| BlueSky |
For those who don't know much about them, here's some youtube links:
Dakota - Apollo (Wellenrausch Remix)
Wellenrauch - Sanctified
Wellenrausch - Everybody Loved
https://www.facebook.com/wellenrauschmusic
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1. Hello, Torsten! Tell us something more about yourself and the way Wellenrausch came to life.
I have to start in the early days. Listening to music was my first full love; I still remember all this experiences I had when listening to the early works of Jan-Michel Jarre. In that time I also become a computer nerd, everything around that was so magic for me. First my experiences were limited but with the come-out of the commodore 64 around 1984 everything changed. Making music on a different, new level became reality. With this little beast I was able to create the tones "near" the ones from my electronic heroes like Jarre and Kraftwerk. Same time i had these lessons in piano and guitar i was going deeper and deeper into music technology and harmonics. I started with "Wellenrausch" solo in the year 2000, before that I was producing more stuff in the house scene, but 2000 trance become again my love. But working alone was never my fully intention, I was always in search for another soul in that project, so in 2003 I and a friend of mine made the track "on the run", which was very successful and heavy supported by a lot of top jocks around. Time passed by, and there were times with two guys in Wellenrausch and times with me solo. But I tell you what; all these times are meaningless since Markus joined Wellenrausch in 2009. I moved to Berlin in 2006, Markus moved to Berlin in 2008. We first met each other in late 2008. I was working in my studio and as usual I took a coffee break outside. I was talking to one of my fellows, a norwegian producer who had his studio in the same building, and for some reason he handed me over a demo cd from this austrian guy he met a few days before and he was working with at the moment, it was Markus. I found the demo songs quite interesting and made some production work on one of the songs. Next day we met and we listened to each others stuff. This was kind of a perfect collision. Markus was exactly looking for these kind of sounds. There was only one thing to do: start working together. Since then this project got a complete new focus, a new view on music. Wellenrausch is now a BAND, two guys on one mission.
2. Translated from German into English, Wellenrausch means Noise/sound of waves. How did you come up with this name for the project?
A lot of people ask us. First of all, "Wellen" is the German word for "Waves", "Rausch" is the German word for "Rush",,, but the meaning is kind different, as in German it’s also a word game. In my idea "Wellen" stand for the "sound-waves", and "rausch" for the state of mind when listening music and falling into "trance". This can happen without drugs, just by listening to music. All the first techno had this effect to me.
3. 2011 was a very good year for you – some of the biggest trance DJs played your tracks, you released your album “Personal Epos”. Did you see that coming? How would you describe the feeling when you see the support of the biggest names in the genre?
Well, from the first production day on, we knew that there was something special happening and somehow we managed to keep up the energy for the whole production time of the album. So when we finally heard the final versions of every track blasting out of the studio speakers we were absolutely enthusiastic about the whole album. Of course we wanted to send the album out into the world, having it played by the greatest DJs in the best clubs, on the radio. There is one scene we will always remember: One evening, by the end of the production of Personal Epos, we stood outside our studio fantasizing about the album: "If only Markus Schulz would play one track from the album!". This was the dream, and at that time we knew that this dream was not too far out of reach. Somehow we knew that it could happen. The feeling when we heard the first single "Sanctified" on air at Markus Schulz Global DJ Broadcast was indescribable. The support we're getting from Markus Schulz was incredible from the first day on. Now we have our brandnew and very successful track "Million Miles To Run" on his Los Angeles '12 compilation, and once again we feel like blown away. But a lot of tracks from Personal Epos are receiving great support: "Everybody loved" was New York City's M.I.K.E best of Club Elite Sessions 2011 compilation. Paul Oakenfold picked up "No Superstition" and "Echoes In The Night" for his compilations. The support we're getting from DJs around the world is really amazing. We know that our tracks are powerful and somehow different, but we never expected such an amount of support.
4. Do you think that support and quick fame can cut both ways and in certain cases do more bad than good for the producer?
I’ve noticed that most rising stars fade quickly or make things by default exactly because of that quick fame. What do you think? Markus: We both have been making music for quite a long time now and we know how hard it is to even get noticed in music business. And once you're getting noticed or better known in nowadays digital jungle, you never know how long this situation will stay, how long you will get the focus. Considering all the things that you don't know, the one rule that remains is that at least it has to be interesting and challenging to ourselves. This is the only constant we ever want to keep in mind. This means that in some way we have to push ourselves to fail in order to reinvent ourselves as often as possible . That's all we can do. That's all we need to do. Support is of course another thing. Everybody in music business, and probably in every business, is dependent on support, is dependent on a team. You need support to spread your music, and you need a team. Torsten: We both don't want to repeat something because it has worked. We both want to compose and produce simply because we want to create in the first, because it challenges us. We love to tackle a musical idea in different ways because we feel we can give it a new edge, pushing ourselves to new musical teritorries and come up with something that surprises us. That's the deal. So we both have this need to experiment and discover and to put our feet on "new" musical territory as often as possible. This is exactly what we demand from ourselves. And this will guide our way.
5. Let’s focus on Wellenrausch. The lyrics to your tracks are quite unusual. Tracks like “Sanctified”, “Everybody Loved” and “Tonight” seem to be based on personal experience. Is this the right formula for good vocal tracks?
Markus: I've been writing lyrics and songs for quite a long time now. It takes a while to fold something you want to say into a few lines and make it work within a song. Of course it's something personal. I'd never write lyrics where my heart is not in it. The lyrics are definitely derived from personal experience, thoughts or imagination. I'm always trying to get beneath the surface. It's like it always had been: There is no formula, just the pure need to express oneself with lyrics and melodies. And maybe someone finds this interesting or likes it.
6. When watching your videos one can sometimes feel as if watching a movie. Are there movies and film score composers that inspire you to make such music? Your music sounds different from what is widely spread nowadays, where do you get your inspiration from?
Torsten: Allthough there are some great soundtrack composers out there, they had never been that influential as our different musical pasts from the both of us. I was rooted in the electronic scene, mainly the the techno scene in the beginning. Markus came from the more "analogue" Rock and Pop music world. These are the basic ingredients to the music and to the sound of Wellenrausch. It's this symbiosis we build on. There is a wide range of musical styles, artists, DJs and producers that are and were influential and inspiring, both on the electronic and on the "analogue" side. Whereas talking about the inspiration, the creation of a seed of an idea, is quite hard to do. It lies both in our musical past and in the sounds of nowadays DJs and producers and in our very own way to approach an idea, a track or a song. It's a mixture of our personal influences, the way you work them up and play with them, and, as a result, a very personal, almost unconscious procedure.
7. Is there a score/soundtrack you would like to remix? Would you compose the score for a movie if you get asked to?
Torsten: At the moment there is no specific soundtrack we put our eyes on. We really do want to produce a soundtrack for a movie as soon as we find the time to do so. We've got quite interesting material to work on, but we have a real tight schedule over the next weeks and months. As soon as there is time left we'll start working on it.
8. How did you come up with the idea for the video to “Everybody Loved?” It is very unusual for this kind of music, what did you want to tell your fans with it?
Markus: Torsten came up with the video footage and we both felt that it could fit in some way. The basic idea for the video to "Everybody loved" would be: no matter how crazy, freaked out, how far away from the ground you are, at some point you have to return to the ground. You need to come home in some way. Its good to see things from different angles, experience the new, the unknown, putting yourself into the insecure. But on some point you need to touch the ground again, feeling safe. And the safest place or the safest state is the knowledge of being loved. It's like returning home from all the troubles and forces that work on you, when you're embraced and when you're welcomed home. So you have to return. You could turn it the other way round: Everybody loved and everybody is loved means that nobody hates and nobody is hated. No matter how far out we are, no matter how far out of reach this seems, this is where we long to be.
9. What can we expect from Wellenrausch in 2012 – more original productions or remixes?
Torsten: We kick off the Personal Epos Tour. So 2012 is the year to bring Personal Epos onstage. We got a strong 2 hour set including the Apollo remix we did for Markus Schulz and of course "Million Miles To Run", the track that Markus Schulz picked up for the Los Angeles '12 compilation. So we're ready to get onstage taking the audience into the world of Wellenrausch. Beside that we have a release schedule this year. But we don't want to reveal too much. We can tell you that we've got some great material to work on, basically original productions. But we're sure that a few remixes will be on the list this year. So between the live events we're planning to get back into the studio, always hoping to surprise ourselves and the audience.
10. Besides producing, do you also DJ? Nowadays a DJ needs to produce his/her own music in order to succeed. However, should every producer be a DJ as well? What do you think?
Torsten: Wellenrausch is a "trance band". We have a live setup. Onstage i do the DJ thing, Markus does the live vocals. The scenarios in music are always the same: All kind of combinations that have been there, are still here today. It's always the same. Someone is producing and composing in the background, and someone else sells it to an audience, and there have always been acts that are doing all by themselves. Wellenrausch is such an act. The decision what to do is always very personal. There is no must. If there is a potential market, if the music coincides with market tastes, then it doesn't matter if the Dj produces his own music or if he plays the music from someone else. There is no formula saying you must do it a certain way in order to succeed. There is only your very own way with all the consequences that this brings along.
11. Your music seems very similar to the old Coldharbour sound, typical of Markus Schulz 6-7 years ago (of course, it sounds more contemporary). Do you think this is the reason you get so much support from him? Do you plan to stick to this sound?
Torsten: The whole great work of Markus Schulz is definitely an influence. As mentioned above, all musical influences work inside, you work them up over time and use them again in a different way, in a different environment, playing it on your own way within your own sounds. Markus Schulz is a worldwide Top Ten DJ. And we think he's still highly interested in what's going on in the scene. Maybe he felt that our music is a bit "off", or a bit different or somehow interesting and therefore interesting for his Global DJ Broadcast community as well. We think we have this specific Wellenrausch sounds and arrangements in our work and in our remixes. As long as we both feel that we still can produce interesting stuff, that we still can surpise in some way, these typical Wellenrausch sounds will be one of the main ingredients to our tracks. We're curious ourselves what sounds we're gonna use for the next tracks and for the next album.
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hope you enjoyed it guys :) |
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