Kris Menace un artista que lleva muchas años publicando sus propias producciones, colaborando con muy diversos artistas, remezclando a todo tipo de artistas de todo el mundo, y con varios proyectos paralelos y dueño de su propio sello discográfico (Compuphonic Records), ahora esta inmerso en su próximo álbum ‘Electric Horizon’ un álbum muy personal, 12 temas y 74 minutos cósmicos, el Kris Menace más personal, un álbum que la presentación mundial en directo tuvo lugar el The Loft del Razzmatazz de Barcelona el pasado 17 de marzo y que contaba con la colaboración en los visuales de un buen amigo suyo, un maestro en los visuales como es Hexstatic, un viaje cósmico el que pudimos disfrutar esa noche, una maravilla, y como se suele decir, donde Kris Menace se dejo la piel, y Hexstatic puso la imagen visual del Live.
Con Kris Menace hemos estado hablando, y si es un artistazo, todavía es mejor persona, en esta entrevista que nos ha concedido nos habla de su nuevo y cósmico álbum, de sus proyectos paralelos y de muchas cosas más……. Una gran persona, un gran live y un grandísimo disco que próximamente os comentaremos detalladamente desde aquí… ahora os dejamos con las fotos del live y la entrevista…
Fotos del Live en el The Loft (Razzmatazz) de Barcelona el 17 de Marzo de 2012, presentación mundial de ‘Electric Horizon’, Kris Menace & Hexstatic Live
Fotos / Presentación
Interview with Kris Menace in English:
– How do you understand that an artist takes 7 years publishing his music, owns his own record label, and now publish their first full album on study?
I had a compilation release in 2009 called “Idiosyncrasies”. it was a triple disc collection with most of my releases, unreleased tracks and some remixes I’ve done.
Electronic musicians or djs dont have so many albums and I have never really been into album concepts. Its more of a single release business these days anyway.
Its rare that people buy full albums as they can select the tracks they like and just buy them from it.. Its not like back in the days where you bought an album and you listened to it over and over… Only a handful of people do celebrate that, I like it as well, buying a cd is much more satisfing then buying mp3s.
– ‘Electric Horizon’, how you define it?, a tribute to a style of music, synthesizers, concept album … This album is the Kris Menace most intimate and personal (virtually the entire album is played, produced and written by you)?, What situation / time do you recommend to hear the album?
Electric Horizon is maybe the purest work I’ve done so far. Its 100% me and an aspect of my sound. Its music I would love to hear when I would go to a club. Its beautiful, takes you on a journey, makes you dance and you can be happy and totally drawn away. Its disco, its techno, its trance, its minimal, its electro, but also understandable for people who are not into electronic music. I cant say that its one specific genré, but iIlike the “cosmic” feel about it. You can listen to the album in your car, before bedtime, but also in a club at peaktime or towards the morning… its a timeless album and something you can still hear in 20 years time and thats something I personally like!
– You’re a fan of synthesizers, could you tell us what was the album’s creative process, and what instrumentation (synths / software) you used to make the album?
I’m working with Steinber’s cubase for sequenzing, also waves plug ins for processing the audio material I’m recording. For sounds I love my hardware synths like the Jupiter 8 or Juno 106 but also all the Arturia plug ins. I love to mix the digital world and the analog one. even though I still believe that you wont be able to hear any difference between an analog or an digital synth if the producer is good enough. its more about nostalgia to work with old synths, I love them though and like to touch something.
– You had the collaboration of Hexstatic, one of the masters of the visual, a classic, you consider the visual image of this album are very important , an ideal complement for it? Do you think they could release a DVD of it?
We talked about a DVD already. I think its very important these days to present music with visuals these days as cd’s or anything else you can touch doesn’t exist much anymore for people, so they need something to associate with it. I really love to work with visuals and for the live show it was of course important to find the right person. I love Hexstatic! Always been a fan and I’m more then flattered that they have been up for this adventure 😉
– Currently there is a revival of synthesizers, analog sounds, the music of the 80, What reason do you think is that?
I also believe that its timeless to work with synths and that there will always be fans of that kind of music and the electronic feeling which a lot of people are passionate about.
I love the 80’s… a lot of our culture today leads out of the 80s of course. young people are faszinated about that time..
– What are your musical influences and, what kind of music you listened when you were in the creative process of the album?
I try not to listen to too much other music when I work in the studio alone as I dont like to be influenced and limited by others. Though of course I’m a victim of my addolencense, I grew up with my father who was a record collector for soul rnb and disco, my sister was into techno and my mum into classics. Of course I absorbed everything and ended up loving electronic music as a question of beeing a kid of my time of course.
– You have made remixes for artists such as Underworld, LCD Soundsystem, Moby, Metronomy. Depeche Mode, Monarchy ….. and a long list of artists of different styles and different backgrounds, how do you prepare a remix, what is the
> secret to many artists who call you? What artist would you like make a remix?, and who artist you would have them do a remix?
There are a lot of amazing artists out there which I’d love to work with but I’m too realistic to not expect anything, so we’ll see what comes next…
Remix wise, I first listen to the original song to know if i can do a remix or not.. But there is no special procedure I follow to create a remix, I just play around with the parts from the original producer and see what comes out in the end.
– You have collaborated with many other artists like Douze, Lifelike, Alan Braxe, Fred Falke, Feliz Da Housecat, Rex the Dog, Spooky …….. What attracted you to work with other artists? By what artist has not worked and you like to work?
I love to work with others because I think its great to create something together. I like to learn from others and show them how I do different things. Everybody has another way of working and I just think that its great to see all these aspects. Happy to see that you mentioned Douze – he’s super talented!
– From your side projects, BlackVan (with KoweSix), Love on Laserdisc,Jaunt or Stars On 33, which are you most proud, and if you follow any ofthem or let them stand temporarily.
Black Van will have some more releases soon. We already finished an album but due timing problems we have to delay it and so we are gonna rework the whole thing.
Love on Laserdisc will come back in a few years I’m sure. Jaunt are in the studio producing their album, I’m not part of the project anymore as I just dont have the time ;(
Stars on 33 will be back with a great album soon. Lawrence LT Tomspon became our front singer and I’m very exited to finish the production here.
I’ve got some more band projects coming up that I’m really looking forward to finishing too.
– Let us recommend new artists to follow?
I’m so bad at this, because there are so many amazing new talents out there, that it would be unfair just to name one or two. I always say you can hear when somebody is making music from the heart or just to make money, or to make himself a star. I prefer the music where you can feel that somebody with love for the music made it… That’s the difference for me these days, so just spread your radar, try to discover new things and feel it!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ8uyY06KPU
Entrevista realizada por German MT con la colaboración de Light Spectrum & German Zito
A lot of thanks to Kris Menace & Hexstatic
Gracias a la sala Razzmatazz
