Weilding twenty years’ experience behind the decks, Alex Bau is a bonifide techno legend! We caught up with the German techno producer following the release of his new LP Musick to talk heavy basslines, club-focused techno, his exploration of ambient of sounds on the new release and much, much more.
Tell us a bit about your roots. Were your family musical?
My father actually was a soloist in a choir many years ago, but obviously it did not have any influence on me
🙂 However, music was always very welcome in general. For example, I never had to switch off the radio back in the 80’s when I was a kid, even if it was kind of late in the evening sometimes.
At what point did you decide Music was the path you wanted to take?
Music always accompanied me in the way that I started to collect vinyl around the age of 14. I bought records and I was fascinated by the vision to build a nice collection of records. Finally, at the age of 18, I was asked if I could be the DJ at a school party, simply because I had the biggest record-collection amongst my friends, so, I did it and it started to grow step by step. With techno, back in the early 90’s I discovered totally new ways to perform as a DJ, mixing, creating a constant flow apart from just playing song by song really got me and then during my studies of business administration years later I founded my first label Toneman together with Sven Dedek. I think this was the key moment when I realized that music is my profession.
Musick is your first original work for a year and first album for 5 years… Looking at your high volume of releases, has this been a bit of a studio silence for you?
Actually that’s not true at all! Just shortly before the album I released an EP on Cocoon Recordings in February, and also last year I did quite a few releases and remixes on labels like Sleaze, Affin, Driving Forces and others, and of course my own label Credo. But it’s also true, doing music is like a wave – sometimes you catch the flow, then you do more stuff, sometimes it maybe needs more time.
Would you consider yourself more of a DJ or a producer?
Definitely more a DJ, this is where I come from, but my production skills even improved the way of my djing. I would say and also the opposite way of course.
There is seemingly more experimentation with sound design on Musick than on your previous LPs. Down From Space and Voise Over especially focus solely on tones, textures and ambience. Was this a natural progression for you?
It just happened. As soon as it felt good for me and sounded good to my ears I kept it the way it was. I didn’t start to juggle around with more sounds or options on the arrangements, I just focused on what basic essence is inside. In a certain way, this is the most minimalistic album I ever did, but also the purest and most energetic one probably. I simply liked the idea of letting things happen without having a clear concept in the beginning. I wanted to cast the flow that occurred in the studio.
In saying this, the LP itself is still heavily club focused. Was this your primary intention going into the record? Or did the whole thing just come together off impulse?
Well, I suppose I am a technopig 🙂 I like heavy beats and energetic basslines, bass-heavy fundaments. And this is what you can do best by the using the tools of real techno. But as I said, there was no plan and no rules. The tracks happened and led to each other, something you can hear very good when listening to Ringlebell in connection with Alarma, Bassmamba and Pulse and of course the different versions of Voise.
You’ve released a lot of your own music on your Credo imprint, but more recently you have branched out to external artists. What sort of output should we expect to see from the label now you’re back on the production grind?
I expected Credo to be a small platform, not even a proper label in its basic sense, for quite some years, with only my own productions from time to time, that’s true. However, when receiving some demos, especially the one from Folker Zwart for his 50 Shades of Zwart, I realized that there is definitely some stuff out there that hits my definition of colorful, but still floor-focused, bass-heavy and slightly dark techno. This was a key moment to open up the label for other artists, and meanwhile I am happy that I did it as I received quite some nice stuff which I recently released and will release in the future from people like Mikael Jonasson, Dirty Basscore and some more.
You’ve been DJ’ing for 20+ years, yet you’re still very much in the limelight. Have you found that you’ve had to adapt to situations as the scene changes over time?
I wouldn’t say that I adapted styles or trends over the years. Though I was always open for influences, and of course as a DJ you have be that, I never left the techno path. Not even when others suddenly played “minimal” or more “tech-housy” tunes. I always loved pure, clear and powerful techno without becoming too hard.
Are there any up-and-coming techno artists you think are capable of doing the big time?
Hm, very hard to say… There are always very good new names coming up, but in the end the audience decides what’s hot or not. Anyway, for me it’s the music that counts. A good track is a good track, no matter if the artist becomes famous or not. I could name some names now who pop up on my playlist on a frequent basis, but it wouldn’t be fair as especially the other sometimes are the “track of the night”…
So, the album has been released and the tour has ended. What’s next for Alex Bau?
Of course touring continues also after the official album tour which ends at the end of August, but also music-wise there is some stuff to come. I produced an exclusive track for Dr. Motte`s 30 years of Motte compilation, coming at the end of May/June. I am already working on some edits of nice demos I received for Credo which I want to release later this year as the fifth chapter of Recycled Tracks on Credo and I am also on some new stuff for Cocoon Recordings, let’s see if they like it or if it`s too heavy techno for them 🙂
Alex’s LP Musick is out now through Credo now and available exclusively over at Beatport. Keep up with more new music from Alex and his Credo label crew over on SoundCloud.
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Interview by Anthony Wilson @diegetics
Edited by Georgina Pellant @geena_pellant
