Urban Marinade

By Robert Fairbairn

As part of our coverage of Electric Zoo, Urban Marinade had planned to interview techno mainstay and standout producer Umek.  As a result of illness Umek was unable to attend the event, but our own Robert Fairbairn caught up with him remotely and asked him a few questions.

A native of Slovenia, Umek has been a major player in the techno world for going on twenty years. His record label 1605 is both prolific and influential. His “Party for a Cause” fundraiser events have entertained thousands of revelers in his home city of Ljubljana while raising impressive funds for humanitarian causes. He is one of few techno artists to reliably rank in the DJMag Top 100 ratings year after year, and his productions are featured by many of the top artists in the EDM world -Eddie Halliwell, Sander Kleinenberg, John Digweed, Judge Jules, and Carl Cox to name a few. In short, this guy is good, and if you aren’t listening to him, you should be.

URB: You’ve been doing this for a long time (relatively speaking) starting of course in your native Slovenia and now all over the world - how do you feel the job of the DJ has changed in the last few years?

Umek: The life of a deejay now is quite different as when I started. There’s been a huge progress in the technology. I’ve started working with classic turntables and analogue studio equipment and now I’m working on a totally digital platform for couple of years as a deejay and a producer. People still come to the parties to dance all night and have fun as they used to, but in the meantime techno became widely popular. It’s still one of the least commercialized EDM genres but now it’s much more popular than it used to be. We used to be treated as second or third class artists but nowadays you can hear my records being played even in the sets of a big pop stars and listened to by much more commercial crowds. Another thing is that nowadays I do not need to go to the record stores anymore as I can do all my music shopping on-line from my home sofa. Which is a really good thing if you know I used to do almost 500 kilometers to be able to buy a dozen of vinyl records in Munich or Vienna. But there’s also a big minus to this: now everything gets released and I have to listen to a lot of bad music to discover some good ones. In my case also a quality of clubs, hotels and flight arrangements got much better in all this years but that’s because of my hard work and the results that is bringing.


URB: You are a very prolific producer, and your work shows a great deal of variety as compared to most techno artists.  Why is this, and how do you think it affects your career?

Umek: I agree that I’m versatile producer now, but I used to be a techno purist. I felt that way at the time and I feel different now and as I produce music based on my feeling the sound reflects that. If you had asked me “What is proper techno music?” in the period between 1996 to 2000 I’d tell you that it’s only that narrow sound we produced at that time and that all the rest is BS. But I changed, I grew up, I learned a lot about music, so my view on music also changed. The only thing I know now is that my perception of techno is not something that will remain the same as my taste develops and changes all the time. By nature I’m a very curious person, I need challenges and I’m also a technology freak, interested in how music is done, how a good sound is being created. I’ve come a long way since my early productions, also because I get bored of things really fast and I’m always trying to do things differently and better. And that’s how I developed my fingerprint sound, which is not static, but rather a very dynamic thing that varies a bit with every new production I make.  And about the effect on my career: I’m sure I’ve alienated some of my early fans, the ones who have stuck with that sound and do not like how I developed as an artist. I understand them. That’s normal. As it is now, a lot of people who couldn’t stand my earlier sound like to listen to my music and passionately wait for every new release as my old fans did in the past. The thing is that I can’t influence this as much as I can just do what I feel like and go where the sound takes me. I don’t pay much attention to what people think I should produce – I produce what I want to. This is the only way that I can grow artistically.

URB: As an artist who has consistently been in the DJ mag Top 100 list for a number of years, and one of very few techno artists who appear in that list, how do you feel about the survey and it’s impact in the industry?

Umek: I’m glad that I’m still in there and that people are still voting for me. There’s a split opinion on the techno circuit if it’s good to be on that list or not. A lot of my colleagues don’t support this, as this pool is more or less just a popularity contests that doesn’t have much to do with the content and quality of our work. I agree that it lacks some credibility. For example, I’ve reached #50 last year, which has been my worst placement in years but on the other hand my career is bursting, I’m on my peak right now, playing all the best and biggest clubs and festivals in the world. So there is no correlation. I expect a slight fall this year again as this is a contest of brand companies and we just don’t have this resources and mass appeal as top commercial artists, though I’m doing great right now. The top 10 or top 20 artists have become so huge that I just can’t compete with that. I am really small to them in terms of all the money and media attention they are gathering with huge business companies along their side. So I rather compare to the “underground” artists that are creatively and business-wise more like me: Richie, Sven, Cox and other techno heavyweights.

URB: Throughout your career you’ve been involved with a series of record labels and production groups up to and including 1605.  Tell us a little bit about your role on this front and what your level of involvement is.

Umek: I take 1605 very personal and I’m very involved – after all it bears my date of birth in its name. I run this label together with my colleague Kostas Michalis from Athens, Greece. We work on this project on a daily basis, usually we talk through on Skype every morning and also during the day and in the evening if necessary. We listen to a lot of demos and talk about this and other music. It’s part of my everyday routine. And there’s also my office that takes care of the site, social network profiles and this kind of B2C promotion.

URB: Obviously there are many facets to your music work, between DJing, production, label management etc.  Do you have any other diversions outside of the music world?

Umek: No, I don’t really have any time left. I spend most of the time on weekdays in the studio and running label and I’m touring every weekend and sometimes even in between. That takes 80% of my time, so I try to spend the other 20% relaxing, doing some sports and with my family and friends.

URB: You’ve had a few great releases this year, and you are performing at all the big events. Can we look forward to any surprises from you over the next few months?

Umek: I’m not sure these count as surprises but I have some interesting projects coming out in the following months. I produced a joint-album with Beltek that is coming out on Toolroom this autumn. We are putting together Umek live-act project that will hopefully premiere sometimes in February. I’m also going to move to a new studio and there’s bunch of my new tracks and remixes scheduled for forthcoming months. Oh, and if you’re coming to Amsterdam Dance Event, don’t miss the 1605 ADE Showcase at De Balie on October 22nd with me vs. Beltek, Stefano Noferini, Luetzenkirchen, Spartaque, Spektre, Christian Cambas, VJ Rasta and VBG design exhibition.

URB: Finally, if you had to name your favorite places in the world to perform, what would they be?

Umek: Raw 14 in Barcelona and Space Ibiza with Carl Cox stand out right now, though I must say that practically every club that books me leaves a good impression on me. I don’t even remember when I had a bad experience in club or a festival as promoter and audience always treat me really nice.

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