(India Times) If you're a fan of EDM, you've heard of him. One of the notable German musicians known globlally, Sascha Ring aka Apparat is coming to Indian shores for the first time, as a part of the the ongoing year of Germany in India.
He's often described as the missing link betweenSteve Reich and Radiohead. Having churned out four albums and two projects, his last album The Devil's Walk (2011) was a success. Excerpts from an interview:
You're often described as the missing link between Steve Reich and Radiohead. Describe your personal style of electronica music? When I started making music 15 years ago, electronic instruments were the easiest way of archieving what I wanted to do. I think during the years, I just discovered other ways of expressing myself. I grew up with techno, real instruments were not an option, and I just slowly discovered my love for acoustic sounds during the last 10 years. I love the music of both Steve Reich and Radiohead. Reich has always been using acoustic instruments but he did it with a really electronic approach. Thats why I like him. As for Radiohead, they started as a guitar band and got inspired by the IDM (Intelligence Dance Music) sound of electronic music in the 90s. I'm really in a good postion these days as I really don't feel there are any boundaries — I don't have to fit in a genre, don't have to be electronic or acoustic to please my fans so I can do whatever I want to and it feels good.
Where do you derive inspiration for your music? What are your songs about? A lot of ideas actually come when... I'm in a quiet place. I'm surrounded by people all the time or theres music everywhere, it's almost acoustic pollution so whenever I get the chance, I try to isolate myself and thats when the cool stuff happens. Most of the songs are just pretty personal. Abstract versions of simple but important stories that happened to me. These little things that don't seem relevant but they get stuck in your mind. Like a moment when you were in a car with someone and for some reason you remember it 10 years later.
How do you keep reinventing yourself each time to do something different? I have made four Apparat albums and two with other projects. I'm not really trying to do something different all the time. I'm just changing and I easiely get bored, in a good way I guess.
He's often described as the missing link betweenSteve Reich and Radiohead. Having churned out four albums and two projects, his last album The Devil's Walk (2011) was a success. Excerpts from an interview:
You're often described as the missing link between Steve Reich and Radiohead. Describe your personal style of electronica music? When I started making music 15 years ago, electronic instruments were the easiest way of archieving what I wanted to do. I think during the years, I just discovered other ways of expressing myself. I grew up with techno, real instruments were not an option, and I just slowly discovered my love for acoustic sounds during the last 10 years. I love the music of both Steve Reich and Radiohead. Reich has always been using acoustic instruments but he did it with a really electronic approach. Thats why I like him. As for Radiohead, they started as a guitar band and got inspired by the IDM (Intelligence Dance Music) sound of electronic music in the 90s. I'm really in a good postion these days as I really don't feel there are any boundaries — I don't have to fit in a genre, don't have to be electronic or acoustic to please my fans so I can do whatever I want to and it feels good.
Where do you derive inspiration for your music? What are your songs about? A lot of ideas actually come when... I'm in a quiet place. I'm surrounded by people all the time or theres music everywhere, it's almost acoustic pollution so whenever I get the chance, I try to isolate myself and thats when the cool stuff happens. Most of the songs are just pretty personal. Abstract versions of simple but important stories that happened to me. These little things that don't seem relevant but they get stuck in your mind. Like a moment when you were in a car with someone and for some reason you remember it 10 years later.
How do you keep reinventing yourself each time to do something different? I have made four Apparat albums and two with other projects. I'm not really trying to do something different all the time. I'm just changing and I easiely get bored, in a good way I guess.
Your album, The Devil's Walk has been widely successful. Did you expect it to become so successful? I think The Devil's Walk scared away some old school electronic fans and brought in some new ones. It's not easy to please everyone. In fact, I'm not even trying. But yes, quite a few people liked it. Especially, the live show got really good feedback. We did this bandshow with a lot of effort. It took ages to transfer the songs into live versions and rehearse — so it was really nice to see people like it. I was a bit worried I'd hear people telling me they prefer the electronic solo show but I barely heard that. Just because it's so different and a lot of people are open minded after all.
What music did you grow up listening to? What attracted you towards electronica? Which artists inspired you? I was really into hard and rough techno when I was a kid. My sister introduced me to The Cure and Depeche Mode and I still love them. That was the first good music I heard. At 14, I started my rave career. It was a crazy time in Germany, after the reunification there was a bit of anarchy and we just partied everywhere in the craziest places like old russian bunkers and train factories.
What do you think of contemporaries like Dash Berlin, Mark Schulz, Paul Van Dyk? Whom would you like to collaborate with & why? That's really not my world. I think music should be a bit subtle and a bit challenging for the listener. I'm not a friend of the mainstream stuff. It just wares out so fast. There's no suprises.
Tell us about your upcoming work? I made music for a theatre piece. War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I spent the last months to record and edit it and it's gonna be a record pretty soon. I've never told this anyone so you heard it here first. Then of course, I'll go back to the studio with Modeselektor (EDM band from Berlin).
Is this your first trip to India? What's your purpose for coming to India? I've been around the world but never to India. This time we come to play music but I really want to come with more time, get a motorbike and just drive trough the country! I don't know much about music culture in India so I guess to learn about this a tour is a good oportunity to talk to the people in the clubs and learn a bit.
What tracks are you going to playing at your show? What can the people expect?We play a lot of the last album but also a few older hits. It's not easy to play every song I made because we play everything live and there are only five or six people on stage. Some of my older songs had 60 instrument tracks and stripping down only works with the strongest ideas I guess. These shows will actually be among our last ones. We already played more than a hundred and from December well take a quite long break.
What music did you grow up listening to? What attracted you towards electronica? Which artists inspired you? I was really into hard and rough techno when I was a kid. My sister introduced me to The Cure and Depeche Mode and I still love them. That was the first good music I heard. At 14, I started my rave career. It was a crazy time in Germany, after the reunification there was a bit of anarchy and we just partied everywhere in the craziest places like old russian bunkers and train factories.
What do you think of contemporaries like Dash Berlin, Mark Schulz, Paul Van Dyk? Whom would you like to collaborate with & why? That's really not my world. I think music should be a bit subtle and a bit challenging for the listener. I'm not a friend of the mainstream stuff. It just wares out so fast. There's no suprises.
Tell us about your upcoming work? I made music for a theatre piece. War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I spent the last months to record and edit it and it's gonna be a record pretty soon. I've never told this anyone so you heard it here first. Then of course, I'll go back to the studio with Modeselektor (EDM band from Berlin).
Is this your first trip to India? What's your purpose for coming to India? I've been around the world but never to India. This time we come to play music but I really want to come with more time, get a motorbike and just drive trough the country! I don't know much about music culture in India so I guess to learn about this a tour is a good oportunity to talk to the people in the clubs and learn a bit.
What tracks are you going to playing at your show? What can the people expect?We play a lot of the last album but also a few older hits. It's not easy to play every song I made because we play everything live and there are only five or six people on stage. Some of my older songs had 60 instrument tracks and stripping down only works with the strongest ideas I guess. These shows will actually be among our last ones. We already played more than a hundred and from December well take a quite long break.
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