DJ Overdose: “To "rave" means nothing to me”
Being part of the underground electro scene since the 90's, Jeroen Warmenhoven was able to create a signature style, reflecting the ideas of the unique Dutch sound in his art. In this interview, the artist talks about why he doesn't like acid music style, the process of creating an ironic track Acid Lovely and his colleague I-F.
1. I-F was making jokes in his album Fucking Consumer, the fact that you have this pseudonym. Don’t you agree that most of the Dutch independent electronic artists have a good sense of humor?
I can’t speak for everyone but I know that the guys you mention do joke around a lot and we are at one point serious about music but we can also have a good laugh about a lot of the ridiculousness in the industry or the state of music at any point altogether also.
2. Acid Lovely: how has this track come to light? How did you achieve this level of massive, dirty (in a good sense) sound? Is there a story behind this track?
The distorted drum sound is easy to accomplish if you have an analogue mixer, you just raise the input gain to distort your drums and you can output them steadily. Acid Lovely is a bit of a joke because I don't really like Acid and also Acid is never very lovely and everything in the track is distorted and not lively at all so I guess the title is ironic in a sense. I made the track because I do like the distorted drum sound a lot but at the same time I find it a bit too easy of a way to get a raunchy or raw sounding track. Also the 303 in the track is done by the SQ80, which is a digital wave synthesizer with an analogue filter. Lots of people made patches for this synth because it’s probably the most versatile budget synth around, it can do almost anything and does it well with its own spicy sauce thrown over it in gallons. So one guy made this 303 patch and it’s just damn crazy and when I got it I played around with it a couple of days and made the Don’t Get Burned EP meanwhile. To me the best 303 line is in Reckless by Chris The Glove Taylor and Ice T.
3. The neorave culture that originated thanks to the modern bands (such as Die Antwoord). Do you think that’s different from the original concept and is it ‘okay’ to rave nowadays?
To me Rave is Gabber, I never had anything to do with that and I don't know anything about what Rave is now or what people call Rave, “to rave” means nothing to me. I don’t know what that is?!
4. How were the real Dutch ravers back in the days?
Bald and bold.
5. Don’t you feel nostalgic about those times?
I do feel nostalgic about older music and those days, music made more of an impression on me back then. Also in my lifetime I was lucky to see a lot of innovation, because of new instruments being made. Synth, sampler, drum computer. All these machines made people approach music differently and they made it possible to create new genres of music. And now even people who couldn’t play guitar or a real instrument could make music. Maybe I'm too old to judge but I feel like maybe Jungle was the last thing in dance music that was completely original and new sounding. The Sampler is the greatest invention as an instrument for me.
6. You have a lot of experience as an artist. How come you released your first full-length album only in 2009?
Because I'm not much of a musician.
All the music that was put out before my first solo stuff that i had anything to do with came to completion because of working together with Mr. Pauli who I was in Novamen with. I couldn’t finish a song on my own, I just had some nice ideas sometimes and made a cool melody or two cool patterns/bars in a sampler or something and together with him we would make that into a song. After learning from him i did once in a while make a whole song on my own and I guess by 2002 I had enough to make an EP for Murder Capital after releasing 3 EP’s with Novamen.
7. Tell us more about Intergalactic FM. What is all about?
It’s about Ferenc and his love for good radio. Back when we were kids there actually were good radio stations in The Netherlands and for us the pirate radio stations in The Hague in particular. At some point the government picked sides of commercial radio and the pirates got banned, booked, and beaten. Also mainstream radio lost all its good stuff, I guess because of wanting to please the big crowd and advertisers. A few years later the Internet made it possible to do that again and so Ference jumped up and became a Pirate. Which boy doesn’t want to be a pirate?!
8. Last year the Cinerama Adventures was released. Will there be a continuation of this project?
Probably not, that project was made with three other guys who worked at the Cinerama theater in Rotterdam. One has moved to Barcelona, the other I still make music with once in a while as Leipe Wesens but the music is mostly too weird and unfinished.
I am working with Kazuma who did the cover for that project on some silk screens for previous released RotterHague record issues. It will be four different covers which will when put together be one big drawing. I think we will do about ten of each, the first one we did last month.
9. What is something that you really like about electro and what you don't like in acid music?
I like the broken beats and the futuristic subject matter and funk. Future music of the past.
In early electro records like Future by Model500 even remote controls and tv sets were still part of the future. All these things have been caught up pretty much. And we really are living in the Computer World Kraftwerk was singing about. I’m not repulsed but I'm not into acid, I just don’t like the squealing sound of the 303 very much. Some early tracks are cool. Now there are a lot of electro records which use the 303 sound, i think the combination of electro and squealing 303 is not a good one. There are always exceptions though. I like electro to have funk in it, lot’s of electro is approached from a Techno perspective, that’s not my cup of tea, I like it to be funky, experimental or industrial or beautiful or melancholic, there is pretty much room for everything in electro music.
10. How's RotterHague Records doing?
I like electro to have funk in it, lot’s of electro is approached from a Techno perspective, that’s not my cup of tea, I like it to be funky, experimental or industrial or beautiful or melancholic, there is pretty much room for everything in electro music.