Influences: Daniel Jacques

When I listen to Basinksi’s music, I feel like I’m not on earth anymore. He creates his music from old audio tapes and it can be described as ‘ambient’ music. Even though his compositions are loops, but when you really pay attention, it doesn’t sound loopy at all.
I’ve produced a few unreleased Basinski kind of tracks after I listened to his music, but I can never recreate this mysterious atmosphere that you can hear in his productions.

If it wasn’t for Luke Slater, I wouldn’t be making music today. It all started when I heard his set at Innercity (2000, Amsterdam) on the radio. This track is one of my favorites of his Freek Funk album, which I own on vinyl. I once bumped into him, many years ago, when I was in London for holidays. I told him I produced music as well and he asked me to send him some music. A few weeks later, I sent him a cassette tape with a few tracks. Never heard of him again…but no hard feelings, as I still think he’s the greatest techno producer out there.

Gill Scott Heron made me buy a Fender Rhodes…And he has been a big influence on a lot of my productions back in early 2000.
He has one of the warmest and most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard and I enjoyed all of his albums. One of my personal favorite songs is ‘Song For Bobby Smith’ of his ‘Winter in America’ LP (with Brian Jackson). I must have listened to that track at least a thousand times.

Why won’t you make up your mind?’ used to be one of my favorite tracks from Tame Impala. My sister introduced me to this psychedelic rock band from Australia in 2010, and I recently re-discovered them again after I heard their latest album (Currents, 2015). I found out that they make use of all these old skool effects racks and synthesizers. Some of the equipment that they use is also used by a few of my favorite techno producers. It’s funny that you can make completely different music with the exact same equipment.

James Blake is such a unique producer. I really like the vibe of his music and he can make a complete / full song with just a few sounds. You can recognize his voice from miles away but his music is not for everyone as it can be quite experimental sometimes. I went to his concert in Amsterdam in 2011 and I literally felt the music through my whole body. It’s better than hearing the music through headphones.

‘Midnight Marauders’ LP by ‘A tribe called quest’ is the very first ever CD I’ve bought, back in 1993 and I still play the album every once in a while. It’s a real classic album, but every hiphop album that came out in ’93 can be considered a classic. For me personally, this is my favourite one and every time I play it, I feel like I’m back at my parents place in their cozy living room.

I think I’m Four Tet’s biggest fan in the world. He is such a huge influence on the way I produce music today. When DVS1 (Zak Khutoretsky) asked me to play live at the Panorama Bar (Berghain) in Berlin for his label night with Ben Klock, (‘Mistress X Klockworks’), I started studying Ableton Live via Youtube and I would watch Four Tet’s live performances for days trying to figure out how to perform live. This set in particular was my study material at the time.

Since I was little, I would always look up the names of the producer in the CD-booklet or on the back of the cover of a vinyl record. Drake’s producer Noah “40” Shebib is my favorite (commercial) hip hop producers and I love all of his productions. A lot of commercial hip hop music sounds too polished and plastic. But 40’s productions are quite laid back and lo-fi-ish, and they have a warm sound. This little video is an interview with the producer by Native Instruments. Very inspirational!

I love Bill Evans. I have to be honest here: I’ve sampled so many sounds / melodies from this guy. I also make jazzy hip hop music every once in a while (none of it is released though) and I would always go back to one of his albums just to get inspired. There are so many beautiful melodies hidden in his jams, it’s unreal. This is my favorite Bill Evans album and I would only listen to it around midnight. Listen to it at night and you will understand…

‘Lost In Translation’ is my favorite movie of all time and I’ve watched the movie at least a 100 times. When I first received the movie in 2003 as a Christmas gift, I watched it every day for two weeks. And every time when it’s on TV, I need to watch it again. I fell in love with Tokyo / Japan because of this movie and in 2014, I finally went to this city and I had the best time of my life. This song (Alone In Kyoto) by Air reminds me of the nights I would sneak downstairs to my parents living room and watch the movie on DVD all by myself.