Alyne

Fast-rising German DJ/Producer Alyne’s much anticipated return to Parquet Recordings is upon us, and sees her deliver two immense acid-influenced melodic techno tracks. With a background in classical music, Alyne brings a unique musicality into her productions. Her music and her DJ sets flow with freedom and boundless creativity, moving seamlessly between deep, melodic and epic moments whilst blurring simplistic genre labelling from deep house to techno and every shade and nuance in between. Having released her first ever EP at the height of summer in 2016, the critically acclaimed ‘Ni Kuanza / Vicissitude’ (PARQUET139), Alyne’s reputation has been growing steadily ever since, so we thought it was high time that DMCWorld had an in-depth chat and discovered more…

Alyne, a huge welcome to DMCWORLD and congratulations on your new release ‘No One Saves You’ / ‘Chaos’ on Solee’s excellent Parquet Recordings. The first thing we want to know is what makes this label so special?

Hi and thank you for invitation, I’m happy to be here. Parquet Recordings is so special because Solee and his team are always trying to focus so much on the music. The label is all about quality melodic electronic music in all it’s varieties, focused on the dancefloor, and everybody has the chance to get signed. Parquet has always had its focus on melodies, since I guess 13 years now and almost 200 releases, no matter if there was at the time more attention for minimal or tech house. Nowadays, lots of labels focus on melodies. Melodies carry so many feelings, when there is e.g. a DJ playing 2 hours straight techno and dropping one or two tracks with melodies, everybody gets crazy. Good melodies are important for every dancefloor, in every genre, they are touching hearts and make people feel special emotions. Over the years Parquet has discovered lots of unknown producers, who went on and signed with bigger labels afterwards. Parquet always stands for the best quality and every talented artist can be part of this, it is a wonderful attitude.

Talk us through these two superb tracks… How does the creative process work when you’re in the studio?

I have two ways of working in the studio and both are reflected in the two tracks for this release. The first one is, I have an idea in my mind, something that I want to do. I had this idea of this long, long break, where the melody should slow down, and then get faster again afterwards, until the drop. This was the main idea for ‘No One Saves You’. Then I try to implement this. I can’t really tell you how the tracks are built up, because it’s always different, I don’t have much structure like some other producers. Mostly, I start with the drums, but sometimes I start with the main element. I start with drums and one synth, and in this case the acid bassline, and then I arrange the whole track, even if I know it’s far away from finished. After this, I fill in other things, like pads, or hats, percs, or the bass synth. Then I rearrange sometimes or not, it depends. Sometimes it’s pretty easy finding the synth I have in mind, putting some LFOs and delays on top, and there it is. But I don’t have a structure in the studio, I love being chaotic, this is how creative things arise for me. But, it makes it hard to tell people how I work in the studio. Basically I don’t know! It happens, sometimes this way and sometimes that way. So I think this is why the second track is named ‘Chaos’, because it was absolutely chaotic how it developed. I didn’t have any idea, I started somewhere and then I tried things out. I like to discover new things, new sounds, new melodies, many different things…

What piece(s) of studio equipment could you not live without?

A computer, with a big disk space and an external server, good monitor speakers (my advice is Adam AxX), a sub speaker, studio headphones, a keyboard with at least 5 octaves, and a soundcard… I love my little acid machine (tb03) at the moment. I’m mainly working with VSTs, as I love the variety of the computer world, without having much space and money. My favourite for basslines is the Legend VST, with its powerful sound. I’m using a lot the V-Collection of Arturia, the ARP2600 V with its crazy sounds is nice and the Modular V has great pad sounds. But I also use the “classics” like Mini V and Sem V.

Do you find it easy to express your emotions in your music, or is this something that finds an outlet only in certain, special tracks?

As I’m a very emotional person and this is a good way to put all my emotions into something. But, it still should be good for dancefloors. Sometimes the tracks I make are way too sad for dancefloors, so then I have to change my mind-set a little, to be open for uplifting moments.

Great music is often described as being “timeless” – is this a concept that you can relate to?

Great music is timeless, for sure. This is what great music is related to. If your music is timeless, you are a great musician. I think my music isn’t timeless, yet. But maybe one day.

Let’s rewind for a moment, what are your earliest musical memories?

I had a classic musical education in my childhood and my youth, first I learned the flute and afterwards I had piano lessons. I loved playing an instrument and am very happy my parents gave me access to this opportunity. My earliest musical memory, is of me singing (and I’m not a good singer at all) for my dad’s birthday party which 100 people attended, when I was 7 years old, with my cousins and my brother (as my “band”) on a “real stage”.

How did your musical tastes develop? When did dance music come into your life?

I used to listen to hip-hop in my youth and I discovered dance music in my early 20s. It fascinated me, as no other music genre did before. I always was very interested in music, and in the club scene, but this was something else for me. At the beginning you don’t know anything, I mean there was no radio and the Internet at this time wasn’t like it is nowadays. So, I remember my cousin, who was in the scene and living in Stuttgart already, gave me a CD because I asked her for one that was underground dance music. From this time onwards, I knew I wanted to be part of all of this.

So, I moved to Stuttgart and I was lucky to meet people who where already DJing there and made friends with lots of people in the scene and I had the chance to “live” the music very fast. After a little while, I started out as a living room DJ for our warm-ups and afterparties. First of all, as I remember, I used to listen to tech house, as Stuttgart is a very good place for that genre of house music. But, after a short while, I discovered deep house, as I was working in a club that favoured the deeper grooves. This was all happening almost at the same time when the deep house hype began. It was a great time for beginners to get in to dance music. It took a while before I played my first club gig and I stayed with deep house for quite a while, and touched on downtempo as well.

After a short while DJing I knew that I wanted to produce my own music. Producing music is different to DJing, it gets you deeper into music and into sounds. Suddenly you understand music. That’s not to say that DJs don’t understand music, but it’s a different understanding. It was during the process of producing that my musical focus developed automatically to more melodic and atmospheric deep music.

Who and what have been big influences in your music career so far?

My biggest influence, after Djing itself, was when I started producing, for sure, and my work for Parquet Recordings and playing outside Stuttgart. Producing your own music means starting another focus in the subject. I was interested in producing after one year of DJing. I tried to produce together with friends who had the knowledge already, but this turned out to be not the right way for me. So I learned it myself, and asked for help when I wasn’t sure about something.

From an insider’s point of view, what exciting places in your home city of Stuttgart should a visiting electronic music fan check out?

Well, as everybody knows, Stuttgart is not the centre of the electronic music scene. But, we do have a small scene and if there were places and space, we would have a bigger scene. But the city is not really up for this, so they try to contain it when it gets too big. Stuttgart is more so the place for high cultural entertainment and the underground stays in the underground.

We had the Rocker33, which was my favourite place, and the biggest place for the kind of music I liked. I love listening (and playing a little) techno as well, so sometimes I go to Lehmann Club. I think it’s well known for techno in the scene in Germany and maybe outside, too? The place I visit the most is Climax Institute and it is also the place I’ve played the most, so this is my favourite club here. It started as a fetish club and house club, and nowadays every genre has found itself in there. We have lots of off locations coming up for one-off parties and people here love this, so if you are in the city ask local people what is happening, maybe you are lucky and there is a happening the weekend you are staying.

Tell us about one of the best parties that you’ve played at recently?

The best place I played was Rainbow Serpent Festival in Australia – a beautiful festival, with beautiful and crazy people! And that stage was so impressive for me. The best party I played was Artheater in Cologne, people in Cologne are very nice and familiar and down to earth, and know how to make good parties. Artheater is that kind of club I prefer, dark, rough, with a good sound system, and none of the fancy things.

And, what new places are you looking forward to experiencing? Will we see you over in the UK soon?

I’m very much looking forward to play in Cologne again, it’s not new to me, but I love this city. Playing in the UK would be super-nice too, as the UK is a strong country for dance music in the world, and in general I love playing new places, too. I would love to play everywhere in the world, I love to discover every place and love to get to know people everywhere. I studied architecture and went on lots of excursions, and one of our lecturers said: “when you are traveling to a city, you have to go out at night, this is how you discover the city at its best, with the people and its attitude.” And it’s true… nightlife is how you discover every city and its people without a mask.

If you could remix any track by any artist (ever) what would be at the top of your wish list?

Any track by Max Cooper, Dusty Kid, Hans Zimmer and Nils Frahm

What plans have you got for the rest of 2019?

My plans for 2019 are working in the studio on new tracks, maybe signing something with a label that hasn’t released my music before. And, I would love to have a collab with another female producer.

And finally, what’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Have the courage to live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect of you.

Thanks for your time here Alyne – much appreciated!

Thank you!