Alongside Stockholms Cari Lekebusch, Joel Mull and Jesper Dahlback, Adam Beyer has become synonymous with the techno sound of Sweden, which has quite literally shaken the world since the mid-nineties. From the driving percussive force of his Drumcode label to the more open electronic miasma on his current Truesoul and Mad Eye imprints, Beyer remains one of the biggest and most influential producer/DJs on the planet. Ever keen to continually evolve and develop, his three studio albums Decoded (Planet Rhythm, 1996), Protection (Drumcode, 1999) and Ignition Key (Truesoul, 2002) aptly show the Swedes studio development from raw diamond to the polished article.
He's come a long way from sneaking underage into Stockholms blossoming acid house scene but would also be the first to admit that he's still got just as long and interesting journey ahead of him. From listening to hard rock and Kiss at the tender age of 5, Adam Beyer was always fascinated by music and the black shiny discs he would struggle to save up and buy as a youngster in Stockholm. Whilst getting into hip hop and rap, Beyers young ears were suddenly opened to the new sounds emanating from Italy and the UK in 1987/88 via the "rakt over disk" radio show which played a mish-mash of the blossoming house music scene. "I decided that it was the coolest thing on earth," he fondly remembers and listened to it every week.
"He (the presenter) was manipulating a lot of the records, singing over them - he was in a big fancy studio with all this equipment. It was then that I decided I was going to be a DJ."
"I met Joel Mull and Peter Benisch in school when I was 16 or 17 and I taught Joel how to DJ," says Beyer. "He introduced me to Peter who had a sampler and we started to fool around with that a bit. I didnt have a clue what to do. We started to learn the basics with one thing and then we bought an Atari, then saved some money and bought a Juno 106, a 303 and so on." By 1993 they were confident enough to send demos out and some landed at Drive In in New York which was then run by Adam X and Jimmy Crash. Eight months later Adam Beyers childhood dream was realized. His first record came out. With more records coming out the three friends started to get booked for bigger raves whilst interest abroad remained in the Scandinavian environs of Finland, Norway and Denmark. Then everything just snowballed. "In 94 we released a lot of records but I still didnt use my name as it was all still a bit of a compromise. There was a lot of really fast tempo stuff and some hard trance but I was already buying a lot of techno from UR, Jeff Mills to R&S and Harthouse. Nothing was really crystalised."
Then Beyer had what one could term a techno epiphany when he finished school in 1995. He went on holiday and came up with the idea of making a record based solely around drums. Thus it was that year that Drumcode 1 was released on Glen Wilsons Planet Rhythm imprint, the same name of the record store that Beyer had managed to find his first work in after leaving the safety net of school and where he was to also meet fellow DJ/producer Cari Lekebusch. After releasing Drumcode 2 and an album for Planet Rhythm in 1995 Decoded, Beyer finally went on to form his own label, Drumcode in 1996. At first Beyers distributors advised him to be cautious and to press up 1,000 copies as he might loose money. "The first release on Drumcode however set the pace for the rest of the labels releases by becoming a bit of a hit but I stopped it at 3,000 copies because I was still in this underground mode," recalls Beyer. "Cari had his studio and there was a good vibe in Stockholm. There was a big club which held 2,000 people where we played a lot and it made the scene pretty big in Sweden. A lot of people started getting into the sound." By now Beyer, Lekebusch and fellow local artists like Joel Mull were selling as Beyer succinctly puts it " loads."
Truesoul was established in 2002. Beyer set the style for the label with his most accomplished work to date, his third studio album Ignition Key in 2002. Displaying subtle tones, shimmering chords and the kind of sonic intuition that heralded a bold change for Beyer as an artist it wasnt long before the world again was clawing to catch up. "The original plan was to put out more albums but the market wasnt right for it," states Beyer. "The plan now is that it can still be anything within electronic music. Its a completely open forum for whatever good stuff I find but definitely more on a 12 inch angle at the moment. I want to explore electronic music and make a good platform for everything that is not hard and nasty. It can be anything from clubbier stuff, to strings to minimal and ed up stuff. As long as it doesnt go near Drum Code!"
With so many new producers coming up through the ranks in his home country, Truesoul has already seen releases from the likes of Joel Mull, Cirez D (aka Eric Prydz), Cari Lekebusch, Henrik B and even Stockholms Ozgur Can who hails from a more progressive background. With such a melting pot of electronic styles, Beyer has also set up a new imprint for a more stripped down and minimal sound. "Mad Eye is only for me. Its kind of an anagram of my name. Its more where I am right now. A bit stripped down, not as obvious and as fast as Drumcode and slightly more experimental." The label heralds a new subtle, more production focused slant and Beyer is quick to point out the catalyst for his new musical direction. A lot of the change came from going to Ibiza.
"A lot of things have happened there over the last three or four years and I have been exposed to another environment with longer parties and long after hours. I was a raver when I was young so its nothing new for me to be out partying but doing it in this kind of way has changed me." Indeed the record slated to be the fifth release for Mad Eye was snapped up for Plus 8 after various MP3 files were sent to Richie Hawtin to play out in his DJ sets.
This change has also filtered into his DJ sets. Known globally for his more punishing, looped up techno mastery, Beyer has also infused his more stripped down productions into the flow of his deck manipulation. "If I get to play exactly what I want then I would peak my sets with this music because I dont play a lot of the old stuff anymore." Indeed, Beyers new style can be witnessed on his mix CD for Fabric (May, 2005) which features tracks from the likes of Dominik Eulberg, 2 Dollar Egg and Alex Under - all themselves rising stars within the techno fraternity. However, Drumcode does still exist but Beyer wants the label to also go through some changes. "It will essentially still have the original feel and tempo but with a fresh sound. For me now it is not so important to release a lot of records," states Beyer. "Its more about releasing records that matter and records that have a longer lasting life. I want to look back and say wow, I did that. I want to feel that I represented something and I think that things like that become more important with age. What shape or form that takes is hard to tell." The future couldnt be in safer hands.
ugh, can't believe i'm gonna miss one of my favorite tag team-ers, mull and beyer!!!!! i have a new part time job and i work every friday at a bar in downtown and don't get finished until after 2:30 am!!!!!!
i love these guys together, fell in love with their tag team set at SSFD in miami this year and then was lucky enough to catch them in the side room at privilege for meganite in ibiza!!!!!
*sticks out lower lip and stands in the corner*
have fun kids, what a great fckin line up!!!
pointer
presales are up.
:P
rob.
somethinfierce
nice lil interview w/Mull from Underground TV
pointer
Funktion One both rooms tonight!
:)
rob.
R!CH
these guys KILLED IT in sf last night :crazy:
Clovis
Man, I really wanted to see these two again, but I got a birthday party to attend.
Have a good one rob et al. :)
rizo
quote:
Originally posted by R!CH
these guys KILLED IT in sf last night :crazy:
+1 ...i thought we only had one 1.8L bottle of Demon Killer sake, turns out we had two! Rich you need to join us next time!
