Can you give us a brief introduction to Yade?
I think the idea for YADE has started to come to me, when I read about the closing of Dependent....in this essay it has been said, that illegal downloads and piracy are killing the scene and its artist....it was about then, when I started to think about and question myself why i really was and am making music....I came to it, that for me, music-making has one only reason....to spread out emotions to an audience, no matter if they have any money to buy my CDs or downloading them...I wanted ( and still want) to reach the hearts of people, to make them dance, laugh or cry to the songs I give to them.....apart from any commercial interests...so I started the project YADE with the goal to give back qualitatively state-of the art Dark Electro music (at least I think it is pretty state of the art) to people for free...I believe in the power of the audience to decide by themselves if an act is good enough to have success or not.....and not any bought titles like “Newcomer of the Month” or stuff, which in my eyes has nothing to with talent or creativity but with marketing budgets and a handful of producers making them sound as the labels wanted to...
So being independent and decide what to do for yourself is also an important issue, to have complete control over Yade. Are you afraid if you should do things differently you would lose control?
No....if I should do things differently this would not be any problem as long as the result would be of an equal or better quality. I think I am a pretty perfectionist person and also expect my environment I work with (be it equipment or personnel) to be...so if i should delegate control to others in some points, I want to be assured that their attitude concerning professionalism and quality are plus minus the same as mine.
You started with Yade some months ago but more and more people are discovering Yade and most responses are really good, did you expect this?
No not at all....we (my good friend and audio-engineer Marcel, who does all the vocal recording and mixdown work) never expected that much feedback...not at all that much positive feedback....honestly I also was pretty anxious about how people will react to the pretty offending outfit and visual concept....but in fact I got more than 95% positive feedback and with most of the rest I could clear things after some messages.....
Who is the man behind Yade, we’re sure you are not a total newcomer?
Hmmm somehow I am, somehow not :)...I make music in a semiprofessional environment now for more than 15 years, started with a classical vocal education, was playing in musicals for more than 2 years, sang in Powermetalbands as well as doing classical and jazzy performances and toured around with them...to the “dark” music I came pretty coincidancially....some years ago I listened to a song “now or never” by a local artist called NamNamBulu which I really liked...so I asked the DJ what this was, and he introduced me to Henrik Iversen and Vasi Vallis.....after some talking we arranged a studio session and I became a backgroundsinger for NamNamBulu....it was a great time but i also had to finish my university studies, so I had to decide between music or studies....and decided for the latter.....after some time I realized how much I missed the creative act of expressing my moods and thoughts through songs.....by that time I was asked by a friend of mine, Jan Bertram to found a new Futurepop-project called LOST AREA.....for the next 4 years I then became a producer and front singer of LOST AREA, until last year, when I decided to quit the band and go my own ways....so you could say I am a newcomer to Dark Electro, because I never did this kind of music before....but my knowledge of synthesis and harmonies and for sure also the experiences I made with LOST AREA and NamNamBulu helped me a lot to achieve the goals to get behind the basics of this music....
Welll for sure there are technical differences for the different styles, especially with the growling vocals I use for YADE.....on the first song it took us ages to find out the best solution for the vocals not to sound ridiculous...and I found it pretty challenging to try out different vocal styles I usually would use in rather classical vocal techniques and project them to this kind of growling....in my eyes the secret of touching people with music is to bring your own feelings and interpretations of the tracks on stage and there multiple it by 100 or so.....like an actor in an ancient greek theatre wearing a mask to better express the actual mood of the character, an artist on stage also has to exaggerate the feelings he or she would like to express with the song...only then you can touch people with a song or performance I think....
Yade has a strong belief, giving back the music to the listeners, what can you tell about this?
As I already mentioned in the above question, i decided to not follow any commercial goals with YADE....I have a pretty good job which pays for my studio and stuff.....YADE is my hobby ( or my passion....depends on how you look at it :) )...I believe in music, that spontaneously comes out of your heart, like in my “jazz”-days when we started to jam along in some pub, to end up in a stand up concert with a cheering crowd...this is what I consider as one of the strongest powers of music, and this is it also what I want to give back to the people who listen to YADE’s music....for me, seeing someone sad getting happy again (also if only for a tiny moment) or someone sharing his/her tears with me to one of the songs, is worth far more than any CD revenues or double-side reviews in a big magazine..I make music for people not for numbers....
In electronic music there is almost no room for improvising and jamming onstage since most of the music is programmed, is this something you miss?
Well there are some people having this ability (for instance Roger Rotor and others), but I think jamming and improvision in electronic music is pretty difficult because of two reasons...one point is surely the equipment question....jamming or improvision for me comes out of a situation, a mood...it is spontaneous...if I have to assemble my equipment first this spontaneity is lost...and therefore also an important aspect of this kind of making music...the other point I think is the attitude of an electronic music-maker....he or she is used to make everything on his/her own, not having to listen to other people during the process of creating his/her track....this works well as long as one sits alone in a studio and does one’s tracks...but an essential factor in bandplay is the ability to play together...to cooperate....electronic music makers often are not used to this kind of music making and I think it is pretty hard to then try to delegate some parts of a song to another person...or at least it needs a lot of trust for the other person...in our studio there are besides all synthesizers and stuff also a drumset, some guitar- and bassamps and my fender Rhodes..and it often happens that some persons from other regional bands come for a spontaneous visit and sometimes this ends up in a jamsession.....so I don’t miss this too much :)
What if a label comes and say, I want to sign Yade, would you stick to your beliefs or follow the label?
As arrogant this may sound now....it already happened...I had several questions by labels and all got the same answer...I really appreciate what label-managers, especially the ones owning small indie labels, are doing; they often work their butts off to get their artists on the market...but it is not my way...not the vision I want to achieve with YADE.....as I already said...my job pays for my passion and I have the best promotion agency in the world behind me: .each one of you....every single person who enjoys the fruit of YADE’s work and spreads it by giving it away to friends and people, everyone who votes for YADE in contests, charts etc.....or speaking in a rather Christian manner, I give you the message...you do the mission for me :)..and you do it really well!
Honestly I don’t have fix goals with YADE....I let things come and take them as they are...one of my most important “goal” if you want to call it that way is to enjoy people....well enjoying is maybe not the right word for it....more to “move” them...make them escape the grey veil that our everyday routine lays over our emotions, dreams and feelings...and rediscover the fire that rages in each of us....so every comment, every friend request, message or email, which shows me that the music does not pass people by easily is an achieved goal if you want to call it that way :)
Your music has a fine balance between harsh rhythms and great melodies, how do you find that balance all the time?
Hmmm I think my vast interest in any kind of music helps here a lot....I am not bound to any style at all and I try to mix styles of any genre together in a YADE song....be it dark electro, Goa, Trance , or jazzy influences....how I do it I cannot tell...I mostly start with a pretty simple drumset, then choose the harmonic scheme of the song (the chords) and jam around with my synthesizer until a hookline forms out....or I find a sample which I think is worth a song :)...then I put the sample over a rhythm line and mostly after a short while I get everything together for a new song....
Who are inspirations for you, both in music and lyrics?
hmmm I think for music it is surely other artists...I listen to a track and think “wow what a great part...how did he/she do that?”...then I sit down and try to analyze why this special part did catch me so strongly....and try to rebuild this little part....I think rebuilding parts or songs you like gives you a great chance to learn new production techniques from other great artists and engineers and also you learn how to handle your equipment...Not to get misunderstood, just copying a song or part blindly is not what I mean here, but to get the technique or the spirit behind and then project this spirit or special technique (you would be astonished how many sounds your kitchen equipment has to offer :) ) to one’s very one style...
I own around 25 hardware synthesizer at the moment and love to play around with them, like a one man jam session...I think it is sad that a lot of today’s electronic artists in our scene reduce their sound to standard presets of their virtual plug-ins...I believe that every instrument (be it virtual or hardware) has its own sound and characteristics...and it’s an artist’s work to make it shine in a track....
For the lyrics I am often inspired by movies....I am watching a movie...hear a sample I would like to use, and then start to build lyrics around....(which can be veeery annoying for people watching movies with me :) )...on the other hand my job brings with it a lot of travelling....by train ,by airplane.....I like to sit and watch and listen to other people...they all have to tell interesting stories....and from this I get a source for writing new lyrics...to re-tell their stories with my melodies and lyrics...
Can you give an example of transforming someone others story in a song, is this hard, the most difficult is to capture your own emotions in a song, trying to capture someone elses seems to be even harder?
Hmmmm imagine you sit in the train and in the compartment next to you, someone talks about something that has happened to him or her....I often listen to these stories and try to imagine them like in a film with my inner eye.....the feelings and stories that I get in this way then are transformed into songs....of course not all....but often there are little bits of such dialogs that sneak into my songs....not only lyrics but also the sound (or what I imagine it could sound like :) ) this is pretty hard to describe :)
What are the lyrics about, they seem not to be positive ones, do they reflect your personal view as well?
Well yes and no....I would describe myself as a pretty positive person....the lyrics rather tell my opinion of scenes I saw somewhere or heard of by other people, more than being true personal experiences...of course you often let influence your personality in a text, but I think doing this kind of music also limits you to some topics....I mean it would be rather funny singing of nice little puppies and a happy life to the music YADE makes :)
Well I think it is pretty important, though I always have to state, that after all I am doing music, not visual art....I really like the military fetish look but also needed something to make people stop by and listen to the tracks...an eyecatcher if you want it to call that way....so the pretty offending look of YADE was born...as with most things around YADE it should on the first view be pretty stereotype, but if you look deeper there are several small things to discover...one aspect of the look is surely inspired by Graf von Stauffenberg, which to me symbolizes how you not only can survive in a totalitary, stubborn regime like the one in Third Reich, but also build up a resistance, fighting against structures you are part of......I see here a lot of parallels to YADE.....
Does the logo have a special meaning?
Yes and no.....as we found out after we have designed it, the Y we chose looks pretty similar to the Hebrew Character called Tsadeh :)....but besides that we did not have any special intentions when we were creating the logo....
Remixing is very popular, who would you like to do a remix for Yade?
Well I would not male this to names....I heard a lot of (in my opinion) bad remixes done by “big” names of the scene, and on the other hand also heard some amazing works by totally unknown people.....Everyone who wants to do a remix or ask me for one can do this...remixing is a way of interpreting a given story...so for me it is always interesting how other people see my stories...
What can people expect in the near future from Yade?
Well at the moment we are fully absorbed by producing tracks and a visual concept for our first gigs (one will btw. be held at FATE01 Party in Arnheim on the 7th of June), but in the near future we plan to release our website (at last...:-) ) and also a collection of YADE shirts..ofcourse again with a very special and unique concept :)
Any last words for the readers?
Stay curious and dare to discover the world on your own day by day, keep your individuality and do not let you be guided blindly by so called “leaders”...the ways apart the easy and straight roads often hold so much hidden beauty and emotions that are more than worth the struggle to reach them....