INTERVIEW: Déandrah

How would you present your work to someone who doesn’t know you?

I don’t. I hate showing my own work. Partly because I am extremely shy. I have other people do that for me thankfully. By the time it is out it feels like last week’s dinner. Good, although could be improved, but that’s okay, we’ll get ‘em next time.

And your last job? Where is it born from? And where do you want to lead?

What message would you like to convey to the public?

To leave each other alone and let us do our own thing without intervention. If you have time to criticise, you have too much free time on your hands. Think about how you can better yourself or something. Or go fuck your girlfriend some more. I don’t know, just leave others alone.

How did your last project come about? What is the concept behind it?

From being bored and from getting inspired from my friend.

This EP was made after my “late 90s-early2000s video game soundtrack” mix I made for my friend Yukarita for her residency on Echobox Radio.

Diseased by Peter Pan syndrome and wanting to keep riding this nostalgic wave, I made this entire EP using samples from the PlayStation 1 game Music 2000, which was arguably my first DAW.

The artwork was a collaborative effort with @astrosuka & @soffja
. It was their visual perception of what the record was when listening to it.

As for your studio, what is it currently made up of?

Ableton is now my second brain. I hardly use any hardware anymore. Only some filter banks and modules to add texture to audio sound sources. 

Regardless, in my studio, you can find:

-Moog Matriarch

-Arp Odyssey silver (Korg reissue)

-Arturia Minibrute (with a self-made modded vibrato mode for some FM delight)

-Intellijel Morgasmatron

-Intellijel Quad VCA

-Joranalogue Audio Filter 8

-Michigan Synth Works SY0.5

-Couple of Boss DD7 Delay

-Chord FL-50

-Visual Sound H205

-Roland Funny Cat AG-5

-Boss Harmonist PS-6

-Tascam 414 Portastudio

-Yamaha MT-50

-Jensen Cassette Recorder

-Sony TC-WE475

-Self-built drone machine

-Selmer Auto-Rhythm

-Self made – Circuitbent Roland TR-505 (which reminds me, I forgot I lent it to my friend)

-Novation SLMK3

-Behringer UMC1820

-Soundcraft FX16ii

-Behringer Xenyx Q802USB

-Panasonic NV-VP33

-And all sorts of VHS tapes, and made cassette loops, patchbays, cables and midi routers, projectors, webcams, mic stands etc.

Live set up now consists of a

Sherman Filterbank 2

Korg KP3 with a microphone.

Ableton Push 2

-Evolution UC 33

What is the one instrument you would never get rid of, no matter what?

Difficult… But ever since I discovered Ableton three years ago, I’ve been hooked. Really, I love my computer in general because I use it for all of my creative endeavours. So probably that.

What was the last record store you visited? And what did you salvage from there?

Bordello A Parigi. But then again I work there most weekends. I don’t really like going to record stores as much as I used to. I’d rather take my time on Discogs, think about it, then decide whether this record will stand the test of time in my collection. It’s very important for my collection to be timeless. Even if I don’t listen to a specific genre as much, it must still be of high quality for me to revisit some years later. But the last record I bought was a month ago. GONZO GOA Party Music ‘87-94 by Sound Migration. Hot tip!

Do you have hope for the future of music? How would you like the future of the music industry to be?

I am hopeless and so is everything. Hope can be an excuse for lack of action anyways. I find that a lot of people blame corporate record labels and the such for the demise of the music industry. This is in part very true, but I find that a lot of problems come internally from the underground. We need to stop being nepotistic sometimes and stop climbing on top of each other for the sake of social media “likes”. The “behind-the-scenes” lack genuineness a bit too often at times.

Can you reveal some future projects?

Of course. Releases, features and events with the platform I run Dee Dee’s Picks (@dee_dees_picks//deedeespicks.com), a couple of tracks for two different labels as part of their V.A. comp, some DJ gigs, some audio-visual performances and installations that will act like interactive mirrors made with Touch Designer and Xbox Kinect V2.