interview with well-known German producers about their background, new album and more...

Interview with Meller


- When did you get involved into the trance scene? How did it happen?

SCHERER: I visited a psytrance party in 1999 and was flashed by the music I hadn’t heard before. I was already active in djaying and organizing techno and trance parties since 1992 but since this party I changed to psytrance.

DJ MEL: 1999 I was taken along to my first psytrance open air. I was very excited about the music played at the event. Before that I mostly visited trance parties near Hamburg. I had never seen a comparable atmosphere before.

- What about the beginnings of your dj/producer carrier?

SCHERER: My first activity was djaying which I started in 1992. Six years later I played around with some music software (called musicmaker by magix) but was bored after some weeks as the demo version was very limited. So I decided to buy my first synthesizer (Yamaha QS-300, Ravers Babe!) and started collecting some more hardware. In the first year I produced a great range of styles (techno, trance, drum’n’bass and ambient) but since goa came into my life in the year 2000 I prefer this style.

DJ MEL: 1993 I moved to a place near Hamburg. Motivated by the new possibilites I kept myself busy with spinning vinyl and in the age of 15 I bought my first turntable „Technics MK II“. One year later I played on several private parties. 1999 I played on the first time on a goa party. The event was called “Sternstunden” and was held in my residence Elmshorn. Consequently I sent out loads of demo cds and quickly got connected to the scene. After some time had passed I met Marco Scherer on a festival organized by himself. With him I visited a studio for the first time in my life. Since then I’m trying to increase my knowledge in music production.

- How was the feedback about on debut album?

DJ MEL: In the last time the scene got more and more into the full-on style. Very difficult for all other releases ... but \"Solar Drums\" gets great resonance. A lot of people praise it as one of the best album in the year 2004. After the release we got a lot of bookings and we’re very satisfied ...

-What can you tell us about your new album on Tribal Vision Rec.?

DJ MEL: „Rockable“ is suspenseful Psychedelic Progressive Trance in a charming and strong-willed mixture: barefaced, progressive and self-ironic. Sound which slips under your skin and into your legs. Powerful tracks with a massive amount of groove and energy leave no space for any other title than “ROCKABLE”!  We’re also very happy to work with acts like Vibrasphere, Tegma, Etnoscope, NASA and Rinkadink ... I´m sure that \"Rockable” is a worthy successor ...

- How long have you been working on it?

DJ MEL: We worked as often as we could on the album because we live in about 600 kilometers distance and furthermore we play a lot of gigs. All songs were produced in a period of 10 months. We are very self-critical and did many changes afterwards. Now it is complete and we’re very satisfied ...

- Is there a change in your musical direction?

DJ MEL: Meller always stands for fresh sound and each track confirms that. We’re open to all musical directions and we will experiment again and again. \"Rockable\" shows that we can produce also minimal sounds.

- What about the other artists involved?

DJ MEL: I´m very proud that we are supported by the mentioned artists. Unfortunately we didn’t meet any of them personally but I`m sure that will happen in the future ...

- What do you consider to be your personal highlights in your artist carrier? The most memorable gigs?

DJ MEL: Each gig is a challenge and something special. I´m very glad abroad and I´m happy to meet new persons. For example we had very pretty gigs in Austria. I played with the following artists: Antaro, Analog Pussy, Andromeda, Consequenzer, Exaile, Haldolium, Oryx, Rastaliens , S.U.N. Project, Space Tribe, Space Safari, Soul Surfer, S-Range, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, Talamasca and many more .. The size of the organization is not important for me. I look forward in the future and hope we can “rock” some countries yet ...

- Are you personally involved into more musical projects besides Meller? Could you tell us more about them?

SCHERER: We have a very young project called “The Unicorn” which was founded about 2 years ago as fun only liveact but since the beginning of 2005 we concetrated heavily on this liveact. We played several gigs (e.g. Antaris Project 2005) and more will come. The sound of “The Unicorn” is a mixture of trance music with only little psy influences and very minimal structures. This is the result of setting up the songs for 100% live playing. On stage everything is possible and our sets are always different from each other. Next year you can expect the debut album. Furthermore I’m setting up an one-man project which will gain some more focus in the coming months. Its sound is deep, minimal techno with trance elements. Check our homepage (www.plasticage.de) from time to time for news about it.

DJ MEL: No, Meller is my only project and I stick all my power in this project.

- Do you listen also other kinds of music? If yes, which ones?

SCHERER: Yes, I listen to nearly any kind of music as long it’s fun. Favorite styles are techhouse, trance and good pop music.

DJ MEL: In my free time I listen to all types of music. The music direction is mostly depending on my disposition. I think anybody need a “recovery” to get new ideas.

- Your favourite artists at the moment? Favourite releases recently?

SCHERER: Rinkadink, Fairychild, Lish, Steve Ronan, Oliver Prime.

DJ MEL:
Full On favorites:
– Lani “lost in venice” Kairoo Records
– Black & White “retro active” Tipworld Records
– GMS “tudo mundo” Tipworld
– X-Noize “anjuna Beach” Tipworld Records
– Timelock “out ot sight” BNE Records

Progressive/Tribal favorites:
– Juan Peché “tribal movie” Intima Records
– D-Formation “signs & portents” Beat Freak Records
– Baggy Bukaddor & Tim Fishbeck “our mission” Mutekki Records
– Rene Amesz & Austin Leeds “africa” ??? Records
– Underground Movement feat. Stanford “shake” Maris Music Records


- What is PlasticAge music about?

SCHERER: plasticAge music was founded 1999 by Heiko Klingler and myself as residence organization of various, manifold projects and as corporate identity for event performances. Since coming out we steadily extended our competence under the aspect of being active in different areas of music. For this reason we are very flexible in style and audience. Our most established acts are Meller, Durchblick and The Unicorn which are mainly active in the areas psytrance, german electro-pop and techno music. As we love and live music we do not limit our work and besides production, live gigs, djaying and management we also take over matters of web-, graphic- and sounddesign as well as reviewing music.

- What is your opinion about all the mp3/internet downloading issue?

SCHERER: Hmm.. from the financial point of view it’s not very funny but it’s a great promotion. You get known all over the world in no time. If your act is able to play live gigs it’s your benefit. I think the industry will be able to invent something to benefit from this too.

- What kind of equipment do you use for music making?

SCHERER: Mostly hardware synthies. We have loads of hardware with lots of knobs and faders =) Our main synths are 2 Korg Electribe S MK2, Access Virus, Novation BassStation and Yamaha S-90. Additionally we use the Waldorf Microwave XT, Akai S-2000, Korg MS-20, Roland HandSonic, Korg Electribe R, Yamaha QS-300, Novation DrumStation and several effect units. For sequencing we use a Yamaha RM1x and Cubase SL 3.

- What does the Meller live act consist of?

SCHERER: We thought a long time about how to setup the live show. Our conclusion was a mixture of dj set and keyboard playing, which makes us able to keep the liveset and arrangement open to react on the audience. Mel has the part of mixing reduced tracks and I play varying synthies. We come along with lots of hardware pieces which are synchronized by the Yamaha RM1x sequencer.

- Interests/hobbies outside music?

SCHERER: What? There’s a world outside? Ok.. I’m very into programming but whatever program I create it’s always connected to the music.

- Your plans for the near future? Any other releases in plan?

SCHERER: We’ll have a release on Novatekks Compilation “Goa Head 21” soon and for February 2006 you can expect another 12” on AP Records.