Interview with Arne Weinberg - 11th Hour Technology

Alongside contemporaries such as Aril Brihka, Fabrice Lig, The Moderator and selected others, Arne Weinberg is a leading light in an exciting new generation of European techno producers who are rejecting the trademark hard edged loops the continent has made its name in, and returning to the principles of deep, soulful, melodic and emotional electronics that defined the music a decade ago - refining and updating it for our present age.

Currently residing just outside of Frankfurt, Germany, Arne first gained recognition through the Detroit edged club nights he ran near Stuttgart, which brought him into contact with many likeminded DJs and producers - before moving to his current location and focusing on his own contributions, which have so far seen the light of day on forward thinking labels such as Keynote, Down Low, Starbaby and Headspace.

He has drawn praise the world over for his unique sound; blending classic, lush, techno sensibilities with a more personal, dark, moody and slightly claustrophobic ambience - and looks set to take his place at the forefront of a long awaited renaissance in high quality techno.

With new releases due on labels such as Matrix and Meadow, as well as our own 11th Hour label, we felt it was time to track him down and see what he made of all the attention.

We are very proud to present – Arne Weinberg

11th-hour What was your first encounter with electronic music, and how did you become directly involved?

Arne My first electronic musical love was and still is Depeche Mode. I'm still a big fan of them today…. Simply the best melodies and always way beyond their time in terms of new sounds. I bought my first DM record at the age of 12.

They was my first love, so no prior music before… but I have to mention the big influence my mother gave me. She listened to music all day long when I was a kid. Mainly bands like the Beatles and so on. And lots of jazz.

11th-hour Who would you consider to have been your greatest musical influences over the years?

Arne Definitely the music my mother used to listen to. Later at the age of 16 I was totally into death metal. And a big influence was surely the dark feel and mysteries of the death metal music and scene. You can hear that mystic and dark feeling in my own music today. After this period of youth rebellion I was into hip hop for half an year but this sound quickly was boring for me. Well, then I found my first techno records but those were really crappy rave tunes and it took some months for me to find the good stuff. An initial moment was when I heard my first Jeff Mills record. It blew me away until today!

11th-hour Can you tell us a bit about the party you ran in Tuebingen (near Stuttgart, Germany)- how did it come about, and what was the mentality behind the nights? Was this your first major project?

Arne It was a simple thing. We were not able to hear and play our sound at parties. So Joel (a good friend of mine from that time) and I decided to start our own party event to present deep Detroit techno once a month. And it was a haaaaard time because nobody cared for the first 9 months. Nearly nobody came to the events. But sooner or later people recognized the effort we've put in and the crowd felt our true love to this music. So we started to book people like Shake, Fabrice Lig, Oliver Kapp and Pacou for example because the party got more and more crowded and we were able to put in more money to pay deejays. We had lots of fantastic parties in those 5 years and I got to know so many people and artists in those 5 years. I like to remember that time a lot. Due to the move to Frankfurt I stopped the party.

Arne Sure, why not? But it's difficult here in Frankfurt and honestly I don't have enough time right now to organise parties again besides working and trying to produce more music….

11th-hour How did you first get into producing your own music - was it something you had always been into, or was there any particular time when you felt the need to add your voice?

I started to experiment 3 years ago with my computer and soon realised that it's not the way I want to produce music. So I started to buy my first pieces of gear, a cheap drumcomputer and a Juno 106 (I still love that one!) and a cheap mixer and I made my first tracks… I don't know why I started to do music. There was no specific reason for it. It simply happened.

Arne My first record was the 'Through the Collonades EP" on Propaganda in the beginning of 2001. It was a terrible record. The sound is awful and I really had no idea about my own style or which kind of sound I wanted to do at that time. But it helped me to learn how the business works, how an artist has to act with labels and things like that. I got to get to know the Propaganda label because I booked them for one of our parties and I simply gave them a demo of my stuff. And they seemed to like it so I was lucky enough that they wanted to do this record. Well, it was okay at that time. Nowadays I wouldn't let anybody hear such tracks…. Hehehe….

Arne A few months later I bought the first Groundzero 12" from The Moderator. And it blew me away! It was something like a special moment because I suddenly knew where I belong and where my music should be heard. So I contacted Otto Koppius, founder of Groundzero by email and I've sent him a demo with much more deeper and better material than the Propaganda stuff. Otto really liked the music and so he decided to release the "Snowflake EP" on Groundzero. It was the last release on Groundzero before Otto renamed it to Keynote due to September 11th… Otto also told me about the 313 mailing list and I started to join the list. There I met JT Stewart and Minto George of Down Low and the result was the "Beauty in Decay EP"on Down Low…. It's all built on relationships, you know? I know Fabrice Lig pretty well and he gave me the idea to contact Starbaby records for example and so they signed some tracks of mine and Fabrice made that remix. The same with Headspace Records. I knew Tom Churchill from the 313 list for some time now and so someday it happened that I asked him if I can send some music. Related souls will meet some day somewhere…. Hehehe…

11th-hour What has maintained your passion for Detroit techno throughout the years, and what is it about the music you love so much?

Arne When I started to listen to techno I was more into dancefloor orientated, more looped techno but already with that special feeling. Think of early Jeff Mills records for example. I recognised that there is a "myth" called Detroit and that there are many good artists from Detroit. Slowly I found more and more deeper and more soulful music coming from Detroit like Juan Atkins, Planet E or UR. I opened my heart for that kind of techno more and more and I started to hear the melodies with my soul and I stopped checking if those records also work on the dancefloor. It was very important for me to get that freedom. My love for Detroit techno is the combination of soulful emotions and the yearning for hope that most of those records express. It touches my soul to hear the emotions that people can put into electronic machine music. I'm a very moody and sensitive person so that might be the reason. Detroit techno also is always music with little faults like some bad sound mixing or there is a little problem with the tightness of a track. I like those little faults. It adds a human touch to the music. There is also a lot of fantastic deep music coming from the U.K. like Black Dog and the almighty B12 for example. I'm addicted to that kind of music!

11th-hour How would you describe your own music, and how has it developed across the past few years?

Arne Hmm, I don't like to talk about my own music. That's always very hard because I'm never satisfied with my own tracks. I would like to describe it as deep, melodic, mainly melancholic but still danceable techno music. I think my music developed in the arrangements and in complexity. I use more and more abstract arrangements in the last time. More focus on musicality and not on functionality. The most important thing in my music is emotion. Mainly sad and melancholic of course….

11th-hour What drives you to create your music - is it important for you to have it heard by others, or do you compose primarily to satisfy yourself?

Arne Well, of course I like the idea that other people might like to listen to my music. I would be a liar if I tell you that I don't care for that and if I didn't think about other people listening to my music, I would not release music. But sometimes I really have to wonder about the good reactions I get from all over the world only because of my music. As I said before I'm very critical. The first person that hears my music is me so I'm the person that has to be satisfied with it first. My best inspiration to do music is my sick very moody inner self. Sometimes it helps me to feel better when I can go into the studio and get rid of some stress and/or frustrations with help from my little machine friends….

11th-hour How do you view the scene in your home town of Frankfurt, and across Germany as a whole, in comparison to other countries in Europe and beyond?

Arne I'm not very active nowadays in the German scene because not too many people care for the kind of techno I'm thinking to be a part of. Germany stands more for hard techno, and for minimal techno like the Kompakt sound for example. Frankfurt is a big German city with an active scene but it has nothing to do with my sound, scene or style. So I don't pay too much attention to it. I love the Frankfurt area for living because people here are nice and more open minded that in most of the other German cities in my opinion. Germany can be a hard and ignorant country, believe me!

I can't tell you much about other European countries too because most of them I haven't visited myself but I think that most of the other countries have a more open electronic dance music scene. I know that Detroit techno and melodic deep techno music is very popular in the Netherlands. I know more Dutch people than Germans, which is really amusing in my opinion. But I enjoy my visits in the Netherlands when I DJ there or when I visit friends.

As a producer I get much more reactions from the rest of Europe and the world than from Germany.

11th-hour Do you think that your home and environment have an important effect on your music?

Arne Definitely. I need some important things in my normal life to be able to concentrate on music. My wife is extremely important for me. She helps me to organise normal life and so I can focus more on music and stuff like that. I really enjoy the environment in which we are now living. When we moved to Frankfurt, I built my studio into our cellar and started to do music there, but it didn't work. It might sound strange that I wasn't able to do my moody and sad music in and dark lonely cellar so I had to move my studio, because I need some windows, some sun and some trees I can see when I do music…. Hahaha…. So environment is very important for me.

11th-hour What are your thoughts on the current resurgence of deep techno and electro across Europe - do you think this is simply a passing trend, or a genuine backlash against the ever more minimal, loop driven techno that has pervaded the continent in recent years?

Arne I hope it's not only a trend. You know, I think the techno scene like we know it in general is dead. Loop techno is dead, and it's still the kind of techno that the younger kids only know. So those are the people that have to learn that there are also other styles of electronic music and techno. I think and hope that we will experience a wave of melodic, recognizable techno tunes in the next 2-3 years again. Right now, the techno scene is recovering because so many labels are dying, because people don't buy every boring record anymore, and because people are looking for quality. After this process there will be a new beginning with some good quality music again. Only the strong survive!

11th-hour What do you think about the state of the Techno scene in general throughout the world - what do you like and dislike? Do you think that people are still capable of working together as a community?

Arne What I don't like about the techno scene worldwide is that there are so many different 'mini-scenes' that separate from each other. We have Goa Trance, Trance, Progressive Trance, House, Deep House, Detroit techno, Electro, "Schranz", Minmal Techno, Techno and so on…. Why? Who needs that? We need to find a common consent again. So there is no larger community I think. Sad but true. Within those 'mini-scenes' the spirit is still alive and the community still works. I experience that all the time with the people of the 313 list for example or with the people I was lucky enough to meet in my 'micro-cosmos'.

11th-hour Can you tell us a little about your forthcoming album for Keynote - how did it come together, and is there any particular concept behind it?

Arne The album for Keynote will be called 'Gargoyles' so far. The album title might change but I don't think so. 'Gargoyles' is a view on some facets of my music, so you can see the different tracks as different gargoyles. Of course the main feel of that album is deep, mainly dark again. Otto was into the album thing since our first contact 2 years ago. So it took a long time to select all the tracks for it but it was a good process in the end because the album shows 2 years of my musical development and Otto picked a really good selection of my music. And as you might have already realised it's a special thing to hear me saying such things about my music! An album project is something totally different than a 12". You have to stand behind an album for years and years. So the decisions like tracks, titles, artwork and so on are really important. The album will be a good experience for both of us, Otto as a label manager and me as an artist. I'm very grateful to Otto for giving me that chance. I think it will be released in the beginning of 2004.

Arne Quite a lot right now. First of all there will be another 12" on Keynote called 'Cupola' before the album. No album tracks on it and the 12" is a little bit more dancefloor orientated than the album. Like a pre-taster for the deejays. Release will be late august 2003. Also coming soon is my complete 12" on Headspace called 'Romantic Machinery'. It should be out in November I think. A good follow up to the just now released Various Artists 12" on Headspace together with Fabrice Lig, Rei Loci, Derek Carr and me.

Also coming up will be a split 12" on Technoir Audio together with Shawn Rudiman, maybe a 12" on the French label Pornflake (not sure yet) and hopefully the long announced Native sampler Vol. 7 which features an track from me. At the moment I started to work on some new music for Down Low Music again. So lots of stuff coming up soon.

11th-hour Have you any desire to do collaborations with other artists, or do you prefer to work alone?

Arne Yeah, I would love to work with other artists. There are only two problems: I live in Germany and so it's difficult to arrange something like a studio session with other likeminded artists. And the other problem is that I'm a difficult person with some crazy habits in the studio. I have a specific way I work in the studio and I think that it would create some big trouble if some else tries to work with me then…. I don't know, maybe I should try it?

Arne No computer stuff. I only use an old PC to run an old version of Cubase on it for sequencing and that's it. I only use hardware gear. Mainly old analog equipment like Jupiter 6 and Juno 106 or SH 101 but also some digital synths like the JD 800 which I love very much for its string sounds. I also use a TR 909, an MPC 2000 and a Mackie 24/8 Bus mixing console and lots of other useful stuff like effects and filters and so on. So mainly old synths from Roland and Oberheim…. The good and real stuff, no plug in shit!

11th-hour Do you think this choice of kit has a fundamental and important effect on your 'sound'?

Arne For sure! Everybody tells you that analog gear is limited and that software is much better. Well, for me there are two important reasons not to use software but limited old synths. First of all every little piece of gear has an own unique character. Not copy-able. Secondly, you have to concentrate more on what you have to create music. If I have unlimited sound possibilities I can also get lost in sound editing because there might be a chance that I find another new sound and another new sound and so on… limitations help to focus more on the music itself. I know that I won't become famous for creating the newest sounds like Autechre for example but that's not my motivation. It's okay when people can recognise my setup. I don't have a problem with that. So my setup definitely influences my sound, because it makes my sound.

11th-hour Are you satisfied with where you're now at musically, or do you find it important to continue pushing back what you're capable of?

Arne No, I'm not satisfied. I want to make much better tracks. I'm satisfied with the expressed feelings because I'm able to put them in truly and honestly. You can hear that in my music. But I want to do much more different music in the future. I'm interested in good ambient music for example. And I like the idea of combining electronic music with real music, for example vocalists, guitarists or something like that. But I think I will do techno music for a long time because it's my biggest passion. I want to try to create some music with more positive moods also. Maybe as a therapy for my sick mind….. hahahaha…..

Arne The cliché dream of course. To make a living with my music. I would love to work part-time for example and to have more time to create more different music. I love the idea of having my own house together with my wife somewhere in a beautiful area of Europe with nice landscape and to focus more on the important things in life.

Many thanks to Arne Weinberg for taking the time out to speak to us!