Unless Andy C suddenly releases a jazz album later this year, or Marky unleashes the gabba techno LP of his dreams, the Neosignal album will most certainly go down as 2013’s biggest switch flipper.
Famed for their speaker shredding D&B as Phace & Misanthrop, their lower tempo, electro-singed powerhouse project Neosignal came as a bit of a shock to their fanbase. But one listen and it all makes sense; those roaring bass tears and anvil production techniques are still present and correct, they’ve just been painted on different canvas.
We caught up with Florian (Phace) and Michael (Misanthrop) to learn of the challenges that such a project has presented them. In return they’ve given us this exclusive behind the scenes short video on how they made the distinctive cover art.
And don’t worry… We’ve found out when the next Phace & Misanthrop project is coming too!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiUg5KwJD-k&feature=youtu.be
Is this THE album you always wanted to write?
Florian: Totally. We just wrote what we’ve had in our minds for years. Now was the perfect time to do it.
Why now?
Michael: We had a lot of different experimental projects and ideas saved from over the years but last year we thought it was the right time. We felt comfortable to get some of the experimental material out there so we opened up the DAW and went ‘right, let’s do what we feel like!’ No tempo restrictions, no genre restrictions… Just write what we like.
Florian: Thankfully the shoe-box way of thinking is part of the past now. Artists are able to do what they want a lot more now and the crowd welcome it. Don’t get me wrong; on some gigs we do see a few people who don’t quite get it. They’ve come expecting drum & bass when we do the Neosignal band thing but we’re giving them mainly half tempo broken stuff and electronica here… that’s the way it is. It is a risk. We’ve got a strong drum & bass history and a great following. It’s scary to lose some friends but most of our hardcore fans now understand what we’re doing and have been really supportive which is so cool and we are so thankful for.
It’s a huge risk! D&B diehards take time to convince…
Michael: We would have a lot more scared if we’d released this 10 years earlier! We renamed the project to make sure we kept things separate to the music we do as Phace & Misanthrop and not confuse people.
Florian: Although Neosignal Recordings is also our same named label and it’s known for drum & bass music. But for us Neosignal was always bigger than just a label name. We knew it would be complicated but we took time to explain to everyone what this band project is about and how important it is for us.
Let’s talk influences. I can hear Daft Punk or Justice. I can hear Kraftwerk. I can hear elements of psychedelic rock. Give me some reference points…
Florian: For me personally the LP sums up pretty much my whole past. It’s my youth. It’s the music I listened to as a young boy. It’s the music I listened to in my mid 20s. It’s my life! From old school electro to krautrock stuff or prog rock to the new school electronica.
Michael: But we’ve never tried to copy anyone. We just open the project and made the sounds we like. A lot of the sounds won’t work in drum & bass which was another reason why we ended up at the tempo we have.
There’s an air of paranoia and satire about tracks like Angst and Planet Online. Was that an intentional message?
Michael: We always planned to have a theme. We wanted the album to have vocals and have an edge of social criticism.
Florian: It’s very hard to get a message across with electronic music. But we never wanted to be the guys who think they know better or try and preach. You got to be careful not putting too much brain into music while maintaining its soul. It’s a tricky balance.
Why do you think electronic music and political messages aren’t more common?
Michael: You never want to over-saturate a track with messages and themes as you want it to work on the dancefloor. But with Neosignal we knew there would be more potential for listening experiences outside of the dancefloor; on your headphones, in your car and so on. So we knew this was the perfect time to play with such a theme and a message.
We have to talk about the planet online video! Who made it? Was that your idea?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnhPMdIsOBc
Michael: The people who made the video are a crew called Dent De Cuir. I discovered them on the internet, they’ve done videos for Siriusmo and Modeselektor. They’re so great, we had to contact them and work with them. We briefed them with what we wanted to say with the track and they came up with this idea and we gave them total freedom.
Florian: They nailed it! They’re working on the next video too.
Looking forward to that! So please give me both of your proudest moments on the album?
Florian: I have three; Sequenz, the title track Raum Und Zeit and Das Diktat. I have a close relationship with every track on the album but those three I can listen to anywhere at any time.
Michael: I’m pretty much the same, they summarise the whole LP in a way. We started writing the LP with Sequenz and it really sets the tone and pace for the whole album.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZEiOlrl_zM
There are some really lush, musical moments like the breakdown on JetSet… Your D&B isn’t known for its musicality, it’s known for its production power. Was the ability to get your more musical side across a liberating experience?
Florian: If you want to be more musical in drum & bass it tends to lean towards the more trancey, cheesy stuff. With no disrespect to the people who make that sound it’s not been the direction we’ve wanted to explore. Sure there is cool soulful and more musical D&B around but we’re not the guys to make that sound. So yes, there was definitely a gratifying feeling to make musical stuff, and not just a production we could tour.
Speaking of tours, tell me about the live show. Was that always the plan?
Michael: We always wanted to do a live show for this. We wanted it to be special. Plus I don’t think it would be possible to do it as a DJ set as the tempos change too much. It would actually be a bit boring, I think! That’s why we wanted to use computers and controllers so we could put it in a different situation.
Florian: Neosignal is a band for us; it’s not a DJ thing. We love DJing but we have Phace & Misanthrop for that. Neosignal needs to have its own identity. And for the live show all the tracks have been reworked to fit the environment. It’s like a VIP album when we play a show!
Nice. So what next? More Neosignal or more Phace & Misanthrop?
Michael: We’ve never been away from Phace and Misanthrop, we’ve been working on more D&B during this whole process but not released it yet. So the next plan is a new Neosignal Recordings EP under Phace & Misanthrop. Then following that there’ll be a new Neosignal band EP on Division.
Florian: We’re unsure of timings but the Phace & Misanthrop EP will be first. We just do what we feel and try to keep ourselves busy doing what we love: making music!