Chasing Kurt

The German deep house maestros unleash four killer remixes of ‘From The Inside’ on Defected


Interview : Dan Prince

Pascal Blanché, Wojtek Kutschke and vocalist Lukas Polocze – better known as Chasing Kurt – originally released this track on their album of the same name. Now, ‘From The Inside’ has been given the remix treatment by some of world’s most respected house producers. DMC check in with this incredible trio…

Pascal, Wojtek, Lukas welcome to DMCWORLD. Where in the world are you today?

“After celebrating Wojtek`s birthday – we`re still at his place thinking about new tracks and what it means to have a good life.”

Massive news around the guys at the moment with the imminent release of a cool range of remixes of your ‘From The Inside’ courtesy of some of the world’s most respected house producers. So who better to take us through each rework than you guys, please give us a few words on the following four faultless pieces of production…

Henrik Schwarz…

“He`s killin` it! Defected put the focus on this and it will probably get the most attention. Amazing violins and a strong bassline.”

Konstantin Sibold…

“Konstantin delivers an atmospheric, spacy futuristic mix of intensity. We really like to listen to this piece of music in early morning time in the club.”

Lovebirds…

“Lovebirds really gets the message of the original track. He emphasizes what music soul and love can do. He was the first one of all remixers who wanted to do a remix for this track. Outstanding chords! This is real house music.”

Copyright…

“Copyright brought it down to the dancefloor. They know about the impact of music on people in a club. Play it at the right time and makes the crowd go crazy.”

Be honest now, what is each of yours favourite rework?

“Lovebirds, everybody agrees!”

We love the story of how the band got together. Wojtek you were packing up your stuff after DJing in a bar in Gießen when you overheard one of the bartenders singing to himself, that barman was Lukas. What did you think of his singing and what happened next…?

“Oh my god! What a soulful voice! From the first time that I heard him I was deeply impressed. I asked him to jam together in our home studio. Before I met him Pascal and me were already thinking about vocals in our compositions. The first jam with him resulted in our first release. Over time we recognized his potential more and more and founded Chasing Kurt.”

Okay Lukas, the obvious question…as you were serving the drinks that night, what did you think of Wojtek’s DJing?

“At the beginning I didn`t listen a lot and had to work at the bar. But I felt that there was something going on. We had two floors at the location. Wojtek was playing in the lounge area where I was working. The party-promoter wanted to have the people dance on the other floor because it was much bigger. But people decided to move to Wojtek’s mix. When it was over the crowd still didn`t want to go home after several demands from me! Almost despairing I decided to make them go out by singing. And this is how I drew Wojtek’s attention to my voice. The rest of the story is an album called “From the Inside”…”

Last year’s album was kind of an accident, you realised you had collated a lot of material and had five more ideas in your heads, so you decided to put it all together. Now that you are firmly on the map, what is coming next from you guys studio wise…?

“We already finished two remixes. The first one is from Cram, an artist from Hamburg on Caballero Recordings and we decided to remix Brenn & Cesar on Product London Records. But the focus is on our upcoming album.”

You readily admit that although your studio sessions are funny and chilled, sometimes you have your “little differences”…what do you argue about?

“Sometimes we “argue” about different ideas of living but more in a political-democratic kind of arguing. We don`t argue about sound or music because we feel it nearly the same way.”

What is the current top 10 you are spinning…

1.         Chasing Kurt – From The Inside (Lovebirds Piano Forte Mix)

2.         Flight Facilities _ Stand Still (Mario Basanov Remix)

3.         Todd Terje – Delorean Dynamite

4.         Love and Mercy – Rainfall (Quarion Remix)

5.         Shane Linehan – Aspects Of Change EP

6.         Mario & Vidis – When Doves Cry Ft. Barbarossa

7.         Tensnake feat. Nile-Rodgers and Fiora Love Sublime (Duke Dumont Remix)

8.         Florian Kupfer – Feelin

9.         Mille & Mr.Hirsch – My Mind (lounge 44 version)

10.      Genius Of Love – Gliese 581g

We love your range of musical influences; Phil Collins is in there as is Led Zeppelin. Michael Jackson gets a nod as does the Doors. Sade has a mention alongside 80s synth pop! How did you all feel growing up, was music the only career choice you wanted to pursue, did you actually think it would ever become a reality?

“After the release of ‘Daydream’ we really felt that we could achieve more. We developed as a union of individuals and did more. Apart from music Lukas and Wojtek were studying, Pascal was working as a system-administrator. We all hoped to live only from the music one day.”

Lukas it was your grandmother who first introduced you to singing, she used to sing songs to you from an early age. How much of an inspiration was she on this journey for you…?

“She was a good woman. She spent much time with me in my early days. It was a pleasure for me to listen to her singing. This time left its mark on me. I started to sing by my own. Beyond this other artists like Prince, Michael Jackson, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder and many others had the most striking influence on me during my childhood.”

Pascal you were producing music for nigh on ten years before you met these guys. What was the musical content of your work back then…?

“I produced atmospheric and ambient like tech-house music as Pascal Vert, also some deep house as Dr. Deep House – released on Café del Mar for example. But I was looking for other inspiration and means to put more feeling into my music. I am open-minded towards any kind of music as long as it touches me somehow. Wojtek and Lukas gave me the possibility to work in a more band-like project to create some sound with messages and a greater concept.”

“The synthesis of deep house and soul with a little bit of pop” – a nice way to sum up the Chasing Kurt sound methinks. Who though are some of the artists around today that you draw inspiration from or are simply giving high fives to?

“Pop, Soul, Funk and House had influence on our style. Kwabs, Jamie Woon, Drake, James Blake, Fink, Anthony David, Henrik Schwarz, Lovebirds, Mario Basanov, John Talabot…just to mention some of those artists we adore. And we really love a lot of deep house vinyl only releases.”

Can you clear up the story about Pascal’s father suggesting sending in some music to the Mercedes-Benz mix tape series crew. Is that correct??

“No. My father introduced me to the MBMT series and suggested to send in some music but at a time when I didn’t knew the guys yet. Some years later MB contacted us because of the Chasing Kurt-Project, that was amazing.”

Wojtek – are you still working as a teacher?? Do your school children know what a cool friggin’ teacher they have?

“I could hide my “second life” for some months. But one day the whole school approached me to ask about Chasing Kurt. Some school children even pumped our track “From The Inside” on their mobile phones during lesson.”

Pascal you are the trio’s film buff. What is the best film ever made?

“Hmmmmm, I think for me it’s The Matrix. I’m a big Science Fiction fan and also liked Cloud Atlas by the Wachowski siblings a lot. But Matrix has something really special, even if it’s 15 years old now, it still feels modern and has some influence on my daily life theories, not because of the dystopian scenario, because of the spiritual messages in it – somehow like as in Inception.”

Your studio is nestled in the picturesque town of Schwalheim in Germany. Tell me, is the food at Brunnenwärterhaus still good?

“OMG! Thanks for the advice! We didn`t know about Brunnenwärterhaus. Looks like an amazing location for good food and sweet wine. But we know what you want to point out with this question Dan. Our studio is located in the outback. Deep house farmers like us need to produce in a quiet place.”

And final question, and possibly the most important question at that. Who the fuck is Kurt?

“The first two letters of the first producers name “Ku” and the last two letters of the second producers name “rt” literaly form Kurt. We consider Kurt a fictional character representing our ideals. Kurt is figuring out the pursuit of love and happiness based on music and we try to chase and achieve his state…”

http://www.chasing-kurt.de
http://soundcloud.com/chasing-kurt