Sascha Funke, salutari de la Mamaia
Interview by vsp (as in very special guest)
How do you find Romania after playing here for four-five times in the last 5 years?
Sascha Funke: It is growing and of course it’s quite difficult because Romania was not so good economically speaking and it was not easy after the revolution, but if you take a look at the the East European countries I think is the best country for our music scene.
Is there any romanian music present on german clubbing scene?
There are DJs like RPR and Livio, everyone knows them and they are playing quite often, so some of the romanian music is known.
It seems you are most of the time DJing. Do you ever play live?
I’m quite bored about playing live. Let’s say that I don’t like my music too much that I would be happy to play one hour of my music every week. I wouldn’t smile on the stage. As a DJ you can decide maybe tonight I’ll play three tracks or one track or no track. In a live you always have to play the same kind your music, your music, and I don’t like it too much. If I would be part of a band maybe it would be fun, but alone, no. As a DJ you have every week the chance to do something different than the week before and of course every club is different, every party situation is different, so as DJ you are more flexible – this is the crowd and this was the DJ before me so I’ll play this kind of music. As for live you are completely stuck in what you have to play, what everyone expects.
How did you end up playing music with Paul Kalkbrenner?
It’s quite easy. He’s my best friend and I’m his best friend and we know each other for more than 20 years, and we’re growing up in the same school, in the same neighborhood. It’s interesting to see how we developed. It’s full of ironic moments. You could say sometimes is a competition but it’s never like a true or honest competition, or killer competition, it’s more …fun. Basically is fun.
What influence has on you, as a producer, the fact that you live in Berlin, the core of clubbing and never ending parties?
Basically it’s just nice and interesting to live there but I was born there so I appeal honest. 10 years ago Berlin was a hot spot but now is so international and so successful on the clubbing scene with all the DJs and producers who moved there. In Berlin I have the feeling that the club scene is also existing in daytime. I would say it’s interesting to meet so many different people but there are big disadvantages like all the social interference – meeting many people all the time, you’re not in the studio, you’re just on a party or just having dinner with someone. Actually is bad. I know bad examples of DJs, known producers, that move to Berlin and then they never did any record because they moved to Berlin.
That’s why you went to France to produce Mango?
Yes, and I will do it again. You need some space, you need silence, you need something not socially involved. That’s why I prefer moving to France at the end of the year. It’s basically about the food and the wine and feeling like you’re on vacation and that can be a big influence on your music production because you are natural, without any interruption or without people disturbing you.
Do you think that the growing number of people producing music has a positive effect on music quality?
At the moment I would say that the young generation who’s producing techno music is already growing up with only techno and house and they have not other big influences. And I think that is the problem. When I was growing up I was listening to Madonna or I don’t know, so I have more influences than they have. I hope is not getting too boring because of their background.
Can popular success kill it?
No, I wouldn’t say. We are now listening to techno music for 20 years and nothing new happened. We have this moments when is going up and down and up for 20 years now.
Trends.
It really depends. House music has a big move and a big success. The past year, when I was traveling I played this kind of music but I think it will be appealing for a year or another two years. It’s hard to explain. It could be dangerous. Everyone who’s doing just house music it’s a bit boring. At the moment too many people are just producing house beats and putting a vocal on top and then it’s a good seller. And you don’t have so much melody, it’s just the groove. For me, as a DJ, if I would play for two hours just this kind of music, I would be bored.
What’s your opinion on file sharing?
We as label can still survive from selling. It depends. If you see nations like Romania or Russia where people are living in a village and they don’t have record shops or thery never had any chance to get in touch with the music I really think it’s good, it’s an advantage to have free internet and have a free downloading system. For countries as Germany or France or Spain I’m a little bit pissed.
Do you think the music selling system should be changed?
The music has not the same value as before. Any kind of music. Not only for our music. We have to much quantity and less quality. Is not a big event to buy a CD or to listen to a song. 20 years ago I went to the record shop, I was waiting for the new Depeche Mode or The Smiths album, I bought it and I listened it for 20-30 times and the value was higher than 10 euro. Now you just take them out, it’s not an event.
Did you ever illegally downloaded anything?
Yeah, once. I couldn’t get it on iTunes. Last year my favorite song was Estelle – American boy and I played it. And then I was looking for the instrumental so I could play it after the original, so I illegally downloaded the instrumental version of American Boy from Estelle. That was my only mistake.
What instruments do you use when producing?
Just computer. I do have a lot of software synthesizers. Mango is based on samples. I cut songs or just snippets of songs which already existed. I took something and just completely transformed into another thing that you would not recognize.
Is there any instrument you would like to work with?
Yes, an organ, and old organ where you can press the keys. But my studio is quite small, it’s just my room, so I don’t have enough space, but that would be something. I was visiting some friends and they‘re using this instrument quite often. It’s a good base to start a song – just pushing the keys and see what happens.
What’s next?
Moving again to south of France in winter and finishing a new album. Bpitch Control is also celebrating 10 years anniversary this year so we are all quite happy and we are going to do a compilation at the and of the year. We do an event at Sonar, then a showcase at Melt! festival in Germany and the big Berlin show at Berghain in August.
Posted in interviu on May 12th, 2009 by de-dans | 15 Comments