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Techno has many faces - and in recent years, with the emergence of Alexander Kowalski, the German Techno scene has gained a new shooting star. At the end of the nineties he became known through his first live acts in Berlins' most known techno club, Tresor.
In 2002 he made his musical break-through with the release of his second full length, "Progress", an album which was highly acclaimed by both fans and critics alike. Today Alexander Kowalski is a new star in the Techno sky, and a greatly demanded live act, producer and remixer. Kowalski elegantly fuses elements from classic Detroit and historical Berlin techno sound. His affection for sophisticated bass lines, deep beats and challenging arrangements breathes new life into Techno. He knows perfectly how to program his tracks to sound straight, deep, housy, dubby or funky - and this versatility is one of the reasons for his reputation under both ravers and underground-oriented techno nerds. In August 2003 his new album "Response" appears on the German label Kanzleramt - and the critics are already enthusiastic: Kowalski is on the front cover of Raveline and Groove (08/2003), the two most important German dance music magazines. NI talked to the user of PRO-53, FM7 and TRAKTOR about his new album and the secrets of his powerful sound. Interview von Native Instruments How long did it take to complete your new album, Response?
I started to produce new tracks for my live show in the summer of last year, then I tested those tracks in clubs during my sets. By the time I started to work on Response, I already had quite some material prepared. The recording process itself took something like four months. I wanted to devote a substantial amount of time to each track. Did you have a precise idea how the album should sound when you started to work on it? Because some of the tracks already existed in a raw form before I actually started working on the album, the whole thing had a certain direction already. But I really wanted to make a cohesive album with a very special sound. I took all the tracks I had and tried to get a common sound, while still being open enough so that each track could sound unique.
How would you personally describe the new album in relation to your previous ones?
Normally the process of producing is that someone sits alone in his studio and produces tracks. Then those tracks later get presented later to an audience on CD or during a live-gig. I went a different route with Response. I switched my live-set from an Akai MPC2000 to Ableton Live which gave me the possibility to integrate more tracks within my set. Then I started to produce tracks or sketches to test in clubs. When I went back to the studio I always kept the reactions of the audience in my mind while continuing to work on each track. Therefore I think that this album is much more for the clubs than my previous ones were. What equipment did you use to produce the album? What’s your studio setup and how did it change over the last few years? Until 1½ years ago I was a total hardware addict. The only software I was using was the original Cubase running on an Atari. That's been changing more and more recently. The possibilities that software offers nowadays are absolutely fantastic. For the album I used Cubase SX in conjunction with the Houston controller for sequencing and Reason, the Pro-53 and some other instruments for the sound. I am a big fan of software synthesizers. They give you the total control over the sound. The Pro-53 is really one of my favorite virtual synthesizers, I get a lot of use out of it. I always mix down on my Soundcraft Ghost mixer, at which point I also add some hardware effects and compression. What’s the process like when you work on a song? Is there an average amount of time it takes you to finish a piece? It’s always different, but a lot of times a track starts with a good chord figure or a nice drumloop. The rest then just adds automatically once I'm in a flow. Because I am working with a lot with software these days I can work on different tracks simultaenously. If I reach a dead point in a track, I save it and get back to it another day. Once a track is pretty much done I go over to my mixing desk and do the mixdown there, adding some extra effects and stuff. The arrangement also starts then, not before. Once I am finished with all these steps I get back to the track and do some final minor tweaks to the mix, and once I'm happy with that I finally record it. From there on I may come back for some very little fine tunings, but that’s it bascially. In average I sit on a track about two to three weeks from the raw starting material to the finished arranged and mixed track.
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Trent Reznor
