Featuring Pierre Maier| Interview by Ruud Dreessen aka ebm-industrial.nl Date:27 februari 2009 From:TraKKtor
Greetings Pierre could you please shortly introduce our readers your music project TraKKtor? Please fill also a biographical resume about how, when and where...
Tell us about the beginning of TraKKtor What's the history of TraKKtor? How did it initially come to be? can you give an introduction TraKKtor?
Pierre: Basicly Me, Tobias and our ex Member Samuel where sitting around one summer afternoon back in 2001 in Samuels Studio and playing around with this Synthesizers. After consuming copious ammonuts of coffé and beer this turned out in to an Oldschool ebm song with rather hilarious lyrics. Much like other bands in Sweden are doing today. Anyways we had an idea of writing farmer joke vocals and thus the name TraKktor since traktors are biggest piece of badass farming equipment there is hehe :P ANyway,, we started out as a joke and time passed resulting in Samuel leaving the project but back then we had no ambition aside from drinking beer and having fun well not much is left from that point in time.
How would you describe the music Of TraKKtor
Pierre:We have evolved our music over the years and explored most harsher sounds there is and we have landed at some kind of Techno Driven EBM with some coldwave and even black metal influences and a lot of Synphonical elements. We do have a huge sence of traditio so our music allways have a classical "synth" sound. Just the fact that we dare to rip of a real Synthsolo should speak for itself. It's really hard yet melodic and absolutely relentless.
If one needs a term it would be Dark Electro with a twizt.
Tell us about your relationship with EBM,what and who are some of your influences in music
Pierre:To many to tell, Everything from Jean Michael jarre who me and Tobias are huge fans of to stuff like Hocico, or even black metal bands. Personally im not a huge fan of Oldshcool EBM, It boores me but i do like Italo Discho and synthpop. Right now I listen to a lot of Elegant Machinery, Melotron, C-Lekktor and Frontline Assembly. -tomorrow, who knows.
So tell me a bit more about yourself,?
Pierre I live in Stockholm and work as a Server Tech at a medium Size company who works with IT Sourcing and consultant Services.
Well my first instrument that I played was bass Tuba actually, was pretty pissed about it Since i wanted to be in the front and play the Trumpet. I was about 10 and it did not last very long ;D
I learned some classical piano from my mom later since i wanted to play Synthesizer and she was a Professinal Pianist while she lived.
I messed around with various trackers on My Amiga in the early 90's and later on moved on to Cubase and that is still my weapon of choise.
Tell me a few things about.TraKKtor How did you decide to form this project, give us a more background information.
Pierre - I covered some of this in the first question so I'll continue.
The "how" is rather accidental from the start. Me and Tobias picked up some Music Hardware and started messing around with a new sound in 2004, still just for laughs and since we lived in a sall town with not very much to do. We wrote a few tracks and put one of them on myspace.
After 2 weeks an american label contacted us and wanted this track (that was a really early demo) for a compilation and we took the offer. We tweaked up the track and had it released and this was kind of the real start for TraKktor as a band, it's kind of a kick to se once track get printed on a real CD. After this we where still not really saticefied with the sound and went back into the studio and have been working relentlessly since 2004 to accuire the skill to do what WE want to do as well as defining and refining our sound. At the end of 2007 we had defined our sound and we released the demo Destruction Sequence conaining Virus, 13th order and Veil Of Thorns sice we just released it online and imidietly had people calling for liveshows i must say that this was a major success. We allso performed live in Gthenburg about the same time we released the demo as our debut gig. Following 2007 we have been working on step 2 of our modus operandi witch is Refining our sound and rom that time to now we have been performing live about every 3 months or so to build up confience and routine to back up a real release that is to come. We have allso had quite a few labels approaching us since 2007 who wann work with us but we have kept saying, ""work in progress, we will contact you when we are done." since we have aimed to deliver the best possible debut album we possible can.
Well, now It's 2009 and we are ready, we have the material , we are gettings the gigs for the major players in Scandinavia like Elektrostat and we are talking with some interesting partners for this release and since we have other possible partners for the release I dare allmost promise that there will be an album this year.
Let's talk about your debut full demo? Tell us a few words about the concept of this album?
Pierre - We have written an album and the concept aside from the sound that we have talked about is about all Evil man does to man and the planet. TraKktor is not one of those "we are a non political band" since we are. Though some of our tracks borders on Sci-fi and horror themes and can be concidered as fictional. In the end it's allways the listeners interpetation of the mucis that mathers and "art" should not come with a manual.
How long did it take to record the new full demo?
Pierre - The "album" we have been working on contains tracks that are over 4 years old but they have been rewritten and refined as well as tracks that has been written in 2009 so basicly we have put in 4 years of work if you concider the time to develop the sound we have today. Most other bands who work as ahrd as we would probably have released 2 albums but we chose to wait and we hope that people aside from us will find it as badass as we do.
After all, one cannot be anything else than proud when a project you have put 4 years into is finally comming to and end.
How is the current promotional tour going for supporting this album?
Pierre - We try to stay active and gig as much as possible and to as quickly as possible answer to any and all fanmail we recive on myspace. We stive to be accessible to people since we grew up in this scene and do music for this scene.
Did you first work on a demo or go right to the studio and get a major release?
Pierre - We never actually intended to do a demo in the first place, It just kind of happened during the process of writing the album and quite a lot due to public demand after we had posted tracks online.
How did you come up with the name TraKKtor for the band?
Pierre - I answered that in the Introduction, next question please! :)
A like this number "virus"like Hocico a like your styl tell me more about this?
Pierre - Virus, hmm this track proved to be the biggest challange of all in the album. We released the demo version and now a few years later I decided that i wanted it onthe album and
had to rework it some to being it up to the quality of the new tracks and this was a real headace since I have sold one of the synthesizers that was vitil in writing it. So safe to say it took some doing to get it right for the album version. I tried to keep the original sound of it as far as possible not to spoil the track that actually put us on the map and im confident you all will like the enhancements when you get to hear it.
Out of all of your numbers,which number would you say is your favorite number? Why?
Pierre - Well based on the audience response live i would say the album version of Veil Of thorns since people know the lyrics and all. Though we have tracks that is unpublished so far that
has been performed live once and safe to say,, I have high hopes for them-
Have you had any label interest with the new release? Are you writing material yet for a full-length release?
Pierre - Yes, 8 labels have contacted us so far, I will not give any details on this though but that explains my confidence that we will release the album this year.
you have very nice numbers`s tell me about lyrical compositions what you can tell about the done work? How does your music creation process work? How do you create a song?
Pierre - Basicly I build a foundation for a track, beats, melodies and such. Then we both discuss a theme or a subject for the track based on the concept sound i have made. Then we do the actuall songwriting together. (not allways, sometime one of us are to bussy with daytime jobs and crap so it falls on one of us) Tobias then puts in details into the project like precussion, samples and fucked up noises. In the end i tie it all together, put in more orchestral elements and pads and bounce it out to the final track after extensive mixing. So.. as you can expect from 2 overcreative fucked up individuals working together, pure chaos.
How and why did you begin to make music? Why various electronic styles?
Pierre - Did some techno and trance during the 90's but never really had access to the right gear or the budget to buy it, now i do ;D
Tell us about your unique style of music and who are your major influences? Where do you typically get your inspiration for numbers?
Pierre - I do like the profesisonals, i steal everything i like and enhance it as my own and ocationally i come up with my own tricks who others steal ;) Allso i have had great "know how" help from Oscar Holter In Nectro Facility and Jouni Ollila (Poupee Fabrikk, Mz 412, Mr jones Machine and so on) who have taught me a lot.
Tell us about your stage show?
Pierre - We try to have as much fun as possible while on stage and this seem to reflect on the audience since we work a lot with the audience trying to involve them witch is in my perspective, what EBM is all about. As well as the ammount of bruises and torn muscles I have after every gig points towards put performances being quite energetic XD
So far we have only had a shower of positive myspace messages and face to face comments from people who have attended out shows so It's seems we are doing something right. We aim to continue doing these things right and improve from there.
What do you think of its intermingling with the electro, Darkwave and EBM scenes? while electro is your main musical pallet,what other music do you listen to?
-Pierre , I listen to it all excluding Darkwave that i find really uninteresting. I'm not a huge fan of powernoise either so i guess i want neat basslines, melodies and basicly good songs that i can dance to.
AS i said before, I lsiten to everything from synthpop to Dark Electro/Aggrotech to black metal.
What is the key to making music from TraKKtor? and what inspires you to keep growing as a musician?
Pierre - Well actually i love synthesizers, much like Hardrockers like guitars, It's more than just a tool for me. I spend a lot of time geeking around with sounds just for fun and writing whatever other stuff that comes to mind and by doing this i find new ideas for trakktor.
My motivation to evolve as a musichian is taht i wan't to perform live, Once you step up in front of a large crowd and they approve by putting their hands in the air you are hooked. ASide from that i have few motivations aside from killing time with something I enjoy ;)
What is currently inspiring your material as an artist? tell me all about the dark scene of Stockholm / Karlskoga,Zweden?
Pierre: Stockholm has a growing Live scene at the moment after having quite a bad one for a few years. Though the only constant big club that has allways been around is Tech Noir that now sadly has lost it's venue due to a new owner. Karlskoga, Its a small mean shitty town in the middle of nowhere, lots of bands but no scene what so ever.
What do you do in your spare time?
Pierre- What spare time, I work Fulltime as a Server Tech and work on the band ;D
How does the band get ready for a live show? Have you ever played a festival and if so when and where?
Pierre - We practice a bit but mostly we talk things though propperly and mentally prepare i would say.
Internet the perfect way to promote your band and get your music out there.
Pierre - Yes, Myspace ent the www has been an immensly valuble tool to make a name for ourselves. Considering that we are still without a label who are pushing for us we have done all the promotion work ourselves and that takes a lot of job, I spend hours a week answering E-mail's, talking to club promotes and doing remixes has allso been a valuble tool and successfull.
We get quite a lot of remix requests so we had to state some groundrules not to drown in them.
Tell one secret about TraKKtor that you have never told to anyone?
Pierre - Don't have the faintest idea of what that whould be.
What CD do you currently have in your player? What do you listen all Day?
Pierre - Today it's been Wolfsheim and some Melotron at work.
What was the first record you bought? Are you working on any current or future projects?What is the future for your music?
Pierre . HAHAHAHA, That would be "stay hungry" with twizted Sister i think, LP of course since this was about 1984, probably bitched on my mom to buy it for me though ;D
What is your favorite song to play live
Pierre - Veil Of Thorns or a new track called Final Fusion.
If you had a chance to be on a major tour as support what band would it be?
Pierre - Frontline Assembly I Suppose.
What are your top ten favorite EBM / Industrial Club Songs of all time?
Pierre - Varies from day to day but a few are.
Dulce Liquido - Dicolucion
Hocico - Eccos (Move batard Mix)
Funker Voigt - Tragic Hero
Welle:Erball. Beruhren
Covenant - Theremin
What are your views on the current state of this electro scene in Stockholm / Karlskoga,Zweden .in terms of creativity and audiences? And the scene in other countries?
Pierre . In Stockholm It's for ever precent in some degree, some years we have lotd of clubs and liveshows just like things are now and some years there are allmost only Tech Noir who rarely have bands in Stockholm. It's my point that Swedish Electro holds pretty high standards, even demobands are usually better than medum sized bands in Germany witch makes the competition REALLY hard. The tallented ones that are prepared to work hard (In this is probably the most important feature you need) usually get their releases in the end no mather what country they are from.
how and why did you come about starting TraKKtor? what else inspires you to create?
Pierre- Im a movie and series and documetary geek so i just take in things all the time and directly and indirectly this probablu inspires me to write music.
Tell me about your band collegues.
Pierre - Well there is Only Tobias who are my best friend as well since many years back before we started TraKktor. He does graphic designs for the band as well as the stuff I have allready told you and he is a badass 3d artist as well.
What your favorite style of music?
Pierre - We call it synth in Sweden,collection word of everything from Italo Disco to Powernoise as well as some metal.
It has been a pleasure to interview you on your musical activity,Well,any last words to your ebm-industrial fans? and what is next on the the Stockholm / Karlskoga,Zweden .agenda?
-Pierre, Hope to perform at a club near you in the near future.
Fucking demand it from you club promoters! ;)
Agenda is to get the Album in to the shelves and then pop some beer.
On question about influences and inspirations about Stockholm / Karlskoga,Zweden? Are you currently working on or planning any new releases?
Pierre - We will imidietly start working on new material and i have some remixes to take care of.
Any Last comments before we go? do you have any final words or requests? any last words for ebm-industrial.nl Last question Some final words to our readers to conclude this interview?
Pierre - yeah , Ruccola fucking sucks and who's idea is it to put in all the food in restaurants!, Probably started growing after chernobyl blew up, I cetanaly did not know anyone who ate that crap before it happened at least. XD , Theories ? ;)
/Pierre Maier
TraKKtor
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