Interview, Robot Koch

Berlin based producer Robot Koch was kind enough to agree to an interview for us. This man is no stranger to the scene, being the producer for the band Jahcoozi and already has a string of releases. His music is a blend of dubstep, garage, 2-step and a number of other genres all mashed up into a sound which really is something else.












How long have you been producing, and what got you into it in the first
place?

I started playing drums in a death metal band when I was 14....did that
for a while, like playing in bands and stuff. all sorts of music from
jazz to metal.

But I got into producing via DJing in the late 90s. hiphop albums like
36chambers by wu tang or check your head by the beasie boys sparked my
interest in making hiphop and electronic music.

Have there been any really big inspirations over the years who you feel have made an impact on your music?

Many records from the above mentioned to john coltrane, moondog, tim
buckley, early mr oizo and anti pop consortium.

Being from Berln, your obviously used to a vibrant and exciting music
scene. How was it breaking out into the berlin scene, and was it hard or did you find
your self with a lot of support?

I kinda grew into it, been here for over 10 years now and I was one of
the first making non techno and electronica infused hiphop out here, by
now there is a big dubstep and electronic hiphop scene out here but
back in the day it wasnt like that so i kinda built it with other cats
like modeselektor, CLP, RQM, and Jahcoozi...

Your Jahcoozi's producer, but do you prefer doing your own thing or
working with them?

I like both, working in a band is a different experience and its more
about compromises sometimes, with my stuff its 100 % what i want to do,
but with jahcoozi we come up with stuff that i would not have done like
that if ihad done it alone, and that can be really cool too...

Anyone you think people should be looking out for in the second half of
2010?

Eskmo and loops haunt are my fave new producers right now. also feeling
this kid jai paul, think he is gonna be huge....so watch out.

Just a quick technology question, do you use alot of hardware or mostly
software or a mix of both and how do you think this effects your productions?

I use ableton on the software tip but i just edit and process tons of
live recorded stuff with it. I love the balance between analog and
organic stuff and the digital manipulation of that. i record everything
from guitars to flutes and also some old analog synths and then i take
the sessions to ableton and mess with them. I dont use any fancy FX
really, just normal EQs, compressors and reverbs nothing crazy, I'm a
editing freak so i really go into micro-editing of audio files...