The changing moods of Holland’s Applescal

The changing moods of Holland’s Applescal

7 April, 2010 | 3.58AM

• Written by: pollylavine
• Filed under: Music News: applescal, traum schallplatten

What a whirlwind year it has been for emerging Dutch producer Applescal. Cited recently by some in the British music press as a ‘Dutch Nathan Fake’, Pascal Terstappen’s rise to electronic notoriety has been speedy and quite unconventional.

As a 14-year-old he thought instruments were for ‘losers’ and received no musical training, opting to experiment with computer programs and soft synths instead.

“I basically taught myself how to make music when a friend gave me Reason 2.0,” he says.

The spotlight came quickly to the youngster and in 2007 he released a number of digital EPs on Dutch labels Manual, Groove Collection, and Deep Records of which he says “It was quite cool releasing my first record at 19 because I didn’t expect anything of it.”

In 2008 he won a Grote Prijs, a coveted award for promising musicians in The Netherlands. This followed in 2009 with the release of his debut album ‘A Slaves Commitment’ on German record label Traum Schallplatten.

The album title, a reference to his work methodology, was filled with IDM styled shoegazer and tougher techno tracks that struck a chord with luminaries like Laurent Garnier.

After the debut release he went on to remix Border Community acts Extrawelt and Ricardo Tobar, and mainstream DJs such as Hernan Cattaneo and John Digweed, who remixed and played his work.

In his home country he is now famed for playing raw acid-infused live sets and the now 22-year-old has outputted a second album ‘A Mishmash of Changing Moods’, out 19th April.

On his simple approach to the harmonies, bass and beats on the album he says, “I just sit down and start making some things. When I think I have something which is interesting I try to make a track of it.”

It has resulted in tracks that barrage and spill from the speakers with intensity, emotion, and raw beauty. It is touchingly positive and hopeful to see a 22-year-old with no musical training or background create complex pieces of electronic music. We decided to pick Pascal’s brains for insight about being a new young kid on the EDM scene.

You’re not musically trained. Are you quite technically minded though?

Actually not. I don’t know anything about telephones or computers, but I know some music programs so that’s the only technical stuff I know. I still have an old Nokia phone.

An iPhone is way too difficult for me, although I could use the navigation apps.

How does a guy who has no musical background and is not very technical make such vibrant electronic music?

I grew up with Reason,and then a few years back I discovered Ableton Live. I use this program now with some VSTs and I use Reason as a VST in Ableton sometimes because the synthesizers are awesome! There are some cool ones around!

Which are the cool ones that you would recommend? They change so quickly!

Yeah I know. I’m not really up to date about VSTs but I like Syntplant, Fabfilter, Minimonstra and Reason of course

So, you’ve no hardware?

Nope. Like a lot of people of my age don’t use hardware as it’s way too expensive.

I spoke to some older producers recently who said the next generation were ‘living in their computers’ when it came to making music and hardware could really make a difference. What are your thoughts on this?

I don’t agree. I think it’s the ideas that make the difference not the equipment or sound.

So, if you work with ‘ideas’ first and foremost, what is the idea behind the first track on your album?

I thought about making tracks which should sound like something I wanted. I had a bunch of cool breakbeat tracks which I liked making as I thought I had something original, but this doesn’t necessarily work out for me if I want to make a drum & bass beat it ends up in techno or ambient. I just make what I like actually.

Tell us about the prize you won in 2008.

The prize is something which is quite big in The Netherlands, but not known abroad. It’s like the most promising artist of the year and it was cool to win it but Traum found me before winning it. I just sent a CD and they liked it!

In The Netherlands it has an impact because the press write about you.

You won a €5000 prize for mastering as part of the prize - what difference did the mastering make to your tracks?

Well they make your track sound better and erase frequencies which are disturbed. It makes a difference! Compression, EQ, reverb, limiting, etc. all that technical stuff. Exploring ideas is like using creativity, and having a big sound is all about knowledge and experience which applies to mastering

So who actually did your mastering and what did they teach you?

It was more like a workshop, it made sense to me because I didn’t know much about it and I underestimated it but it’s really important.

And who did you work with?

Chris Littlewood, a teacher of the SAE studios in Amsterdam. He’s a cool guy!

You also got ‘guidance’ on releasing vinyl as part of the prize?

Well, they offered me some copies and I used them for promo, not for releasing a record. They didn’t suggest so much actually. I like to do my own thing and I have a few people around me who advise me what is wise and what is wrong.

In terms of vinyl, will you release on this format? You’re a digital kid from what I can see.

The album? No, we only release it on CD and digital. Haha, yeah digital, it is here but I think that a good CD is more interesting than an icon on your desktop.

What are your thoughts on vinyl?

Yeah, I am not a DJ. I play live, so for me it hasn’t a big value and I didn’t grow up with vinyl. I know that the vinyl market is fu*ked up these days and that artists are selling like 20 times less before the whole internet was there. It’s bad for the labels too, artists have to make money with gigs now, so I think it’s a shame that it’s almost dead, but labels are finding new ways in selling music. But they have to think outside the box to do this well.

You play live, so what is your set up on stage?

My laptop runs Ableton Live and I have two controllers. The APC40 and an Evolution controller. The APC controller is awesome as the buttons in Ableton are on the controller, so you don’t have to use your mouse when you’re on stage.

My liveset has 12 different channels, and when I make a track and it’s finished and I think I can play it live I cut the track into small pieces. So I have the kick, bass, percussion, and melodies all on different channels. What I do is like being a choir master of my tracks so I can do anything I want with the arrangement, mix sounds of different songs etc.

With everything going so technical has the music/art been compromised in anyway?

I think that a live DJ is an extension because the artist is able to perform his music in a different way, but I can understand the old DJs not liking the way people are playing with laptops and CDs etc., instead of vinyl.

A lot of established producers are only releasing their debut albums now, some after 15 years of output. You have now had two albums of work in the space of a year. How have you outputted so quickly?

It was a crazy time. I was looking for something new in my productions. I think I found the right way to do it which made me productive as hell.

What was that?

I think making songs of four minutes instead of trying to make techno records of eight minutes helped.

Laurent Garnier described your first album as “cinematic”. Were you influenced by any cinematic sounds growing up?

No, but I like melodies and harmony because this can make your tracks emotional. Basically, I listen to old jazz and sometimes to classical music to find out how these musicians use emotion. Notation is a mystery to me, I work with bars.

You’ve been pigeonholed as IDM as opposed to EDM. What’s your thoughts on genres being applied like this in dance music?

I’m sorry, what is EDM? Electronic dance music? I think a lot of dance music is mainstream now. It’s really big; all the festivals sell out with EDM DJs. I think IDM is still underground. The scene is really big and it’s hard to find a way in as a new DJ, but I really like IDM because it’s relatively small, but big worldwide and people come for certain artists, not for the brand of the party which you see a lot nowadays.

What artists would you define as IDM and what would you define as EDM?

IDM for me is like Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, Amon Tobin, the Warp label, and maybe James Holden. EDM is the big names like Sasha and Richie Hawtin.

Would you ever like to cross over?

I don’t think so. Haha, I like the underground.

They say you are ‘reclusive’. How true is this?

I am maybe a bit naive about making music. I make what I like and not what a lot of people like. If I’m on a main stage at a big festival people tend to walk away. How does it influence me when I make music? When I am in the studio and don’t want to be interrupted if I have inspiration I can stay in my studio the whole day for a week sometimes.

I don’t know I just do something I really like and maybe that makes me reclusive.

What’s the feeling behind the moment of ‘inspiration’ you have then?

When I have inspiration it feels like you want to do something a lot. Sometimes you think like, ‘I want to go out!’ Well that’s inspiration. But it’s like a feeling of ‘wow, right now, I really, really want to make a super track’. That’s inspiration for me.

Going out with friends, taking a walk outside to drink some coffee, watching movies, it’s like having a good time, so you are in a good vibe, which makes me want to make music.

Would you say music is created in a moment of stillness or a moment of madness?

Hard to say. I think music is an output of the musician’s brain. A musician is a creative person who wants to make things and what he thinks at that moment is translated into music. It’s all about exporting thoughts into music. Everything he does affects this, so I think it’s both stillness and madness. It’s just everything around.

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