Eric Sneo

The master producer unveils his masterful new album ‘Intensity’ for Christian Smith’s Tronic label 

Interview : Dan Prince

Eric welcome to DMCWORLD, where on planet earth are you today?

“Hey Dan, Today I am at home in the office. Tuesday is my office day normally.”

A massive buzz around you right now with your hot new album ‘Intensity’ set to drop on Christian Smith’s Tronic label at the end of the month. Please give us a guide to the album with a few words on each of your babies…

“Sure! Here we go…

Hustle & Bustle
- the name fits perfectly to the modulated and shuffled sequence made in Reaktor – it sounds restless, but also light and interesting. I made this track some time ago and also tested it at the Nature One Festival last year. Then I made some changes here and there and now it´s exactly the way I want it to be. Try this one out… the floor will start to groove at once!

Immediacy Of The Moment
- has also been created for the floors and works brilliantly (damn it, all tracks work so amazingly on this album! hahaha). It´s based on a chord line filtering up and down and concentrating on the main theme. With concentration (without the one who controls), you also open up the “immediacy of the moment”. Well, so far, it looks like all titles have to do something with the tracks…

Process Work
- was created during a process in the studio when I wanted to free myself from the common structures of music. Although the beat is straight, there are some elements in it you won´t expect…especially the short mellow parts!

Roulette
- the main looped percussion just sounds like a roulette wheel during the game. The beat is very energetic and it´s one of my main peak-time tunes on the album!

Let It Roll
- A groovy and technoid one, that I play on and on! This one fits perfectly when you want to raise the energy up during the set to come to the peak-time tunes – lots of filtered sounds and little effects in the background. Check this one out!

Cyberdellic
– does not mean I have something to do with cyberdellic stuff, haha…but I love the sound and the groove of that word. I just took my mic into the studio and made some experiments with the Waldorf Vocoder and suddenly the phrase and the loop was there. It´s quite a unique track, a bit different from the “normal”, but I really like this one J

Leaves In The Air
- watch the leaves flying through the air, while listening to the track – that was my inspiration, when I made this in Autumn 2013.

The Flow
- Oh my god… he’s using lot´s of melodies in a techno track! Please put all your conditioning concerning techno music away and listen to the track with an open mind!

Metanoia
- means “change yourself” (often used in a religious context). The need to change for everyone on this planet is quite obvious and this track is my expression of that fact. Please listen to the whole piece when you have a silent moment and concentrate on the little things that happen all the time during this track.

Facility
– an easy and very groovy track – I found this bell sound in my library and the sequence was there in a moment. Also, I love that modulated snare!

Bongofreak – a crazy tune at the end of the album. I don´t know how this came out of my brain, but I played it a couple of times and people went crazy. The voice in the middle of the track is my own one “the bongo freaks so fine” 

When you sat down to begin creating your ‘Polarity’ album you asked yourself about the frame of the album…”Where do I want to go? Who do I want to reach? What are the feelings inside of me that I want to be expressed?” What were the questions you asked yourself this time and what were the answers…?

“After the “Polarity” album, in which I expressed a lot of myself, and some facts about life and the quantum world, I wanted to do a light album this time – just enjoying the whole process of creating the tracks and being creative.”

How long did the album take to make and what is your cure for writers block?

“The album took me around 6 months to make. I already had some layouts ready and then produced almost enough tracks for 2 albums. Then the direction of the album became more and more clear and I did the fine-tuning on the tracks, tried them out at the gigs and reworked them again. As I had a good workflow and felt quite free to do what I wanted, it was an easy process!”

What can you tell us about your very unique live show set to take on the world as the album launches…?

“At the moment I focus on my DJ set-up and add live drums with my Roland SPD sampling pad, which always creates a special live feeling. The big show with all the other instruments like Didgeridoo, Theremin and live percussion requires a big stage and I only do that a few times. You can check this out on my DVD “Eric Sneo Live At Nature One” to get a good idea of how it works.”

You joined the music club from an early age, learning to play instruments like the drums, the piano and the accordion. Was this something you had a real passion for or was it a case of parental pressure as is often the case?

“I started playing instruments at the age of 4 and I just enjoyed playing easy melodies on the accordion. Later, I studied drums, percussion and playing the piano. There was never any pressure from my parents to do so, although they enjoyed it when I played at the family parties. I never liked to play from written music because I found it very mechanical. That led me to jazz music because it gave me the freedom to improvise.”

Friday nights at Omen in Frankfurt with Sven Vath – why was this night so important to you?

“At the Omen club I really felt the impact of the music and I felt like expressing myself within techno music, because it has that power I was looking for. At that time the music was so colourful, everything was possible and Sven played amazing sets the whole night..”

Who are some of the producers from around the world you are giving high fives to right now?

“There are so many good producers, that it´s hard for me to choose some! I always try to present new artists at my weekly “Let´s Go Techno” podcast. Last weekend I met Dustin Zahn at Munich Airport, we both were in a hurry to catch a connecting flight and I just told him that I like his album. I really love the work of Pig&Dan though! Amazing!”

If you could write yourself a letter today and have it delivered to yourself 3 years ago, what would you write?

“Put all the books away you are reading at the moment and start to study “Jiddu Krishnamurti” and the way he sees meditation.”

What is the last song you heard today?

“I checked the mastering of my upcoming release on Uto Karem’s Agile Recordings.”

Word on the street is that there are some ‘Re-Transmit’ remix releases about to drop. What can you tell us?

“That is a project initiated by Boris from “Transmit”, whom I met at ADE last year. He likes lots of my old tracks and proposed to re-release them with new remixes. So far we have remixes from Jewel Kid, Bodyscrub, Arjun Vagale and coming more from Victore Calderone, Sasha Carassi, dubspeeka and more… So I’m really looking forward to those releases in 2014!”

Not many people know this, but Eric Sneo is really good at…

“…playing snooker! (maybe not that good! It´s a very difficult game for sure!)”

And finally, what is next from Eric Sneo and the studio…?

“I’m working on new stuff in the studio and I think I’m in a good flow at the moment, so watch out for the new releases and if you like, check out my weekly “Let’s Go Techno” podcast!”

“Intensity” the new album by Eric Sneo is released 28/04/14 on Christian Smith’s excellent, forward-thinking Tronic label.

Album Preview Mini Mix: https://soundcloud.com/ericsneo/eric-sneo-intensity-album-mini/s-56593

Stay in touch with Eric here: https://www.facebook.com/EricSneo and https://twitter.com/ericsneoOFC

Further information: http://tronicmusic.com http://www.beatport.com/label/tronic/12576