Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Set DJ/Producer Axel Zamudio(Axe Free) Ensenada, México



Interview with Axel Zamudio
By Luciano Ramos


Q: How did you start making electronic music?
A: I started as a DJ in 2009, because of the influence of some friends. As i played music I began to wonder why I didn`t do  music myself. I started as an autodidact. I spent many hours working in my studio, even spent 27 hours straight until   finish the production of my first track. The same thing happened with the second and third. So the hours keep  passing along, and I dind`t realized because I liked so much  what I was doing, so I didn`t want to stop. Then I started managing  my time differently, spending weeks creating a track, because the ear reaches a saturation point, and you can hear the production and think it`s good,  but when you play it for others, their opinion is not like yours. I love making music. I have been a producer for the passed 2 years. I do it for the music, rather than looking forward for money or fame, is the love I feel for it. I once read a book where the author said that the only way to reach the top is expected to for  those who are above to die  or fall alone. I think that's the whole truth, because if you play or create music you have to have some influence, to enter and to highlight, but there are cases (few ones),it´s because their music and play a good Dj-Set´s. It's very difficult to stand out andspecially  in the country where I live, Mexico, where the electronic scene is still not developed at a point such as  Europe or some countries in Asia. But,  I do what I like and hopefully one day, im goinh to make a living out of it.
Q: What are your favorite DJs?
A: I always diferrence between DJ's and producers. If we refer about the way of playinh I love Luciano because of  all the energy he produces, but in contrast, he  is a producer who don't please me at all. I  really admire  Kruse & Nuernberg, Edmund,  Daniel Dubb & Satori. From latin america I like Matthew Velez from Colombia, a great producer, 100% recommended. I have very different tastes and i can like a track from a dj or producer and dislike their next creation.
Q: Is it popular electronic music in Mexico? What about electronic music in Ensenada?
A: Is popular, but not at the  point as is in Argentina, Chile or Europe. Theres a log way to go ahead.Much depends on the location where you are. Ensenada, is a city where there have been events and great musicians, but not at the level I want, like it happens in Playa del Carmen. In Tijuana, where i often play,  there are often great parties.
Q: Which  is your method for making electronic music?
A: Sit and just go along with the  emotional atmosphere that I have at that time. For producing, I use computers, keyboards and MIDI. When I have been spending many hours producing the same song,  and I realized i'm saturating my ear with the same sound, I begin to listen to many kinds of music, like Rock, Jazz, Deep, Metal and Techno. So I take a break from the  project I'm carrying,  and after the  pause, I continue with another project. I try to give myself new expectations and found from wich new place I can get the best things. For example, I once heard an anonymous clarinetist, playing a beautiful melody, but the sound quality was awful, so I recomposed in a MIDI saxophone.
Q: wich is the perfect place to play your music?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Set DJ Darío Goenhag






Interview with Dj Darío Goenhag
By Luciano Ramos



January in Buenos Aires city is synonymous of two things: vacations and moist heat. Dario Goenhag meet me at his home located in the neighborhood of Villa Ortuzar. To the 34 ° degrees of heat that feels in the street, we will add several more degrees just going into the studio where he works as a DJ. Surrounded by computers, amplifiers and speakers enough to cover 800w , the feeling of entering into the  dimension were  musicians live, come true. Dario gives me a blank sheet of paper and a pencil, asking me to write ten words regardless of their length and next to each, write the number of letters of each one. I do it & as I´m finish he asked  me to read them out  loud as fast as I can. As i´m doing it, i´m surprised to be interrupted after each word with the exact number of letters, the longest being 18 letters. Dario smiled at me and tells me that is easy for him to group sounds and calculate them  mathematically. According to him, that is his gift to make accurate real-time mixing.
Q: Why do you do electronic music?
A: Since I can remember, the sounds I hear have their root in my parents. My dad listened mostly “commercial electronic” like the one you could heard in “Oid Mortales” discs (records released in Argentina in the decade of the 90's),
Have you heard  “101.1 Energy “ radio ? (laughter).
On the other hand, my mom liked any kind of music to dance, like “cumbia”, “quartet”, from her I got the joy of partying! Do you get it? From my dad I got the  musical side, the hobby, the desire to do this. I love the music everywhere.
Q: How much time do you spend making music?
A: That depends on how many activities I have. Some days I'm four hours recording as an obsessed, perhaps I record things that I really wanted for some time, and the next day I dedicate to other matters. Almost every day I spend some time making music.
Q: Which artists inspire you?
A: I like a bit of everyone. Trance DJs to deep house DJs, such as “Deep Mariano”, the truth is that I don’t have a favourite one. I have great admiration and respect for “Sgalia”, is a guy I always  go to see him play live, actually  I really like only  60% of the music that he plays, but i get  how he plays and you can tell he puts all of his energy on stage,  is the same if he plays,   2, 7 or 15 hours. He's humble & grateful, when he arrives as when he leaves. The DJ has to have fun, show off, has to make mistakes, & stain his hands.
Q: Which method do you choose to create the sets?
A: Notebook, keyboard and pad, left from when I was addicted to “Counter Strike”. I have a controller, is beautiful and works perfectly. Possibly in the future I’ll need to access to more professional programs. But now I feel very comfortable with handling 100% of the current method. Is honestly enough. Virtual mouse and keyboard.
Q: Do you think that having access to better technology make a difference?
A: It's relative, with the new technologies you can do things with much more detail, are useful and that is why they are, but there are also things that are useless.
Q: How do you keep your music foundation update?
A: If you listen to “Delta FM”, you'll listen to thirty songs in a row and you will not recognize either one. Because is the ultimate progressive music , things like that,  not yet arrived here from the hand of any DJ, you can't download it from MediaFire. Since I have no money to buy vinyl,  I enter to music web sites and look for the producers, and name of the tracks to get to know the new tracks and associate to the authors.
Q: what  is your dream place to play your music?
A: I would like to close a "Sensation" fest in Amsterdam, a party with 350 thousand people dancing to my music. Now comes one in Chile...

E-mail Dj Darío Goenhag: d.goenhag@hotmail.com