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Fear not, Tensnake is not the nickname of a certain serpent-haired mythical monster; rather the musical alias of one Marco Niemerski, the German producer who’s been causing quite a stir of late with a particularly explosive track. The track in question is ‘Coma Cat’; a hooky, upbeat slice of disco-infused house loveliness which looks set to reach its in peak both in Ibiza and at the thousands of upcoming festivals this summer.
We caught up with its creator to get the lowdown on the track’s name, the inspiration behind it, and why he has a permanant grin on his face...
So…first things first; why have you named this track ‘Coma Cat’. Do you have a particularly lazy feline pet?
Nope, no lazy feline at home! Originally – for obvious reasons – I named the track ‘Can I Get Get’. Then I went out to a party one night and met a particular person; she had a lot of fun and a lot to drink…maybe one too many. She turned from party cat into coma cat, and I decided that she definitely deserved a track which is named after her.
It looks like it’s going to be massive for the summer’s festivals…you’re playing at quite a few of them! Any particular favourites?
The next festival will be the Garden Festival in Croatia…I’m really looking forward to playing there. I’ve heard so many good things about it, so I decided to stay for the whole week and enjoy the company of some nice chilled people and a couple of sundowners. What more could you ask for? I am also very excited to play at Bestival, people are always excited when they talk about it. I heard there is always a certain theme and wear costumes for the entire weekend, it sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure Field Day and The Big Chill will be amazing too. I will see some of my favourite artists playing there; really excited about that.
I’ve seen you play out a couple of times and you always seem to be enjoying yourself. Do you think it’s important for a DJ/performer to have a smile on his face?
I’m not sure if it’s necessarily important, it just makes me smile when I see people enjoying the set and having a good time. Plus maybe smiling also helps me to cope with my stage fright!
You clearly take a lot of inspiration from 80’s boogie and funk. Aren’t you a little young to be into that kind of music?
I’ll take this as a compliment as I am probably older than you think. But no, I don’t think I am too young for it. How can you be too young for any kind of music anyway? Of course each generation has its own sounds or genres, but there is always so much stuff to discover from all of them. Music is an endless universe; once you think you know and have heard it all, you just discover an old/new amazing tune.
Disco has become a bit of a ‘buzz’ genre in the last year so; have you always been making music like this? What first got you into production?
I don’t see myself as a purely disco or nu-disco producer, as there is a lot of influence coming from everywhere. When I started making music I guess I tried to make house music, but I was never satisfied with the result. It took a couple of years to get behind the whole process, from the very first beat bar to the mixdown and pre-master. I think it is a never ending process of learning and improving.
In the studio, what do you use to create your tracks? Explain the process; what elements you start with etc…
I am producing on Ableton Live at the moment. My studio setup is really simple, just a couple of synths but no mixing console. I finish the mixdown on my computer using a lot of UAD plug-ins and some softsynth plug-ins of course.
Usually I start with a beat and a bassline, but I don’t have a certain strategy or anything. I also don’t tend to use an initial autoload project. I guess it is important for me not to have the same workflow with all of my projects. Matthew Herbert was bang on when he said “let’s all make mistakes”, that’s the most exciting thing about producing and the absolute best way of improving. Love the feeling of something weird happening, something unexpected, and when your computer seems to take over.
What projects have you currently got in the pipeline? What can we expect from you for the rest of the year?
Right now I am working on a new 12” and there will be a new EP on my own imprint Mirau by end of the summer. I also just did a remix of Azari & III’s ‘Reckless With Your Love’ which will come out in August on Permanent Vacation. Maybe there will be some more remixes coming out later this year…I think that’s it for 2010!
Anything else you’d like to tell us about..?
Oh yes: they should kill the fucking BP oil spill right now!
