Lopazz is much more than your average one trick pony. Having made cuts for labels like Get Physical, Compost and London's legendary Output Recordings, he is also a renowned film and television composer as well as a self confessed ‘mountain type of guy’, gleefully exploring everywhere from the depths of Alaska to outer Tibet. His zealous enthusiasm stems from the beauty of our planet earth and the foreign sound-aesthetics, musicians and artists that surround it; and after speaking with him, it’s hard to not want to grab your hiking boots, fill your backpack and follow the musical protégée on his next global expedition.
As he makes his way to Soundwave Festival on Vancouver Island, we caught up with Lopazz to chat about life back on the club circuit, collaborating with DJ T on their next album, his live performance in Room One this weekend and why wild pigs in his garden have urged him to take time off away from the studio… He also built us an exclusive promo mix, so press play and read on:
Download: Lopazz – fabric Promo Mix
First of all, can you tell us how the summer’s been treating you and some of its highlights so far…?
I am on my way to Canada. I will play at Soundwave Festival on Vancouver Island, meeting lovely people and friends. The shows have been great this year! I’ve been to Lebanon, the highlight of 2010 so far - the guys there are real friends, the Lebanese people are amazing! Besides touring I am preparing my next releases on STIR15 and Circle Music.
DJ T is producing his next album with you at your LOPAZZ/HD800 studios in Heidelberg. Can you tell us how you first met, your relationship on and off the decks and how the project is taking shape?
I am a nuclear member of Get Physical, lol – we’ve known each other for many years and we’ve played countless shows together. He’s one of the best DJ´s I know and besides that I respect the work he has done for the music-business in the past 20 years. We are almost finished with the instrumentals, and are waiting for the vocal-parts. We’ve produced with analog machines and instruments I’ve collected in the past. We’ve recorded real drums and guitars. DJ T even played percussion and all kinds of old organs that we captured with microphones.
We have heard that the album will include several collaborations planned with vocalists and musicians. Can you tell us more about the artists involved and how yourself and DJ T collaborated ideas on this?
DJ T is NOT one of those DJs sending me tracks telling me: "go on, produce me something like this...” He knows what he wants, he prepares his samples carefully and it’s a real 50/50 production. Of course I am the executive producer but he also plays the keyboards and works on melody- and beat-lines. I appreciate his studio-appearance and his knowledge about electronic-music.
You also have a new record out on Get Physical Music featuring 80’s sensation, Imagination out on July 14th. Can you describe the sound of this EP and where it fits in to the current state of dance music?
Beto Cohen invited me to work on the original Imagination 2" tapes recorded at his cousin’s Red Bus Studios in London. The sound is solid, warm, bright, deep and kicking. It has been produced on a fantastic SSL Analog Mixing Console - I just got a 16 channel version of it for my mastering-suite and it sounds amazing. We didn’t want to continue the attitude of the countless Imagination bootlegs - we wanted to create a real fusion sound, not just another disco-mashup. The DJ feedback we got paid back for the work we’ve invested. I think it’s a great piece of music.
Over the years you have become a renowned film and television composer, having written and performed more than 45 film and documentary scores over the years… We’ve even heard that you’ve jumped on planes, boats and camels to accompany the film crew and record the sounds you need…?
Yes, I’ve been lucky getting invited by great documentary-filmmakers (Along Mekong Productions) for the first films in 1999 with Casio Casino. Since that we’ve travelled and recorded and produced crazy and serious themes for interesting projects like UNESCO´s "World Heritage Program" or the French /German TV collab "Arte". Last year I’ve been to Ethiopia and South-Africa, the years before in Mongolia and Macao. I love field-recording and working with foreign sound-aesthetics, musicians and artists.
Can you tell us more about your passion for making music based on the visual art form and what this means to you compared to making beats for the likes of Get Physical, Cocoon or Kompakt…?
When we started releasing tracks on our own labels in 1994 we collaborated with visual-artists and graphic-designers, rented old factory halls and warehouses for temporary parties – I’ve been the youngest partner in a team of great DJ´s and producers like Dman and Planet Jazz. We’ve produced videos and tracks for MTV and underground sources, for hip-hoppers, technos, ambient-lovers and pop-moguls. I got the chance to work on one of the first digital video cut systems and I’ve always been pretty eclectic. When I was younger I wanted to test and try anything! Since 2003 I concentrate more on producing music, mixing and mastering music at my studios in Germany.
What’s your favourite film soundtrack of all time?
Blade Runner!
What has the highlight of your career been so far?
Discovering the beauty of Planet Earth.
You are performing live alongside Italoboyz and M.A.N.D.Y in the Get Physical room at fabric on July 24th. Can you tell us what some of your favorite live tracks are to play and why?
I´ll play the new Get Physical releases - I´ll sing and jam and mash up and remix - but I always try to play the tracks close to the original version and jam around a little bit. Of course it depends on my mood and how the sound is working that night for the audience - I love to play slower and deeper sets around 122-124BPM - but as I said, if the crowd needs a faster and harder set, I’ll do my best to please them :)
What excites you about electronic music right now?
Everything is possible: minimal is out - melodies are back - ethno is out - disco is in! It’s just house music all night long baby!
What does the future hold Lopazz?
Rock Steady - Don’t believe the hype and not doing too many things at the same time.
I love what I am doing, I am not getting bored. Mixing and mastering jobs offer me the new and fresh tunes from the hot producers and the productions at my studios give me the chance to do what I want…
Also my garden needs some work, some crazy wild pigs destroyed my chill out area... I wanna have two weeks off after the DJ T production has been finalised...
Finally, where’s your number one beach in the world to relax and get away from it all…?
Oh, I am sorry - I am more the mountain type of guy, so Alaska, Kathmandu, Tibet...
