Submitted By: cellar-dweller

Genre: Techno

Date of Set: unknown

Filesize: 76.00 MB

Total Downloads: 5

intro: Back in the days... First he distorted our phase and then he took us one million miles away. :) The dude was releasing some fine tracks on Phase D modgroup (the era before netlabels, for you youngsters out there). Yes, those were the days when we all had Amigas and when phong shading in demos was very much in. Some years have passed, technology has leapt forward... A new scene has emerged. Netlabel culture is up and rising. Some years ago, I listened to some tracks from dude whose name was RP. It was some release from Weltherrschaft label entitled Charterflight EP. Then I thought... Wow, some wicked techno! Then, some years have passed... Some more releases from RP caught my attention on Rohformat. After project Thaum was born, I remembered RP and wanted to chat with him for your reading pleasure. In preparations for this interview we talked a bit... And then he mentioned he was the dude from Phase D and demoscene whose .mod and .xm tracks made my feet stomp and my speakers go wild. So, to cut the long story short... This will be some kind of demoscene retro interview with a special netlabel twist.


Hi, Ronny... Introduction, please.


doh! not that one :D ronny pries, born ('76) and raised somewhere around hamburg/germany. hm what else. i stink and lie! no. random facts about me: i'm married and the father of luke. i love asian food, i'm an acid house addict. please, ask. i hate writing stuff about me. that's why i don't have a real bio on my website. haha. i love answering questions tho :)



Like we said, earlier... Everybody needs some kind of 303. :) Before we take a focus on your current sound projects. Let's go back... Way back. Your first music tries? And how did it all begin?



i annoyed my parents to death to get me a c64 after seeing it a friends' place. and i was successful cause they bought me one for my 8th birthday i think since i was always quite into music and stuff one day a tool called sidmon raised my interest. (you know, i used to be the 'music selecta' on school trips) spend much time sitting in front of the radio, taping music. anyway, my first attempts with sidmon were quite horrible but it definetely kept me busy for a while. last not least i was just around 11 or something, all that binary crap just couldn't work out ;) i also remember that my parents tried help my musicality with flute lessons during early kindergarten days. how i hated that. flutes are crap!



so after all, i finally got myself an amiga500 and tried making music on it again. first attempt: cutting samples in sonix. didn't work out as you may figure. then i spotted soundtracker and it was love on first sight.



Amiga 500 was a great demo machine. So, naturally... Some parts of demoscene evolved to modgroups, being the very early netlables. You were part of those groups?



yes. i joined alphaflight in the early 90s. unfortunately their german demosection lacked coders and we never really released anything. however i made lots of mods anyway and wanted to present them somehow. it didn't take me long to figure that no coder will ever be able to code me enough demos for all the music i had going on. back then i wasn't even online and had no idea what was going on already i tried to setup a music section of afl alongside with sultan/afl but it also didn't work cause there was quite much trouble in the group at that time. last not least we left afl for good and formed our own group 'teklords' with few others. not that we have ever released tons of productions either but the friendship kept everything in place. one day sultan was so kind and helped me getting into the internet on my amiga. must have been around 95.



and i meet all those people on irc, alongside pirat, juice etc. they introduced me to phase distortion and i joined. i can't remember what exactly happened there but the group went defunct lateron. i had to do my own thing then. while i switched to pc and started making music with ft2 i meet lots of new people on irc. i was basicly looking for other musicians that were into techno. there weren't too many back then. i stumbled across moon/dreamsource where i released some music as well. then i had this evil plan of ruling the trackerscene with a strange concept group. which turned out to be .schleudertrauma. i asked moon and dupont to join me releasing strange .xm techno using aliases, never the realname. and it turned out pretty well. however i got bored of the synonym thing and had to make a change. the result was _rohformat.



Today, Rohformat is a great label... Wicked techno releases, IMHO. What equipment do you use for producing? Do you fancy software or hardware?



i stayed with trackers and switched to buzz. i never really caught up on hardware also i was also producing music in well equipped studios although. it's just not my world. so today i use buzztracker equipped with lots of vst plugins, an uad-1 and s some midi controllers.


Tell us a little bit more about Rohformat. It's real label as well as netlabel?


Yes, it's been a netlabel since the beginning and i released the first 12' in November 2005. Unfortunately the distributor disappeared shortly after the release that we had to postpone the upcoming stuff until we have a new deal. But that's in sight. Additionally we plan further digital distribution of the vinyl releases and additional tracks via Beatport and the likes. However, the netlabel part is here to stay.


So, software beats hardware? :) Tell us something about your music influences.


You said that! I don't think that software is superior or vice versa. Anyway. The first really essential birthday present of my parents was a tape recorder which i got with 6. I liked most of the 80s stuff on the radio and recorded lots or crap. whitney houston, michael jackson, taylor dayne .... and then got struck by something new and fresh to me bomb the bass, s-express, rififi - acid house.



i loved that energy which was going on in that music and always just wanted to dance when they played that stuff on the radio. (that 12 years old kids don't dance is clear, right?) after it passed from the radio during the late 80s i had some time with a german rock band called 'die Aerzte' until i finally met some guy in the local swimming pool. he was making music, 'techno' as he said. he handed me over a mixtape he did which i heard like 24/7. that guy was soeren schnackenberg who just released his first 12' on container records (in '91). aka vosprung durch techno (V.D.T.)


And how about today's rolemodels?


i don't really feel aligned to anyone. there are lots of musicians who's music i like and play, but i don't have any real personal heroes as such


Do you have any real releases? Or just netlabels?


i released two vinyls alongside with soeren as 'stereo & r2' in 98-99 then we did a secret project on a big german techno label with several releases. last not least i had my first 'own' release on christian morgenstern's label forte records. and some others. of course now on rohformat.



What do you think of today's netlabel situation? Do we have low quality control since netlabel scene is growing on a daily basis.



i like the scene very much, lots of good people, good ideas. but quality control doesn't happen at all at the moment. neither technically nor on the artist side. i think everybody should have a netlabel :)



as much as a 303. of course. i wish there would be some kind of mag or something that would rate releases by technical things for example: bitrate, cover, zip, dl speed and also categorise a little. as well as saying something about the production. (even negative if necessary) it's pretty hard to find a way through the jungle right now. you can easily waste lots of time for downloading a zip from archive.org that contains more files than necessary (64k, 192kb, vbr & ogg anyone?) where the files are badly or not tagged at all. newbies really need a guide.



In my last interview, Izmar told some ways of composing under the influence (aka the joy of substance abuse). Have you ever tried that and what was the result? :)



Whenever i'm composing under the influence of 'substance abuse' (http://www.discogs.com/release/15177) my tracks are heavily 303 infected.


Do you also perform as a DJ alongside producing?


yes. i started spinning records in 91. i'm not djing too much at the moment cause i'm busy with other things but i'd never neglect a gig. i hope to change that again. it's much fun. and means a lot to me.


One must have a personal life... Maybe you could teach your son to spin? ;) Can you name some of your favourite netlabels at the moment?


if luke wants to give it a try, he's welcome of course :D netlabel-wise i like many of the usual suspects. heavy industries, stadtgruen, zimmer, thinner etcppp


if there's anything good somewhere i'll find it for sure :D


I remember a particular release made by you... Since I lost you somewhere between switching fomr .xm to .mp3, like many demoscene dudes I followed back then. It was an EP for Weltherrschaft netlabel called Charterflight. The track that got my attention was Berlin-Helsinki. It's a great track. What inspired you while producing?


uhm. eh. hm. i have no idea to be honest :D

Well, at least you're honest. And what's your favourite release so far?

of my own ones?

Yes.


i can't really choose one. something i enjoy listening again and again is the northern lights on thinner and distant paths especially part II. all my friends hate it.i love it.


Under how many monikers can we find you?


uf. i never counted them. 20? no, probably less. let's see rktic, breitbannt, electronic assault, frame, jim pruid 2 kids and a sampler, floyd t, was ist was, hiroshi mitosha, compiler, der mann ohne stimme, this ain't, alan 'the grinder' dowell, r2dj and that secret hidden thing i can't talk about ;)


14, but i'm sure i forgot something.

Ronny and RP, hahahha :D

ronny priest, ronny, RP and r.pries. and whatnot combinations of the same thing

OK. Far from producing... You are also into Farbrausch demo group, innit?

yes. i formed it even alongside with yoda and kb

As I recall, you were in some german demo party commitee or something?


You mean the Demoszene e.V. ? i'm not affilated there. i just did some organising at mekka & symposium or rather helping. i was on the staff :)



I was also in a organizig crew of our last demo parties... While we all had Amigas. :) But today, I don't feel the demo party spirit at all... How do you feel about it? I mean, before... We had our Amigas, and demos were kind of art. Nowdays, they are merely raping of a graphic cards. What's your stand on that subject?



Blasphemy! I think it just evolved like everything else. one is either growing with it or passing by at a point. unfortunately i missed demoparties the last years, my last one was breakpoint03 but i think the 'spirit' is still there. last not least there are lots of very good demos around. hich are very artistic and consistent. the focus just isn't very pixel orientated anymore which is different from the amiga days. but people still keep exploring computers. in good ways.even if they can't show the industry new stuff anymore. i'd like to go to next years' bp again. or evoke this year maybe. i'm crossing fingers that i find the time. i'd also like to make a demo again.


What do you do, when not producing? Your day job is taking much of your spare time?


i rarely rest. during the weekdays i'm currently doing mainly level design as well as sound design for a small game dev team here (lots of sceners there, as well...)


What is your day job?


i'm level & sound designer at a small game dev team here in hamburg. at the moment i'm also busy with producing music for one of their titles. it's basicly a company of sceners, btw. when i'm not working for income i'm either hanging around with my family, making music, developing software, administrating one of my websites, programming synths .... i'm also involved in audiorealism.se where i do a bit of support, program patches watch after betatests etc. and do some testing for native instruments as well as looking after the musical content for the traktor dj software (tracks and mix)


You're very busy, I see... And new release planned?


i'm currently looking for a new distributor for the rohformat vinyls as well as i'm planning a new, 2nd label alongside rf. i don't have any releases scheduled at the moment. well one of my tracks will be released with dj esp's aciiieeed mixcd.


Any remixing during your career? Are you ever been remixed or remixed someone?


i did lots of remixes in the netlabel scene already and there have been lots of remixes for my 'northern lights' album on thinner. i like remixing tho.


Why?


i don't have to worry much about musical content :) instead i can just go and have fun with someone else's music. it usually takes me less time to finish a remix than an own track. but that's also just a rule of thumb. i also did a remix for mijk van dijk already. back then. on that big label with that project i'm not supposed to talk about :) *sigh*



Then we'll not speak of it.... :) Right now, you acid mix from 1999. is playin in my home... Called Back In The Days. Do you have any more mixes available?



basicly yes, but the server hosting the sets is currently offline. so i had to spread my sets around some freeload services. there's also a followup to back in the days which is called 'back in the days again' it is, of course, acid house. few sets are linked at my myspace page myspace.com/ronnypries but it may be possible that those freeload links are unvaild already :(



(IF ANYONE WANTS TO OFFER ME LOTS OF SERVERSPACE AND BANDWIDTH FOR MY SETS WHICH CAUSE WAY TOO MUCH TRAFFIC FOR FREE, PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP! :D)



A free commercial... :) Give man a serverspace... :) Now, for some quick questions... For the end. Are you ready?


sure.

Clubs or pubs?

pubs.

Beer or wine?

wine.

Wow... That's strange for a German... :)

nah. it ain't

Analog or digital?

best of both worlds :D

303 or 808 :)

303.

Favourite bpm tempo?

128.753

Your favourite genre of electronic music?

No idea, depends on my mood. I like everything if it's good.


Do you know that Croatia kicked German's asses in the world series in 1998. with score 3:0? :)


Eh, which sport?

Soccer. ;) Favourite country for vacation? (hint: Croatia) :)

sorry :D maldives.

Bugger... :)

(just been there)

www.ronnypries.de/rbr2

Now, this is all up to you... some words for the end. Hit it!

BANG THE BOX!
and
SHAKE WHAT'CHA MAMA GA'YA!

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