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INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
BRAINCELL
PM: Although the “internet era” brought up
the problem of piracy (along with several
benefits though), you think a producer in
our scene makes more money this days or
it was better back in the old days?
Boom!
Records
Psychedelic eMagazine spoke with one of the most influencial producers in
the Psytrance history. The man behind blockbuster projects like Rastaliens,
Braincell and more, share his thoughts and plans with Psychedelic eMag!
Hi there Ralph. Thank you for the acceptance for this interview.
BC: No problem. Thank you for the oportunity.
PM: Do you want to give an intro to your
self?
BC: I’m Ralph and doing psytrance since 20 years
now. i have the following projects: Rastaliens,
Braincell, Solar Spectrum & Unknown Reality.
PM: How you started with Psytrance in the
first place?
BC: Around 1994 i got in contact with the scene
on a small party in a castle near the Swiss border. i enjoyed the atmosphere and the music
so much, that i couldn’t stop getting more and
more into it! (laughs) At that time i was playing in a rock band as a guitarist and decided to
make some electronic music with the bassist of
the band and we founded Rastaliens back in the
days. And here we are now, still doing the music
and love it.
PM: When was your first official release?
BC: That was on Hadshot Records from Munich.
an vinyl EP called „4 Elements“. to hold your own
record in your hands was a pretty awesome
feeling as i remember and there it starts with
the Rastaliens project.
PM: What you think of the evolution of our
scene from the early days till nowadays?
BC: It became bigger and bigger over the years
and its amazing how much music is around in
that scene, which keeps it interesting. But have
to say its also funny to see what kind of hype its
now. For example, back in the days nobody really knew who was playing at a party, when people went there somewhere in the forest. It was
more the experience itself, one big family which
explores trippy music and celebrate together... i
mean its still like this to come together and stuff
but with a bit more“commercial“ feeling about
djs and liveacts etc. But in the end it has to stay
psychedelic and I’m enjoying the scene and I’m
glad to be part of it and give some music to the
people for enjoying and having fun..
BC: Music business was always hard to survive,,,,
in the older days you got money before you
made an album and such, which nowadays you
can be lucky to get something back from any
sales, which is not really the case most of the
time. but nowadays you have the chance to play
at more parties all over the world, which helps
to survive. But i think as a musician you have
to be open for all kind of projects (as i do music workshops and teaching music production at
www.noizebusters.com) and use the new technologies for promoting yourself.
PM: Now that you brought it up, let’s speak
about production, as you know a lot of people are on this days and I’m sure they want
to read your suggestions.
BC: My suggestions? Do music everywhere and
whenever you can! (laughs)
PM: What DAW will find today at your studio and why you prefer it?
BC: I use Ableton live mostly, but I’m also switching to Logic or Bitwig. I use this method, cause
i really like the workflow in Ableton. You can do
a lot of things in no time and its easy to realize, plus i can prepare easily parts for a live set,
Logic i love because of the quality of Synths and
effects and Bitwig I’m using for sound design
possibilities,which no other program can do so
easy like they do.
PM: The eternal question for a “newbie”,
what he needs to start producing music in a
tight budget? Except of some musical talent
of course (laughs)
BC: Get a laptop, a DAW like Ableton or whatever, get some quality plugins, buy a soundcard (i
wouldn’t safe money here) and a midi controller,
buy some good speakers (wouldn’t safe here as
well) and you are ready to go.
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PM: What you’re up to now? Any new work
on the progress?
BC: Plenty of stuff, I’m working on a lot of collaboration tracks and also doing remixes for
some other artists like Frank’e, Techyon, Atoned
Splendor etc. And also some more chill releases
with Unknown Reality. Braincell and Solar Spectrum tracks are in the pipeline as well and Jay
and me are still working on another Rastaliens
album, which we want to finish as soon we can.
PM: Okay, this is answering to our next
question that was if you still running your
other projects? (eg. Rastaliens, Solar Spectrum, etc.)
BC: Yep, as you can see from the answer before,
all projects are currently running and busy like
never before! So stay tuned and cu somewhere
on the dancefloors!
PM: Thank you for your time Ralph and the
Psychedelic Mag’s team wish you the best!
BC: Thank you! You too guys!