After the release of brand new LP “Collide” via his very own FLASH Recordings imprint, Florian Meindl takes five to talk concepts, creation, label management and more with WWD. In addition, he’s shared a monstrous mix with our readers to accompany the in-depth, candid interview. So hit play and learn all you need to know about the enigmatic producer.
WWD : You are a DJ, Producer, sound engineer, you also run your own label FLASH Recordings. On top of all of that you make modular synths with your company Riemann Modular. My first question has to be where do you find all the time to put so much of yourself into so many things?
Yes this is indeed a question I often get and I’m even asking that to myself sometimes but I think it’s in my nature to try out and do many things even they don’t make sense in the first place but somehow after years there are moments where everything comes together and all of a sudden it makes sense, it’s able to be marketed or sold and in addition many of my activities are interlocked. I used to be a mechanical engineer and I love efficiency, if something is not efficient I instantly loose interest and get depressed with it, this is an annoying but very useful feature isn’t it? Let me show you an example, about 8 years ago I found myself having about 100 Techno Projects in Cubase, I managed to finalize 20 and release 10 on labels like Trapez back then but all the other stuff contained some good parts but they didn’t form a full track so I thought what I could do with all this content, I didn’t want to leave it on the hard disk until it gets dusty and forgotten. Because I also had to experience that it was hard to earn money from underground Techno productions I wanted to add some income to my gigs so I tried to sell this good content which was not useful for me anymore but hopefully for others and exactly this was the case, people were looking for pre-produced Loops because they either wanted to get inspired, the were not able to produce exactly this sound or they wanted to safe time! Riemann Kollektion was born and it was a full success from the beginning, also because I used my contacts from my DJ career to commit guest producers – I was the first who established this concept and now I’m at Release No. 17 feat. Phil Kieran along with many other smaller packages specialized in certain things.
I should also mention that I built up a huge network of very creative and busy people to form little teams to realize my ideas and also to get inspired – I make sure all of them get their fair shares! If I start something I tend to do everything myself except very complicated things to experience all steps, but then there must be a point where I either stop it completely because it didn’t work or didn’t make sense or I get together a team doing it for me, if you miss this point you find yourself in an inefficient state where you are overworked and not able to be creative.
WWD : It seems like a lot of producers set up their own label for either control, speed, cash or various other reasons. But what drove you to create Riemann Modular?
We are talking about a not yet “hatched egg“ (I hope this is the correct translation from this common German phrase) – but I can tell you the prototype of the first Module is already ordered and we want to release the first Module, which will be a stereo compressor, at the end of 2015. To answer your question, in this case I just used some opportunities and the believe that I can bring modules on the market which are highly sought after and useful. I don’t want to make a big impact in the Modular Synth world with exotic new modules or revolutionize anything as manufactures like MAKE NOISE are constantly doing – even though I highly appreciate that, my aim is more like to produce modules which I’m missing myself in my Modular cases and also provide them to the public, it’s as simple as that! Why not use my promotion power and network for this too you know?
WWD :Your newest LP “COLLIDE“ has just been released with so much on your plate how long has this record been in the works for?
The oldest track on the album is “Sun & Rain” which was produced 3 years ago right after my last album WAVES. but most of them are produced within the last 5 month because I got inspired a lot my transition to almost full analog production – I found myself producing much faster than before too! I ended up having a huge pool of tracks and reduced them week by week until I ended up with 10 tracks that work together and could form an album.
WWD : A lot of artists who can release great singles one after another, especially in electronic music, seem to struggle with putting such a large body of work together all at once. What sort of ideas did you have sitting down to make this album?
I think I can answer this question, which also bothered me a couple of years by the way, in one sentence, which is: I don’t start with the aim to produce an album, I just continue producing good music and experiment with new things and the album process itself is then only selecting from a huge pool!
The actual album work is selection, at least for an artist album as I define it, for a concept album it’s different but we are talking about artist albums which should showcase the sound of an artist at this specific moment shouldn’t we? I recently bought a lot of second hand Jazz and 70s Bands albums on vinyl so I really appreciate the album format in all its variations – but I also love the continuous „Dance Single“ releases on Beatport etc. but each format has its own purpose.
WWD : When you are relaxing at home or going about your day what sort of music and what artists do you like to listen to?
I cannot listen to background music, it’s very difficult for me to listen to the Radio and work at the same time, maybe because Music is my main thing I do so I’m too focussed on it. But I can lose myself in music like laying in the bed and listening intensively to music in a state between being awake and sleeping. I listen quite a lot Blue Note stuff from the 70s mainly from John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock that kind of cool sound, not Dixieland, not „Lounge Jazz“ you know? But there are many other interesting artists and genres I enjoy like Moondog, Steve Reich, Rhythm & Sound, Robert Hood, Claude Debussy, Passport or my all time favorite female singer Nina Simone to name only the more popular acts and words.
Recording quality is also highly important for me as I have very good speakers and high expectations! But there are many outstanding recordings and vinyl pressings out there also even from the 60s but my favorite time is the 70s because it was the hight time of analog recording techniques + exceptional artists.
The next period of very interesting, rich and timeless recordings was the era of the first Robert Hood vinyls and Basic Channel etc. in my opinion.
WWD : How would you describe your creative production process? Do you go in with an idea in your head and you only do that or do you just go in and see where the music takes you?
The latter. I’m a bit bad in copying something or recreating exactly this or that, I’m more like exploring things and find a setup of gear and harmonies etc. and then produce many variations of this and select the best one after some time. This method is a bit more risky the the other one but the reward can be much larger. My process is basically experimenting and then selecting and further shaping.
WWD : With Berlin being the musical focal point that it is, what was it like starting off in a place with so much competition around you?
I didn’t see it as a competition back then but only as chance! The competition came a bit later when I did many successful things already and it was a hard experience but now I can handle it, the music industry is definitely hard and beautiful at the same time. Hard and beautiful, like Techno in a way… 😉
WWD : With such a busy schedule at the moment what is next on the list for you? What would you like to do next?
Continue producing new music and exploring new fields especially in harmonics and musical structure – I feel like I could soak out much more magic from my analog systems when I would concentrate a bit more on this! I also want to present an outstanding LIVE act which is way beyond Ableton + controller playing scenes and adding some effects but this takes time and maybe it’s an illusion because how would all this gear get to my gigs without damage etc. but I will find a good compromise I’m sure! The first exclusive hybrid LIVE show where I will play with my Native Instruments D2 controllers + some analog gear and mixer will happen in Ibiza at the ZOO PROJECT on the 6. of June! I should maybe also mention a new vinyl only project called „Riemann LIVE“ which will also be available as a live act sooner or later!