Cari Lekebusch interview [Archive] - Blackout Audio Techno Forums

Mucky Beats

12-05-2010, 02:35 AM

Good read :)

here is one i did with cari in march , worth a read ...

April's Colour sees the welcome return of Cari Lekebusch to the North of England. Cari has played a major part in the emergence of Sweden as a hotbed of techno talent, being just one of a whole host of bigshots who've spent years honing the Swedish techno sound. A man of deep and diverse musical taste, he cites James Brown, Kraftwerk, Ralph Lundstein and Afrika Bambaata as just some of the artists who've indirectly had a hand in crafting his output over the years. From his beginnings as a DJ and artist in Stockholm, Cari's reputation has gone from strength to strength and is now playing all over the globe regularly, alongside having a formidable discography of releases under his belt on labels such as Drumcode, Soma, Novamute and Harthouse among others.

As we get closer and closer to our Spring blowout, Colour resident Ed Mackie was lucky enough to be able to fire some questions at Cari...it goes a little something like this...

EM: Here at Colour we are very excited about you gracing the decks at our birthday show on april 16th. What is your best memory of playing the UK?

CL: Thank you =) Im looking forward to that! I can recall quite many good experiences all over the UK. The first time must have been around 1993-94. And ive been at many of the classic clubs like Atomic Jam, Orbit Leeds, Fabric, Deep Space and The End just to name a few. Hard to pick a fave amongst faves as allways, but id like to mention that UK club people in general are very rewarding to play for, and its easy to sense the synergy. People are not afraid of showing joy and expressing themselves. They should be more "spoiled"/"blase" hence the big exchange of major acts etc, but that doesnt seem the case.

EM: When I first heard your sound back in late 90's I was enchanted. Where did you get your influences from?

CL: The main influences derive from what i listened to when i was still a shrimp =) B-Boy and Electro music from the late 70s and early 80s, after that the Techno genre slowly got started and my stuff was best labeled Techno (mostly). During the 90s a lot of focus was spent on trying to see where the limits and borders for audio processing are, and this sometimes resulted in both amazing as well as maybe the opposite - quite macabre tracks LOL

EM: My friends and I came up with the idea, you played your tracks though a reel to reel then back into the mixer when you recorded them to get that amazing mad sound. Where we right?

CL: Yes good spotted! I was using a Reel2reel recorder sometimes, mainly to get to the special type of tape compression it created :) During the 90s, the vinyl record sales also made it possible for me to purchase some very expensive processors, that i abused for testing the limits =D

EM: You where one of the key members in bringing the "Swedish techno" to the world, can you tell me a little more about how it happened?

CL: Yes good question, but my guess is the main reason for that was that most of us producers and acts where collaborating alot both with productions and with labels, dj giggs etc. Thus being able to make quite a significant amount of "noise" out there. The long dark winters provide a good excuse to spend extra time in the studio as well, thus sharpening skills and talents. And worth mentioning also is that we all have been pretty much working around the clock - putting in time with our music and touring all year around since the early 90s.

EM: Over your career how much do you think the techno scene has changed ?

CL: There are quite significant overall changes in any music genre, both in style sound and name. Technology is part of it as well as how many generations the genre has been evolving from. Techno is more "grown up" nowdays than like 20 years ago, more complex, more styles, more players etc. But its still forward thinking, interested in the future and utilises new Technology as it comes. It is welcoming to anybody, no matter genetic or cultural background. At least thats what i think it should allways be. A perfect cross section where you can join several origins toghether and create new ones in a swift pace. My label name H-Productions (aka Hybrid Productions) implies just that.

EM: Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?

CL: I wish that in 10 years my label and career are on a peak curve and way after that i will be working in the scene for many more years. And after THAT i will be in a hitech castle on top of a hill like a mad scientist creating robotic creatures that dominate the world by using audio frquencies LOL.

EM: Is the crest on your website the Lekebusch family crest?

CL: Yes and i use the crest for my company/name, Lekebusch Musik AB. Just like my father did and so forth. Hopefully if i get children they will do the same =) A true Knight of the turning table LOL

EM: What has been the maddest thing that has happened to you in a club?

CL: I guess the most maddest things have to be censored LOL!!! But there are quite a few that most DJs have stumbled into =D There not much actually that is mad anylonger HAHA! It becomes part of the job, but yeah its like a jungle out there. I have so many thing come to mind now, but theres one from long ago that i cant seem to get out of my head. It was this crazed semi naked guy with a huuge mushroom hat on that came flying of some stage pillars right down toward the DJ mixer/Turntables when a GIANT security guard cought him in MID AIR!! Just before i though it was gonna get really ugly his long arms came from the side and wow this guy must have been strong like a horse. He held him mid air during a little backwards tumble of the stage and they landed pretty safe. It was jaw dropping and so many people saw that, even parts of the dancefloor just stopped LOL And then all started to scream, after that the whole place got torn apart. People even stagedived and some speakers and amps got destroyed in the process. So they had to close the area for a while (was festival areas).

EM: This will be your first set in Sankeys and Colour, what can people expect when Lekebusch is in the house?

CL: They can deffo expect a warm thick layer of sub bass, cool beats, not to violent and deffo not to sleepy! Topped with some mindboggling effect sounds and trippy echo tones. Smooth automations, build ups and downs attached to a few recovery breaks. As well as some surprising secret trickeries =D

EM: Do you have any releases coming up?

CL: Next up is a single on Harthouse called Cari Lekebusch / Merry Go Round. And i have both a single and an album planned after that on my label H-Productions. The single for the album is called "Macabre/Goth Night", and the album is called "State Of The Art". After that there are some other releases prepared in the pipeline. Both for Adam Beyer's Drumcode, Truesoul and Luke Slater's Mote-Evolver. Teasers and trailers are coming asap, and these releases will be in the timeframe April-July

EM: Finally who in your eyes is the producer look out for in 2010?

CL: Wow there are many. Let me make a little list here =) My compadres in Sweden Joel Mull, Jesper Dahlbäck, Alexi Delano, Adam Beyer and Joey Beltram, The Advent, Tony Rohr, Dustin Zahn, Christian Smith, Kaiserdisco, Alan Fitzpatrick, John Selway, Mark Broom, Samuli Kemppi, Secret Cinema, Mauro Picotto, Ricardo Ferri, Reset Robot, Gary Beck, Nihad Tule, Gene Le Fosse, Joseph Capriati, Jerome Sydenham, Paul Ritch, mm .....