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Tripmastaz discusses latest EP on Swiss Imprint Adam's Bite and more in this new Q&A
You’ve been releasing music for well over two decades now, but there’s still a real sense of curiosity and experimentation running through your records. What keeps you excited about making music after all this time, and where does Def Murky fit into that journey?
I just simply love it, and like DJing its just who I am or became when I was a teenager, its the language and the process and the way of life. When you opened to it and willing to go places and discover things. I'm getting bored real fast with something that well defined, generic or plain.
There’s a raw, instinctive quality across these four tracks that feels very much like classic Tripmastaz territory, but there are also plenty of left turns throughout. Did this EP come together with a clear direction in mind, or was it more about following wherever the machines wanted to take you?
I'm always very cautious about 'where machines take you' aspect. Though I let them loose and stay with open ears.
But the core idea or concept for a track comes first and technology serves the purpose, not runs it. Mind over technology.
Adam’s Bite has built a catalogue that sits comfortably between the deeper ends of house, minimal and techno. What is it about the label that makes it such a natural home for your music?
Exactly what you said, its a pretty eclectic and musical label My music often stays on a tracky and groovy side, so it was interesting for me to see which tracks guys will pick up. And knowing that their selection will be very different from my own adds even more excitement.
WeRdaHouse’ opens the EP with a real sense of movement and tension, constantly evolving without ever standing still. Can you talk us through how that track came together and whether it set the tone for the rest of the release?
I don't necessarily have any special story about the track.
I never stop making new music and mostly it stays unreleased. So to understand better how this EP was done (or any other of my EPs pretty much with some rare exceptions) Look at it as a compilation of trax that were made in different times and occasions. I never sit and make certain amount of trax specifically for an EP.
So I guess this track felt like an opening track of an EP to the guys and thats that.
Vocal sample is also pretty self-explanatory :)
‘Gluten Morgen’ is probably the wildest moment on the record, full of squelching acid lines, delayed vocals and plenty of psychedelic energy. How much of your studio process is carefully planned and how much is simply capturing happy accidents as they happen?
As you can tell its a live jam with me myself and I. Kinda cool rhodes solo too ain't it? :)
Nod to my favorite west coast early 2k sound I never stopped loving and playing.
Alongside releasing music, you've expanded both Respect The Craft and your analogue mastering venture Tripmastering in recent years. Has spending so much time on the technical side of music changed the way you approach your own productions?
I always liked the technical aspect and it actually is in the core of electronic music anyways.
But def this knowledge gives you better understanding on how to achieve better sound and dynamic qualities. On how to treat frequencies and their relationships, how to make sound clearer and to translate to a vinyl medium. How to achieve certain acoustic or psycho acoustic things and expand your music. It will be a long technical conversation...
Your records have always managed to balance functionality with personality, working equally well in a club while still sounding unmistakably like you. Is that something you consciously strive for, or has it just naturally developed over time?
I guess its natural extension of my personality and what I like in music as a dj and listener.
Certain energy and groove flow which is more subliminal thing hard to put in words.
I like my music and music I play to be working on the dancefloor and not to be a flop but at the same time with interesting ideas or sounds and not boring or dead energy wise.
And yet its always my way of self-expression and sharing thoughts and feelings through this form of underground dance music. You can tell it even by my tracks or EP names or vocal samples here and there besides the music itself of course.
Looking beyond Def Murky, what’s currently inspiring you both inside and outside of music, and what can people expect from the next chapter of the Tripmastaz story?
Music itself never stops inspiring me.
I'm always on to the next one. New music, new records, new gigs, new ideas, new travels. Let's see what future holds. Peace.