Hi Maikko, thank you for this interview, how are you doing?
Fine thanx. Everything is ok and I hope you are too.
Many people might know you as a member of Human Decay. What is the current status of that band?
For a long time we are working on new material. It's a difficult process to choose/extract the best of tracks and a lot of working in details. A release date should be 2010/2011
Human Decay is active for a very long time already, can you tell me what this band means for you and what it brought you in terms of experience? In 2004 you started a new project called Mind.Area. What was the reason for you to start a side project?
I`m not the mastermind of human decay. It is a collaboration of 3 artists, most input comes from singer Gordon Black. Certainly at mind.area I work similarly. This is due to the fact that we produced together for such a long time, but I make my own decisions for mind.area and always want test new ways and influences of other styles. I don't want to deny HD’s sounds and I will not make a commitment about the sound of mind.area. It is a little bit my experimental playground.
Did you already had a musical concept in mind when you started with Mind.Area or did you just want to experiment with it and see what it will sound like?
Yes, the way wasn’t fixed at no Time. It will evolve with new vocal guests, for instance, or other musical influences. Mind.area shouldn’t be a typical EBM-project and no old school at all.
Mind.Area is a studio project, why not bringing this band to stages for live shows?
Not now, maybe in future but it is going to need implementation of organic instruments and a show with guest vocalists.
When listening to the album “long-distance side trip” several times the names of bands like Frontline Assembly and Skinny Puppy pops up in my head. Are they of influence on the sound of Mind.Area, especially because they keep reinventing themselves as well?
These influences are not my intention but its right, those acts are some of my favourits... along with other artists from the dark electro/idm/glitch scene
All songs have a lot of atmosphere in it, how do you create this. How do you find a balance between beats and atmospheres?
I don't know *lol* I just make it. I don’t want to create only '4 on the floor' tracks. It would be terribly boring. I was looking for an atmosphere with pads and textures. But therefore I will not create a real dancefloor track for the clubs today, I think.
An artist is never fully satisfied with his album and always hears possibilities for progression, when listening to the debut album, did you had ideas of things you wanted to better on the new release?
In my opinion, the new tracks should be more modern style like d'n'b influences. Today I prefer more glitchy/click 'n' cut sounds and that remains to be seen in my new tracks at the upcoming album. Furthermore now I do songs with guest singers and that’s going to be an interesting collaboration.
The comments and reviews on the album were really nice, did you expected this?
Those comments are really better than I could imagine. I'm glad about it and it is a stimulation.
Already in July you will release a new ep called: Stagnation//Death, why do this so fast after the album? The new ep has 3 new tracks, are they really new or are they left over from the album?
I'm in a creative phase and these new tracks are a sneak preview to the new material. The songs at the ep are different versions of the next fulltime album. At this difficult time for musicians you should release more small ep’s, to stay on top of everybody’s mind. A CD’s lifecycle is extremely short these days.
The album title is chosen very carefully, can you explain this?
Yes, it’s a wordplay. The very long way to this fulltime cd with my side project. The next step will come faster. ;-)
How do you prevent Mind.Area from stagnation yourself?
The sound of Mind.Area has to develop always further. No stagnation, always looking for new inputs from music styles, from daily life.
There are also 3 new remixes, how did you select the remixes, what criteria do you use before putting a remix on your album?
The remixes on the ep are newer than the mixes at the cd album. I was searching for new adaption’s of artists with difficult musical background. A new perception onto my material.
What will be next for Mind.Area?
In fall/winter I’m going to release another ep online. Maybe under creative commons license for free downloading, also with new tracks and remixes. The fulltime album is planned for 2011. Once again with a small harddisc edition in a digipak.
Any last words for our readers?
Mind.area will never be predictable and is made for open minded peoples.
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