WYS!: Catching Up With... Stimming

Stimming’s last album ‘Liquorice’ felt tortured. His second full length played out like a propulsive dive into the headspace of a producer whose hankering for slowed down electronic groove is unparalleled outside of producers like Nicolas Jaar. Performing live here in Farringdon on Sunday night as part of WetYourSelf’s Bank Holiday Special, the WYS! team caught up with him to grab the low down on his life and the upcoming performance. We’d like to talk about your most recent album a little bit. ‘Liquorice’ can be described as an electro-acoustic soundwork, yet there are shadows of dance clearly present. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to make an album? Well, I was in a very intense period of my life where I had to sleep in the studio without being able to get home. It actually was a relationship problem - but this helped me to create something very, let’s say, disconnected, radical, out-of-this world sound. At least the most interesting thing for me while doing it was not to think about what will happen with this kind of stuff, or who´s gonna listen/buy at all. I was very free in doing just what I wanted to. Your work uses many found sounds that you record yourself. How long have you been working in this way, and do you feel like it has changed the way you listen to music and the world in general? I think I’ve been using found sounds or field-recordings for about 5 years now - I always had the idea in mind to only use my own sounds, but always had problems in sound quality, still today I’m not completely satisfied but coming closer to what I have in mind. Has it changed the way I listen to the world?! Hmmm… It happens from time to time when walking around that I hear a sound which gets my full attention and hopefully I have my recorder with me... if not I mostly come back and record it later (like the pontons at the harbour here in Hamburg, metal-screaming because of the waves pushing it up and down – that’ll be a track sometime in the future - but to be honest, it doesn’t happen too often that there is a sound which electrifies me completely. What music is exciting you at the moment? I was always listening to everything I got hold of and I don’t have a special preference in style, sound, etc... the track I like the most right now is The Field’s ‘Everybody´s Got To Learn Something" but that might change in a couple of days. When it comes to techno I discovered Robag Whrume just recently (I know I’ve discovered him very late) and I’m surprised how powerful but still stylish and not over the top his tracks are! I’ve read before that you every song has a story or personal experience attached to it. I think last time we met you were going through quite an interesting time in your life. How are you now, how’s your life going? Better… Your live set seems to develop every time you play, can you give us an idea of what to expect in future shows? Do you have anything special planned? I get this asked often, and especially after this album. I´m tweaking, developing and changing my live set around every two weeks, but it mostly is about details and getting the set itself as rounded and enjoyable as possible; for the audience and for me. So… I’m not playing any stuff from the new album because it simply isn’t for the floor and it never was supposed to be but I’m gonna play some unreleased bits, some old, some new stuff… always keeping the dance and the listening experience in mind. After my old Macbook Pro crashed twice during Sunday School at Miami’s WMC this year I bought a new one which is exclusively for playing live so I’m gonna stay with Ableton, Maschine and some other controllers - the most interesting thing technically would be including an iPad, but I’m not sure whether it’s time for that… Catch Stimming headlining Room One at WYS! this Sunday night. Tickets and info here.