Kruse & Nuernberg Talk

 
Music

A year in a half in the making, Kruse & Nuernberg have released their album “Let’s Call It A Day” on Fred Everything’s Lazy Days.  Having already been a fan of their chugging dance floor offerings, I was most impressed by the natural, musical feel of the album, which really showed their versatility as producers.  So I decided to catch up with them for a quick Q & A:

Your album reminded me a lot of Hercules & Love Affair's debut album on DFA… I remember seeing an interview with Andy Butler of Hercules & Love Affair where he said that he gave his collaborating musicians a big creative role in the tracks they featured on… did the same thing happen on this album???
 
It did. We worked with many different musicians on this album and of course they play a big role here. It was a great working and also learning process for all of us. We all spend a lot of time together in the studio and are happy with the result.
 
How long did it take from start to finish?
 
?It took one and a half years to finish the album and another six months for promotion and stuff. 
 
Did you make the album and then pitch it to Fred Everything, or was this always going to be an album on Lazy Days?
 
??Lazy Days is one of our 'home' labels so to speak. It was not meant to go to Lazy Days from the first moment on because we wanted to be free and not too much influenced by the sound of a label. The album was nearly there and we realised that Fred's label suits very well the music we finally created. We got in touch with him and he was for up it.
 
What kind of person do you think will like this album?  Would it be the same people that would go and watch you DJ, or are you aiming at a wider audience?
 
Hard to describe what kind of person will like the album. Think there is something for everybody on it. The sound is not too underground nor mainstream – it's somewhere in between and we hope that the same people that would watch us DJ and also people who haven't heard from us before will like the sound and enjoy the album. Of course we are aiming for a wider audience – think that's what every artist does.
 
What are your favourite dance albums from other artists?
 
Hard to say which albums are our favorites but as big influences for our album we can name 'Metronomy – The English Riviera', 'SBTRKT – SBTRKT', 'Little Dragon – Ritual Union', 'James Blake – James Blake' and 'Vincenzo – Wherever I Lay My Head'.??Apart from this album, which of your releases are you most proud of???Another tricky question đŸ˜‰ Well, 'Lovers n' Fighters' was definitely an important track for us as well as 'Daze Without You'. We are also proud of our remixes for 'Groove Armada' and 'Dennis Ferrer'. But it's hard to pick out the tunes we are most proud of. We just like what we do and are happy to have an audience.
 
Can you explain why Germany seems to have over-taken the rest of the world in the development of electronic music?  It was there at the very beginning in the 1970s, but then seemed to fall behind the US and the UK for a while.  There are so many current producers that come from Hamburg and Berlin for example, and a lot of producers from the UK have moved to Germany… how did this happen?
 
??When we are traveling and talk to people we meet on our gigs we somehow have the feeling that everybody who is into dance music wants to move to Berlin. It's crazy but maybe it's because of the good club scene and the opportunity to go out and listen to great music every day of the week. This is something special and not many cities in the world have that. It’s a nice living in Hamburg, too, but it's still so different compared with Berlin. You are right: many artists are living in Hamburg but the club scene is not so big here. Probably that's why everybody is so productive and spending much time in the studio instead of going out every night đŸ˜‰
 
When you're not working, which DJs do you like to go and watch perform?
 
There are many good DJs playing in Hamburg and we like to go out and watch them. It's good to see what other people do. Can't say which DJs we like to watch the most
because it's changing and always good to see newbies, too.
 
?When you're in the studio, who normally does what in the creative process???
 
Both of us have the same skills.  We studied Audio Engineering and have made music for a long time. We sit right next to each other all day long and work on tracks.
 
What made you want to set up your label Save Room Recordings, and has it taken up more of your time to run it than you originally thought it would???
 
Our label concept is to handle a digital release with the seriousness of a vinyl release and to provide a platform in a family environment for upcoming or already established music producers. The label roster is growing and we are proud of the list of artists we have been working with. It's hard work and more work than we probably expected in the beginning but it's also our passion and we love doing that job and hope our artists are satisfied with our label work.
 
To anyone wanting to start a label, what is the most important piece of advice you could give them?
 
Make up your mind before you start a label. It needs time and love to grow. Have five upcoming releases ready and all the other stuff like artwork, website, etc.
You won't get a deal without that.
 
?Do you think it is easier now to get your music heard by the people that you want to hear it, or did you prefer the marketplace before the days of Beatport???
 
Both worlds have their advantages. Nowadays it's way harder to stick out of the mass. There is so much music coming out every single day and people are losing the overview. It's hard to promote a new artist name and that's the challenge for music producers today to swim on top of the wave and stay in people mind’s.
 
There seems to be less and less money to be made from producing and label work these days, so apart from DJing, is there anything else you get paid to do in the music business?
 
We run a studio in Hamburg and also do sound design, voice over recordings and music for commercials, documentaries, tv and cinema productions. As long as we can work with our sequencer in the studio we are happy!