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"Ideally it would be amazing if people can recognize my sound no matter what specific genre I’m working on"
Rezident creates music that works in all settings and transcends genres. His openness to a wide range of sound is what has both made him a widely loved favourite, but also someone who operates in his own parallel musical world. Rezident’s unparalleled signature style continues to expand with each subsequent release in his catalog. With a slew of intriguing releases coming down the line in 2021, his sharp trajectory in the electronic dance music realm shows no signs of slowing down.
We had a chance to talk to him, so enjoy your reading and check out his latest releases.
Hey, where can we find you right now? How did you start your day?
Today, I started my day on a small houseboat on the Spree river in Berlin. One of my buddies here is leaving town today and we were hanging out one last time
Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music? Was it all internet based?
I grew up in Karlsruhe, Germany and I was introduced to music relatively early since my parents are musicians. I took some piano lessons when I was about 6 and haven’t really touched music until I downloaded FL Studio a couple years later. A lot of the initial inspiration was internet/media based but it was the local music scene that brought me into the more mellow sounding deep house / electronica genre.
Who have been your main inspirations (both musical and in 'life')? And how have they affected your sound?
Originally it was deadmau5 who brought me into ‘Progressive House’ but nowadays there are a lot of artists that inspire me. I’ve found a lot of personal favourites over the course of the last years and that makes it hard to narrow it down to just a couple names.
How would you define your sound?
When I started the Rezident project, the goal was to keep the records as simple as possible and leave everything out that didn’t need to be there. I enjoy the ‘repetitiveness’ of electronic / sequenced music combined with mellow chords % soundscapes.
How has your sound evolved so far?
I’ve been able to experiment quite a lot with the recent releases! It all started out with mellow deep house but there have been some records that are more high energy or acoustic in the past year. Ideally it would be amazing if people can recognize my sound no matter what specific genre I’m working on.
How did your name Rezident come about?
A resident DJ is someone who plays regularly at a club or venue. I thought that word was cool and added the ‘z’ so it’s more recognizable and easier to find.
Are you the type of producer who can create music on the fly or do you need to be rooted in a studio?
It doesn’t really matter as long as I’m switching it up every now and then. A studio is great because everything is so accessible but sometimes all the tech can be overwhelming.
Your music seems to be linked to places, landscapes and moments. What else plays a fundamental role in your music creation process?
The creation process can be quite technical and sometimes boring. I try to ask myself every now and then:
Is this record/idea something that resonates with me? Is it something that was just fun to work on or is it a record that is unique to me and my approach to music production?
It’s easy to get caught up in random technical aspects that don’t really matter, so sometimes it’s important to take a step back and try to see the bigger picture.
What can you tell us about the remix of the track 'Envious'? How was it born? What was your criteria? What did you want to convey?
I was visiting my friend ‘DRKTMS’ in his studio in Switzerland when I received the stems quite late in the evening. I was excited about the record (and also about being in Switzerland) and worked on it till about 5am :). At that point I’m not exactly sure what my subconscious mind was trying to convey but I definitely had fun working on it. One of the versions ended up the remix and another one became part of the original release.
What can you tell us about your upcoming track ‘One Good Reason’ on Anjunadeep?
Really excited about this one! ‘One Good Reason’ took over a year to finish and it features vocals by Biishop. The compilation version is coming out on February 5th and the standalone release is planned for sometime later this year.
How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work affected a lot? Do you think there is hope?
COVID doesn’t affect the aspect of making music at home, but of course it affects live shows. Also, it can be hard mentally to hang around home all the time and miss out on the social aspect of life.
But I think there’s hope, COVID isn’t the first pandemic we had and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time till it’s over.
I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist. Do you think we can go back to "normal" events and festivals?
Hard to say. There might be some precautions in the future but other than that I do believe we can go back to ‘normal’ and enjoy events and festivals.
What projects are you working on at the moment?
Lots of new music!
