Wareika la Iarmaroc!

Wareika inseamna Henrik Raabe, Florian Schirmacher si Jakob Seidensticker. Produc muzica in studioul lor din Hamburg, aproape de port si spun ca peisajul le da sentimentul sa sunt mereu conectati la lume. Au un sound distinct, plin de vitalitate, un trip in lumea ritmurilor, in care houseul este revigorat si jazzul se intalneste cu techno. Ultimul album, Formation, care urmeaza a fi lansat in curand la labelul danez Tartelet, cuprinde piese inregistrate in concert, interludii la pian, improvizatie jazz, field recording, multe instrumente, o puzderie de influente si voce care pe alocuri imi aduce aminte de Elvis. Se aude de parca ar canta toti trei live la tine in sufragerie. Ai toate sansele sa dansezi in casa, cu mainile la tavan si cu fata la monitor. Intre 21 si 23 mai, la Iarmaroc. Raspunde pentru fgm, Jakob.

Wareika – Live 2010 by freshgoodminimal06

Your debut was in 2008. What did the three of you do before that?

All right, first of all a big hello and thank you very much for the opportunity to get in touch with Romania! Your first question is a big one, because each of us did a lot of things before 2008…
I think Florian has been working with a bunch of many different artists and projects, before Wareika was formed. “Glowing Glisses”, with Guido Schneider is an important one, but also “Federleicht”, which is still very alive and releasing, as well as older projects like ”Pantytec” are important works . Both for him, as for the Cosmos of electronic music. Henrik and Jakob have been working together for more than 10 years, their main project was called “The Havana Boys”. By the time they ran into Florian on stage of the famous ancient Mojo Club in Hamburg, they were like brothers, doing everything together, but Florian was the one who was missing, ‘cause THREE is the magic number! It’s like meeting someone you already seem to know for a very long time….you can also call it love at first sight.

How did you decide to team up?

Honestly speaking WE did not decide that, but the MUSIC decided it. It was not about having a choice. It was like we called something into life with our instruments, that was stronger than thoughts or conceptual ideas. Than we called it WAREIKA and just let it happen.

Did you have a concept in your minds of how you want your music to sound like or you guys just started working together and waited for the results?

No. No concept at all. Our studio has many possibilities, but we concentrate on our Soul, and what it has to tell us. For us, music is about being connected, not about concepts. But what we really wanted was to play and to improvise, in spite of using a computer.

What is the meaning of your music?

Once we called it “Garden”, ‘cause it is close to “House”, but it is happening outside….(big smile). Of course this is a joke, but in fact our music is more reminiscent of Plants or Birds singing in the trees, or the sound of a waterfall rushing down a mountain then of cables and computers, even though it comes out of a computer!
(Groove Magazine wrote, that ideas are growing like weed on our Album, so this also fits in the picture.) The meaning of our music is to connect people, with each other and with the nature, the universe. It is back to where we come from, which is definitely back to the future!

What are your influences? What did you take from these artists and what did you bring into your sound?

Maybe the list of musicians, artists, writers, philosophers, teachers and preachers etcetera who take influence on our music is too long to bring it here in full size. Important is maybe the broad range of people, that inspire us. It includes Jazz musicians, African drummers and Japanese shamisen players as well as the latest house/techno releases or a country singer from the 50ies. There is so much wonderful music in the world, how could you refer to only one particular style? Also the three of us are bringing very diverse ways of approaching music with us. We do not like to sample any music, even though some people accuse us of doing so. We record everything in our studio, with our own instruments. We take the spirit of a record that thrills us, but we try not to copy it, but let the spirit unfold in our own way.

Is Villalobos a major influence to you? What exactly is it that you appreciate about his sound? How did he come to mix Kings’s Child?

We wouldn’t say major influence. As we mentioned above, our influences are not limited to one particular genre, such as techno or house music. Of course Ricardo has done great work, and he is also crushing the borders set by a term like “dance music”.

Wareika – King’s Child (Ricardo Villalobos Remix) by Wareika

He remixed King’s Child because he had the possibility to listen to it at an early stage of the production, and he had some ideas about the mixing that we neither wanted to neglect, nor to fully implement. So the idea of another version came up and here we go.

I sense some Balkan Influence too, or maybe is Mexican or southern American, i am not sure, you tell me. Like for example you can take the track Mountain Ride. Do they sound…exotic for you?

Well, as we are used to listen to oriental music, and also to free jazz music from people like Sun Ra, for many years, it is difficult to say what “exotic” means to us. In western Europe most people are totally used to the even-tempered scales that have been used here since Bach, but also Techno is transcending this limit by far. In Japan or Korea you find at least as many (maybe more) orchestras or ensembles that play classical western music, so I really wonder why so little people in Germany are common with Zen – or classical Korean music. (Our narrow mindedness is a shame.)

Wareika – mountain ride by Wareika

It is interesting that “Mountain Ride” sounds Balkan-like as well as middle- or southern American to you. It was born from the Arabian Hijaz (Kar)Maqam, that is also used in eastern Europe, as well as in north Africa, Spain, and the Americas.

How do you work together, who does what? How do ideas blend? What kind of sounds do you assemble, in order to create a new whole?

Most songs derive from a rhythmic pattern someone comes up with. If there is lyrics, it is basically Florian’s work, except “Facing the Sun” which we have written and recorded all together. Many ideas come together by just playing around with them. That often means actually playing them, on a guitar, a synth or something. Sometimes we also jam all together, with drums and piano or whatever, and we record the whole jam session, and later we extract the good ideas.

What inspires Florian’s vocals? Where does he write them?

Thank you for going into that Detail, and the lyrics can be seen as well as a clear way to our music too. A state of mind and language which invites you to have a good time with us. Expressing life in
words. In a spiritual way. Our kind of spiritual house music.

Tell me the story of your forthcoming album. How long does it take for a track to becomes a track of an actual quality? Why did you includ tracks from the previous ep?

Asculta tot albumul aici

The Album represents a status quo of Wareika that lies, of course, in the past already. It is like a photograph, or a small video cut of our inner world between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2009. But as music is timeless, this doesn’t count too much. Some of our songs where created within a day, others took us two months, day by day….But that isn’t important, too. It says nothing about the quality or emotional depth of a song.

Riders on the storm by Wareika
Wareika – Burnin’ by Wareika

Most of the tracks appeared on vinyl before, but we think that an album, as a whole thing, has a different meaning than a single. Other artists release singles from their album afterwards, maybe to sell more. For us, the album represents a milestone of our forthcoming, as musicians and as human beings. It is beginning with a live version of our very first release,”Men Village”, and it ends up with the first track we have recorded as Wareika, “Belonging”. It is a story, and there will be many sequels…

How is the live going to be, what will be the gear?

Jakob will play a MPC 4000, which is a sequencer, that allows him to arrange and to modulate the songs according to the audience’s demands. Henrik plays electric guitar and Florian will sing and play Keyboards. It is more like a band, than many so called “live acts”.

Except music, what else do you like?

Good Friends. Good food. Whiskey. Beautiful countryside. Beer. Peace. Wine. Good weather.

Why do you live in Hamburg when most artists aim Berlin?

We like to live where we feel comfortable, and not where the hype goes. Our music should be true to us, so we have to be true to ourselves.

Did you hear any stories about Romania?

Of course the very famous stories about Vampires, but we are not looking forward to meet them. But your country also tells very interesting stories about music, and we are eager to learn more about that!

Posted in interviu on February 15th, 2010 by fresh good minimal | 14 Comments