1. What are your earliest memories of music, what did you listen to growing up? How did you get involved in electronic music and what made you decide to pursue it full time?

Oliver: When i was around 6/7 I had a tape recorder which I loved to play with and record all kinds of stuff.
I was always very musical kid.
Soon i was building big speakers and around 14 started to play electric bass and in several funk, soul and jazz bands.
In that time I would listen to funk and soul stuff like Level 42, Stanley Clarke, Marcus miller or early electronic stuff from pink floyd and later yello, jean-michel jarre etc.

At some point, I realised my future was not going to be in bands so I went out bought my first sampler and hardware sequencer. It was just what I wanted to do and was very lucky to have my first release around one year later 1989 on Thorsten Fenslau's label Abfahrt.
It gained great worldwide reactions and almost hit the official German charts!
From then on, I just got drawn into producing, buying gear, working on my sound and making different styles.

2. Have you always lived in Frankfurt? What is the music scene like there in terms of clubs and events? Do you get booked in your home city very often?

Oliver: I moved outside Frankfurt in 1997 for 11 years but now I’m back again.
Frankfurt has lots of clubs but the vibe in many places tends to be quite negative, so I don’t like it much.
There are some underground parties here and there that are good but i mostly play outside Germany at the moment.

3. Did you have any formal music training growing up?
In regards to composing or engineering / sound design etc..?
And if not did anyone help you out along the way?

Oliver: I had a really good bass teacher who showed me the theoretical points but you start with the first programs, you just get in there and grow with them as their features do. I developed my mixing ears very early listening on good balanced speakers to well produced and mixed music.

4. You've had a lot of incredibly well received productions over the years...the list is literally endless from Paragliders 'Paraglide / Bagdad',
L.S.G. 'Netherworld', Aquillia 'Dreamstate' (Oliver Lieb Remix) and so on.
Do you have any that you're particularly proud or fond of and why?

Oliver: I always like the last production most, until the next one is finished =) I don’t really have favourites.
All these tracks meant something to me at a point in time, so I’m proud of all the tracks i’ve made.
Your style just continuously evolves and you’re always getting better, so it’s nice to hear the progress.

5. Talk a bit about the current status of your labels Solieb and Maschine. What are the label visions?
How do they differ?
And what advice would you give to producers hoping to get their tracks signed to the labels?
How would you suggest they approach it?

Oliver: Solieb is only for re-releasing my own old tracks and Maschine is for my new songs.
Maschine has been on pause for a while after moving my studio back to Frankfurt however I’m ready to re-launch it again!
There’s a lot of great music in the pipeline and I’m pleased to say it will restart this late summer.
I don’t have any plans to feature other artists on Maschine for the time being, but then again it all depends on what tracks I receive =)

6. Your remix for Fran Von Vie's 'Albatros' is coming out soon on 99percent recordings, it's already received radio play from John Digweed and the feedback overall has been outstanding. Talk a bit about the process of remixing that track.

Oliver: The original was very full and had a lot of cool sounds so I preferred to strip this one back a little.
I’m really pleased with the end result and glad to be part of the EP because there are a lot of great tracks on there.

7. Your mix CD entitled 'The Audible Suspects' with Jimmy Van M was recently released on Bedrock and contained tracks from Ryan Davis, D. Diggler, Daso, Lanny May, yourself and many others. Talk a bit how this project came about.
Was it something you and Jimmy discussed and then approached Bedrock about? How did you go about selecting the tracks for it? Is the mix a good representation of the music you would play in a club set?

Oliver: Jimmy and I made contact again after a bit of a break.
He was moving.
I was moving.
We had an idea of putting together a mix compilation that encapsulated the sounds our sets in to one cool mix.
We spoke to John about it who was really supportive of the idea, so we set about contacting artists to send over their unreleased tracks.
I’m really pleased with what both we did on this mix.
It was a big challenge to compress all the ideas on to one CD!

8. Do you have any plans for a new full length album and what do you think of artist albums in the digital era? Do you feel they are as important as they once were?

Oliver: Yes - I think they’re really important and show the real capabilities of an artist.
I don’t have any plans to release an album right now however I wouldn’t rule it out.

9.
You were well known for your Paragliders, L.S.G., Ambush and Spicelab aliases, do you have any plans for these in the future?

Oliver: To be honest, I think people get confused with project names these days because there’s so much music out there, so I won’t be doing anything with them at this point in time.
Never say never though ;-)

10. Many people may not be aware but you also own a mastering and vinyl cutting service under the name LHaudio with WJ Henze. Talk a bit about what you offer and how can people get in touch with you to have their tracks mastered?

Oliver: Yes - its a high end mastering service with very nice analogue gear where I’m personally responsible for the mastering and my partner for the cutting process on a state of the art modified Neumann VMS 80 cutting lathe.
I’m getting back to the artists with detailed instructions if there is some problem or improvement that they can do to get even better results.
There also is a cheaper alternative to master with plugins which is actually for free when a vinyl cut is made.
The best way to reach us is through our website www.lhaudio.com

11. How does your studio setup differ now to say 10 years ago? Are you still using a lot of hardware? And what are your favourite synths?

Oliver: I’m always changing =)
I did a major update last year upgrading my production computer from Pro-Tools and Logic to a new Mac with Ableton Live.
I dont use my mixers anymore since now i am going straight in to two Metric Halo LIO 8 conversters and from there to a Phoenix summing mixer.
I still use a lot of hardware but it depends on what i work on. Normally I’m using lots of Clavia Nord, some analogue synths and of course my Lexicon and Eventide effects units.

12. During the sound design phase of a project do you start with a particular sound in mind, or do you design sounds to fit specific tracks?

Oliver: I dont have a real sound design phase.
To me this is an ongoing process finished when i record the track and like it as it is.
Sometimes i have a sound i want to base a whole song around or i start with the groove first. Sometimes the most important sound will suddenly pop up and replace some existing part that i wasnt really happy with before.

13. How big of an influence are other artists or music genres when it comes to composing tracks? Could you give any examples?

Oliver: Whatever sound and noise you hear kind of affects you.
It’s more subconcious that this will happen.
If I like some track and I play then in a way it will influence me. If I hear something interesting i don't care whatever style it is.
It somehow triggers a kind of analyzing mode in me that checks for structure, sounds, groove, mixing etc. It can also be some Hip- Hop, Heavy Metal or whatever.
It might give me an idea to do some detail in this or that way.

14. Many people seem to be of the opinion that the industry has become over saturated with too many labels pushing out mediocre music. What are your thoughts on the electronic music scene at the moment?

Oliver: There’s more music than ever and sure you have to go through more tracks these days than in the past if you want to hear new artists – but there’s a lot of great music out there.
I’m very interested in discovering new sounds and producers, so I spend a lot of time listening on Beatport.
Especially there we don’t have the “filtering”
process that was there years ago when the producers had to spend quite a bit of money to get a basic setup or when they approached labels, the labels got filtered by distributors and they got filtered by vinyl/cd shops. So the consumer had only an overview of what was going on. Today the consumer can hear much more which is good and maybe bad..

15. What can we expect to see from Oliver Lieb over the second half of 2012?

Oliver: There will be quite a few original releases coming out under my real name, plus a few remixes as well from mid August.
I’m in the middle of setting up a tour of Australia for late October to mid November, I’ll also be playing some shows in other interesting places along the way. I’m starting to think about doing a live-act again and am currently planning the setup.

Release Promo would like to send a huge thanks to Oliver for taking the time to do this interview and also to Mark from 99percentrecordings for making it happen.