Thomas Schumacher to tour Australia

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    Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 23:00
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  • DJ T.'s recent collaborator will arrive in the country next week for three dates.
  • Thomas Schumacher to tour Australia image
  • German techno producer Thomas Schumacher is set to drop into Australia next week for three club shows. Schumacher runs his own Spiel-Zeug imprint, and has been present on the techno scene since 1996, but more recent electronic music converts may know him better for his contributions to Get Physical's catalogue, both under his own name and as Elecktrochemie with Stephan Bodzin and Caitlin Devlin. He's also taken on production duties for DJ T.'s rectnt The Inner Jukebox record, strengthening his relationship with the electronic powerhouse. Renowned for his eclectic DJ sets, Schumacher has been a regular Australian visitor since 1997, and is due to play dates in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. We tracked down Schumacher via e-mail over the weekend, where he spoke about his famous dealings with The Roots, minimal, and the demise of vinyl.
    You’re no stranger to Australian crowds – you’ve been here numerous times over the last decade. Have you found the crowd’s response to your music has changed year-to-year, or has it remained pretty consistent? Consistently fantastic, I would say! Especially when you have in mind that I like to surprise my crowds and myself with all sorts of "ideas". You see, not only the crowds change every time I come to Oz; my music is constantly evolving and changing, and if you then get the same kind of positive response, you can't complain. Interestingly, your own first attempt at music production was when you purchased a synthesizer and drum machine; a popular beginner's setup. What is your attitude to digital technology and its bearing on production? What would be your advice to these producers just starting out? I am quite fond of digital technology. It gave me the kind of flexibility in my studio that I was always looking forward for. The first years were a bit tricky, though, because most of the plug ins sounded awful, and needed too much CPU power. But, that has radically changed. Nowadays, if you spend a little bit of money, you get a lot in return. For example Apple's Logic Sequencer... If only people knew how expensive it used to be 10 years ago, and now you get so much more bang for the bucks. Wow. My advice to beginner producers? Start with just a few plug-ins and instruments. We all know you can download shitloads of free software from the internet, but it won't get you anywhere. Instead, focus on a few handpicked, high quality instruments (like the amazing sounding Analog Synth from Arturia) and really learn to use them. Logic on it's own is brilliant and together with some Arturia Synth you have endless possibilities. Though it happened almost 10 years ago, your 'collaboration' with The Roots is very interesting. Can you tell us about it, please? In 1997 I sampled a piece of rap from a US hip-hop radio show tape recording. I messed around with this sample until it sounded good to me and would go with a 4/4 beat, and a few months later it was released as "When I Rock". It was in 2000 when my German publisher contacted me and I was asked to call a number in the US with regards to that sample. However, since I sampled from a tape that had no cover or any info about the music on it, I was clueless as to whom I sampled from. So, I called the number and I ended up talking to the producer of The Roots. As you can imagine, I almost shit my pants when I found out I sampled from them. I thought they wanted to take legal action, or kill me... or both, you know? But, it turned out that they kind of liked what I did. They had never heard "techno" before and they thought my way of messing around with their rap was cool. So, instead of doing harm to me, the decided to put the track on their 2002 Album Phrenology. Check it out - it's called "Thirsty". I, personally, think these guys are top! What a great way of dealing with this 'issue'. I even met them the year later in Tokyo. But that's another story... Has your attitude towards minimal techno changed? Have any tracks convinced you to change your stance on the genre? Minimal? What's that again? It's just so good that minimal is over. Like in: gone forever. What a useless hype for mostly totally boring crap it was. Honestly, I have been to some of the worst parties in my life and it all came down to that sound. To me, the whole concept sucked. But this is the good thing about dance music. Hype comes and goes but what stays is the good stuff. You’re currently running Spiel-Zeug, a label that you’ve been in charge of for over a decade. Considering your experience running the label, what are the main factors that dictate a release’s commercial success? Does it simply come down to promo? Promo plays a big factor for sure, but at the end of the day it all comes down to the quality of the music. As everyone could experience with minimal, you can even hype the biggest shit and make people believe it's cool. But the truth remains: you can't polish shit. You’ve always been a big advocate of vinyl – are you seeing a resurgence in regards to the commercial popularity of the medium, or are things remaining the same? I still see myself as a big advocate of vinyl, but, at the same time I can not only use vinyl if I want to keep up my standard as a DJ - that's a shame. When you hear about the commercial popularity of the medium, it mostly refers to the major labels selling vinyl collector's editions of rock and pop bands to the fans but the smaller indie labels are suffering big time. Vinyl sales have dropped again and there is no end in sight. Many labels in our scene now only release vinyl after a successful digital release; this is why the medium has become more and more useless for professional DJs, because by the time the vinyl is released, it's already "dated". I don't know what to say. Vinyl to me still is the perfect medium to DJ with, and it usually sounds better then CD or WAV. But I am afraid the battle is already lost, looking around and looking at myself now mainly using CDs. Having said that - even more important than what medium one plays with is of course what you play!



RA