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EDLX SPOTLIGHT #12 TERENCE FIXMER
August 9, 2011
We hook up with Terence Fixmer for a chat on the eve of his release on edlx le terrible
[EDLX] How did you get into producing music?
[TERENCE] This is quite long story…lets try to be short.
When I was 13 years old, I lived 10 Km from the belgium border, in belgium at that time there was a big movement of music based on electronic sounds and cold atmopsheres which was called Electronic Body Music. The music we listened to at shool in our walkman was front 242, klinik, the neon judgement , a split second and a gruhm . Then slowly came the new beat ,which was a normal evolution from ebm. New Beat time was a huge movement in belgium, less vocals on it compare to EBM and more club oriented, at that time I started to grow up and get more and more into electronic sounds and the texture.Then acid, and techno came, which for me was a normal evolution of the previous movement, and then i was totally passionate (maybe crazy) into this new sound.
In the 90s, I started to buy more and more techno music, I was really interested in the electronic texture of the sound, I was wondering how I could record music like this. Then other friend such as emmanuel top, bruno sanchioni ( Age of Love, Dr Phibes) start to buy synthesizers…and I also realized that with 1 synthesizer i could reproduce 100s of different sounds compared to the records where i couldn’t change anything on it…i got more interested into sound production compared to djing.
For me when I listen to a records its printed in my memory, but a synth has unlimited functions.
So i decided to stop buying records for a while and started purchasing equipment to make my own sounds.
[EDLX] Can you describe your sound?
[TERENCE] i dont know how to describe it, of course my music is dark and club, but for me I try to put lots of personality in it, to have a track full of character, and not bending my sound to the marketing trends
[EDLX] Can you reference some of your influences?
[TERENCE] Of course , all ebm band such ad front 242,klinik, beong judgement, nitzer ebb, liaisons dangereuses,of course as well many new wave music, and many techno artist i discovered in the 90 s such as beltram, plastikman,(jochem of course!), plus 8 and labels such as r&s, novamute, tresor, force inc etc..
[EDLX] What do you listen to when you are not producing music?
[TERENCE] tinitus :), when i dont produce i like the silence for a while.
[EDLX] Your release le terrible is about to drop on edlx can you talk us through the process and the remixes and the concept behind the ep?
[TERENCE] I understand that many artists speak of a concept when they produce a track, or a theory of something behind the track, or some scientific thing around it …i dont know for me, producing is more a spontaneous process, to me there is no concept when i produce music, its like a blank paper, i start a track without any direction, its more experimenting sounds and sequences, going into electronic texture and sound I like ,creating sequence and atmosphere and as soon as I have something sounding good to my ear, I stick on it and go deeeper in it until i have a track ready…Then i have the result.
The only concept in le Terrible ep is the title called concept c, which to be honest means nothing , no concept, just the first title which came to my mind.
In fact yes, lets be marketing or conceptual , yes there is a theory behind the Terrible EP, the sound has been created to define the texture of the compact mass which will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Concept C is about a mathematical concept called an event horizon that marks the point of no return. :)
[EDLX] What have been your gig highlights of the last 6 months?
[TERENCE] There are many, I could pcik the bigger famous club I have been lucky to play, but in fact the one which was to me more special was a really small club in Tokyo called Module.
It was nice moment to be there, especially after all hardship the japanese have endured.
I was in tokyo 3 years ago with my other project Fixmermcarthy, but as as a solo artist the last time was 2001 and this recent trip was special because its like another planet,and always surprising to have fans so far away.
[EDLX] What is your electric deluxe top ten from the back catalogue?
[TERENCE] hard to answer as i like almost the whole edlx catalogue
lets say some i still love to play::
Audio injection operation a speedy j remix
terence fixmer machine speedy j remix
endless sg8
echologist connect
tommy four seven surma
terence fixmer electric city
gary beck egoist
speedy j red shift
and the last tracks of Le terrible EP ;)
[EDLX] Who surprises you the most when you play with them? Who is pulling out records that you don’t know?
[TERENCE] Lets say Musically last person who kind of surprised me was Milton Bradley, when i play with him for the Grounded Theory party in berlin, he suddenly play really old track that i knew , but to be honest not many people could know those track because it was coming from a really small and obscure belgium label from the 90s, he also played a track fom an old artist friend called Greg dewindt who has many aliases at that time (90/92)..so it was a good surprise…
Technically, i am always impressed by Speedy j, because he defines himself as dj, but he is probably more live than other artist who define themselves as live act.
When Jochem plays, its spontaneous remixing his full tracklist, sometime its like, i am recognizing a track, but suddenly i am not so sure if i am right because he restructures the track with some other loops or sounds or kick then i get confused but it works ahaha
[EDLX] How did you find making tools of your tracks is this something you both do anyway for your own dj sets?
[TERENCE] sometime yes, as i know some element if i separate them then it can be really efficient to add them where i want on any tracks.
