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05.02.

Sasse interview

Pulse Radio interview with Sasse

With a music career spanning almost 20 years, Finnish DJ/Producer/Label head, Klas Lindblad has become one of the more respected faces in the deep house scene. After setting up Moodmusic records in the late 90’s, and a move via Frankfurt to Berlin, the label has also garnered a reputation for uncompromised quality in deep house. Pulse was able to catch up with Sasse just prior to the release of his first Freestyleman artist album and a tour of Australia and Asia.

Pulse Radio: It seems like everyone that has anything to do with house/techno has moved to Berlin and so have you. What do you think it is about the city that brings DJs and artists here?

Sasse: Well, I was in Germany already (Frankfurt), so for me it was just about finding a new city. I moved here in 2003, so it was before the big rush, before everybody started to come here. I was lucky; I had a lot of friends here since before I DJ’d here a lot even before I moved. Of course, it was also the scene that brought me here. It was good back then, it still is but it has certainly changed. People say that it’s the capital of electronic music, but for me, that’s not how it is. There are a lot of other cities that are good as well!

Do you think that it’s a good thing to have every DJ in the same place, can you get something out of it?

Personally, I don’t really care about the other DJ’s, I have my small group of people and clubs that I work with... I’ve partied for 20 years already, so I don’t go out that much anymore. I don’t need to see every DJ and I don’t have to be friend with everyone. I have my life here, and I’m really happy with the small group of people I have around me at the moment, so it doesn’t really affect me that there are so many DJs that live here..

How have you been able to do this for such a long time?

Well, I started DJing at the end of the 80’s, and found house/techno in the early 90’s.It’s been too many years! I still feel that I am young in the scene,though. It’s just a part of my life you know, I am so used to it so I couldn’t live any other way, or work with anything else. I mean, now I only take the best parts out of the job, and leave the bad stuff out.. It’s about making choices; how you are going to spend your time, your money and your brain.

What equipment did you start producing with?

I had a PC, and a AMIGA; one sampler and one synth. I got a Juno from Roland when I was sixteen, and I continued with Juno but I bought many different versions. I sold them whenever I was broke or had to move, and then bought them back when I had money. Now I just have two of them in the studio, one rec model and one keyboard model. It’s the same sound that Mr Fingers used on a lot of his classic tracks. That sound has always been with me ,that early 80’s Roland midi sounds. Sounds better than any plug-in, I think.
I try to keep the essence from the classic sound from back then. I still use sounds that I sampled with my first old sampler. I always sampled old, scratchy vinyls and I’m happy that I can keep that rawness but converted in to modern productions.

So, do you have your dream setup now or is there anything that you want to get that you haven’t been able to get your hands on yet?

It’s like an addiction you know, probably worse then heroin, if you get hooked on studio equipment.I was really happy about this project [The bottom line], that I could make it happen, but for the next album it’s probably going to be a completely different sound or statement. Then I need to have a different setup! So no, there is no dream setup, I think that you should always try out new stuff otherwise it will get boring.

There hasn’t been that many Finnish house/techno artists that made it big world wide. What or who gave you the inspiration to start DJing/producing?

There was this radio-show called Ocsid in the eighties in Finland, where a DJ from Lahti played on Wednesdays between 6pm -8pm. He played all the Italo in the early 80’s, then the Chicago-stuff, acid-music and eventually house-music. He made electronic music well known in Finland, so he, among a few others, built up some sort dance-scene in Finland.
That’s how I got hooked on this kind of music; taping those shows and tried to figure put what this music was? I recorded everything on cassette back then, when I was too young to buy any records, and then years later I found the same tracks on vinyl in second-hand shops.

What made you start your record-company, Moodmusic?

Back then 14 years ago, you didn’t have access to Internet as you have nowadays. You couldn’t send out promos as easy as you can nowadays. I had a friend who worked in a record-shop, so the two of us started it together but at some point he became to busy so I continued to run it myself. I think there was only one or two electronic music labels before that in Finland? I didn’t know anything about running a label at that point, I was just sitting in a basement eating junk food and making music.

How did Moodmusic develop then?

I ran the company for two years in Finland and then I decided to go to where they actually sell this kind of music and play it in the clubs. That’s when I moved to Frankfurt. Because in Finland no one gave a shit about that kind of music..
I suppose I made the same mistakes as everybody else, you know you get ripped off a few times.. At the same time it taught me some things. I became good friends with people in Frankfurt; I got my residency at Robert Jonson and just had a great time in Germany. When I came to Berlin I had already made all the mistakes one do in the beginning of a career, so it was just to get a studio and get going. I had definitely learned how things should be done at this point. I met my partners that I share studio with here, Ewan (Pearson) and Filippo (Moscatello), and we’ve been working together since. The studio is our small kingdom!

When making music, what goes through your head, what do you aim for?

There’s always a concept, e.g. for this album it was “ old school, but without being old school”. Using old and classic sounds, but without making the record sound as if it was made -91. I always try to figure out something to make the album for, like a club or a special moment I’ve had on a dance floor, I try to put myself in different state of minds for each record. A lot of times it can also be that I just let it flow; add a few stuff, delete stuff and then something good comes out of it, without me thinking to much. Some times I just see what happens, I don’t have always have a master plan.

Like writers get writer’s block, do you get musician’s block?

Sure! It’s a good thing that I never delete anything; I have stored ten years of unfinished songs. So when that happens, I just open up something and discover maybe a nice bass line and from there the musician’s block disappear. I never delete anything! I know that in maybe five years time I can finish it, I don’t have to finish it the day I start. Sometimes it can take only two hours to make a track, mastering included, but usually I’m just putting stuff away and return to it a few years later.
Actually the tracks my latest album is from completely different years, the finishing touch I made now, before releasing it, but there are tracks from 1997, 2003 and 2009.

But there’s still a red line through it though?

Well, that’s just because I’m not a musician! There is just so much I can do with my musical limitation, maybe that’s why there’s a red line through it. It’s not like I would play completely different now then I did 10 years ago; I am as bad on playing solo now, as I was then. As a producer I am at a different level of course, so now I can polish it, but I am definitely not a musician. I am just trying to make music.

You have a lot of different monikers, what made you use Freestyle man for the album release?

[Laughs] Those monikers are something my booking agency hates me for. I actually stopped using all the monikers a few years ago, and only used Sasse. Then I got bored and wanted to see something else or re-activate one of them. I’ve used Freestyle Man for ten years, and I thought it would fit this album and the theme of the album.
Sasse is probably a more clubby/modern moniker and more fitting for when I DJ. Freestyle Man is like a old guy sitting in a studio thinking about the good old times, and how everything used to be better before..

Have you always been listening to this kind of music?

Yes I have. I started out with really cheesy Italo-disco when I was maybe 13-14 years old and from there it has always been this disco-influenced music. It’s always been electronic; I never listened to Iron Maiden and progg-rock that my friends back home was listening to. .

So what do you listen to nowadays?

I collect a lot of Jazz-albums, real musicians. Not classic music though, that doesn’t do it for me really. Mostly black music, like jazz, funk soul and disco of course.

Do you ever get tired of music and producing?

No, not really because I try to see it as a normal job. I try not to listen to music all the time. I come to the studio in the morning, get my coffee and work until four-five in the afternoon. I try to work daytime since I have a family now. I used to work in the nights before but now I’m rather awake when everybody else is awake.
In the late evening when everybody else is asleep at home, I get my two-three hours for myself, when I definitely don’t listen to any kind of music at all. Those are my hours off music. I need to protect myself from noise (and music) when I’ve been working all day, and I need the silence to be able to get inspired, otherwise it’s just input all the time. Every time I listen to a track the producer in me starts to analyze it, and that just makes me tired. I can’t stop it, so I prefer silence more than clubs when I’m off.

You don’t get any inspiration of going out to see other DJs?

No, definitely not! At least not when I go out to see them in a club. Maybe when I hear a set at home, but never in a club. At the club there is so much other stuff that inspires me, like the feeling in the club, the people and how they react to a tune. Maybe once in three years I’ve been like; “wow, that was fantastic night!” I should probably be more open minded and not so pragmatic, but that’s how I am.

Speaking of clubs, do you have any special night with you behind the decks that you remember?

Mostly when I DJ at Panorama, when we have our Moodmusic-nights, those nights are always special. Even when I come home afterwards and don’t really remember everything since it’s been so exhausting; I get these flashbacks of different moments that where just great during the night. It’s always special to play in that place!
There are also some nights when I’ve played in Helsinki, since there are a lot of old friends of mine.I always enjoy to DJ actually, it’s amazing how you can trick your mind and body to go up and DJ. Sometimes you can come from the hotel being completely sober, and sometimes you are completely trashed, but once you're behind the decks… you can just go on and on. In the end you are always happy, when you quit your set you’re like;” ok, I could have played for at least three more hours.” I don’t know how this mechanism works, and I don’t really want to know too much about it either, haha. It’s just funny how, in different states of mind, you always manage to deliver. You can always play your set! Some kind of black magic I suppose..

What is going on at Moodmusic in the near future, how does 2010 look for you and your label?

I work with a few people that are very interesting right now. It’s two guys called Penner & Muder, they are going to do a album for us before the summer that I look forward to. Then I work with my “old” people, like Nick Chacona who has a album coming out now in February. I’ve been working with him for 7-8 years; he’s a very good producer and DJ, he does a little bit more cosmic, a bit more disco/slow tempo music. I always try to be a part of the mixing-process and a part of the promotion for the artists; it’s all good fun.

So you think 2010 is going to be a good year?

2010 will be a great year! I had a good year 2009 as well; I DJ’d more than ever I think. Unfortunately there were a few downpoints as well; I think vinyl had its lowest point of sales 2009. Makes me sad because vinyl has always been important for me. Now in 2010, it looks like vinyl starts to be hot again, and I still have a lot of gigs ahead so yes, 2010 will be all good!

Johanna Knutsson

http://www.pulseradio.net/

05.02.2010 - 16:02 – by Sebastian Gaiser / Sebastian@whatpeopleplay.com