Influences: Timo Maas & James Teej

TIMO: When I remember the very early days, me as a teenager…there were a few music works that completely and drastically opened up my mind. Maybe the strongest influence over a period of times was Jean Michel Jarre with his first 3 albums OXYGENE, EQUINOX and MAGNETIC FIELDS. That was really the first time i got completely lost in “space“…those synth…the sound and “room“ in the music that gave that spaced out feeling really sharpened my senses for electronic music.

JAMES: My interest and love affair with electronic music began with some mix tapes a friend had given me from the UK in the early 1990’s. One of the biggest stylistic influences for me at that time was acid house. I was absolutely fascinated with the acid sound. One track that always had stood out for me, that I remember hearing on those tapes (but at that point unknown to me) was Phuture’s – Your Only Friend. Stylistically, I still absolutely love the spoken word over the low slung 303 line (though not as squelchy as some of the other acid tracks I was really into). This overall style and aesthetic heavily influenced my earlier solo works, and there is still something magical to me that such a simple music palette can have so much emotion and attitude. This also was one of the first tracks I remember hearing that inspired me to record my own vocals in my music, which is something I have continued to do in my music throughout my career.

TIMO: And talking about “lost in space“…. that was the name of my first album I ever bought back in 1983. One of the first releases on legendary Tommy Boy Records. Again, that spaced out, electronic feeling, breakbeaty sound, there with plenty of funk and strangeness, I simply loved so much. I listened to this hundreds of times and it absolutely opened my mind up for the broken beat / electro influenced sound.

JAMES: My interest and love affair with electronic music began with some mix tapes a friend had given me from the UK in the early 1990’s. One of the biggest stylistic influences for me at that time was acid house. I was absolutely fascinated with the acid sound. One track that always had stood out for me, that I remember hearing on those tapes (but at that point unknown to me) was Phuture’s – Your Only Friend. Stylistically, I still absolutely love the spoken word over the low slung 303 line (though not as squelchy as some of the other acid tracks I was really into). This overall style and aesthetic heavily influenced my earlier solo works, and there is still something magical to me that such a simple music palette can have so much emotion and attitude. This also was one of the first tracks I remember hearing that inspired me to record my own vocals in my music, which is something I have continued to do in my music throughout my career.

JAMES: Another keen influence in that time for me, was the music Orbital was creating. Melodically I have always found my tastes very much inline with the type of melodies and percussion rhythms found in early Orbital. Super staccato, machine sounding, tough beats. Chime was a track that again had found its way into some tapes I heavily listened to. I still to this day love the sampled piano riff, acid line, and overall loopiness of the track. There is such a fine touch to this music, and ‘Chime’ is something I could find myself slipping into sets even these days. I went on of course to become quite the Orbital fan, and their music continued to evolve and really push boundaries, which was hugely inspiring for me. Definitely my favourite electronica band of that era.

JAMES: Finally, another massive part of my early influence, and the reason I fully started using computers to make electronic music in the first place, was Trent Reznor. NIN’s ‘Downward Spiral’ was the first album that really got me thinking into fusing electronic beats and sounds with live instruments like guitars, and ultimately led me to learn how to make music using early DOS tracker software, Fast Tracker specifically, which was the type of early app I had heard Reznor was using in his production process. I was also heavily influenced by the types of melodic tones and structures he used in his music and you can hear that influence in much of my music to this day, especially with My Favorite Robot. My musical taste has always been varied, but throughout the 90’s I was still very much into the toughness of industrial, NIN being my favourite, but also listening to early Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, etc. Even though Closer is such a mega popular song, to me it represents such a pivotal time musically for me, and it has still got some of the dopest beats and synth/sample arpegiated sounds. Every time I hear it, it continues to inspire me.

TIMO: Another very important song for me goes back to the year 1985… i heard this the first times, when i went out to parties and it completely blew my mind, as I never heard that dirty sexy Funk, Disco, Rock Fusion anywhere else before… I played this in my early years forever and i love it until the day of today! And only a few years back from now i discovered that Georgie Red is actually a musician friend of mine from the local Area : George Kochbeck. He still composes soundtracks for movies/TV etc etc

JAMES: Lastly, in the 90’s, as I was buying a lot of deep, french and early tech house records, I was also on the side building a collection of DnB. The rhythmic structures for me at that time were just totally mystifying, and it took me a few years to really figure out the right technique to construct DnB beats. The heavy hoover bass sound is something that I guess stuck with me, because I’ve loved that sound and still use that styled bass in my music today. This record was absolutely, and to this day, my all time favourite DnB track, and the melody, still grabs me every time. The slight detuned resonance later in the track, ethereal synths, tidy DnB beats and proper drop… well to me it is perfection and you can hear this influence in my music still to this day. When this track fully drops, well, it still gives me goosebumps listening. Am thankful to have been able to drop this many times in raves back then during my DnB phase.