by Brad Rose

I started getting piano lessons at the age of (I believe) 8 for five years. I think when I was 13 or 14 I got my first CD for a birthday. It was “Synthesizer Greatest”.... Ha ha, really crappy stuff, but I liked it at that time. Soon after I got into LL Cool J, Salt 'n Pepper, etc..... I remember copying an LL Cool J cassette, playing it on my nephew's cassette player and recording it with the built-in mic of my ghetto blaster.

Then I started with guitar lessons. Like everyone of my age, I was heavily impressed by Nirvana so I wanted to make music like that. I bought my own first CD then, which was “Dirt” by Alice in Chains.

A year or so later I discovered extreme metal and became a “metalhead”. My favorites where Carcass, My Dying Bride and Morbid Angel. My mother sewed some patches on my jeans jacket. After that I got into dark- and coldwave (Cold Meat Industries stuff) and then electronic music came along.

A classmate gave me a software program to make music with, called Fast Tracker. It was great fun. That was the start of my career as an “electronic musician”. I made loads of cassettes filled with trip hop, drum 'n bass and ambient experiments.

Aphex Twin and Autechre where a big influence. It started with the more beat-influenced stuff by Aphex Twin, but it's not a big step to get to Brian Eno then.... Also Howie B influenced me a lot.... and Fennesz.

I can't speak for everyone, but my youth was really quiet. I was a very shy kid then and never got into fights, so there are no spectacular stories....

A big role. Tension gives the music quality. I like to play with the contradiction of rough sounds (crackles, hiss, etc) and dreamy melodies.... At its best, the music sucks you in and you kinda lose track of time. It's like watching something horrifying but being unable not to watch, if you know what I mean.

The twenty minutes of a 3-inch is a perfect length to tell a “story” I think. I see those releases as full albums. It's a perfect way to experiment and really get into detail instead of losing focus. I think very quick and want to get ideas that I have out of my system as soon as possible. So therefore those 3-inches are perfect; it's fast but concentrated.

The limited run is just 'cause I don't sell millions of copies, and I’m not very rich.... But the runs are getting bigger. Nowadays I mostly make 150 copies of a release.

The story I was talking about is purely a musical one. So I don't have a story as a concept, but a story in pure sound. It can be linear, or in different chapters, but it always has to be an adventure. Does this make any sense? Hope so.

Not having my own concrete story gives the listener freedom to think of his/her own images or thoughts...

It was different in the way that it took way more time to make it. For the first time I had to think of a longer time span and how to keep a record interesting for the full 50 minutes... I tried to make a record the way I think a record should be.

That was sort of a coincidence. I ordered an album from Type Records, and there was a little flyer in the package, from Lampse. At that time I was sending CDs to labels and Lampse seemed like a nice one. I mailed Monika Heredotou (she runs Lampse) asking if she'd be interested in getting a demo. I got a very enthusiastic mail back. Two weeks later I got the news that Monika wanted to release an album. I think without her I wouldn't be where I am now with my music. I owe her.

Well... ehm.... I never heard their music before....... The only Dutch electronic music that influenced me is “Public Energy no.1” and “A Shocking Hobby” by Speedy J

Well, long live MySpace! I got a friend request of him. I proposed to trade some music. His album became one of my favorites of the year and when he offered to send me some cello improvisations for me to fuck around with I was happy like a kid! So those improvisations are the basis of the “Cello Recycling” piece. It's gonna be released on Type, as a CD-single and a 10-inch. It's accompanied by an Aaron Martin remix of the piece I made with his sounds.... Get it? It'll be out in August probably....

I've just finished a piece called “Stofstuk”. I'm releasing it as a business-card CD-R, and I’m also asking artists I admire to do a remix. It's gonna be a CD-release this summer I think. So far Steinbruchel, Aaron Martin, Xela, Marcus Fjellstrom, Peter Rehberg and Peter Broderick confirmed...

Well, a lot I must say... A lot of minimal-style electronica from the Cut and Line labels. I discovered Giuseppe Ielasse recently. Great stuff... but also the latest Arcade Fire. And some Sublime Frequencies CDs...

Not that I can think of any now.... Maybe a release on Digitalis in the future?