For some of us Daniel Bortz is known as the man that made that deep, to die for edit on James Blake’s Limit to your love and one of the top newcomer names on deep house scene. For others he’s that veteran DJ with 15+ years of experience and a number of successful releases on Pastamusic, Souvenir and Suol. The way listeners, musicians, DJs and club heads perceive him will certainly gain yet another dimension as the Suol wonder boy is about to release a debut full length album Patchwork Memories on the 18th october. I caught up with Daniel to talk about the album, the music scene and the future of electronic music.
HMWL:
Hi Daniel, I understand you come from Augsburg, population 266,000, a not-to-big, not-to-small town between Stuttgart and Munich. On one hand a typically provincial German city, on other hand a creative hub full of young graffiti artists and musicians of all genres from jazz to hip-hop drum and bass. How did growing up in Augsburg affect the way your music sounds today?
Daniel Bortz:
Yeah, Augsburg is a also a very old town and you´re right, we´ve got a lot a creative people here. I think it´s not only Augsburg where I got all my influences from, it´s whole Bavaria. But in the end it´s the environment around me, also my own party where I developed my DJ sets .
HMWL:
Tell us about the new album Patchwork Memories. Did you lock yourself in for a few month and produce everything in one go? Or is it, like the title suggesters a carefully selected collection of tracks that has been maturing over the years?
Daniel Bortz:
The whole album was a spontaneous work. Most of the tracks were just sketches at the beginning, also I did a lot of reworking myself. So in some tracks there are very old ideas included. For example I loaded some old tracks into the MPC and resampled just the groove in the other one, changed the chords etc…
HMWL:
It sounds like you’ve had a very busy summer with many many tour dates in US, Brazil, France, Italy and so on. I travel a lot with my work too and start to realize that living “in a traveling bag” can be quite exhausting after a while, despite late hotel checkouts and nice restaurant food. What’s you strategy for staying happy and healthy on the road?
Daniel Bortz:
Sometimes it´s very difficult to find high quality food on travelling, also most hotels don´t have good food and let´s not talk about food in planes…and btw I´m a vegetarian 😉 For staying healthy its very important to me to try and stay relaxed, try to be patient …if you stress yourself out you always get sick .
HMWL:
Already 5 years ago has the Music industry generalists doomed out Album as a “dead format”. They said that today’s generation of listeners have to short attention span and are always hungry for new tracks – so singles and remixes is the only “right” way to go in 2013. Yet for many electronic musicians making an album is a very important step for demonstrating the broad arsenal of their production. Do you think the album format that becomes less and less common elsewhere will live on in electronic music?
Daniel Bortz:
I don´t really know about that because I´m just a musician. But I think it´s not the right way to overfloat people with too much music all the time – also the remix massacre is too much for me. So I think the good thing about releasing an album is giving the artist a chance to show something more or maybe a different side of what they are feeling. Also the difference to a EP is that you got more to listen. I mean I know people who buy an album and listen to it for a long tim in the car etc…and after one month they say : YES !!! That´s a cool album because I´m still listening !!! So let´s see…
HMWL:
The male vocals on your tracks, do you sing them in yourself?
Daniel Bortz:
Yes I tried 😉
HMWL:
Times are changing. The supply of good producers and good DJs is by every year overexiding the demand for good music (or not?). What do you thing the DJ scene will look like within 5-10 years?
Daniel Bortz:
Since we have musicans or DJ´s it´s always been the same. You have good one or bad one or bla bla…I don´t really care about this …I always find good stuff from talented artists. And if I dont like something I don´t have to listen to it. Much respect to everyone who is doing something !!!
HMWL:
Let’s talk young guns. Which promising newcomer producers, German as well as international should we keep an eye on during 2014?
Daniel Bortz:
Don´t really know yet …the people I have in my mind right now aren´t young anymore 😉
HMWL:
Finally, what did you have for lunch yesterday and what are the three last records you bought?
Daniel Bortz:
Hm – I had some pasta with truffels !!!
Graze – On Board (No Save Dub)
Red Axes Feat Abrâo – Caminho De Dreyfus (Rebolledo Remix)
Westbam -U Need The Drugs
Album Preview: Daniel Bortz – Patchwork Memories (Suol 18th october)
1. Alone At home
2. spend the night
3. monkey biznizz
4. first love feat. eva gold
5. bright
6. satisfaction
7. the misery feat. nils corssen
8. in the yard
9. pictures
10. my cats wont let me sleep
11. friends