Music is fun when it doesn’t waste a single second being engaging. When as soon as you hear it, you’re left with no choice but to move and enjoy the music. That infectious energy is overflowing in the song from Elektrotechnika called “Olivia”. A smashing jam that’s hard to ignore. We were so intrigued with the music, we wanted to know more about this creative. He was gracious enough to take some time to answer some questions for us. Below is the interview.
Who is Elektrotechnika the Producer?
My name is Yan, I was born in Siberia, but grew up in Germany near Frankfurt. My cultural background influences my melodic expression as I love the fusion of happy and at the same time melancholic moods. Because I love to create things on my own and care about the smallest technical details, I feel “Elektrotechnika” is an appropriate (and cool) artist name for me 🙂
How did you get into producing?
Since my father is also a musician, I had more touchpoints with the process of creating it than usual. When I was 5 years old, I plugged in a microphone into a cassette recorder and recorded random things on the cassette. At the age of 13, I experimented with loops in Magix Music Maker and recorded my own melodies with a Yamaha stage keyboard on my computer. Of course, the output and lack of flexibility were very unsatisfying, so I started playing around in Fruity Loops and bought a proper MIDI keyboard.
What production software do you use and why?
I always tell people, Ableton Live is like Photoshop, but for sound design. That’s why 10 years ago, after working with Fruity Loops, Reason, and Logic I ended up working with Ableton Live. It was love at first sight. Ableton Live works for me in a way where I don’t have to think about how I get a certain result but fully concentrate on being creative. All the tools I need to shape and sculpt my sounds are just intuitively there in place. This is also the reason why my workflow got very efficient and as I realized this is very important especially for the creative part of a production process because I can get more done while still having that fresh ear towards my own melodies.
What’s your creative process for creating “Olivia”?
The initial spark this time was the percussive loop you can hear right in the beginning. When I heard it I was like “uhh dope”. That’s why I started building up the basic drum system on top of that percussion loop before the melodic parts. Usually, I start with catchy melodies that I can connect to and which have that special mix of happiness and melancholy before creating the drums. The next inspirational discovery was this amazing greek Bouzouki sample, which was already chopped into pieces, so I actually don’t know, what the original recording sounds like.
I just started playing around with the chops until I had the melody you can hear now. 2 hours later I had the main structure of the song in place. It already sounded like a contemporary, simple but unique dance tune. Suddenly I had the idea of adding an old vocal sample of someone saying a greek name. So I went to YouTube and typed in “olivia old movie” because this was the first greek name that came to my mind.
Guess what? I found a trailer of a refurbished french film from the 50s, where a woman looks for another woman called “Olivia” and Olivia actually responds with her name. It was just perfect!!! Later I found out, that this old movie called “Olivia” was one of the first french films directed by a woman and that one of the topics in the movie is a relationship between two women, who have to keep it secret. Back in the days, it was a no-go to even mention homosexuality in the cinema. I like the fact, that the movie nowadays is very appreciated because of its call for individual empathy and tolerance and I can repeat this call with my song.
What was your favorite project to work on?
It’s very difficult to pick one. Each song was a unique experience. “Cybertrack” was just crazy sound design and more complex arrangement that challenged me. “I Want You” really touches me with its different melodies and the straight forward drum and bass pattern and “Olivia” is definitely the “coolest” of all. If I had to pick one, it would be probably “I Want You” just because of the emotional connection.
Which artist would you love to collab with and why?
I would die to hear a “BELLA CIAO”-style remix of “Olivia” by Rasmus Gozzi. Damn, that would hit hard!!!
What’s next for Elektrotechnika?
I want to grow my Instagram community by sharing more insights from my own learning process regarding Spotify marketing, playlisting, and how to mature as an artist in general. I think we have the great privilege to live at a time where anyone with access to the web (still just half of the earths population, don’t take it for granted!) can create, publish, and market their own music independently.
But doing so is also a lot of work and trial and error, that’s why I share my personal experience with the Elektrotechnika project so others can benefit from my trials and errors. I love to share knowledge, you know? And since my profession is being a UX designer, I’m quite capable of creating the right content for the right people in a pleasant and quickly consumable manner. Furthermore, I plan to release my fourth song this year in late summer. I can’t wait to finish it because I just love the main melody. From the very first second, it forces you to move your body!
Please follow me on Spotify and Instagram. Besides myself, please follow every artist you like on Spotify because this is what helps an artist a lot when we think of algorithms and editorial playlists.
“Although sounds are but vibrations in the air which affect the ear’s auditory nerve, and these vibrations are but chance phenomena carried along through the air, even so, see how they move the heart. A wondrous melody is wings for the spirit, and maketh the soul to tremble for joy. – ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Check out Elektrotechnika “Olivia” below and follow him on Instagram. Stay Global my Friends!
