danish Archives - Page 10 of 11 - Martin Yam Møller

A Mess – With A Purpose

1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

I love my amp Fender Twin Reverb with original speaker parts from the early seventies. I bought it mainly because of its superb reverb. Depending on which band I play in – noiserock with Two Trick Pony – I dial the button to the max – or my current indieproject A Mess – I only turn it to 4 as I like a more dry sound.

It looks cool as well without its coating I think, although I bought it secondhand and didn’t do the make-over.
I am very inspired by the ‘wall of sound’ guitar sound and this reverb does the trick.

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

I have tried a lot of different pedal setups, but now I am quite satisfied. Especially with the overdrive pedals. I miss space for my electro-harmonix tremolo though, but when I play on my own amp I don’t need the Holy Grail and I switch them up.

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

My travel guitar with a pick up, it fits nicely in on the train, but sadly enough it isn’t small enough as hand luggage on a plane. I sometimes use my iRig pro, so I can record bits on my iPad when I am on the go.

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I wish that my Twin Reverb wasn’t that heavy and it would sound as good live on an amp-simulator pad. But it doesn’t. I need that authentic feedback.

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

I love my Bariton Fender Jaguar, but it is very hard to play and I haven’t played on it live yet. I find it difficult due to the different tuning and the neck distance is of course much wider than on my normal Strat.

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Definitely my pink Fender Strat American model – I choose and mixed the colour myself when I got it repainted. It inspires me, and gives me the ‘don’t give a fuck riot grrl’ push to create when I am low on self esteem and energy.

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

I wish I had invested in the vocal pedal TC Helicon ages ago. I use the dub effect a lot to give my voice a fuller body (yes I am body positive!). And it boosts my perception of my own vocal capability.

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

My shoe gazer pedal – custom made – which I found on a venue where a band had forgotten about it and never returned to fetch it. So now I use it for white noise, but it is really sensitive and the buttons are loose, so I never know if I push it to far. And when it is pushed to far, then it is unbearable to listen to.

9. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

How much easier it is to make lead guitar riffs when you use a loop station, it is great for composing and practice. But hard as fuck to use live.

Artist or Band name?

A Mess aka. Dorte Hartmann.

Genre?

A one-A one-woman army in front armed with electric guitar, honest as hell. The sound relies on early nineties vibes and current indie. Imagine if The Breeders actually breeded Wolf Alice and wrote songs sent with Snail Mail over the Atlantic to arrive in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Northern Jutland in Denmark, but currently residing in Copenhagen.

How did you get into music?

My boyfriend in high school played the guitar very passionately and I made a choice either to hate the guitar and be jealous of it OR get a guitar and learn to play myself. I chose the latter. And these days he is a graphic designer and doesn’t play anymore although he was extremely talented. I still play.

What still drives you to make music?

I am not very good at playing guitar, it has been very hard for me. I am lefthanded but play right hand guitar, so it has always been a challenge to get the rhythm right. I am self-taught as well. A lot of people over the years have laughed at me and my music behind my back, even my own family. I guess I am born very stubborn, they shouldn’t get the last laugh. So I still play.
Though I wish that I had taken some lessons earlier on both guitar technique, audio recording and general music theory, it would have helped me a lot and maybe boosted my confidence earlier on. And I love music, it’s my greatest love and maybe the only one that’ll last forever.

How do you most often start a new track?

By playing around on the guitar until I find a nice riff or chord structure.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I remember it the day after without having recorded it.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

If you apologize to the listeners during a listening session of the track, it is not finished. Finish it and correct the flaws.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

Are You Allowed:

to fuck your way to the top?

hate average people, but be quite ordinary?

get drunk on life – and on the cheapest champagne you can buy?

YES? Then here’s your soundtrack.

Dorte Hartmann is the woman behind A Mess. The name ‘A Mess’ is in Danish called ‘Et Rod’ – the same as D o r t e spelled backwards. She is head on and fucks with predefined notions and expectations. A one-woman army in front armed with electric guitar, honest as hell. The sound relies on early nineties vibes and current indie. Imagine if The Breeders actually breeded Wolf Alice and wrote songs sent with Snail Mail over the Atlantic to arrive in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark.

A Mess already received Danish national airplay even before her first single is out: A Mess is loaded with feminine stories on topics such as not wanting to have kids, binging sex partners and fucking your way up the career latter. Her upcoming release ‘Snapshots of a WO/man’ – is in the making. It is a crossover of music, web-documentary and gender discussions. Live in concert, A Mess is a two-piece, with just drums and guitar.

I am working on releasing my first debut single as a part of a art project ‘Snapshots of a Wo/Man’ which is in the making. It is a crossover of music, web-documentary and gender discussions. So follow my insta account. Here the beast will be released in 2020 – loaded with feminine stories on topics as not wanting to have kids, binging sex partners and fucking your way up the career latter.

Find me on:

Instagram

[Editor: Do you have any of the gear in this article? Then why not share a tip or trick? Leave a comment below]

A.Trentemøller – Yes! That Trentemøller

1. What is your favourite knob/switch/fader on a piece of gear?

The knobs on my Hohner String Melody II… I just love the colours…

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

I really like the sound of the drums on the Volca Beats , especially the kick drum, but I don’t like the snare . I would have loved one which was a bit more aggressive and snappy.

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

Just my laptop, a midi keyboard, my Apogee Duet Duo and the JHS ColorBox v2 for warming up and EQ’ing softsynhs / hardwaresynths or to record bass or guitar through or re-amping . It sounds so great and it has XLR input for mic as well. Perfect!

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I wish my Hughes Retriever could be emulated as a plugin, it has such a unique sound and I love the way it opens up the stereo image.

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

A lot I regret buying, ha ha… lately the Yamaha Reface YC. It sounds like plastic and not in the good corny way… don’t know why I bought it.

I regret selling my Thermionic Culture Vulture, I didn’t use it enough, but sometimes I have experienced actually missing what it did. The plugin version is not sounding as good at all.

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

I don’t have one specific thing, but it could actually be my upright piano that I have in my studio. It’s where most of my songs have been made.

Oluf Pedersen upright piano… where the magic is made

I like to NOT sit in front of a computer, but instead using my ears and I love that the sound is coming from the instrument itself , not through speakers. It’s very intimate and I feel more focused on the songwriting rather than the sound. I also use it with the felt on, and I like that intimate sound it produces.

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

A Mac not a PC. [Editor: Woah-ho! Easy now everyone. Let’s all be friends, ok?]

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

My wireless Mac mouse . It loses the connection to Bluetooth ALL the time , and I tried different Mac mouses, same problem! And I just got a new MacBook Pro, so it shouldn’t happen… but it does!! It drives me crazy!!

9. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

Playing with the reels on my Revox while recording. To give it a bit of wow / flutter here and there.

I actually had a controller specifically made for that one thing only.

Artist or Band name?

Trentemøller

Genre?

Indie / electronica

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Copenhagen. Denmark.

How did you get into music?

I started playing on all sorts of stuff, from pots and pans to toy pianos, from when I was 3 or 4 years old, and never stopped loving and playing music!!

What still drives you to make music?

I love the playful energy in it and the fact that I can create my own little musical world!

How do you most often start a new track?

At my upright piano.

How do you know when a track is finished?

It’s easier now, it was hard for me earlier. But I need to, still have that spontaneous vibe I had, when I started working on a song. It’s so easy to overproduce or overdo a track.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“Use your ears” and “There is no right or wrong way to do things!“

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

Trentemoller – Obverse [Editor: Go listen now! Really]

[Editor: There are affiliate links to the relevant gear throughout the articles. It helps to support this blog. In fact, should you be needing some patch cables or guitar strings. Then clicking on one of the above links and buying any product that you prefer, will help the blog… doesn’t even have to be the ones in the link. Thx]

Jens Paldam – Buchla Buddy

1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

Here I am on the same blog as Tom Whitwell (Editor: Read his answers to ‘9 Odd Questions’ here) and I must mention his Turing Machine. It is one of the most brilliant modules out there and the knob that sets the balance between random and looped is nothing short of genius in all its simplicity. I have it sitting right next to Mutable Instruments Marbles (though I have owned the original, I currently use the Antumbra CARA version to save precious hp). Marbles is another brilliant module that expands on the core idea from the Turing Machine. The two of them are often patched together in a feedback loop that forms the foundation of many of the patches I create.

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?
The Buchla Multi-dimensional kinesthetic input port model 223e is somewhere between a keyboard and a sequencer. It is extremely playable. With it, one never runs out of control voltage sources. You can dial in the CV value for each key, so any scale or tuning system can be applied. The one thing that would be great was if the CV value wasn’t restricted to whole numbers, since the note I am trying to reach often lies somewhere between two whole numbers :/

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?
I usually bring my Buchla Skylab case. I have this nice soft bag for it and it can be packed while patched up.
There is always some programming of the 223e I can do, something that is nice to do away from the distractions of my other studio gear.

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?
I worked with several hardware samplers over the years, but with the software sampler HALion from Steinberg I thought I had found my main sampler. When I started using modular hardware, I stopped using samplers all together, but about a year ago, I got hold of an Assimil8or from Rossum Electro Music. Though it might not be as comprehensive as a software sampler like the HALion or Native Instruments Kontakt, it has some great features that makes it an amazing tool in a modular context, like sampling of CV, phase modulation, scrub and shuttle, CV control over bit depth and aliasing. It is an amazing module.

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?
I had a TR-808 that I sold some 15 years ago for about 1000 euros. I don’t really miss having it, since I hadn’t lived in Detroit in the eighties and wasn’t amongst those who had thrown their love on a discarded second hand machine, using it to realize their dream of changing the world through a unique vision of how the future should sound, but I regret not holding on to it for a little longer because now it is worth three times what I sold it for. Basically, I am on the lookout for something that is unique for my time and can help me achieve something with the same level of originality as the 808 and the techno created by the maestros from Detroit.

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?
Sorry for the predictable and boring answer, but probably just modular gear in general. When patching, I can “invent” my own instrument particular to whatever track that I wish to create. This description might also apply to other types of gear or software, but with modular, everything starts like an experiment. It is to me, infinitely more inspiring and creative than choosing a software instrument and then browse through and modify the presets until I find a sound I like.

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?
Modular hardware, like maybe a Doepfer system. Learning about modular is learning about the elements of electronic music in the right order. When I got my first modules, working with music software suddenly felt like a flight simulator compared to modular, which is like being in the cockpit of a real airplane 🙂

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?
Not sure that I have any gear that annoys me. The one thing I can think of is the Rossum Control Forge. It is in every sense an amazing module – it takes the concept of the Buchla MARF to the next level. But since it is so advanced, I often have to reach out for the manual, so I guess that is one of those “good problems”.

9. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

I have a Roman Filippov Buchla 208 Clone. I absolutely love the way it sounds, and wouldn’t change it for a “real” Buchla 208, even if I got paid to do it, but one thing that bothered me was that I didn’t have control over the envelope section’s attack and decay, that was until a friend of mine pointed out that patching CV into the ‘from prog‘ and ‘to prog‘ does exactly that.

Artist or Band name?
Jens Paldam

Genre?
Leftfield

Selfie?

Where are you from?
Aarhus, Denmark

How did you get into music?
I started playing the guitar when I was seven.

What still drives you to make music?
I can’t stop. I love it. I once asked myself the essential question: What is it you want? Do you want to put your efforts into making a name for yourself or do you want to put everything into making music that gives your listeners an experience? You might think that the two are not mutually exclusive, but he who chases two rabbits rarely catches one – as the Japanese saying goes.

How do you most often start a new track?
I make a field recording somewhere and get an idea. Other times, an experiment on the modular becomes the foundation of a new track.

How do you know when a track is finished?
When it starts to feel done, I let it sit for a while without listening to it. That is the only way I can come close to that valuable fresh ears experience.

Show us your current studio
Here is a photo of the bulletin board I have above my studio desk. I often look at it and let my thoughts drift while listening to a track I am working on, so the content changes frequently.

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?
Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.
My YouTube channel is youtube.com/jenspaldam

But I also think you should do yourself a solid and check out Chris Cutler’s excellent podcast series “Probes”… I learned so much from it.

[Editor: Jens recently did a lovely ‘driven’ ambient set at Chiba City Museum of Art in Japan. Check it out below]

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]