Aiden

The most intriguing artists are those who step away from the crowded centre ground, those who boldly surf their own distinctive wave of originality and bring something unique to the party. Aiden is a Rotterdam-based DJ/Producer who steadfastly avoids producing music with certain genres or formulas in mind, preferring to paint a unique variety of sounds and textures into his work. His adventurous debut artist album boldly defies simple pigeonholing, revealing the essence of what makes his music immediately so intellectually and physically stimulating. When an artist has a creative palette that ranges from psychedelic overtones, through leftfield electronics, to limitless organic textures and irresistible percussion, we think its high time DMC had a chat with the man…

A big welcome to DMCWORLD and congratulations on your debut ‘Gebruikerssporen’ album release on Cinematique, a label you first appeared on five years ago. The first thing we’ve got to ask is what makes this Dutch label so special?

Hi DMC, thanks for having me! Cinematique Records is special to me because from the start Robin (who is Cinematique) always showed a lot of interest, support, open-mindedness and sincerity. Today it’s very normal as an artist to do everything online, which results in never meeting your label managers, remixers and fellow artists in person. In all honesty, I did this for about 3 years with Robin, but now I’m very happy to be able to meet up with him regularly and can even say we’re friends. For me, this is important as well, because Robin always runs his label very professionally.

Can you put your finger on the elements that make your music so distinctive?

What makes my music distinctive? This is a very hard question for me, as I always try to make every project sound different. Most of my music sounds very organic as I record a lot of percussion and samples myself and I never draw automation clips, I always do automation by hand, so its not that clean and sounds humanDo you find defining music by genres useful or limiting?

Obviously, defining music by genre is useful, but, in my opinion, it’s all the sub-genres that make things so confusing. If you’re really into music, I think you don’t need these sub-genres. You’ll know by label or artist if it’s techno or house or whatever. When I buy music for DJing, most of the time it starts with a track I hear in a set that I like or I hear at a party. When I find this track on iTunes or Beatport, I always check out the other labels this artist has released on and find new artists who also released on other labels, or did a remix for another artist I might like. Sometimes this takes forever, but it’s a good way to find new music and there’s no need for a genre. This being said, I don’t care if people call my music Techno or Deep House, the real diggers will find it!

Talk us through the sounds and production of one of your favourite tracks on your new album?

‘Valsplat’ is a digital exclusive for the album, as I already had enought tracks for the CD, but I still wanted to release it because of the drive and sounds in it. As the basic percussion (kick, hi-hat, snare) is run through my mixer with a lot of compression, it sounds very dirty. After this, I was running through the pre-sets of my Waldorf Pulse 2 and decided to record this. I ran this recording trough a slicer that has an arpeggiator and it can randomly play slices. After automating the pitch of these slices, some weird R2D2 noises came out, which I loved and run throughout the whole track. For me it’s enough to just listen to these noises randomly going all over the place, but I decided to add some melody, as for most people, this would be really boring!

Are there any intriguing stories behind the tracks – the very bold electronic Tango of ‘In den Soos’, for example?

‘In den Soos’ came together when I bought some new percussion stuff. I started with the shakers and triangle, and that’s what gave it a bit of a salsa feeling straight away. I used a VST to play the bassline, which sounded funky and quite organic for a plugin! Then the melody came naturally – I actually only played the first half of the melody, then, I just turned the notes around for the second half.

For me, the track sounds like the music they play when they draw the lottery numbers. “In den Soos” is a posh way to say “in the leisure centre” in Dutch. I gave the track this title as I can see old folks playing bingo to it, as it is a much more light-hearted track than the rest of the album. I put it in the middle as a sort of break.

Your track ‘Houdje Touwtje’ features the wonderful, distinctive vocals of Hermione Green – how did this collaboration come about? Have you worked together previously?

Hermione Green is actually my fiancée, and she also said: “make it rain” on the ‘Rain’ track I did for Cinematique a while back. With ‘Houdje Touwtje’, I had the words “got my love on a wire” in my head, and Hermione (not her real name by the way) came up with the rest of the lyrics. It’s nice to write lyrics together sometimes… song writing is a whole different game and quite a hard thing to do actually. I think at some point we’ll release something with even more vocals.

Tell us something about the psychological effects of music that totally blows your mind?

A lot of musicians claim to need music to process things, or they put all of their emotion into their music. For me, I think this isn’t really the case, or at least not in a conscious way. For me, I guess making music is just a way to relax and I really love doing it! When it comes to listening to music, it’s nice that music can give you a certain feeling, but in the end it’s just sounds and/or rhythm.

Which of all your tracks do you consider to be your most accomplished creation to date? Why?

I’m really happy with the ‘Calandlijn’ track on my album, from a production and arrangement point of view, but it’s not really a track I would play as a DJ. From a DJ’s perspective, I guess my favourite track at the moment is ‘Glen McKenna’, released on Manual Music recently. This is a track I would play, and I really love the way the loopy melody opens up to become an ambient space trip but still has a strong on going rhythm behind it.

Let’s rewind for a moment, what is your earliest musical memory?

When I was a child, my grandfather playing his organ always fascinated me. Especially, when he built one himself that had all kinds of hi-tech functions on it! It’s probably here where my passion for electronic music had already started.

How did you get sucked into the electronic music scene? In what ways do you think your particular journey has influenced the electronic music you make now?

I really got sucked into the electronic music scene in the late 90’s. In Holland there was this big subculture built around Hardcore or Gabber music. I saw the first DJs spinning records on television as I was too young to attend parties, but I was instantly sold! I saved all my money to buy cheap turntables and a crappy mixer, and of course records! After Hardcore, I got more into Electro and House stuff, and even had a period where I was listening a lot to Punk and Ska music.

When some friends introduced me to Minimal Techno when it was getting really hot at that time, I wasn’t directly charmed about it, but when I heard artists such as Extrawelt or James Holden, who had more melody in their music, I got really into that. In the last couple of years (Italo) Disco and Soul music is also on my playlist and I think all these elements of all these genres (so this is why genres come in handy) can be heard on my debut album. I guess my music is always a bit rough around the edges and has some melodic element, which is the result of all these influences.

A piece of studio equipment you couldn’t live without?

My favourite piece of equipment is probably my microphone. This is probably the main instrument to give my music this organic feel to it. I even sometimes record a VST plugin sound with the mic on the same channel so it gives it a little breath.

Who are your current 3 most exciting producers and why?

I think there are a lot of great producers at the moment, so it’s hard to pick… Noraj Cue is doing a remix on one of the album tracks at the moment. I picked him because he’s just one of those guys who can produce anything and it always sounds ace! His music always bursts with creativity and energy, and you can hear the love he puts into it!

One of the producers I really look up to is Four Tet – this man never fails to deliver and is always re-inventing himself. And, last but not least, I think Nadia Struiwigh is doing awesome producing at the moment. She’s making very original productions and puts in a lot of hard work – something you can really hear in her music.

Best piece of advice you have ever been given?

I recently read an article were Armin van Buuren was talking about his writer’s block and that he rediscovered that just having fun in the studio is the most important thing and making music just for you and your friends evolves into making great new music. I’m not really into Armin’s music at the moment, but I think this is the best advice you can get about making music and maybe even in life.

What are your plans for the coming months?

My plans for the coming months are spamming people about my album and trying to get as much exposure as possible! We’re playing the ADE festival with the whole Manual/Cinematique crew. There will also be a small release party here in Rotterdam and there will be a second single from the album coming in about two months, with two amazing remixers – so that’s very exciting! And myself and Hermione Green are busy planning our wedding at the moment, so that’s a big deal as well, of course!