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Can you give a brief introduction to Transistor 6?

Transistor6 is a Danish ambient, electro, trance, classical project. I just released my debut album “Virgin Venom” containing 11 atmospheric tracks. Perfect for playing in your car while driving through misty rain on a highway at night.


Can you explain the name Transistor 6? Is there a deeper meaning behind it?

There’s no real deep, deep meaning behind it. Transistor6 is the name for the little thing that made old radios work. I thought it was a nice name for a band with cyberpunk and futuristic influences to be named after some old school technology.


In 2007 you released a demo cd, how was it received?

It was received very well actually. I got a lot of good feedback from DJs and labels. Some labels wanted to sign me but had no chance of doing so because of the bad conditions for the music scene. They were struggling with decreasing sales and pirating. At one point I actually got signed to a fairly new American label, but they turned out to be very inexperienced, so that didn’t work out after a while.


How do you look back on that demo now, was it a learning process for you?

Indeed it was a learning process. Even though I saw myself as skilled at the time, I see now that I wasn’t. I learned a lot from finishing that demo. It was my first time recording vocals in professional studio, and my first time working with a vocalist. Next time I will know what to do better.

Regarding the music – every new track is a learning process. I normally think my newest track is better than the one I just did – so I like to think that I learn something new every time.

Transistor 6

After the demo it went pretty silent for Transistor 6 till the release of the full length album, what did you do between the demo and album?

I used a lot of time and effort getting that demo out. Doing the music, vocals, mixing and spending time with Kira for a photoshoot – above and below water – designing the cover, printing, assembling and finally spending a huge amount of time finding labels where Transistor6 would fit. It literally drained me – so I had to have some time without having to think about Transistor6 all the time.


We were really surprised when we heard the album, the music has matured a lot and also the style was suprising to us, how would you describe the musicstyle of Transisitor 6 today and what is your opinion on the progress that Transistor 6 made?

As I said earlier, I learn something every time I do a new track. So it’s good to hear that others can hear the difference between the demo and the album. The tracks I have done after the album are even better than the ones on the album in my opinion, so I guess I’m not fully “evolved” yet.
The musicstyle is a mixture of trance, ambient and classical music. Combined into a multilayered sound with heavy reference to soundtrack music.


Did you have a clear view of how you wanted “Virgin Venom” to sound or you started with a total open mind?

All I knew when I started out was that I wanted to create something that would be like a soundtrack to a fictional movie. The music had to evoke feelings and create images in the mind of the listener – or I would have failed. Which reminds me of a small test that I do with every track that I make – put on some headphones, dim the lights and lay down and listen. The track needs to make me think of something – sorry for the cliché – but it needs to send me on a journey in my mind.


What was the most challenging part in doing this album for you?

The hardest part was to keep up the pace and energy while getting every little detail right. There are just soo many things you need to do to make it happen. Also I switched from using Logic on Mac to Cubase on the PC – so that also took some getting used to.

Transistor 6

The songs often have soundtracks parts as well as uptempo parts, how do you manage to make them work together in a song?

I think that using slow parts together with faster sequenced sounds make a very interesting mix. I can’t take credit for inventing that, but it seems to be a kind of trademark of transistor6, since I almost always end up doing tracks like this. Some tracks I will leave out the fast elements and make a more clean soundtrack-track. Other tracks are more trance and fast paced without the slow sounds.


The other member of Transiitor 6 is the singer Kira Li, how did the two of you meet and what’s her role in the band? Does she contribute to the music and songwriting as well?

I was introduced to Kira through a friend, and we met up. Kira has done a lot of different music and she was very open to trying out this genre as well. The work process has been that I make the tracks and hand them over to Kira, who then writes lyrics and vocal melodies for it.


On the album there’s one track with real vocals “Get my”, why only one vocal track?

We did 4 tracks with vocals for the demo, one of them is “Get My”. We only included this one track because the others were not good enough anymore because new and better tracks had been composed in the meantime. I would have loved to have more vocal tracks, but I just wanted to get the album out there. It had been over a year and a half in the making already. The next album might have some new vocal tracks, but the main focus will always be instrumental music.


How do you come up with the names for the songs?

Coming up with names are actually one of my favorite parts of making a song. The title should help making images in your mind even before you start the track. I use an online dictionary for cool words and put them together in new ways. The track names on my next album – “War Of The Replicants” will all fit within the theme of the album title.


The album is released on “The Black Lodge Records” a label we haven’t heard of yet, can you tell us abit more about this label?

The label is my own, which is probably why you don’t know it. I didn’t want to spend more time on searching for a label, so I started Black Lodge and put out the album myself. And I’m glad I did. The most difficult task is distribution though, so if anyone reading this knows of a good distributor in their area, I would love to hear from you.

Transistor 6

Will you promote the albums with live shows or not?

I have been asked to do live shows, and have had offers to do so. I have no plans about it yet. My concern is that the music might be too ambient and slow for it to work well at a concert.


Any last words for the readers?

Thanks for reading through this. Join me on Facebook and I will keep you posted about any new things happening. You can always write me for info about how to get the album. Anyone ordering directly from me will get an autographed copy. Thanks Cyber Angels for the support! All the best, Claus - Transistor6

www.myspace.com/transistor6net

The first 10 people who will send an email to transistor6@hotmail.com will get a free CD from the band.