I had the absolute pleasure of chatting to funny man, Mr. Malin Génie about the formation of Mandar, his love for modular and some exciting projects that wait in the wings…
Yo Nick, nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too!
So, how has everything been going man? Haven’t you just finished with some studies?
Yeah I’ve been a student until about four months ago… I finished in 2015 and picked up my diploma a month ago
Yeah because didn’t S.A.M go to university as well?
Yup!
Wasn’t he doing something crazy too…
He’s a theologist! And I’m a psychologist.
Right, so you’ve got a psychologist, a theologist… thats some heavy minds right there!
And Charlie will get his degree in Civil Engineering soon!
Ah cool!…Well, actually yeah before we get into Charlie, I wanted to go through your stuff pre Mandar? Like how did you get into making music in the first place you know?
Well I got into music very casually. I started playing guitar, the drums and playing some records… actually some drum and bass records when I was younger. My cousin was a drum and bass DJ and he gave me a lot of his old records. I had some Gemini turntables at home… then later I started producing with some software my dad bought for me… It was called Magix Audio Studio? Or Magix Music Studio v7? And Gold Wave.
Okay cool…
I remember I could record something from my turntable, and then there was a small file with a wave form… Then, if I wanted a kick for a minute, I had to copy and drag all the individual kicks… like 1, 2, 3, 4 click click click click…haha, so yeah it would take a long time to create the most simple stuff. I did get familiar with the structure and elements to make a beat though. I was making all sorts of loops and beats with samples I’d recorded from drum and bass and other stuff… Basically random records that were in the cheap section of Concerto, a record store in Amsterdam. This year the store celebrates it’s 60th birthday by the way…
Wait, so you were making drum and bass?
I tried! But I never managed to make a proper track… and later on with hardware I still couldn’t manage it!… Of course nothing I made back then was significant, no matter what genre. I should maybe try this again some time, haha! I did manage to make some hip hop breaks that were pretty decent though, now I think of it.
Cool, well I’d love to hear some DNB, that’d be funny…
Yeah you’re gonna have to wait a bit! Anyway, over time I gradually got more into housey stuff and techno…. Then I was using an MPC, Ableton… and the beats became a bit more interesting!
Nice…
So I started uploading stuff on Soundcloud to share with some people. My friend Daan Groeneveld showed some of these to his friend Alex Salvador, and Alex was the first one to reach out to me and asked if I ever thought about releasing my music, and encouraged me to finish some tracks. It might be a cliche to look back at your earlier music and find it immature, but I would not release this music now. Even though I’m still very fond of the tracks ‘Rolas’ and ‘Cru’ from my debut EP, and value the whole experience a lot.
I understand that… and yeah, Rolas is a sweet track…
This is the point of taking an alias also you know? I mean at the time, I was still studying and I did not know how serious to take it all. I knew I loved making music, but I was still skeptical when it came to releasing it.
So it was just for lols at the time?
Yeah for lols… So I thought I need an alias for sure. My real name is not sexy! During my studies I was doing a course in scientific philosophy and read about Cartesian doubt. Descartes questioned if you can ever trust if any thought is truthful. He describes a fictional entity who is out to deceit you by distorting your perceptions. I have to mention that at the time, I was also creating some hardcore, as I am dutch after all, and uploading it on Soundcloud alongside the house productions… So, Descartes named this entity Malin Génie, and in line with the tradition of irony in hardcore and terror, I thought it would be fun to name my Soundcloud page ‘Malin Génie’.
Hahaha! That’s crazy
The name stuck though!
I like it! Okay, cool, so you started releasing as Malin… on TINK first right?
Tomorrow Is Now Kid! released my first EP and I was working on a second EP with them also. Then, during that time the Slapfunk guys were doing a lot of underground parties… although to be honest I never went to any of them before I started making music with them. So Slapfunk were checking out the stuff I was doing with Alex Salvador for TINK, and asked ‘Okay, do you have some stuff?, but it can be a bit more… you know…
Tougher?
A bit tougher, yeah, and I had tracks they were into.
And what about your 55 Cancri EP?
Now this one I’m really proud of!
Yeah, and you should be!
This was some music I had been making, but didn’t have an output for at the time. Luckily a friend Maurits Reiss was working on his label ‘Dialegestai,’ and our mutual friend Bobby Hakvoort introduced my music to Maurits. I still really like this record. I’m actually thinking about reworking and reissuing it again because I saw some people have been asking for a repress a while. I have some ideas about re-approaching these tracks in an interesting way, with a little help from my friends maybe, haha.
That sounds ace man! See… I thought that you were just making a lot of housey type stuff, and then there is this 55 Cancri record, which is obviously nice and deep, but kind of an anomaly to the other music you were making?
The first couple of releases were obviously house because it happened to be that those were the tracks I’d finished at the time… and… yeah, they were ready to release. I was really happy when I finished 55 Cancri though… Production wise, I get more satisfaction from this music. I am most productive in the studio when I'm working on a particular sound while the beat is still rolling in the background. I like focusing on a specific sound for an extended period of time so that the rest of the music fades into the periphery... I can really get into the zone, and all of a sudden I can find myself listening to the same loop for an hour. To me, this is an important moment. When I realise I have been listening to the same damn loop for a long time, and it still does not bore me, I know I need to finish it. The advantage of tracks like the ones on 55 Cancri, is that there are lots of small details and elements that naturally progress and regress for your focus to shift on for a while! It’s very relaxing music to make! When I was making house, I was in a more energetic mood and I could afford to work in a more crude way… which also has it’s charm. The more music I make the more I get into the details, though.
Yep, the intricacies in this kind of music is what it’s all about. So, how much hardware were you using at this point, for 55 Cancri? MPC?
I was still using the MPC, but for the 55 Cancri EP I sampled a lot of arbitrary music. I didn’t use any hardware for this record.
Oh okay, because you are pretty much fully out the box now, right?
Well, I started in the computer, bought more and more hardware, and now I’m actually scaling down again. I use hardware really to generate sounds, but I record it into Ableton for further manipulation and eventually arrangement and mixdown. With Mandar, we did some records where we just did one take… but it was pretty impractical.
And you are using a lot of modular?
Yeah… the modular is great and it’s really inspiring. You can do some random stuff and all of a sudden you’re like ‘Oh snap! It sounds good!’ I like this trial and error way of working to get inspired. So yeah, I’m using this a lot, for every production… It sounds so comfortable to the ear! You can make sounds you want listen to forever. Like the ‘Sense of Swing’ record… I went for this. A steady loop with minor variation. I really like these toolish tracks.
I think lots of people do too! The record has done so well hasn’t it…
Yes it went quite well! I’m very proud of this one. And the 55 Cancri! And of course our music with Mandar too!
Yeah we haven’t even got to Mandar yet…
Well… things started getting lots of fun when I started working with Charlie, with Lazare Hoche. He heard my Slapfunk records at parties he went to… and he’d started a label, and was interested in this French guy named ‘Malin Génie.’ Surprisingly… turns out i’m a random Dutch guy.
Haha you and that name!
So all of a sudden I had this handsome boy adding me on Skype and he was like ‘Come on lets video chat,’ I’d never met the guy… he was like ‘Ye man. I’m Charlie. Whats up!’ …. and it was love at first sight. Best thing I ever did was turning on this video chat, haha!
Aw mate!
So he told me, ‘I’m doing a label called Lazare Hoche Records, and if you have some music, I would love to release it,’ I thought okay cool lets do this!
Cool!
He was also working on some stuff, we started exchanging some tracks, and then we said ‘Okay, lets make a record together,’ So send me your stuff, I’ll send you my stuff… add something, I will add something to yours… lets collaborate. That became ‘I Don’t Sync So Part 1.’ Yeah… this was really cool, then he came to Amsterdam with some friends of his, we met up and started making some more music, this was the start of ‘I Don’t Sync So Part. 2’
Yeah…
I also started travelling to Paris monthly. Charlie was rapidly expanding his home studio and we were becoming very productive. At the time, we were working on a VA EP for LHR. Daan Groeneveld tipped this guy to me who uploaded a live set on his Soundcloud. I heard some great music, so, I emailed this guy, who was Samuel André Madsen… Turns out he’s from Copenhagen, but he was living in Paris at that time… and I was in Paris for a week or so...
Nice, synchronicity!
So we thought instead of chatting on Facebook or emailing, we should just meet, have some coffee and talk music… And yeah, we met up at St. Eustache Church in Paris for some coffee. When we were at Charlie’s apartment later, we showed Sam the stuff we were working on for IDSS2. Sam said, ‘Hey, I have an idea for the bassline can I try some stuff?’ and we were like… ‘Yeah sure!…’
….No! haha
No! DON’T TOUCH IT!
And did he nail it? Did he nail the bassline?
He nailed the bassline… You can check out this bassline in the track ‘Fouad’ the first track we did as Mandar.
Were you and Charlie just like :O
Yeah we were like, ‘Oh yeah?’ Because we had a simple walking bassline with not so much variation. Sam’s bassline added a lot of groove to the track! So Charles and I asked Sam if he had any plans for tomorrow. ‘LET’S DO THIS AGAIN!’
Haha… you can come make basslines for us.
Hahaha yeah we have some tracks but we suck at basslines so please help. Anyway he worked on another track of ours… and we started making some tracks from scratch which we wanted to release… But yeah, Lazare Hoche, Malin Génie featuring Sam André Madsen sounded really long. So we thought, Charlie was living at Rue Mandar, Paris, we made the tracks here, let’s call it Mandar… it sounds nice, you know….six letters, tight. It was also nice that it was a word with no associations too. Then ‘Width' came out, which was the first Mandar EP.
Wicked! And yeah, I wanted to ask if you prefer to make music on your own now, or is it better with the boys?
Well I found it hard making music with other people before, at least seriously. When I hooked up with Charlie… we complimented each other. And when Sam would join in later, we had the same feeling like…. We produce alongside each other very naturally and we really inspire each other.
Yeah that’s super sweet man
So we decided we had to continue to work together. All our individual hardware also complimented each other, I mean Sam is good with keys (and basslines) haha… Charlie and I had some samplers, drum machines, synths… it fitted really well together. Also, these guys, I mean… Charlie and Sam, they’re my you know…
Best buddies…
Yeah, I mean that helps. Okay look, Charlie’s apartment was stacked wall to wall with gear… so when we were producing there we were actually living in forty square metres for a week you know…and it was okay! We didn’t step on each others toes, and obviously this played a huge part in us being able to collaborate intensely…. so yeah, we knew we could work together, and we could be around each other for extended periods of times, so we figured to continue the collab.
Love it
Also it’s nice to have some beat like, ‘It’s a cool beat and I like it but I’m stuck and I dunno what to do with it.’ And somebody says, ‘I know exactly what to do with it.’
Well it’s three minds isn’t it… sometimes it’s hard to get that extra perspective you need when you’re producing on your own…
For sure, and to filter each others work too…taking some weird idea… ‘No, no, no you’re going too far now.’ haha.
Haha yes! So then of course you guys set up the label together?
Well we had the first release coming up on LHR, but we had a lot more stuff we were working on, so we decided to just start a label for just these tracks, you know, and it became Oscillat. I mean the LHR schedule was filling up, and we had the records ready right then, so we thought why don’t we just press them?
Yeah that makes sense
Later on we expanded a bit. Like I have some friends from Amsterdam with upcoming releases, Ferro for instance.
Oh yeah, you just released the record (OSC006)… it’s twisted man
Pffff I really like this one. We’ve been working on this release for the last year I think?
Yeah his stuff is real nice
He’s clever… he has a really good ear and his sound is crisp! This EP is very Oscillat.
OK cool… and the first release was SAM - Marabouda (OSC001)?
Yes, the first one was SAM, thats right.
And then yours was fourth… Now were these like tracks that you already had or?
The track ‘Sense of Swing’ was practically ready for a while, I think originally Samuel Deep wanted to release it on Slapfunk, but I had promised it to Dialegestai. They got delayed however… and then in the meantime we started Oscillat, so I thought okay, let me do an EP on our own label!
Let me just see the one, yes, because I think I bought it originally for the track ‘ULUX?’ The snare in it is unbelievable…
Ah, this was the newest production on the EP… I sampled the snare in an AKAI S01… it’s a crappy sampler but I like it… Then I re-routed it through an old Pioneer spring reverb. Also I had just bought the Chorus Echo and was really keen on doing a track with it of course. The bassline too comes from the Cyclone TT-303 running through the ZVEX Lo-Fi Junky, which is an amazing guitar peddle. And yeah I all had this stuff running, recorded half an hour or so... chopped it down to a 7 min track to finish the EP.
Nice, So you record in one take and then edit afterwards in Ableton?
This track, yes. But normally I record individual elements into Ableton for a couple of minutes. Then play it in Ableton and record on top of it another layer and then AGAIN record another layer, record another layer etc… If I can still stand it after all this layering, I decide if it’s something I will finish or not.
You make it sound easy man. I think I find the most difficult aspect of getting the loop right is the teeny tiny variations you know…
That’s where the modular is super interesting…
Yes, and especially these super short attack, glibby globby, watery kinda sounds you are making, like the intro for your Mendeleev Radio Show mix?… Amazing. I actually played that to my dad and he said it sounded like insects talking.
Thats a nice description! I really like listening to these crispy sounds.
Can you remember where did you first heard it?
I think Sam showed me a really impressive field recording of a glacier… With headphones on, you could hear the sounds playing like inside your head almost. Also, I noticed this record from NSI called Squelch, 2008, had the same characteristics. On the cover they named the gear they used and it mentioned a ‘Doepfer system’… And I became very interested in these indefinable crispy sounds that scratch the inside of your head!
Yes, and I can hear that in your new stuff… Like there’s lots of sounds which you can't so easily define? Actually, there was a track in that mix which I wanted to ask you about which is crazy…
The same set with the insects? (Mendeleev)
Yes… [plays track] this is the one… Is it yours?
Yeah it’s me and a friend of mine… Levi Verspeek.
Ah no way, he’s wicked!
It’s stuff we were working on… Actually I just saw him a few hours ago and we were discussing if we should work on an EP together. Also Charlie, Sam and I are working with Levi & Makcim on a record for Oscillat.
Now that’s very exciting!
Yeah this year definitely, but we are waiting because we’re gonna drop the Mandar album first…
Yes...
:D We announced a few weeks ago… The album will be in a five vinyl pack. There are some edits of the album tracks coming out too within three EPs.
Fantastic! Lots of records... What else have you guys got coming up?
Well we have just scheduled a Mandar USA tour in July!! We’re playing in NYC for ReSolute and then in Miami too. Also Japan tour in October!
Yes mate! Japan! Those guys will love it. I mean… I've seen you guys play at Studio 338 last year, and it was immense. I remember there was a ridiculously long build up during your set actually…
Haha just before we started Sam said, ‘I have something new’… and you know, we like spontaneous ideas… Our live is kind of based on it actually. So Sam played this euphoric ambient choir theme. Haha I remember looking at Charlie like… what is he….!? It was great!
So you guys are quite in the moment with it all?
Yeah we like to keep it pretty improvised based… We dropped the idea of a tracklist very early when we started the live, but the way we produce is we just start jamming. This works out pretty good most of the time, so we tried to have the same approach during the live. We felt each other pretty good after those intense days in Paris, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Of course, we also bring some stems of new material, or as I just said, sometimes someone brings something they made the day before! Some of these stems from the live even grew into tracks for our upcoming album too.
And you are doing the modular right?
Right now yes. We have some staples like the laptop, 909, SH101 and Eventide Reverb etc, but some stuff variates. I’ve been bringing the Make Noise shared system regularly… But I’m switching to a more mobile set up now. Still modular. Charlie brings his Acidlab Miami and modular system. Sam his 606. Sometimes we bring the TT-303, sometimes a 707 or Roland D50. I don’t know what will happen next. More modular probably.
And you guys are making stuff for the live separately at home?
Partially, yes. For instance this one when Sam played, it was a surprise for me and Charlie, he told us, ‘Hey guys, no beats, I’m gonna play some atmospheric.’ Or Charlie, or myself ask the rest to break things down because we have some acid line we want to play. And the rest builds around it.
Wow okay cool
There is a risk of failure but there is also the chance of happy accidents. The good thing about being three is that someone will always have a fresh idea. Plus… it’s nice to adapt to different parties. For instance, we opened the Weather Festival last year with a two and a half hour live set. We decided to start with an hour of ambience using the modular systems and the D50. Also, when we see a crowd responds really good to a certain type of sound we can come back to something similar later in the set. This is really the advantage of being able to create tracks as we go.
Yeah thats awesome. Very clever. You guys are DJing together aswell aren’t you?
Yeah we are playing records too. We’ve been playing some extended sets and actually also some hybrid live & DJ sets, where we play records and come back to an analog live jam at some point and vice versa.
And you are playing a lot on your own too?
Yeah, but now the main focus is Mandar for a while. We have been working on this album. It was the biggest project we all worked on and it took some time. The good thing is that we have more gigs together. It’s nice to travel with two of your best friends! Even when we have some trouble on the road, you’re relaxed because you’re having fun with your friends no matter what.
Yeah that’s so blessed. Okay, so what about if you were to make a beat right now? Is your mindset that you’re making it for Mandar?
Pfff I dunno, it depends. When we were working on the album, we all had this album in the back of our minds when producing of couse. But I try to think as less as possible when I start making music. If it’s good it will eventually find it’s way. If it’s terrible you still had fun and maybe learned a thing or two. It’s not always easy to have this freedom, though. This is a nice bridge to Vigenère actually, the label I started, because I noticed that sometimes when I was making music I was discarding some tracks that I thought would never see the daylight, but a lot of these tracks, I really loved. I set up a label for these tracks with a less defined ‘character.’
And are all of the releases are produced by you?
Well the anonymous part of the label kind of gives you the freedom to release whatever you want, so it will remain a secret who made what. But yeah oke, it’s pretty obvious I’m the first one probably.
Yeah… this is the one I like [plays Morisii - VGNR01] A serious slicer!
See, for instance, this is not a track I would fit in my set easily and it’s different with the rest of the music I released. Although, production wise I had too much fun working on this to not share the fruits of my labor with anyone.
…It had value
Yeah, so I thought I wanna push this stuff and especially to get this feeling to just create music regardless of the outcome! I understand there are different ways ensure this, but for me this works. It’s just a way to step a bit out of my comfort zone and maybe try some new production techniques or genre, and still being able to release it, by myself, independently.
Fantastic. You just released 002 as well didn’t you?
Yeah the second release came a few weeks ago, it’s called ‘Variation EP by PGRJ TELM’… The third is on pre-sale. There’s the fourth and the fifth that are almost ready too.
Can I ask you as well about Will & Ink too? That’s quite rough and tumble as well… Is Frits Wentink involved?
Yes, this is Frits’ label…
Wicked, and this is your collaboration with him?
‘Deorbital Descent’ is the first EP I released on Will&Ink and I collaborated with Yaleesa Hall on the ‘Lucas EP’. I recently moved into the Will&Ink studio and I can tell you that the label and I will be collaborating some more in the future. Frits’ studio space is a nice environment.
Nice… Yeah Frits’ production is very nice…very different.
Yes, it’s ace. He has some freak and he has really found a way to put his stamp on his productions…
Well good luck with that too then man… I have a feeling you two together equals trouble!
You can expect some heavy stuff, yes.
I think I already saw a little clip on Facebook of a track?
Yeah this is the upcoming…
You and Frits?
No, me and Yaleesa..
Ahhhh okay. And who is Yaleesa?
An Amsterdam native.
An alias of somebody?
It’s someone with another job who want’s to remain out of the picture for now. But can tell you I’m very excited about these collabs. This and of course our Mandar project will take up all my time and I’m very happy about that.
Okay man, lots of exciting stuff happening! Thanks a lot, great to chat!
You too, thank you!
More Malin Génie?
More Mandar?
More Oscillat?
More Lazare Hoche?
More S.A.M?
More MEOKO?
