German electronic music producer and drum & bass “enfant terrible” Phace (aka Florian Harres) dropped his fifth artist album, ‘Between’, this month via Neosignal Recordings. Recorded in Germany and New York, and mastered by Phace, he’s given ‘Between’ a unique tone by updating his own sound through combining contemporary digital music production and analogue equipment.
Two years in the making, and 36 minutes in playing time, ‘Between’ is a concise body of work. Representing his trademark detail and juxtaposition of different sounds, the record follows Phace’s successful 2015 album ‘Shape The Random’. His diverse discography includes a further three full-length albums ‘Raum und Zeit’ (as Neosignal), ‘From Deep Space’, and his legendary breakthrough ‘Psycho’, countless releases and chart-breaking singles on labels such as Vision, OWSLA, Mau5trap, Critical, and Division, and his own imprints Neosignal Recordings and NËU Music.
Championed by the likes of Amon Tobin, Skrillex, Noisia, Andy C, and beyond, the Hamburg based DJ and producer has become renowned for his ever progressive take on bass and electronic music. Influenced by early drum & bass and breakbeat, techno and electro, but also IDM and rock, over the past decade Phace has further defined his own forward-thinking style, which is now paving the way for a new generation of producers. We caught up with him recently on his way to Open Air in Budapest to see what’s cooking with the German dnb king…
Welcome to DMC World Phace! Where are you right now and what are you doing?
Hey there! This very moment I am on a flight to Budapest to play an Open Air at the Danube River tonight.
Take us back, how and why did you get into electronic music? Was there much of a German scene when you started out?
I got into electronic music as a teen. My dad played the drums in a band, so I only knew music played by “real” instruments before. When I saw a video of ‘The Robots’ by Kraftwerk on TV it changed everything for me though. I first started to dig really deep into Electro and Krautrock. In regards to Drum & Bass, my sister introduced me to The Prodigy and Breakbeats in 1992 and I really loved all the energy of the music. This lead me to Drum & Bass. The Drum & Bass Scene in Germany was especially strong around 1995 – 2004 in my opinion. I experienced many events with international artists pretty much every weekend and this surely had an impact on who I became musically.
Who were some of your early influences? Did rave culture and jungle have an impact on you?
If you talk about electronic music in general I can surely name acts like Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Aphex Twin or The Prodigy as my early influences. In regards to Drum & Bass, the artists inspired me most were for example acts like Konflict, Ed Rush & Optical, Stakka & Syknet or Grooverider. Surely I did go out to bigger raves in my early years too. There was a huge warehouse rave series called “Kings Of The Jungle” in the Mannheim area. I think I attended all of them. Over time I got more attracted to the deeper and techier side of music though. I always had a strong passion for next level sound design.
How would you describe your music now?
Out there somewhere in the between and unknown 😀 Honetsly, it’s pretty hard for me to describe my own music. It can be melancholic one day, or more fun and stupid the other. It can also be straight forward techy… I really like to change things up to keep myself entertained. I don’t want to repeat myself musically; to me it would be a very boring thing to only follow one formula.
What are the favourite things in your studio? Kit or otherwise?
I do like my Moog Voager and Prohet 6 synthesizers most. The Elektron Analog is also a very sexy piece of gear.
What was the inspiration for Between? What are you trying to achieve with this album?
Between is somewhat of a transitional album. The music featured on the record does carry elements of where I come from but also transports styles I am heading towards to. I don’t have something like an achievement plan for it though; I just want it to be an entertaining piece of art people can enjoy listening to, get lost in or dance to.
Album pre-order https://phace.lnk.to/Between
Is the title a reference to your sound or your career right now?
A bit of both I’d say. My music always has been somewhat in between genres and in between various sound esthetics. I do like to explore new things very much and Between shows exactly that I think. Doing the same thing over and over again is not my cup.
You’ve spent your career pushing electronic music production forward. How did you approach this album? How did your working process change?
Nowadays I feel way more confident to work on music any kind. I feel I now have more tools at hand and also defined my workflow helping me to translate musical ideas even better and faster. For this album in particular I did write pretty much all ideas and layouts while I was on the road and not in my home studio. I wanted to leave my comfort zone. I really liked this approach, as I wanted to be able to write music just with a pair of headphones on my small laptop with a restricted setup. Writing music while being at different places made it very easy to come up with quite different stuff. It is a lot of fun to directly translate emotions you experience in the actual moment into music.
Where did the recording sessions take place?
The recording of early ideas and a lot of the creation-process happened at my friends place in New York and while I was touring North America. The very final production and mastering of the LP happened in my home studio. Some ideas also originated right in touring transit on headphones. So the album as a whole has its roots in between locations so to speak.
Who are your favourite artists at the moment?
To name a few D&B acts; at the moment I do feel the music by Misanthrop, Noisia, Mefjus, Signal, Proxima and Stoner for example. But there are of course way more to mention! There is quiet some fresh air in the scene I really enjoy. For music in general, it really varies from Queens of the Stoneage to King Krule, from Mount Kimbie to Charlotte Gainsbourg, from Boys Noize to Jon Hopkins, from Kanye West to Kendrik Lamar or from Stian Westerhus to Tennyson. There are so many cool things out there to explore. I am really open-minded when it comes to music or art in general. It got to give me this click in my head though to deeply fall in love with it. I love edgy and weird stuff!
Where can DMC World catch you on tour?
SEPT 29 MANNHEIM, DE, MAIMARKTHALLE
OCT 20 BRISTOL, GB, TRINITY CENTRE
OCT 26 BRATISLAVA, SK, MAJESTIC
NOV 2 MANCHESTER, GB, ACADEMY
NOV 10 BERLIN, DE, GRETCHEN
NOV 16 UTRECHT, NL, TIVOLI VREDENBURG
DEC 8 SOUTHPORT, UK, URBFEST
DEC 15 TOULOUSE, FR, BIKINI
DEC 21 PRAGUE, CZ, EXPO PVA LETNANY
DEC 22 VIENNA, AT, GRELLE FORELLE
What else can we expect from Phace and Neosignal this year?
At the moment I am focusing all on the release of my album. I mainly will be touring for the coming months. Nevertheless I am already working on new solo stuff on the side. I am also working on collaborations with Noisia, Mefjus and Misanthrop. For all this stuff I still need to figure out what happens when though. Our second label NEU will have a new release by Synergy and Misanthrop in October, that is the only thing penciled in at this stage.
www.phace.lnk.to/Between
www.phace.space
