Crossing Bridges _ Interview With Lasse Buhl

Lasse Buhl programmes an hour of hypnotic, industrial framed deepness for subsekt 049.

Though I initially became aware of Northern Structures through their Powertools track on Sonic Groove, it wasn’t until I read the TEA interview that I found out about who they were and where they were from and all of that kinda stuff. I’ve continued to follow NS since then and I’ve really enjoyed Troels B. Knudsen’s aka: CTRLS aka: The other half of Northern Structures releases on Token (We did an interview with him on the blog a while back..), so when I saw Lasse’s name come up for a solo release on Echocord Colour, I was really intrigued to see what direction he was going in.

It didn’t disappoint. That R38 EP has some great music on it. When the riff in the title track kicks in, y’know.. it just remains. It’s one of those perfect and beautifully simple loops that’s got a wicked roll to it. I immediately appreciated the stripped back simplicity to it. Love it.

I fully expected the record to continue 4/4 direction as next I listened to the driving Milton Bradley R38 remix, so when Lasse’s other original, Em a Ai began, it really captured my imagination with it’s slow, focused and powerful groove. When it finished, I thought “Class!! I need to hear more now”. Rather disappointingly, it turned out that there wasn’t anything else to hear.

Anyway.. I thought it would be nice to see if he would have a chat and do a mix. He was cool and obviously easy going, so agreed. He’s also promised that there’s new music coming down the line soon.

We’ve got the mix going out on 19th March 2014, a special 2hr show with AnD.

Listen Live on Teh Player.

As always.. the mix will be up on Soundcloud after transmission.

Hey Lasse, how are you? Thanks for answering the call and doing the interview and mix for subsekt. Are you a full time Techno legend, or do you have a normal way of paying the bills?

Hey I’m very good thanks! No problem man. I’m qualified in childcare and work 28 hours a week at a school with children between the ages of 5 to 10. I am an after school teacher so I have the kids from around 12.00 to 17.00 every day, which means that I’ve got the mornings and evenings to sit in the studio.  I’m very happy to work with kids, as it’s a very giving job. To be a part of their education and be there as they grow up as young human beings is priceless.. And of course, to force them to listen to real music until they don’t know who Justin Bieber is.

Haha.. sounds like a fine line between vocation and a crusade you have there!

Is it easy or difficult to get the balance between work & consuming passions?

It is not that difficult atm. I think it fits well right now actually. I often work in the studio really early until around 11.30. I love writing music in the morning with fresh ears and a cup of coffee. Of course there are some difficulties when I have to travel and play abroad on Fridays, but then again, my boss at the school is very flexible and we’ll work things out so it fits both parts.

It’s a dream job then Lasse!

You’ve been part of the Culture Box crew in Copenhagen for some time and I think I heard that it celebrated a birthday recently.. Is that right?

Yes man, I worked there for many years. I started there almost 9 yrs (fuck) ago, only 3-4 months after they opened the club. I was only 17 when I started working there as a “bottle picker”. I was running around, cleaning the place for bottles and glasses on the dance floor. Refilling the bar, doing the dishes etc..

All that makes a shitty job, but the thing is, it was not a shitty job. It was actually really really fun. We got so much of a musical education by being on that floor for so many years. There was a special bond between all those who worked there every weekend. The pay wasn’t that good but that didn’t matter, people worked there because they loved the music that was presented there. People would push themselves on sleep and energy just because of the place. That’s what’s so special about places like Culture Box and I’m sure that there are many other places like that around the world.

Culture Box have just celebrated their 9 year birthday. As always the CB birthdays are great. This year they had a birthday weekend instead of just one night, so Friday was 50 Weapons night and Saturday was Dial Rec. night. I had the privilege to play alongside Shed and Phon.O on the Friday.

It’s probably pretty difficult to choose a favourite night from all of the time you have spent there, is it?

I know for sure what the best night at Culture Box has been for me.. And it’s also the best music related experiences I’ve ever had. Oni Ayhun (live) @Culture Box.

It was one of those nights where everything clicked into place; the sound, mood, visuals, etc. When he went on stage everything just went black and weird. The mood that night is very hard to describe, but it was like being in a glass bubble with dark Swedish forest music. It almost made me quit writing music.. haha, I had the feeling that music 2.0 was invented now and there was no way to do something new after that night.