Interview with Redge

Miami Encode Interview Redge this week, a no holds barred Techno artist who is celebrating the release of his Take Ten set for 2022!

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

It is always hard to define your own music, but I try to pull elements from both the more deep/minimal groovy techno sound from labels like Senso Sounds and Alula Tunes, with the big synth elements and energy from labels like Drumcode and Afterlife. However, this is more where my aspirations lie than my definition of my sound, as I think it will develop and refine with every new production and can only hope to push out productions like those one day! I also spent a long time in the Progressive Psytrance scene visiting festivals in Germany and Switzerland, where clean and quality production was absolute paramount, and left me with something to always aim for.

And your last record? How was it born? And where do you want it to lead?

My most recent body of work is my new Live Set, over the last 10 months I dove back into the studio to produce 14 new techno tracks, of which 11 new and unheard tracks are featured in “Take Ten”. Having produced Progressive Psytrance for many years, I was finding more inspiration and love for some of the new music being released in the Techno arena, and after some trips to Berlin, Paris and London for Techno events found that I had huge energy and motivation for producing in another genre. After spending so much time and effort making this new set, I would love it to lead to some new listeners discovering my music and for me being able to meet fans and perform in new cities.

What message would you like to convey to the public?

It’s always important to keep hunting for that new stuff! Right now, I think there are so many new artists coming through with some great music, it’s important to support up and coming producers who are bringing fresh ideas and creativity along with them.

How do you make music? What is most important for you?

First I like to lay down a loop and find a nice groove, then I will add in and develop other elements until I have all the building blocks for a complete track. Finally, I will put that all into an arrangement and work through the whole track with adjustments to the flow and polish up the finished piece. Most important for me is getting the basic elements down to a really solid groove, so you can sit and listen to the loop for ages with it holding the energy of the track.

Is there a unifying concept behind your art?

As mentioned a bit in the last answer, everything for me comes down to the groove in the building blocks of a track. If you can’t jam out to the loop in the outro of a song, then it doesn’t make the most of the other elements in there, so my aspiration is always to try and get that nailed down first! And I hope that this is something that comes across.

What makes you unique?

I think this is such a hard questions to answer yourself, as you spend so much time in the studio listening to your music when you’re creating it, you lose your fresh ear to compare your finished tracks to others. But I know there are elements in my music that carry through from one track to another, and probably are present in a lot of the music I make, so maybe there is some uniqueness in there!

As for your studio, what is it currently composed of?

I am spending a lot of time travelling in my campervan right now, so the bulk of the work is being done on just my laptop and some Sennheiser HD25 headphones! Then I listen to the mixdowns on some other reference points like my van speakers, other headphones and smaller speaker systems to check it sounds good across all of them, before working with my mastering engineer to polish up the final sound ready for release. But I look forward to setting up another studio as I get settled in Valencia.

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

At the moment I am getting a lot of use out of Serum, as you can create such thick textures and really push your sound design.

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

Yes of course! The music industry has taken a hard hit over the last couple of years, and it is really encouraging to see it coming back to life with such revived energy, it seems like great music events are popping up everywhere right now.

Can you reveal some future projects to us?

Right now I am going to be focussing on the release of my “Take Ten” live set, as this has been a huge amount of work and time over the last year, and I want to try to get it out to as many new listeners as possible. However, the motivation for production is higher than ever at the moment, so I will also be in the studio working hard on new productions as well, with some interesting collabs on the way!

What makes you happy?

Seeing ‘Tale of Us’ close Awakenings Festival this Sunday, with a ram-packed open air stage, insane light show and fireworks at the end, really had me losing my mind!

What bothers you?

Not being able to get round and see all of the artists currently inspiring me perform in person!

Artist Social Links:

http://www.soundcloud.com/redgeuk
http://www.facebook.com/redgeuk
http://www.instagram.com/redge.uk
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5I1qVnGe6fmAc0EiOBuHoB
https://www.beatport.com/artist/redge/455898
https://linktr.ee/RedgeUK