At Some Moment _ Interview With Derlich
Scrape off the surface. Reveal whats beneath. Derlich is on subsekt 054.
Derlich’s music is class. Very subsekt. Heavy, oppressive and intelligent; just like the image that is associated with his music. Though I know his releases well, I found it difficult to discover much about the man while researching for the interview. I guess that he prefers to let the music do the talking which is probably no great handicap when the noise you make is as formidable as his.
It was a good chat. We spoke about his musical background and found out about whats in his studio. He was very open throughout, proving that you should never be wary about people with slightly sinister B&W photographs haha.
He’s currently doing an album for Steve Voidloss’ Singularity label, so he spoke about that and his collaboration with the amazing Roebin De Frietas as Unit 81, as which they have done a great remix on Roebin’s new EP for Sin.
As always, I’m really looking forward to this mix.
Derlich’s mix is part of a special 2hr show on Wednesday 14th May 2014 @ 2200GMT with Mono.xID.
Listen Live at the time on Teh Player.
As always.. the mix will be up on Soundcloud after transmission.
Hi Derrick, your bio gives us a few hints as to the journey that you’ve been on so far you’re your music. Would you mind telling us a little about your background?
It started out strange. Actually, I never had the intention to start making music. Before that I was only busy with digital mixing and sharing it with some friends, until a friend asked if I knew about Ableton. Clearly that day changed everything, I experimented quite a bit before I started to experiment with loops and sound manipulation. It was a great process, after hours, days and months of experimenting I decided to make my first productions.
Was it difficult to find your sound?
Yes, it took a while. Back then my problem, so to speak, was that I liked many genres: minimal, tech house, progressive, acid, … but when I started experimenting with those genres I got bored pretty fast. When I look back I see it more as a starting process of searching my own type of music. At some moment I locked myself up into my room and started to think which kind of sound I really wanted to make. I changed my modus operandi once more by coming up with the sounds and textures first. It helped me to produce a hell of a lot faster but I ended up producing a lot of dark ambient and experimental noise because I had the intention to create something urban. Of course not in the bling-bling sense of the word. More a feel of urban decay, abandoned houses or factories. The devastation of Chernobyl was a big influence on my first EP. The track ‘Pripyat’ and also ‘Radioactivity’ are perfect examples of that. It was only then that my sound evolved more into Industrial.
Doing Live PA’s.. I was wondering if you had an experience playing real instruments or playing in bands?
No, my live is completely built around Ableton. I have a fixed set of tracks in mind and then add different layers and textures on the fly, manipulating the flow of the performance as I go along.
You do a bit of a hybrid DJ / Live performance, is that right? I think I seen something about you doing that at Ritual in Manchester last year?
Sure, I think you always have to refine your work, going the extra mile, upping your game and whatnot. My first footstep in the UK was a unique experience. Something I will never forget! That night was very strange and great at the same time. I had met Casual Violence before here in Belgium at Fondation Sonore, but had never seen Steve (Voidloss) or CWS before. It was all very natural and relaxed like we had known each other for years. Also Leon Mitternacht and Dom Roffey are wonderful guys. It was more a Dj set but then again my approach is hybrid, just like British Murder Boys used to do it. My live edit of Whitehouse symbolizes that, I think.
Whitehouse – Cut hands has the solution (Derlich Edit) by Derlich on Mixcloud
You’ve had a good few releases on Singularity at this stage.. Steve is obviously a fan haha. Is it a bit of ‘healthy pressure’ being asked to do an album for his label?
Well to be honest, I didn’t have the desire to make an EP this year after my previous 3 EP releases on Singularity and 1 on Sacramental. I wanted to do something else. When I talked to Steve about the Album he was very positive. It’s funny how close our ideas are.
How far along are you with it now? Any idea when it’ll be out?
For the moment everything works out very well. I don’t put myself under too much pressure. Deadlines have a strange effect on me. I need to keep clear of one so I can keep my focus on the style and production aesthetics I have in mind..
Music production and history are my biggest passions in life.
Though people often say that Techno is faceless and should be about the music blah, blah, blah.. I believe in the need to document the people and stories behind it. Techno is a very small world in reality and I think it needs a proper resource.
I hope that everyone who is interested in Techno finds this blog accessible in terms of the way that it is written. I personally prefer to hear the artists voice as loud as the music and never enjoy synopsised and pasteurised versions of old conversation; the sort that's peppered with the occasional quote here and there.
