Georg: The whole structure of the song came out of a coincidence, and I’m not really sure if I would be able to write a song like that again. Whereas with the other songs, I think I could write something in that kind of similar fashion again at some point. But "Can't Hold Back", had some little special somethings that I came up with by accident while playing around, and that’s what I like about it. I also like a "Bad Thing", that’s a song I really enjoy playing live with my band for instance.
Emm: You've got a DJ Spinna remix of "In Your Car" and the Jimpster remix of "When I’m With You". Are there any more remixes in the works?
Georg: Yes. And there’s a Brooks remix of "Somebody New". And there will be another remix of "Somebody New" by Masters At Work, that will be on their MAW label.
It’s a very, very nice remix. It fits so well together with the song, and to be honest I like it more than what I did with my original. I must admit, "Somebody New" was the song that was the least fun producing. The style was very rough, and it was rather hard work then, you know, it didn’t come out in one stroke and it was not very easy going. In fact, when we released it, I didn’t want to listen to it anymore. Then after a while, after like three months, I listened to it again I thought OK, actually it’s a very nice song. Dixon and I produced it together, and we worked on it much too long. It was a very simple song, but for us it was the first song we produced in that kind of way. I mean we brought new gear and all that stuff and we had some technical problems with it. But I’m very happy that it works now. I kind of sensed that it would work well in the States. It was very nice to see how people responded to it at Club Shelter; they could all sing the lyrics by heart. That would never, ever happen in Germany.
Emm: Really?
Georg: The Germans always like the down tempo stuff rather than the house-y tracks. Of the three singles, "In Your Car" was big in the UK, "Somebody New" was bigger in the States and Japan, and "When I'm With You" was the thing that worked well in Germany and France. Within the States though, people in different parts of the country like different songs. When we were playing in San Francisco, most people knew "In Your Car". In Miami, they didn’t know "Somebody New" at all, but in New York, they all knew it. It's always nice though, when people can get into more than one song. It would be really frustrating if people said they only like "Somebody New", or only like "In Your Car". What’s nice about this album, is that most people, especially those people who listen to the album more and more, are getting more into the down tempo songs, and actually like them.
Emm: What sort of gear do you use in making your music?
Georg: It's very primitive, I can tell you. I’m producing my beats at home still on the MPC, Akai MPC. I use Logic, and for the album I was using a free demo of Logic called Logic Fun. I pre-produce everything at home on a digital eight-track machine, like a Roland eight track machine. I play bass guitar on a Fender precision base and I play a Rhodes. I have some software synthesizers, and some other hardware synthesizers, but not a lot, really not a lot. Before I go to the studio, my demos actually sound already quite finished as far as the arrangement is concerned. In fact, Jazzanova was playing the demo of "In Your Car" for about a year before I recorded it and we went in the studio. When I work with Jazzanova, they have a Pro-tools system. They have got very nice gear. They have very nice microphones and all that stuff, and a very nice studio. When we produced the album, we put every sound on a different track. Each sample gets its own track.
Emm: You've been under the radar for some time. Now that you have this album out, you're on tour, and you're getting some attention, what would you want people to know about you through your music? What is it you’re trying to say to people or share with people?
Georg: I would like people to be real, and not take themselves too seriously. I want to produce a classic album that people will put on in two years, maybe five years, maybe ten years, maybe even longer. I want it to be a personal album, that people develop some kind of personal relationship with the album. The thing that a lot of people tell me, which I’m also very happy about, is that the more they listen to it, they always change their favorite songs on it. They always discover new things in it, and it slowly grows on them, and that’s what I actually wanted to achieve. I just want people to listen and appreciate this kind of music.
