Johannes Brecht is a multi-talented, educated musician who joined Solomun’s Diynamic family a little less than a year ago. This interesting producer is going to release a new remix for Diynamic Music soon, he’s finishing up his first album, and he played at the Diynamic’s 10th birthday party. We had the opportunity to talk to him, and we used it to talk about how did his musical education influence his producing, how he makes music, and what does the future hold for him. Enjoy!
Hi, first of all, thank you for your time! How are you?
Fine, thanks.
You come from a family of musicians, so it’s no wonder that you were into music your whole life, but when did you first get into electronic music and what was it that made you want to produce this kind of music?
I grew up in a family of musicians, I had classical piano and double bass lessons.
if you practice several hours a day you need something to compensate,
one way was listening to different genres of music, especially jazz or electronic music.
at that time I was a big fan of Aphex Twin. It was like a natural flow, I started building my first home studio in the cellar of my parents. I was very interested into studio technology, synthesizers, and so I did internships in recording studios. Later,
during my studies of jazz double bass and piano, I tried to combine jazz stuff with electronics and I was hired by the college as a sound engineer – many great possibilities to discover new things.
Your first release was on Henrik Schwarz’s Sunday Music label, can you tell us a story about how did you meet and how this EP happened?
The „JazzOpen” Festival in Stuttgart asked me to write music for a special premiere.
I had the idea to combine a classical chamber orchestra with an electronic artist.
So I asked Henrik, he liked the idea and we started working on it.
That was the beginning of the project called „Instruments” – we were working on for about four years. It was released last year on Sony Classical.
During that time I showed him some of my very first tracks 🙂 He loved it and reactivated his label solely to release them.
There’s a lot of soul and emotion in your music, what would you say is responsible for that?
Well, thank you!
I would say harmonies, melodies and the human touch on playing real instruments.
For me it’s all about performance in the studio. In electronic music you often have only machine „grooves” – like sequenced drums, or synth arps, but when I record live percussions, or bass or piano I really perform the part and try to give it the emotion and energy it needs – then it gets super personal and authentic. In combination with today’s studio technology and modern software you can create a lot of interesting sounds.
In what way did your musical knowledge affect your producing style and musical taste? Would you say that it helped you when you decided to start making electronic music?
To be honest, I don’t know.
For me it’s important to have a lot of live elements in my tracks. I don’t use loops and I don’t sample from other people. More complex structures feel more natural to me – I need harmonies and melodies – I wanna play everything on my own for my music.
This is why I have lots of real instruments in my studio, but only very little electronic instruments or machines. Of course, if you wanna do it this way you need knowledge about instruments, about how to record acoustic instruments properly and how to arrange complex harmonies. And this is exactly what I love about it.
What is it like to be a part of Solomun’s Diynamic family? You have played at 10 years birthday party in Berlin this weekend. How was this experience special for you?
I’m very happy to be part of this super cool family! I’m still in my first Diynamic year, but I already feel very connected to everyone. I especially loved to be part of the big 10th birthday party in Berlin!
Do you have some sort of a “ritual” when you get into the studio to make new music? And what usually inspires you when you’re working on new tracks?
There’s no ritual – the only thing is that I only work in the mornings – like from 9 till lunch 🙂
I try out new plugins nearly everyday, because I don’t use a lot of hardware. At times I find something that inspires me – but most of the time I just improvise on my upright piano or Rhodes.
Could you tell us something more about your upcoming remix of Ost & Kjex track ‘Heart Of Gold’ on Diynamic? What was it like while working on the release?
At that time I was really into playing live percussions and I bought a lot of traditional African drums, bells, shakers, etc. and I practiced a lot to learn how to play them –
found some great guys on YouTube 😉
For that remix I only used acoustic instruments – there is no electronic instrument, no synth, no drum machine etc…
What can you tell us about your future plans and other releases? When can we expect something new from your studio?
Yeah, I’m gonna release a single on Diynamic Music very soon called “I AM FREE”.
My friend Fetsum did great vocals for it and I have real strings on it played by the „Fox String Quartet” from the Netherlands.
For me as a composer it is important to give a meaning to my music.
What Fetsum and I came up with is to combine a socio-political statement with a highly driving club-composition in the spiritual tradition of FELA KUTI. I love it. Really looking forward to this release!
And – wow – my first album is nearly finished – but that will be later this year.
Between travelling, doing shows and working in the studio, how do you find time for yourself? And what is it that you do when you just want to relax?
I am a musician, I love to make music, to play live, to record in the studio – so that’s not really work for me. I’m really genuinely happy with it. But, of course, it’s all about balance too. That’s why I still live in Stuttgart, it’s a small city, everything is relaxed, surrounded with nature – it’s great.
And at last, what would be your advice to people who are trying to make it in the music industry?
That’s a difficult question – I don’t know. I would say create amazing music 😉
