Artist of the Week: Arwid

Artist of the Week: Arwid

9 August, 2007 | 11.49AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: arwid

Since the prepubescent age of 13, Christian Quast aka Arwid has been experimenting with electronic music. The Hamburg-based DJ and producer has been producing tunes since 1995, but it’s his brilliant new ‘Flashback’ two-tracker on Bpitch Control that is causing the dance industry to take note. Beatportal caught up with Arwid to find out more about his new release and his studio way.

How has electronic music changed since you started producing in 1995?

“A lot of things have changed in the last few years and all the time it seems that there is some kind of ripple inside of electronic music. 

“Everything returns after a while - sometimes you have a hype - and sometimes it seems, nothing really new is coming up.

“I’ve been very impressed in the past few years by all of these new plugins and the whole technology evolution.

“I’ve been producing music for 15 years now and I’m one of those ‘old freaks’ who still mainly uses analog gear

“It’s unbelievable to see that nowadays you can have the same equipment inside of your computer.

“This is what we all wanted to have 15 years ago, so this is very important for electronic music because now we have more possibilities to create new sounds and new music styles. 

“I’m really looking forward to all of these new tools in the future.

This is your first release on Bpitch, how does it feel to be a part of the family?

“To be a part of the ‘family’ now is for me something special because I have worked really hard in the past few years and it’s a big honour to receive this massive respect now with a release on one of my favourite labels, Bpitch Control.

“I never would have expected this in the past, I was just doing my job.”

Your new track ‘Flashback’ features some very interesting noises, where on Earth did you get them from?

“Well, as I said I’m one of those ‘old freaks’ who mainly uses analog gear to make music. I started 15 years ago with different analog studios and I recorded my music on a DAT recorder, without any computer.

“That was the good old way of triggering and sequencing directly with the machines.

“So, I had a lot of fun doing music.

“This is how I like working and I still do it like this today. 

“All of my sounds, effects and noises are made with analog gear and I used sequencers and old machines to create, for example, the bassline in ‘Fiasko’.

“About the sounds in ‘Flashback’, funnily enough a couple of my machines are broken and have their own sounds now, and they don’t sound like they’re supposed to. 

“When I don’t have the sound I’m searching for I use plugins in my computer to transform everything.

“I’m not much of a sample user - I do have a lot of samples but usually I start a track by trying to create every sound by myself - the bassline, the strings, the chords, whatever.

“It’s fun for me and it’s relaxing. I just close my eyes and forget about everything.”

‘Flashback’ is very hypnotic is putting the dancefloor in a trance one of your aims?

“Not really, but sure in the past I created a lot of trancey tracks.

“I don’t make music with a master plan. I just start with an idea and only continue to work on it if it feels special.

How would you describe ‘Fiasko’?

“‘Fiasko’ is a bit more confusing. It’s a bit crazy and more techno than you might expect from me.”

So is techno something you’re going to be experimenting with in the coming months?

“Actually I’m working on a complete album.

“I have thousand of ideas about how it should sound. Hopefully it will be ready in 2008 but I’m not sure because I’m a perfectionist and don’t want to release just another album.”

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