Of all of the recent entries into the deep Techno scene, Germany’s Cio d’Or easily rises to the top. Unlike others that put out new tracks every week or constantly lap up adulation on the DJ circuit, her success seems to stem from other sources. Her thoroughly lived-in feeling music is notable not only for its oceanic depth but also for its diversity of influences, at moments recalling Eastern meditative sounds, at others European orchestral music. Taking Cio’s past into account, this is hardly surprising. As a self-proclaimed music obsessive who for years avoided a career in music, Cio Dorbrandt attempted many tangential approaches to the scene before diving in. She initially started off as a choreographer and dancer before a close encounter with a pair of Technics 1210s. After quickly becoming enthralled with the art of DJing and eventually earning a residency at Ultraschall during its Tobi Neumann-led heyday, the logical next step was production.
With her DJing career continuing apace via her own nights and consistent bookings within Germany and internationally, she acquired an MPC-2000 and initially explored sound creation via producing sound loops for websites. As her studio grew and her experience built up, Cio eventually gained the courage to tackle whole tracks, and by 2004 she had earned her first release with the chart success Hokus Pokus on Treibstoff. She remained visible the next few years with consistent 12-inch releases and collaborative productions with friends like Paul Brtschitsch and Gabriel Ananda, but the 2009 Prologue release of her album Die Faser marked her true turning point. As the only full-length released so far by the label, as well as one of its finest moments to date, this and the subsequent remix 12-inches featuring heavy hitters like Donato Dozzy, Pendle Coven, and Sleeparchive, thrust Cio into the international spotlight. If recent high profile collaborative projects with Dozzy are any indication, her sparse recent productions hint that she’s been keeping quality intact by keeping quantities down, and her new EP set to drop soon on Prologue as well as her appearances at Movement 2011 and alongside her friend Adam X at Oktave in New York have expectations running extremely high. halcyon was happy to catch up with the effusive German producer for a nice informal chat about recent events, travels, upcoming releases, and the ideas that have sustained her over her long career…
halcyon: How’s Bangkok?
Cio D’Or: Oh Bangkok is very hot. 35 degrees, sometimes raining, but it’s very beautiful. I like Asia, you know.
h: Yeah I’ve seen lots of photos but I’ve never traveled there. I’ve heard a lot of really, really good things from people that went there too.
C: The islands are beautiful too. Very, very beautiful.
h: So what are you doing in Bangkok then. Are you traveling? Are you playing or what?
C: In Bangkok I don’t do it very often but this is my holiday with making music on the side and working… kind of a beauty trip like that. Like a little thing between holiday and working.
h: Yeah, I talked to the agent but I didn’t actually look to see if you had any bookings down there.
C: No I don’t have a gig but I’m working on my sets and I’m working on things… I can do it anywhere you know, and that’s really good. You see, now we can talk like we’re living around the corner. It’s really crazy, the new time of internet.
h: Yeah, you can even do Skype on your mobile now. That’s pretty wild.
C: It confuses me to, you know, because we are so far away from each other now, like a whole day time difference is a lot, and we are just talking as if we’ve known each other very long. It’s very interesting.
h: Yeah, well I try to be informal when I do this just because I think you get a better sense of who the other person is really.
C: So you had your morning coffee already?
h: It was tea actually, but yes I did.
C: So you’re very healthy!
h: No, ordinarily I drink coffee <both laugh>.
C: So today was a special day?
h: No, I’m out of coffee <both laugh>.
C: Oh, so this is the reason why. I couldn’t see. Actually at the moment I’m downloading my new EP which will come out on Prologue. So I just got the masters… it’s running and running because the internet is not so fast here in Bangkok, but it will be there in 21 minutes. I will have my masters for my next EP.
h: Yeah I was going to ask you about that because it’s been ages since you released anything under your own name.
C: It was one year ago, but I did an album which took me a very long time, and then I was traveling a lot, and I was preparing gigs and I was working a very long time on the Resident Advisor podcast. It took half a year for the Resident Advisor podcast!
h: Wow…
C: Yeah, I did many different ones, and it took a long time before I said, “Now this one I would really like to give them.” So I’m working always on music, but when I feel now is the time for outcome then I do it. And I need really… There was a little too much pressure around me when I did my album because I had to write so many, really many, many interviews, and people were talking to me. And this took me away from work sometimes. It was really too much for me.
h: I imagine it could be really distracting. You’ve also been working with Donato Dozzy on quite a bit of stuff too haven’t you?
C: Yes, we did “Menta” together and now we did the mix together, and we are planning out another releases to make together, yes, but my next release is by myself.
h: Yeah, well I actually just listened yesterday to the mnml ssgs mix. You said it was a mix, but they said it was a little bit of a production-mix mixture or something like this?
C: I don’t know what Donato did exactly. I think he put a lot of tracks down. Altogether in the 40 minutes we have like 50 different artists in, so it’s a lot of people, and I think he probably did some of his own things also, yes.
h: Besides the release on Time to Express is that the only thing you’ve done together? I thought there was a bit more going on behind the scenes, like you were working together quite a bit or is it just these two projects and that’s all?
C: Hmmm. Yeah until right now, because he’s living in Italy and I’m living in Cologne. We wanted to make an album together but I’d just got my album done so it was too fast to do another album right after the other one. And yes, we are very close to the same feeling I would say, we understand each other very well. What can I say? It’s like a family, it’s like a music family…
h: I got that from listening to your music, and also just generally. I read interviews with both of you… I actually interviewed Donato for halcyon as well. It was an email one, but I got the idea from his responses. I got a very good idea of his personality. He seems just a very deep guy. And I also got the idea from the way that you talk in your other interviews that you two would get along very well.
C: Yeah, we are a little bit like… it’s like family, but I’m also family with Mike Parker, and with Milton Bradley. I like Function… I have many good friends. But with Donato, we know each other personally. We were playing together more times. We were cooking for each other, you know, it’s very… it’s the whole sense. Now we have a meeting again in San Felice, Donato’s place where his mother lives and him sometimes too. We will have a little festival. Everybody will play there from the music family for free. We are connected by music I would say.
h: I actually had an interview with Adam X. It was just… Friday.
C: Yeah, Adam is also very nice, yes <both laugh>.
h: How do you know him from? Did you meet each other in Berlin or…?
C: I met Adam when I was playing… the first time I met him at my album gig in Tresor in Berlin. That night he came, also Resident Advisor came, everybody came, and so I met Adam the first time that time. And then I met him more times, and also we were playing at the same party, and I really like Adam very much. He’s very full of character, and I love his character. Very cool.
h: I’d met him a lot of times, but I didn’t really talk to him very much until the interview, and then in the interview we talked for 45 minutes or something. It was crazy!
C: He’s American…
h: He’s not just American, he’s from Brooklyn, and this is where I live so we had a lot to talk about because he did so much work in New York in the ’90s with the Techno scene.
C: Exactly, this is what I was thinking.
h: So we really had a lot to talk about. He’s a really interesting guy too actually.
C: Absolutely interesting, I think so too. I’m very glad to be in a way connected with all of these musicians because after all… from music you can feel very much about the person. Now I’m never wrong: when I’m really into somebody’s music, then most of the times I was also interested in the person too. It’s really connecting, but it’s not so often. It’s really deep in the music. Probably also when you have lyrics or are a writer, you probably also have a special connection to each other.
h: If there’s words involved it’s a little bit easier to understand exactly what the person is getting at, but I generally find the same thing, the artists whose music I enjoy the most and who I understand the best are generally the ones I find easiest to talk to. I end up talking to lots and lots of different artists in New York not necessarily for interviews but just at the gigs and stuff, and generally the ones whose music I like the best are the ones I like the best as people too. It’s a funny thing but that’s the way it works.
C: Yeah, it’s like that absolutely, I think the same. Music says a lot about feelings or about character too. Adam I think he’s very punk in a way in Techno, you know what I mean? But I like it, I like authentic people, that’s just the right word. When I produce music, I’m always thinking what could I give to the world that I don’t hear, or what can I do? If this is what I’m doing now, then is this what the world needs really, that is always what I ask myself. And this is the reason probably why I’m so slow to release music because I’m always thinking, ‘This is alright, or this is fine,” and my friends tell me “Cio, you need to release this music!”, and then I say, “No, we had it almost, sort of..” and then I don’t want to release it. I don’t release all of the things that I am doing. This is the reason why I like not to release so much. I like to release things when I have the feeling that it should be released, you know what I mean?
h: Yes, certainly, certainly. I certainly get the sense the music is personal for you. Is there also something else besides that? Is there anything maybe spiritual or mystical as well with your music?
C: Spiritual. Yes it has something to do with this also.
h: Some artists also relate to mysticism… you were talking about going in the woods and things like this…
C: Yes, it has something to do with a vision. I always have the feeling I have to give something, not just release something to get another gig or something like this, you know, this shouldn’t be the reason to release music. There should be something behind in any mind.
h: So after your upcoming EP do you have anything that’s finished or is going to be another few months before we see something again?
C: I did backstage film music also for a designer. This will be released also I think in June. It’s just 3 minutes of music for a designer’s backstage film. I think also I want to go a little bit into film music too. I’m very interested in doing music for pictures. I always think in audiovisual. I always see pictures… This is also why I’m very interested in it. So for this I need some new techniques I will take care of for next time, but this is also good for the Techno scene. But yes, I have many ideas. And now already I did new tracks, but I also get requests for remixes again, but I couldn’t make it because of time, because I’m traveling now a lot, but I will see. Always there’s something happening, all of the time, and there’s a new mix I want to do. I always have something to do but I can’t tell you what’s next. Next for sure is the backstage film music, and after that will come Prologue number 22 called “Magnet Flux.” I produced it at the time when the things happened in Japan so I thinking lots about other kinds of energies, how we could have electricity with other energies, so I was really thinking for many many days how it could be that we could live with other kinds of energies than atomic energy.
h: So is this your first time going to Detroit for the festival or have you been there before?
C: Yes, I never was there before. It’s my first time.
h: Wow. Detroit’s a little bit of… it’s a wilderness, I’ll say. It’s one of the most surreal places I’ve ever been.
C: Really, well I never was there before, and after I will be in New York.
h: Yeah I know, you’re playing for my friends Kevin and Jeff.
C: Yes, they are so sweet.
h: Yes they are. Unfortunately I’m going to be in Montreal for MUTEK for that performance. I’m going to Detroit and Montreal to do press for both festivals. halcyon is a record shop but we do a lot of press. We kind of want to become the American version of RA or something like that.
C: Oh, that’s great.
h: I think that Resident Advisor has too much authority in the Techno world. People go there, and they go only there, and it ends up being the only information that people get about things. And I think that there needs to be more than one source of information about things.
C: Absolutely. But do you know Todd Burns?
h: I haven’t met him personally no. He was in New York I think, but I’ve only been living in New York for 2 years, and he was gone before. I think he’s been living in Germany for awhile now.
C: Okay, because I met him in Berlin and he’s a very nice guy.
h: I know Resident Advisor was doing something in New York, and then they moved out of New York, and I think they’re trying to move back into New York now because they’ve been contacting my friends to write for them or go to events for them or things like this. They’re quite busy here now, but up until about 3 or 4 years ago there wasn’t so much going on in New York with the Techno, but now there’s a lot.
C: Yes but it caught on slowly. I mean, Kevin and Jeff are doing very underground things, but I really like the parties they are doing. They are very much underground Jeff Derringer and Kevin.
h: Kind of, but I think that in a way that for people that throw parties essentially in small clubs they’re getting a lot of press even internationally. Adam (X) was talking about them, and lots of other people have been talking about them, so I think in some way that’s just the way that things work in New York. Like in Berlin, you want to have a party at a really big, nice club with a good sound system, but in New York either you’re going to do a big warehouse party… there’s no clubs to speak of in New York that are really good so it’s hard to make a booking at a club because there’s not really enough places to do the parties, you know?
C: Yes, I can imagine this. But I think they both are kind of heroes for me. They really try to bring special people to New York. It’s really cool. It’s really nice.
h: Yeah, well they’re both obviously… Their parties have become successful. I remember when you were here the last time for them, and it was a bit of a rough night, let’s just say, for everyone.
C: <laughs> I had really a lot of technical problems, let me tell you. I was really surprised about the turntables. I think not so many people are playing vinyl anymore right? The turntables were very low and very far away from each other, and I was playing little loops, and it was so hard to mix. And in front of me I had a big mixer, probably a good one, but I didn’t know it, so I had to put my arms all the way back and lean forwards playing little, little loops… it was really crazy. I think the next venue is probably better with this. I then I arrived too late because before I was in Greece, so I couldn’t change it, and I came too late to the venue and it was a little tough. It wasn’t working at first, we were really bitter, but then at the end everything was fine, you know. I liked the night, I really like the night. I liked the people very much.
h: Yeah, well that was one of their first big parties actually. They’d had Silent Servant play before that but it was a Thursday night party, and it was free, and it was at some club that people always went to anyway, so they didn’t have to worry about the crowd, and probably a lot of the crowd didn’t come specifically for the DJ. But that was the first time they really organized their very own club night at a special club on a special night, and they were trying to get things going at that point in time. Since about October things have been very good for them actually.
C: Oh that’s great. I’m glad about it because really I like both of these guys very much.
h: I know Kevin and Jeff, and neither of them really has a lot of money to be spending on making parties, and I’m sure anything that they’re doing they’re doing for the right reasons and because they believe in it, and not because they want to get rich <both laugh>
C: No, to get rich you had better do something else. No, but these are also heroes. I found out there are also some heroes in our world. Also I was playing in Kiev in Ukraine and also in Moscow, and they had very small clubs but with a lot of love, and they were such good nights. Also, I was in a little small venue in Cyprus called Club D. It’s a small venue for 250 people with an amazing sound system. I mean, I found it better than the sound in Berghain, and only great people totally into the music, so I really like this underground scene. I really love it, especially when the crowd comes especially for the music, and better if it’s a little bit smaller than too big.
h: Yeah, well I think there’s a good chance you’re going to get the same kind of environment when you play in New York next. The last time I saw Adam play in New York, it was a warehouse but it was very small, and it was absolutely packed, and it was fantastic, and it was only people that really wanted to see Adam play too, so it was really really good. I think you’re going to get that for sure. The best ones that they’ve had so far was when they had Lucy from Stroboscopic Artefacts…
C: Yes I know him. They had Milton Bradley too, yes?
h: Yes, they had him with Perc. The one before they had Raiz from Droid Behavior, and those guys were really great DJs, wow! They’re really great guys too. I interviewed them. We actually did it live, and then we were hanging out at the Bunker party the night before and then at record shop for awhile, and then we saw them play the next night, and they were really nice and really cool.
C: And how is Detroit, like for the people and the crowd where I play for the underground? Because I’m playing with very special people that night – at the end it’s Monolake. I’m more in the beginning, but in the middle there’s breakbeat people. On my floor I think there were more dubstep people…
h: I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It’s a massive festival. There will be 100,000 people there, and there’s a lot of local people and a lot of Americans that are not so, so particular about Techno and electronic music. A lot of people go to Detroit just to have a good time. When I was there 2 years ago the last time I was there, everyone was having an amazing time, and people weren’t being terribly critical about everything. There were a few people that were, but that was just mostly music critics or music heads. Most people that are there know something about Techno, but they might not be experts you know.
C: Yes, I understand. But I think it’s very cool that on the night I will be there they booked very special people… dubstep, and Monolake is special too. I was a little surprised that I wasn’t playing with Adam and Marcel Dettmann, but I like to play with Monolake.
h: Yeah, well I think the reason why Dettmann and Ben Klock are booked on the bigger stage is just because it’s something that’s a little easier for most people. I’m not saying that Dettmann’s music is really particularly easy to listen to. It gets really experimental sometimes, that’s for sure. Also, on the Saturday when you’re playing there’s so many good people playing that they just had to spread it between different stages. It’s probably the best day overall for the whole festival.
C: Yeah, I’m just thinking about my set already. I think I would love to start with very slow motion breakbeats and then go into more driving Techno or something like this, but I would love to play very deep. I think it’s good too for people to hear this. We have to be pioneers.
h: You’re playing earlier too, in the early evening yeah?
C: 6 o’clock in the afternoon.
h: I think that’s the perfect time to play deeper stuff in Detroit actually. It gets moving usually between about 6 and 8 usually. The festival of course starts at noon, but the majority of the people show up around 3 or 4, and about 6 or 7 they start getting in the mood to party and dance a little bit and you can play very deep music. I mean, I saw Luke Hess play incredibly deep Techno in the afternoon.
C: Yes, Luke Hess is great.
h: The festival has a really great atmosphere. It’s outside, there’s a river right next to the festival grounds, and there’s lots of really crazy people there, like crazily dressed people from all over the world, especially all over the United States… some really crazy people that you never meet anywhere else. Detroit’s a really, really crazy city and actually you should try to get outside of the festival a bit.
C: Oh, this is great to hear.
h: Well I’m not sure if it’s crazy in a good way… <both laugh> Have you done any research about Detroit? Have you looked at any of its history or anything?
C: Yes I was looking and watching what happened before. I just found out that they have different stages actually.
h: One of the stages is actually underground… like inside some structure underneath another stage. That’s actually where they have a lot of the Detroit artists play. It’s funny because when I was at the festival 2 years ago lots of people would just stay at the really big stages and watch all of the really big people, right, but I was always at the smaller stages watching all of these people that I really like a lot but that aren’t that famous, and it just give you a different perspective. Whenever I actually made it over to the main stages, it was really interesting because I’m not really used to that.
C: <both laughing> Yes, I can imagine that. I would do the same I think. You know, some people asked me to play outside of the festival, but it was a problem up until now because no one had the money for the flight share so I couldn’t take all of the requests right now, but some people tried to book me for the nights. I would like to do it while I’m there, but Michael my agent is very correct with these kind of things and insists that they help with the flight share. Probably I will play for another party after my main gig.
h: I’ll make sure to try to find out about that. I was talking to someone from CLR over email about their party there, and as far as I know they were still looking for other people to play also so you might talk to them. I think they’re just trying to have the best party of the night.
C: Yes that would be great, fantastic. I hope you are there too.
h: So you were already talking about the other people that you were sharing the stage with that you wanted to see. Have you had a chance to look at the whole festival line up yet?
C: Yes, its very big. Of course Richie Hawtin and all of the big names… I’m wondering about the Hip Hop star… what was the name? Very famous people, but I’m very glad I can play with Monolake on the same stage because I really adore Monolake. I’m very thankful to play on the same stage. But also the next day when Marcel and Ben and all of those people, and also some not-so-famous people from the Dubstep angle and people trying to do new things, that’s very exciting for me.
h: Yeah, I also think its great to see Carl Craig do 69 live, which I think is amazing actually.
C: Absolutely
h: I really like underground Techno like your stuff and other people’s stuff, but to me Carl Craig was always one best always, and he hasn’t done that project for 20 years or something like this. I was talking to him about that actually… I think that’s going to be fantastic.
C: Yes, I think so too. I would like to see everything… I think I will be there every day, and then I will go to New York on the 30th or the 31st, I don’t remember at the moment. Now I am in Bangkok, tomorrow I will fly back and have to start out very early, and then I will go back to Cologne and prepare more of my set and pick everything for America. After that I will be in Italy and then in Berlin so June will be a wild month I guess.
h: I was going to ask you about that. So you have a lot of gigs in June?
C: I don’t remember now… I think four or something like this. And nice gigs with Donato and all of my music family… Chris from mnml ssgs from Japan will come and many people will come, and I’ll see Donato and my friends will come, Dasha Rush is there, everybody is there, and we have little houses on the beach where we’ll live, and we have a festival for us. It’s very cool! And right after that I will go <?>, they invited me for 3 nights with a free hotel for my next holiday, and then I will also play in Berlin outside in a garden at a very interesting party.
h: Yeah, I really like having outside parties in the summer time. It’s the best. When I first moved to New York 2 years ago, there were so many outside parties in the summer that I almost didn’t go into clubs because the parties would always be outside, or on the beach, or in the garden somewhere, so when I went to clubs it felt a little strange because I was so used to being outside to go to parties.
C: Absolutely I understand. It would be cool if Kevin and Jeff would do a party outside…
h: You should talk to them about that. You’re still in New York for the next day, yeah? Maybe someone can do sometime informal at a nice bar with a garden or something like that?
C: Yeah, that would be great. I could imagine to play very very deep dub music or soemthing like this, I like deep music, I like Dubstep, I like Techno, I like, like, really cloudy music, you know, like you’re sitting on clouds. I like to give atmospheres.
h: I can definitely hear that in you music for sure. Since your album came out there’s been a lot of people that have started making music quite similar to you…
C: Yeah, I’m surprised, I’m really surprised. I don’t know what happened… it’s strange. You know, it’s very funny… when I do a gig, I adore many, many friends of mine that do music like Mike Parker, Donato Dozzy, Ryan (Elliot), Sleeparchive, Function. So because I adore them so much, I play them, and then sometimes I mix my own music… because in the beginning I play my own tracks, but after a time I need a break from my own music. This is probably the reason I never do a live act… I need a break and I adore my friends, and them I’m always surprised when I play my own music and people are freaking out, because I think… but the others are probably much better, because my music… it’s so strange for me that people like my music. You understand?
h: Yes of course, a lot of producers make something and then they don’t ever want to listen to it. They’re like, “I can’t listen to this, this is not good…” even if it’s really good or very popular.
C: Yeah, it’s really strange. And also with my new record, I try to do it in my set, and then I think, “Wow, is it really good enough”, and I hear my track and it really is good enough. Now the master man told me it was really, really great what I did… it’s strange for me, you need to go away from your own things sometimes.
h: Yeah, sure. I think that’s necessary. Also, you’ve been DJing for a long time now, quite a lot longer than you’ve been producing, is that right?
C: Yes.
h: So how did you get started with DJing? When was that, like what year and what’s the circumstances or the context there?
C: I mean, in the beginning I played ambient music mixtapes for another job I did, when I did hair and makeup, and also I’m a dancer and a gymnastic teacher. My whole life was full of music the whole time, but I always told myself, “Cio, when you do music you get very poor,” and I was afraid to make this step. But then one time I found myself buying two turntables because I couldn’t leave it anymore… I had to do music from morning to night, and I was mixing like crazy. And then I was playing in bars… it was like 1997-98 when I had my bar gigs, but before I was a dancer and my own choreographer and I did ambient mixtapes, and everybody loved it… “Cio, can you please give me a cassette”… those very old fashioned cassettes. But then one time I was buying my turntables, and then somebody showed me how to mix, in two hours he showed me the tricks, and then I was sitting there every single day making so many mixes. And then one day somebody said to me, “Hey Cio, do you know Sven Vath?” I said no, and they said, “You are totally like him, you should meet him,” and then many people told me, and then I was watching him once and thinking that there were somethings about it that I liked, it was very impressive and expressive, but then I did my first Techno set… I was working half a year on my first Techno set for a private party that I did, they booked me, and then who came into the party… Richard Bartz. Do you know Richard Bartz?
h: I know the name…
C: Richard Bartz, Kurbel Records, it was great stuff, and he also produced Sven Vath, he produced DJ Hell in the beginning. And then he heard my set and was totally blown away, he said “Hmmm, what can I do with you? You are so talented.” You know, until that time I played a lot of Heiko Laux, and very deep Techno too, and he said, “I need to do something with you.” And he took me with him on his Kurbel tour, this was 2000-2001. 2001 was my first international gig, before it was just national, in my own city. And then they heard me in Ultraschall, I was playing one night, and they loved me and took me as a resident DJ, so this is my little story about DJing. And then I had an MPC-2000, and this was my first sampler. It was very hard to learn I have to say because I didn’t know anything about music or anything. I didn’t even know what a bassline was. I didn’t know anything, and I was reading it by myself… it was books.
h: At least you learn it that way… no one’s going to tell you production is easy. It’s really hard…
C: It’s really hard, especially when you start as a woman and you have nothing in your mind about technique, and I tell you I was working very, very hard. Then I bought a computer later, and I still had to learn and study very hard. And then I took my first 8 tracks, and Treibstoff took the first tracks and it went into the charts, the Groove charts, and this was my first official track.
h: Well it took a long time and I’m glad you got something for it because you certainly worked to get it.
C: Absolutely. I think really boys have it a little bit more easy because they are more technical from the beginning. When they are kids they are playing games and they are thinking about technology. Me, I was a dancer, I was riding big horses, I did paintings, I did dreams, I was more creative. I did music all of the time, but I was never so much into technology, you know what I mean? So for me, everything was new… so I remember when I was showing Richard Bartz my first tracks he told me, “Yeah but Cio, this is not music, there is no bassline… where is the hook line?” I didn’t even know what a hook line or a pattern was. I had to find out everything by myself, and this is one little thing in my life I’m a little bit proud of and thankful about is that I wanted to do music, and I was working the hard way. But now I can say that most of what I learned I learned all by myself.
h: I think that’s the best way honestly. There’s people now that are going to learn production in a school to do it, and I think you learn in a somewhat mechanical way when you do this…
C: Yes
h: And people that learn their own way of doing it have a much more natural way of doing it, you know?
C: Yes, I think so too. But at the same time, I’m never satisfied. What can I say… I’m very open-minded, but mixdowns are a very hard thing, and I have a friend who masters, and he told me, “Cio, a little bit more down with the hi-hats, or a little bit more up with the bassline,” or something like this, and I was hearing it crazy and differently, and I’m never satisfied, never, never. Even now I’m never satisfied. I’m always thinking other people are doing it better. But then it’s so funny if some young boys are writing me, “Hey Cio d’Or, how did you did the bassline?” Because I think that I’m never satisfied, never finished, there is so much to learn new always.
h: Well most producers that are starting out never want to release anything and never want to put it out because they think it’s not finished. Some of my friends in New York are quite good producers, and they don’t want anyone to hear their music because they think it’s not good enough, and I tell them, “Man your music is good, just play it for everybody and stop worrying about it, it’s fine. ” Even if it needs a little bit of work, the worst thing you’re going to do by playing it for people that care is they’ll tell you a few different things about how to make it better. I make my own music, and I’ve always been quite easy about it. For me, I just finish things fast, and it’s been quite easy, but I understand this difficulty. If you keep looking at the track over and over again, you can keep changing it forever and never finish it.
C: Yeah, that’s true. But sometimes I’m sitting just on one sound for days and days just to find the right sound. I found I was looking for new techniques. I was looking at YouTube about some new Techniques to make something special with combinations of many different samples. I wanted to make more special sounds and I was working for days and days. I mean, it’s a life study, you know what I mean? I have to smile when I have friends… I have a friend that studies biology and works very hard all of the time studying, and she says “Oh Cio, I have to go finish my studying!” And I say, “Oh, relax, relax” because I’m studying all of the time! My whole life is a study. Music is a life study… it will never finish.
h: Yeah, if you’re actually trying to be an aritist and not just sell Techno then definitely, that’s the only way to do it.
C: So now you know something about me <laughs>!
h: I think this actually covers what I needed from you… I know this doesn’t seem very structured, but I had written some questions out and we ended up wandering through all of them. I’ll look for you in Detroit, and I look forward to meeting you because we haven’t actually met other than this conversation. I’ll really look forward to seeing you play there too.
C: So please come to me and tell me that you’re the one from this interview!
h: Of course I will… I was going to be there for your set anyway.
C: I’ll give you a tip: after the set I am very relaxed… before I am always very nervous, like a child. It never stops really. Since I started to do music I’m always nervous before my set. You know this feeling?
h: I used to have this problem, and then one day I was playing a performance somewhere, and the music I was playing was so difficult that I forgot that the audience was there. I had to concentrate…
C: <laughing> But this is the best! I’ll tell you something about this… They say if you follow the crowd, you might get lost in it. You can’t do everything right for everybody ever, so the most important thing is that you give what you feel, and probably it’s new for the people and they don’t understand in the beginning, but it’s important for them to hear it. It will change their mind, and it will change their ears. But I know what you mean… I always make a mixture. The music is in my head and I have a vision each night of where I want to bring it. And how was your night that you were just talking about?
h: It was actually a daytime performance… It was much better than it had ever been before because I wasn’t nervous. I just forgot about being nervous.
C: But I think the nervousness before is different… when I stand there on stage and play the first records, I lose the nervousness. When I touch the vinyl, in this moment my nerves are going down and I’m getting more into the music then.
h: But you never know at these nights. The one thing that was good when clubs were just turntables and mixers was that it usually worked. They didn’t have to make all of these connections and stuff. The last time you were in New York, you had all of these technical problems, and that was enough to make anybody crazy!
C: <laughing> Absolutely!
h: Well I’m sure that in Detroit they’ll have professionals on hand to make sure that everything is cool before you play, and I certainly hope that the gig in New York goes smoothly as well.
C: Well this time I will have more time before and I will make sure to really make it good. I’m sleeping in Kevin’s house I think and I will be there to fix everything.
h: Kevin lives just on the corner from the club really so you should be able to get there very early and sound check and everything and it should be really good. So have a safe flight back to Germany and I look forward to talking in Detroit.
RSVP here
