14.07.2013 // Text: hofer66 // Pix: pr

a groovy bassline and a fat kick.

Hello Martin, it took a while but now finally we are here talking about youANDme, no, you and you.

Hello Andreas! Nice to meet you.

Where does the name come from?

youANDme is the music project of Daniel and myself. We met 15 years ago in our old hometown. I was a Dj and he had a groovebox and tried to produce his first tracks on it. We taught each other and during this time Daniel began to buy records and I started to buy my first analogue gear. When we moved to Berlin we shared a flat with 2 studios for more then 10 years. This was a really inspiring time for us and in 2008 the youANDme project was born. In the beginning we did a some edits and bootlegs just for fun and if people asked who did them we wrote you and me. It was more of a joke because we wanted to say it could be everybody. After a while we played a lot of Dj gigs together and then promoters started to ask if it’s not better to have only one name than two different names. So we decided to use the name youANDme.

How would you define your sound? I love the deepness and spherical sounds on the new album.

We love the deeper side of music with many funk and soul elements but every time it has to be raw and kicking. The structure of a youANDme dj set is very different. We like to play several styles in one set like house, techno, dub or electronica with many waves, up and downs and various emotions. In our opinion it’s much more interesting than to play the same stuff for hours and nobody realizes that you play different songs. It’s the same with our productions. On the new album I tried to reflect all the several styles of music like dub techno, ambient, downbeats, Detroit techno or house which are my biggest influences over the years. I also wanted to do a really personal album which is full of my emotions and the many different situations of my life which I tried to capture in the music.

youAND:THEMACHINES – “Behind” LP is a solo project by you, Martin, right?

Yes it’s right. My new solo project is called „youAND:THEMACHINES“ and I produced the „BEHIND“ LP which was released on the Ornaments imprint at the end of June. Daniel had finished his architecture studies 3 years ago and is now working 9 to 5 in his job. He is focussing on his career as an architect and thats why there is not much time for studio work at the moment. That’s the reason I did the album as solo project.

As i read, you used almost only analog synths, what is the reason for it?

One of the concepts of “Behind” was to create the most sounds with plenty of analogue hardware or of field recordings from my personal environment. It was forbidden to use sampling as sound source. The aim was to take my old drum machines and synthesizers from the 80ies and combine them with modern production techniques from 2013. I really love the sound aesthetics of the analogue stuff. It’s warm, fat, and a little bit dirty. If you play a loop for example it’s never exact the same sound which makes it more natural. Maybe you could do the same with a computer but the most important fact for me is the interaction with real machines. You could play it, touch it, jam it and for me the results are more interesting.

Back to you both, where do you get your inspiration from?

Life is the biggest inspiration. We love to travel and to discover so many different cultures. We love art, nature, good food, to read books, go to concerts and listen to other music than house and techno. Everything what surrounds you could stimulate your thoughts. You only have to keep your mind wide open for new things.

You started a few labels yourself, e.g. Rotary Cocktail, Polymorph and Cutz.Me, tell us more about it.

Our first label was Rotary Cocktail Rec. which we started in 2004, after we finished the german civilian service. We release stuff from dub techno to deep house to Detroit techno to tech house. It’s not about styles, it’s all about good music which we like to publish. The label for raw techno stuff is Polymorph which is run by Daniel. He loves the darker and more banging side of music. Cutz.Me is just a fun project for our edits, remixes and special versions. We have released official works for artists like Radio Slave, Seth Troxler, Moodymann or Lawrence.

What is your favourite, playing live or as Djs?

Both ways are fun with a different approach. It’s nice to play live and create new spontaneous interpretations of your own stuff and see the reactions of the dancers. On the other hand we love to DJ because you could play so many new amazing music and create a journey together with the crowd.

What is the most important thing to get the crowd going?

A groovy bassline and a fat kick.

What advice would you give somebody before starting a producer career?

Don’t follow trends and try to develop your own sound. Don’t use only samples or preset sounds. It’s much more interesting to built your own sounds with synthesizers. It’s so funny if you hear the new releases at Beatport. You could hear so many libraries sounds and I think this is a reason why everything sounds so equal. Sometimes it’s enough to change some small settings and you get the most interesting sounds which only you have. To start a producer career could be a really hard way but if you really love your passion for music you will have success one day. Believe in yourself!

Do you know Ibiza?

Yes, I know Ibiza and I played last weekend for Kehakuma @ Space which was a really nice experience. The island is so beautiful and I really love the nature, food, weather, beaches and the quality of life.

Do you know dub Ibiza network?

We checked your website and there are a lot of interesting articles about the electronic music scene. We are happy to be a small part of it now.

You are very welcome.