Exclusive Robot Koch Interview
Berlin based producer and label owner Robert “Robot” Koch is preparing the world for his long anticipated full length Death Star Droid
Robot Koch is definitely an ear/eye catching name. Can you tell us about its origin?
My real name is Robert Koch. My bandmates in Jahcoozi started calling me Robot as a nickname, because I don’t sleep much and make tons of music all the time. So I adopted that as my artist name.
What was the one life changing moment that inspired you to start making music?
I guess that was sitting in front of my stereo and listening to heavy metal tapes.
I started out playing drums when I was 14. I had piano lessons before but was not really into it as a kid. But when I listened to the stuff from Slayer, early Metallica and Pantera I was really stoked mainly by the drummers and wanted to be able to play music like that myself. So I started out with metal, punk and hardcore but soon got into all sorts of music.
Important milestones were Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers
With hindsight i`m happy I had piano lessons too, cuz the whole harmonic education really makes a difference when I produce. But being a drummer is really the key advantage in my productions.
Where do you draw your inspiration from today?
It`s actually still the same like back in the day really. I hear some music that rocks me and inspires me and that makes me wanna make music myself. Not exactly the same like what I hear of course, but the nice thing about inspiration is that some other people`s ideas spark your own unique ideas…I hope some folks find my music inspiring as well and transform that inspiration into some new dope music. Like that music keeps evolving and new ideas come about. But also the weather inspires me, I made a lot of rain tracks, snow tracks and a few springtime tunes as well…books and movies inspire me. I sometimes see my music like a soundtrack to a film that still needs to be shot.
I´d like to go deeper into making film music or creating images for my music. I am actually working with a filmmaker from Cologne on the visual concept of my live show at the moment.
You have your own label Robots Don’t Sleep! How did that come about? What is your vision for the label and what can everyone expect from it?
I started the label because I was tired of waiting. Running on other label`s release schedules can be really a drain. You got something hot that you wanna put out and they tell you to wait. Or they tell you its gonna come out soon and then fuck up so many things that it takes more than a year before that record eventually came out. I had all sorts of negative experiences with labels I released on in the past, so I figured i`ll just do it myself.
What`s Robots Don’t Sleep all about? Well, Cerebral Vortex kinda put it well when he said it`s like Motown with lazers. Its open minded music beyond genre boxes with a unique sound to it. Electronic and cutting edge but yet soulful.
The first release, the Aftershocks EP, did extremely well. It was number one on the dubstep sales charts at junodownloads.com for weeks.
The 2nd release is my album now. I´m curious how that will do…I`m not gonna sign any artists in the beginning, I wanna see how the label develops and drop my own stuff and collabos with other people first before I start taking the responsibility of signing other artists.
Robots Don’t Sleep is by definition open to collabos, I think with things being difficult in the music industry these days it`s even more important to do stuff together instead of against each other…
For “Death Star Droid” for example I made a bunch of collabos happen: There is a t shirt collabo with Japanese designers and shirt manufacturers GRANIPH, there is a collabo with clothing company Rollo who did a special limited edition robots don’t sleep sunglasses that will come as a bonus item if you order the vinyl and I made a license deal with fellow label project Mooncircle from Berlin who are taking care of producing and releasing the album on CD and Vinyl, which I could not have done alone financially.
Can you enlighten us about your other projects Jahcoozi and The Tape?
Jahcoozi is my band. It’s a 3 piece and we released two albums and a bunch of EPs since 2003. We played a lot of shows all over the globe, everything from tiny art galleries to major festival stages. We`re just finishing off our 3rd album which is gonna drop on bpitch control in spring 2010. it has some nice features on there, like Sayyid from Anti-Pop Consortium for example. We just played in Nairobi which was cool too, cuz we also took some time to record with the local Kenyan artists. Maybe one of these tunes will make the album as well…
The Tape was my first solo project. It was a homage to the mix tape culture. The first album “perpetual dubbing” from 2004 was some instrumental indietronic/post rock affair, the 2nd one, Autoreverse, also featured my man RQM on vocals. The 3rd album, Public Transport was the closing chapter for that project. It’s a trilogy, that feels complete to me now. That’s why I didn’t continue making more stuff as the tape. this project was, in many ways, like a prototype of what i`m making today as Robot Koch.
The reason is started The Tape was, because in a band the music you make is always a compromise to a certain extend. 3 people, 3 opinions sometimes….a lot of discussions sometimes. So I needed to have that freedom to make exactly the music that I envisioned, uncompromising, without discussing it with anybody.I like making music with Jahcoozi in a band context because it’s a different work flow but I could not limit myself to only that.I need to make my solo stuff as well…so I enjoy both because of that duality:Working with my bandmates and working alone.
What are your thoughts on your newest album? What can we expect?
I`m really happy with it. I stand behind every single track and feel its maybe my best work to date. The first feed backs are really good as well, that makes me happy of course. One of my favorite press quotes so far is:
“if, in some distant post apocalyptic future, robots will make folk music, this is what it would sound like” (Crack Magazine).
I like to combine an analog, handmade and soulful aspect with digital sounds and electronic production methods. If I was a painter i`d make collages out of different materials with different textures: wood, paper, watercolors, metal, high tech fabrics and found stuff, old photos and some ill graph styles.
For all the gear heads like myself, can you tell us what you use to make music? type of analog, digital, instruments, software, etc.
As I said before I`m all about mixing digital and analog in my sound.
That`s how I produce also. I record a lot of live and acoustic stuff like a piano on “While” or flutes on “Hard to Find”. But my production is always digital, I use Ableton Live as a sequencer. I like chopping up sounds, getting really detailed about it, working with little tiny sound snippets and building syncopated patterns out of them. I use some analog synths as well (Prophet, Moog, Roland, Korg). And my old Bontempi kids keyboard that has a great sound if you record it not line out but pic up the sound from its onboard loudspeakers with a mic: that is slightly distorted and really analog sounding. I made a bunch of tunes on that album with this kids toy keyboard.
Name 10 of your current favorite artists who you think we should all be listening to right now?
- Moon Dog
- Fela Kuti
- Tim Buckley
- Loops Haunt
- fLako
- Shellac
- The Clonius
- sia
- Stereotyp
- Graciela Alatorre
What do you envision the musical landscape to look like in 10 years?
Interesting question. We talked about inspiration earlier. I hope people will respect music more again, it has become somehow less valued I feel, especially by younger kids that grow up with the net and the idea that music is for free. Right now I think there is a more music available than ever before but there is a lot of mediocre stuff out there as well. Sometimes I feel more people are talking than listening. I hope that will change. I hope in 10 years there will be more quality than quantity and that people will value good music that inspires them.
Any closing thoughts?
With all the internet and social networks I wonder sometimes:
Are we living for our avatars or are our avatars living for us?
Listen to “Away From” From soon to be released Death Star Droid
