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Martin Merz begins his independent work. This uniquely inspired musician, who has made a name for himself through a handful of tasty songs.
His music is unclassifiable, but it has no rival. Close your eyes and let the sensations flow.
Where do we find you right now? How did you start your day?
Right now I am not easy to find. I´m in my tiny bureau in my house in a small town near Frankfurt. As usual I started my day grumpy until I had the first zip of coffee. From then on I was perfectly prepared to find interesting interview answers.
How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work affected a lot? Do you think there is hope?
My live has not changed a lot to be honest. I´m a dental surgeon in my main profession. Except for a few more hygienic duties my practice has remained the same all the time with Covid.
But I had a lot more time for music because I didn´t have a lot of social appointments. That’s the only good thing about it I guess- more recording time. There is always hope- but I think it will not be more than hope for a long time.
I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist. Do you think we can go back to "normal" events and festivals?
I don't think it makes sense to want anything back. The game has changed completely. In the end we will have to see how much infrastructure will be left. So we all should concentrate us on the way forward and find possibilities to generate new ways. I see our future in new clothes- it will be fantastic.
How have you had to adapt to recent circumstances?
As I said before I didn`t really had to adapt. Except homeschooling everything kept nearly the same.
What can you tell us about the production of "Vertigo"? How was it born? What was your goal for this record?
I didn´t really start with a concept. It was more like a log of clay. I just started sculpting and everything was allowed. Day after day the sound was forming more and more. I was experimenting with voice, guitar and bass a lot, which I didn´t do on my first album “prisma”. Maybe the only thing I had in mind was to stay away from musical inspiration. It might sound weird- I know. What I mean is that I didn`t want to sound like this or that artist.
Your music seems to be linked to places, landscapes and moments. What else plays a fundamental role in your music creation process?
I think after all it is still the fascination about the technical aspect of synthesizers. First you just have a sinus wave- and then trough technical processing it suddenly gets a rhythmical structure – and then you can set the sound in context together with other sounds- and so on: still fascinating every day. Aside this heavy and happy nerding, I really think about my two sons a lot when making music: What will they think about what I´m doing in 20 years?
How has your sound evolved so far?
It evolves every day. This never ends as long as there will be new gear to play with. In the moment I try to use the computer less and less- let´s see where it leads.
What is your current production setup and what instruments are essential for you?
My production setup is total chaos. On vertigo I´m using my eurorack- modules a lot. The amount of “lucky shots” in soundcrafting is pretty high for me. I don`t really have essential Instruments in my setup. But if you want me to name some I would say that “Intellijes Rainmaker” was my main used effect. For the kicks I used the “Noise Engineering Basimilus Iteritas Alter” a lot.
Are you the type of producer who can create music on the fly or do you need to be rooted in a studio?
Definitely Studio. Sometimes I try to sing an Idea into the recorder of my cellphone. When I listen to it at home I never understand what I did there…. I think this doesn´t count as “on the fly” producing?
What projects are you working on right now?
Right now I´m working on my third Album to be released on Vordergrundmusik. There will be even more Vocals and analogue synths than on Vertigo. But I don´t want to tell too much- be surprised.
There is also a wonderful Remix-Ep in the pipeline. It will feature illustrious guests like Extrawelt, T.Raumschmiere, Rittik Wystup and last but not least re:deep (the founder of Vordergrundmusik) with beautiful and wide ranged mixes. It will also be released on vinyl, really looking forward to this one!
Do you have any final words of wisdom?
Keep your hands off yellow snow!
