Programmed _ Interview With Joseph McGeechan

Music. In his own words.

BCR leader, inspirational producer, live performer and human being: Joe has recently relocated operations to Berlin.

At this stage, McGeechan has evolved comfortably beyond his iFormat moniker. Somewhere along his journey he found a way to use the music like a chisel, working through personal challenge in order to create something new, both artistically and for his label, Berlin Consumer Records. Joe provides the message and music for subsekt 032, which is transmitted on Fnoob @ 2200GMT on 12th June 2013.

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subsekt 032 will be available on Soundcloud after transmission and later, on the archive.

Rachael caught up with him to speak about his move to Germany and to find out how this has affected the direction of his new productions. A particularly candid and honest conversation, Joe reveals a little about how Bipolar 2 influences his approach to music and how it shapes his sound.

Inspiration, Jung and Bukowski are discussed alongside Joe’s new album and later, he shares with us his passion for playing live, Tresor (of course) and reveals the forthcoming releases on BCR.

Rachael: Hi Joe, thanks for agreeing to do the interview with me today. So, you’re living in Berlin at the moment, what’s the weather like over there right now?

Joe: No problem Rachael, the weather has been a bit up and down, but it’s a lot better now.

It always helps when it’s sunny, doesn’t it? So, you’ve recently moved from Glasgow in Scotland to Berlin. How are you finding it so far? How would you compare both cities?

I find living in Berlin a lot more relaxed compared to living in Glasgow. Also being able to explore a new place is good for my music and how I feel, compared to when I lived in Glasgow

What do you think it is about Berlin that inspires your music… and to what extent do you think your surroundings affect your music production?

Personally, in Scotland, I was not so happy because of my bi polar 2. I was finding it hard to get inspired at times, but even at that time I made the new album to represent what I was feeling there. In Berlin I feel I can be myself more and am just getting out a lot more, seeing artists I would not really get to see in Glasgow. It has had a big impact on my music also.

Delighted that the change of location has been so positive for you Joe. Do you feel your music has changed significantly since making your new album?

With my music and the new album, I felt I was doing music more freely, without having to think about the whole idea of Techno. It was more just about expressing what I was feeling at the time, but also there were more influences coming into my music, from punk and metal. I wanted to make my sound more raw and dirty, but clean at the same time. This was mainly due to the albums I was listening to when I was in the process of making the music. Since the new album was finished, I started working on a new live set also, that is bit more straight compared to my previous ones and I will play this in Tresor in September. I have been spending most of the time in Berlin working on this.

Great stuff. What bands and acts are most have been most influential for you and why?

For me personally Joy Division are the biggest influence on my music, also bands like Nine Inch Nails, Consume, some industrial metal bands also like Nailbomb….for me this music has real power in it, but also the rawness. Then also Kraftwerk and Autechre. Within Techno the biggest influences for me are Jeff Mills, BMB, Adam X, Ancient Methods, Monya and Voynich out of the newer producers. Again, this is down to the way they make the sound they all have. It just seems to me there is more feeling in the music from all of the artists I have mentioned.