Spanish duo Clock Poets release on Sleep is Commercial (interview)...
It’s safe to say that Spanish duo Clock Poets are pretty hardware-obsessed. Known for leaning towards minimal and techno planes, the Spanish duo are similarly renowned for their live sets and improvised jams, the likes of which have won plaudits aplenty from some of electronic music’s similarly renowned minds. One such person who’s clearly enamoured with what the boys are all about is Sleep is Commercial boss Andrea Ferlin, who has hosted them before on his much-revered imprint. For Clock Poets’ latest release, they rock up to the label once more; this time courtesy of the incredible 'Interaction One - Berlin’. Releasing eight tracks from a lengthy recent recording and publishing it as a continuous mix, it’s a fascinating insight into the musical makeup of the duo which we've premiered here. We caught up with them recently to learn more…
Talk to us a bit about growing up in Spain and when you first encountered electronic music?
Spain is a great country culturally, people love music, gathering and celebrating. Although electronic music has always been more up to date in the big cities like Madrid or Barcelona. We were lucky to spend a great part of our lives in the Balearics where electronic music has had an impact since the seventies, especially, but not only, in Ibiza.
We could go on and tell some typical teenager stories but neither of us can remember anything extraordinary from when we encountered electronic music. It could be of interest saying that we discovered minimal music around 2005. In my case (Marco) I was 20 years old and went crazy for the sounds of Steve Bug, Robag Wruhme, Wighnomy Brothers, Swayzak, Trentemoller…
For Javi, moving to Ibiza and listening to Rhadoo in Underground club with such a deep and hypnotic sound was a big inspiration.
When did you begin to take it seriously? What motivated and influenced this?
We should take it seriously more often! haha We do get serious at soundchecks because we change our setup often and it’s risky. Sometimes we have great talks, we should do this, we should do that, but at the end we just go with the flow and improvise, in our path, in the studio and at our gigs. We don’t have a clear strategy, we meet inspiring people that makes us want to do more and more music.
Tell us a bit about how you met one another first. Was it through a shared love of music?
Juno 106 haha It was because Marco (me) sold Javi a Juno 106 and it had a faulty voice chip so… Being from the Basque country Javi called me with his deep, no joking, voice and I tried to tame him with my demos and it worked.
From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like the sound in Spain has really matured over the last few years, and is less concerned with by-numbers tech-house and increasingly interested in more discerning sounds. Would you say this is fair to say?
If we take Ibiza out of the equation, then yes. In the last few years some clubs in Barcelona, Madrid and now also Palma (Selva Club) are going for a more mature sound. But maybe Ibiza is going in reverse.
What motivated you to start Clock Poets in the first place?
In 2014 when we started jamming away from the computer and we realised how much fun we were having, we were like, oh man! If we only could just do all our records like this, we wanted to record and release our jams as raw as possible and we thought we could do it if we made our own label. But then we went for vinyl releases and due to the pressure of a release like that we ended up putting more editing work on it than we would have liked in the first place.
Even though we kept a very jam-like feel on our records, it wasn’t until now when we recorded this album for Andrea that we can finally say we are releasing a piece of music recorded in one go. For us this is very special, we believe we have stepped into a new page for Clock Poets, if a maestro like Andrea finds it good enough, then for sure we will be more confident from now on when releasing parts of our live sets or studio jams which was the original feeling for Clock Poets.
So when listening to our Interactions series, bear in mind it was recorded in club conditions, live and with no studio equipment.
You’ve had some excellent guests on the label, such as Steevio from Freeroation, Guido Schneider, System of Survival and more. How important is it that the guys you work with share a similar ethos to you? Do you generally give them free reign to producer music as they like? Or do you consider all the music first before signing it?
With Steevio, Topper, Ferlin, Baltazar, Difid… What could go wrong? But also now expanding and joining families with Albert Azar, 3lias, Nagual, Raphael Merheb, Veruh… Brilliant guys to share music-making with.
Your latest is our via the always excellent Sleep is Commercial label. How did you get to know Andrea and what makes it a great place for your music?
We already loved his vibe and how while being so versatile he has such a distinctive sound in everything he produces or even plays. After that we meet him in person and imagine!
Do your productions generally end up as you imagine they would? Or is it more a case of jamming in the studio and seeing what you come up with? Tell us a bit about the latest record and the vibe you were going for with it…
Our last record it's a studio jam on top of a recording extract we have from our ambient live at Bar D59B Berlin and now we think that this is the best way to make music ever haha. Until we change our minds again.
What is your ultimate ambition with the Clock Poets project? Who do you look up to as someone who’s really done it right?
Our ultimate ambition now is to have a long private demo list like Root has, where every demo is better than the previous and you go crazy trying to decide for the best tracks haha
We would like to continue meeting people and visiting studios and clubs around the world.
What’s next for you guys that you’re really excited about?
We are super happy to have this new Interactions 001 album out and for everyone to hear what was a very pleasing afternoon, our first contact with such a special place as it is CDV. On Sleep Is Commercial, a label that basically was the one to put us on the radar in 2021.
Apart from this, we are preparing a new vinyl release on our label. We are excited about Beirut, The Gold Room, Oslo. Lots to come!
Check out the premiere of Clock Poets' Interaction One Berlin here
Keep up with Clock Poets on Instagram and Bandcamp. And be sure to check their website here