Fine Taste is definitely one of the most exciting artists out there today. Their production is always rock solid and the beats jumpy, you simply can’t sit/stand still. Fine Taste consists of Freek Geuze and Johan Vermeulen, and is one of many aliases; Chunk & Twist, Global Illumination, Frisky Warlock (Freek), Smartminds (Freek), Interplay (Johan) and more. I’ve had the priveledge to talk to Mr. Geuze.
Tell us a bit about yourself, man. When and how did you start making music?
I’m Freek Geuze. I’m 22 years old and I started making music at the age of 4 on the piano. At 11 I started to produce electronic music with Impulse Tracker (God bless impulse tracker) and then on more advanced stuff like Reason, Cubase, name it.. And now still going strong..
I dare to say that most electonic musicians nowadays use exclusively software for production, are you guys down with the software, hardware or maybe both?
The only hardware I have is my PC!
What programs and synths etc. do you use?
Like I said I mostly use Reason, Cubase and sometimes Acid Pro, Cooledit Pro.
Guide us through the general process how you make a track?
Get inspiration. I can’t tell you how to get that, but its about the feeling when you think: now it’s time to make a new track. Mostly when things go right I put down every other thing to get it finished as soon as possible.
You and Johan have been working apart quite a lot now, how do you think this will affect the future Fine Taste sound?
I dunno.. I think it wont affect it at all actually. We make a lot of music but because we don’t live together (doh) we hardly don’t finish the snippets. Only the remixes we finish, because we’re committed to do that.
While Johan goes more cheesy progressive house on his own with Interplay, you seem to choose the more trancy sound. Would you say that your styles are equally weighted in your combined sound of Fine taste?
I dunno.. I wont call my style trancy actually, there are a lot of banging techhouse tunes from me coming up on for example Spinnin’ Records and Kitchy Recordings. Watch out for them! I’m not really into one style, I just do everything with the Smartminds alias which I like. Fine Taste is basically Tech-house/Electro-house.
Battery Life is one of the best tracks 2007, no doubt. Will we hear more from the pseudonym Chunk & Twist?
Maybe, maybe not.. can’t tell anything about it. ATM they are on a long holiday drinking cocktails at some faraway beach… 😉
In the club, do you guys prefer to play live or DJ, and what equipment would you choose?
We prefer to Dj atm. Maybe later there will be some live elements, but its important to get into the Dj-thing first.
How does the future look for Fine Taste?
Let’s hope it looks bright. Its in our own hands mostly, so we have to take care for it!
Are you able to live off your music? If not, what do you do on the side?
No, I study next to it (Human Resource Development). It’s always nice to get a fee or an advance, but its not that much hehe. Most money should come from Dj-gigs.
Thanks man, and good luck!
Thanks for the interview, always appreciate the attention! Cheers!
Check out these sweet and exclusive Fine Taste bootlegs:
Harry Romero – What Happened (Fine Taste Bootleg)
Chris Micali – Body Yo (Fine Taste Bootleg)
6 Patch Tenaglia – Got That Music (Fine Taste Bootleg)
For more info on Fine Taste check out:
http://www.myspace.com/johanvermeulen
http://www.myspace.com/finetaste
http://www.myspace.com/interplay
http://www.myspace.com/smartmindsmusic
Cheers!
/Ridge F