Tobias: Rough And Raw Machine Music

Tobias Freund’s move to Berlin just over a decade ago was a turning point in the musician’s life. He was leaving behind a twenty-year career as a commercial studio engineer to focus on his work as an underground techno artist. Reinventing himself under the moniker ‘tobias’, the move was something of a rebirth for the man who had been making electronic music on the side since the early ‘80s. And what’s more, the move couldn’t have come at a better time. As Berlin emerged as the new global centre of dance-music, Tobias established himself as one of the city’s most revered techno figures.

A staple figure at Berghain since the former power station opened its doors and a core member of the tightly knit Ostgut Ton family, the last decade has been an extraordinary productive period for Tobias. From releases on Naïf and Wagon Repair, to collaborative projects with Atom™ and with Max Loderbauer as ‘NSI’, to the release of his debut album Leaning Over Backwards (2011), his musical output has been as varied as it is consistently excellent. What’s more, his studio work is only half the story. As a live performer, Tobias has established a reputation that is second to none. His sets, which involve taking his beloved machines to the stages, are informed by an idiosyncratic and intuitive approach, marked with improvisation and experimentation. It might still be groove-orientated techno music at the end of the day, but its unlikely to be like anything you’ll hear elsewhere.

2014 sees the arrival of a new album from Tobias, the aptly titled A Series Of Shocks, and the debut of a new audio-visual live show. I Voice called the German producer to ask him a little more about his new record and show.

Your new album A Series Of Shocks is about to touch down. What provoked you to produce another album?

I had been playing lots of gigs and the live performances were feeding into ideas for studio work, and given that it felt like the right time to begin to work on an album, I decided to draw on these live influences and ‘print’ them, to make them public. Also, releasing an album is a way of getting of gigs. It’s a promotional tool.

And the recording process, how was that?

Well, I recorded it faster than my first album, because I had a deadline. I started the album in August 2013 and I wanted to have the album finished by January, because my wife is from Chile and we always go to see her family during their summer break and escape the German winter. I really like to have a deadline to finish things.

And how do you think this album differs from your first album?

It’s more rough, more raw. I hooked up everything in the studio, so it was running as if I was playing a live set and I just jammed. There are less elements in each track [than compared to my first album], but all the elements that are present are super precise. And whilst I edited it afterwards, the basic idea was to have only very few elements and to record everything at once.

So the recording process was a wholly intuitive affair?

I have my favourite machines, which I know so well that I can express as much as I want with them, and most of the songs were made with those instruments. Basically, aside from a few samples, the 808 drum-machine is the main rhythm machine on the album and almost every song uses my MC-202 sequencer for the bassline.

But, when you listen to the album you wouldn’t think that the same machines are being used in each track and that is because I have learnt to treat them so as they sound differently. I also used a Pearl Syncussions drum synthesizer from the late ‘70s, which is very simple, completely analogue and can be triggered by the 808. It always surprises me what I get out of it.

Are these machines that you have been using for most of your professional career?

Yeah, for about thirty years! I bought my MS20 in 1980 and I still use it; it’s still in a good shape. I bought my 808 new in 1984. It has followed my whole life since then.

The album’s opening track features Max Loderbauer. You guys are still working closely together, I take it?

Yeah, we share a studio space. Our studios are only divided by a glass wall, so when he is working I can see him and listen to what he is doing. It’s quite often that what I hear makes me think “oh shit, I need to include this into my song,” so I’m always asking if I can use his music. Max is a sweetheart and he’s very generous.

And is the NSI collaboration between the two of you on indefinite hiatus?

No, it is planned that we’ll record a new album this year. Max has just finished a collaboration with Claudio Puntin and Samuel Rohrer, and so he has been busy with that and I have been busy with A Series Of Shocks, but we have plans to do something before this coming summer.

A Series Of Shocks is coming out on Ostgut Ton, a label you’ve long been associated with. Are you still very close with the guys there?

Yes, very close. The bosses at the label came over to my studio to listen to the album’s demo tracks and were really dedicated to listening and giving their opinions. They really care about what they release and take care to make sure that their artists get good bookings. I’m super happy there. I don’t want to change a thing.

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You said earlier that the live shows have been central to informing your studio work. I was wondering if you might tell me a little more about your approach to performance?

The machines that I use in the studio, my MC202 and 808, are the ones which I take on tour with me. That gives me the freedom to improvise, to do whatever I want with the tracks when I am performing. It presents the possibility to merge them, to play an elements of one within another and create something new. That is something that is only possibly when you play with real machines. Of course, I also use Ableton and a little controller, but the main power comes from analogue machines.

Your new live show also has a visual element that has been designed by your wife. Tell me about that audio-visual collaboration.

When I work in the studio I always have screens in front of me and some of them, especially sampler screens with their retro analogue waveforms, are so nice to watch. I am kind of an aesthete, so I wanted to bring those elements into what I was doing live. My wife is a visual artist so I asked her to help to combine the visuals with the music, so she bought a macro for her camera and filmed each sampler screen really close until you could see the pixels. The idea is that these images will comprise the visual element of the show and that she will be improvising with these images whilst I am improvising with the music. It’s something we’ve done before, but never in a techno context.

So, eventually she’ll be there performing live alongside you?

Exactly.

And do you have an idea when your first show together will be?

The first show will be at the release party on the 5th April at Berghain.

In the last twelve months or so, the music dance-music media has been peppered with reports that Berlin is becoming over-run with American expats and pressures of gentrification. As a Berliner, what’s your take on it all?

I don’t go out so often, only really to do my gigs and to see friends perform, so I can’t comment that much on how techno culture is developing in Berlin. But what I see from Berghain and Panorama Bar is that after ten years it is still in a good shape. It still has a fantastic programme and the people who work there are as enthusiastic as ever. I guess more people coming to Berlin doesn’t affect the scene, since they will either adapt to [the city] or leave.

And how about day-to-day life in Berlin, as a place to live?

I live in Schöneberg in the west of the city and I’m very happy to be here and not in the centre. It’s a quieter place, there are more parks and cafes. It’s quite beautiful. There are lots of areas like this in Berlin, you just have to discover them.

Finally, you still work as a sound engineer. These days, how selective are you in terms of what you will work on?

I’m very selective. Until recently I only did it for friends, but nowadays I’m also taking jobs from people that I don’t know. But I need to like the music, to have some feeling for the music that I’m working with. I couldn’t do a job for someone like Britney Spears. I worked as a sound engineer in a commercial studio for eighteen years and during that time I worked with acts like Milli Vanilli, which was good experience but I don’t want to work just for money again. I will only work with music I like.