Catching Up With...Tobi Neumann + His fabric Promo Mix

Tobi Neumann’s professional engineering knowledge has lead him on an illustrious music career in the pursuit of high sound quality and the beatification of house and techno. This approach to sound has given him fifteen years in the limelight and has also brought him to our Farringdon home on a regular basis for many years, with his last visit for our New Year’s Eve party being one of his highlights of the year. So, it marks a very special occasion at the tail end of our party calendar to welcome Tobi back to give his higher technical manipulation of our Room One system next to dOP, live and Droog. Showing that his musical expertise lies not just in production, Tobi has next put his labour of love into a vinyl-only mix for our blog. We highly recommend the good vibe of his hour long player to start your Monday and read on in our catch up interview with him below where he talks about his latest EP in collaboration with French pairing, Masemonos and tells us what he’d get us for Christmas in a hypothetical world. DOWNLOAD: Tobi Neumann fabric Promo Mix Hi Tobi. What is your lasting memory of the year? There are too many to choose only one but the New Years Eve party at fabric and Exit Festival in Novi Sad with Stuart Geddes were definitely two of the major highlights. Have your tastes of music evolved during this year? What artists have got you most excited? My first and still most important influence in electronic music are the productions of Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus. With their projects Basic Channel, Maurizio, Rhythm & Sound and Mainstreet they said everything that was to be said. At least for me, the elegance, the sound and the peace of their music is still unreached. From the very beginning I was searching for music which opens up a space and sucks you into a certain trance, tracks that are a bit more techy and hypnotic than traditional house, yet more melodic then pure techno. There is this wide field of music in between those two main directions which has always caught my attention. And to answer your question, this never really changed over the last 15 years. For my sets I am still searching for everything in between house and techno. Of course there were many streams in the last 15 years which I have been following. But at the end it's all about the groove and the quality of music and that's timeless. How are you looking forward to returning to London on Saturday? Are there parts of the city that inspire you? I am in love with London. I don‘t know many places that are more exciting to play, than this city. You can play for a wicked little party in West London with people you would never meet or in Brick Lane in Shoreditch. At fabric there is a certain music-lovers crowd that know a lot about the DJ's and their releases. It's just wonderful to come to a city with such a variety of amazing people and places. Can you tell us about your new release ‘THE SNAKE EP’ in collaboration with Masamenos? I like to work with Masomenos. Adrien came to my studio and I started to create sounds with my modular system. We recorded it and he left with the files and finished the tracks. So he did all the work which usually I have to do as a producer. Actually it felt pretty relieving to work like that. You first released with Masamenos in 2010. Can you tell us about your music approach together? I met Joan and Adrien at the Sunwaves festival in Mamaia, Romania in 2009. We instantly clicked, there was such a good vibe between us. Shortly after I visited them in Paris and then Adrien came to my studio and we started to make music. I like Adrien‘s artistic approach to making music. What is your anticipation for playing next to dOP live and Droog in Room One on Saturday? You’ve played many times in the main room - so how do you hope to surprise the crowd once again? First of all to have dOP playing before me is the best that can happen. We like each other a lot! I have already had the honour to play with them in Room One for fabric‘s 11th birthday back in 2010. Oh, my God, that was soo much fun! And to surprise the crowd at Room One, I will come prepared with as much good new stuff and some old goodies as possible and work hard on my set. At the end it's also very much about the feeling and the flow of the night, that's why every time is a new challenge to play at Room One. You can never be sure you can have the control over a club night. You should always be aware of the chance of a complete failure. It‘s a risk but I am willing to take it and will try my best. Maybe this time with a rocking set, let's see. Can you tell us about the mix you’ve recorded for us? But my plan is to take the records I bought last week at Hardwax and two weeks ago at Freebase, and make a special, groovy, relaxed and musically interesting vinyl-only mix for you guys. Tomorrow it‘s mixing time at my house! What are you working on next, what have you got coming up and what are you excited about? On a music note or otherwise? After 12 years I need to leave my old beloved studio space at Prenzlauer Berg. But we found an amazing new place close to Schelsisches Tor on the riverside of Kreuzberg. Now I am busy with planning everything for the new studio, it's quite an investment and effort. It takes a lot of energy, as well as changing and moving on! Marco Unzip from Bologna and I have founded a new project. Recently we wrote some lovely songs and I took my guitar after years and added some recordings. We will continue to work on music once the new studio is all set up. So maybe by the end of next year we will have enough material to release an album and tour with this project. I'm very excited about it! Where do you celebrate NYE this year and who do you look forward to sharing the night with? This time I chose a night at Sankeys in Ibiza for New Year‘s Eve. I've had so many times in Berlin or London so I needed something different. I will play with Mr. Picone and some other DJs alongside. Nice nice nice! Just for fun, what would you really like for Christmas? And if you were going to buy fabric something, what would it be? Okay, this year's present I asked my family for is an OP1-synth from Teenage Engineering, a wicked little machine. It's good that you remind me - I will bring some specials from the German Christmas markets for the fabric staff. Music goodies for fabric's crowd and yummy goodies for the staff! But I want to have hot ginger tea in the DJ booth this time, please!