How does Funkerman Make Music
RS: When you're making your music, what instruments do you use?
Are you all in the laptop or on computer? Do you use outboard gear?
Funkerman: We use different gear, but we work from a computer.
RS: Logic, ProTools?
Funkerman: Fedde uses Logic. We use Cubase, but whichever program
suits you. It's not about the kitchen, it's about the cook, we always
say. When I work with Fedde his studio, we work on Logic and there are
a few advantages Logic has. I see it when I'm working with him. There
are a few advantages that Cubase has, and probably ProTools has a few
advantages as well. As long as you feel comfortable with the equipment
you're working with. I think nowadays a computer is really, really
cool to work with, because everything is total recall and that's just
really, really, really cool.
RS: When you play out live, are you playing CDs or are you using a laptop?
Funkerman: I play CDs.
RS: Any thoughts on moving to the laptop world?
Funkerman: No, because I'm a visual guy. I come from the vinyl years,
so for me the color of the side of the vinyl was, 'Oh yes, yes, I want
to play that record.' I didn't know who made it, its title or
anything. I knew that it was purple. So now I play with CDs and I make
silly drawings and all kinds of stupid stuff to give me a visual
thing. You have so many CDs that you carry around, and they all have
texts printed on the CD, but it doesn't work for me, and I'm totally
lost. So for me, I'm still sticking to the CDs.
Dutch DJs ruling the world
RS: Thinking about Mason, Fedde Le Grand, Don Diablo, Tiesto,
Armin Van Buuren, Laidback Luke.. all these great Dutch DJs – Why do
Dutch seem to bequeath so many amazing DJs to the world?
Funkerman: It's a question that people often ask me but I don't think
there's a really serious answer. But the one advantage that Holland
does have is that it's really small. You can play in two cities in
the same night, and the cities might be half an hour drive away from
each other. So when you're a DJ it's really easy to get a lot of
experience playing in the clubs in Holland. You hear a lot of DJs
playing and it's a sort of a pressure cooker, Holland is a pressure
cooker. So I think that's the big advantage, but besides that, maybe
it's in the water, I don't know. I really don't know. It's just a
coincidence.
RS: The artist album you're working on, when can we expect that
to come out?
Funkerman: We want to have it finished in March so we can do some
promo-ing. We're looking for partners at the Miami Music Conference,
so March is kind of my deadline. It depends on all the partners that
you get in that period, on when you can release it. We always try to
release it on the same date in all the territories because otherwise
illegal downloads will ruin the stuff for that company. So I'm not
really sure about a release date, but somewhere in 2009.
RS: What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Funkerman: Thank you for buying our music and I hope to see you at
the shows sometimes.
Interview posted November 24, 2008
