minimaland.com: You have released tracks on labels such as Sonar Kollektiv, Defected, Innervisions and now appears this mix on fabric.. What have you been up to in the studio lately? Anything we should keep our ears pricked for in the future?
Kristian – On this fabric there’s a new track from us that we did with Henrik Schwarz and Dixon called D.P.O.M.B. and it’s already out now on Innervisions. We have also an Ep to be released till the end of the year on Innervisions also… And with Dixon and Henrik we are also working on a completely different compilation for Another label !
Minimaland.com: In what club did you enjoyed most the pleasure of mixing to a great crowd? Size matters?
Kristian: Humm… in terms of smaller sizes then yes, because I think mostly the club are not that huge – including fabric – are better to play, you’re more near to the audience but sometimes it’s also cool to play on really huge sets where we have 3000 or 4000 people watching us, but it depends you know.
Minimaland.com:A small thing seems more a familiar thing off course?
Kristian: Exactly
Minimaland.com: Do you think nowadays electronic is reaching the non-return point where it can’t re-invent again? Or something more is appearing?
Frank – Cool!.. That’s a good question! (Laughs). I think that if you look back there will be always a development, the development it’s not part of a new philosophy, but there was always a slightly development in music. It’s a special scene and I think it’s open to new stuff and new technology so it will go on the next 10, 15 years…
Kristian – You just have to look around on what’s happening in the technology. It’s a constant evolution, ten years ago we had only like 4 or 5 samples to use but now we have a huge quality library.
Minimaland.com: And do you think the genre that now we call minimal (that’s now dividing in new sub-genres) has a word to say on that?
Frank –I think People like to find like a name for something. It was always there and it will be always there. For me it’s house music and techno music divided in different subgenres or whatever.
Minimaland.com: Some quick questions now: Best clubbing city? Best Gig? Favorite music of all times? First electronic favourite music? Electronic only at club or at home also?
Clubbing city: Tokyo, London, Berlin and I know you’re living in Barcelona (laughs) but I especially like Madrid.
Best gig – They are too many, quite a lot and remarkable gigs.
Favourite music – Frank: For me it’s Riders on the Storm from the Doors.
Kristian: Miles Davis – Bitches Brew.
Minimaland.com:Electronic only at club or at home also?
Kristian – More at clubs
Frank – You know, I have a record shop and I have to play at the weekends so I’m listening most of the times at home not electronic music. Because I’m surrounded with electronic music all the time so you have to listen something else at some point.
Minimaland.com: …Something to say to the minimaland.com and its readers?
Frank – Hmm…. Just follow your passion!!!
Thanks a lot for the interview, minimaland.com wishes good luck to you and your productions. Hope to see each other again, on the minimal land, it’s a good sign! Thanks. Bye
Useful links: http://www.fabriclondon.com/
