- HECQ - is this an abbreviation? Tell us how it was born.Basically it was born out of the desperate search for a name. Being from a rather dark musical background, I was thinking - "heck" (as in "hell" or as in "what the heck" for something you can’t explain yourself) would be good... Because "heck" seemed to be a bit too obvious (and I didn’t want the listeners to focus too much on names but more on music at this point) I exchanged the "k" with a "q" and there you go!
- Please, tell us what activities you are engaged in except music, what is your job? Is music on the first place in your life?
Yes it is - I'm a sound designer in the first place - I won’t do anything else.
- Your IDM is completely different from any other similar music works. Have you discovered these sounds yourself or there was the music that influenced your creativity greatly? What music did you usually listen to or still listen to?
All kinds of music actually. I'm not focused on IDM really... At least not when it comes to my CD collection. I really enjoy musical possibilties from electronic to accoustic - f.e. the work of James Blackshaw, (which reminds me of a unplugged version of "Stars of The Lid"), as well as Godspeed You Black Emporor (clearly one of my most favourite bands), Jaga, Fink, Tobias Lilja (one of the most innovative artists of our days in my oppinion) and Peter Borderick... to name just as few... I'm also very inspired by conteporary classical music like Arvo Part, Alfred Schnittke or Gavin Bryars...
- Night Falls - no doubt, this is a step turn aside from your previous works. What is this concerned with?
Inside the cover there is an inscription For my Father. Is this album devoted to your father?
Yes it is! He showed me most of the things I know about music and has been an unbribable critic as well as a very mindful listener - seeing most of my work connected to him and being reminded on the long talks about music and our (quite different) perceptions we had, it seemed more than reasonable to dedicate this album to him - also because this album indicates changes and is all about altering circumstances.
- Will we hear the Hecq who released albums Bad Karma and 0000 for example?:) Or Night Falls is the starting point for new experiments?
It’s more like a breakdown rather than a change of style - the 6th album, which is in production already, will be different for sure.
I'm an IDM kid by nature I think. ;) So I will always try to stray around in this field - on the other hand the process of creating an album is very open so I can’t tell what will be next really...
- Some tracks from Night Falls reminded me music by Kattoo. Are you acquainted, how can you explain such similarity?
I dont know him personally but I surely know and like his work. I think you are refering to "Megrim" by Kattoo? A brilliant album allthough I see a different approach to the musical concept and approach between this and "Night falls". I see similarities in the dark/surreal atmosphere but for me "Megrim" reflects the influences and ideas more while "Night Falls" wants to hide these and be more reclusive over all... Hope I didn’t said something wrong, Volker;)
- To my mind your tracks recorded together with other musicians are perfect. Are you planning new joint projects with anybody?
Yes, but this will have to remain a secret until album 6 is out ;)
- Recently we had an interview with Kattoo. He complained of low selling of his CDs and a great amount of mp3 downloaded on the other hand. What about you, do you have the same situation? What can you say about the contemporary situation in this field in general? Does the free distribution of music in the Internet cause any crisis?
I was never a big fan of virtual distribution (legal or illegal... But both have their pro's and con's!) but it’s a important part of our world today - trusting on CD sales won’t be enough for sure. Having my music available on itunes, emusic etc therefore it works very well and is not to be missed!
How many people check your music on myspace, last.fm or other sites like this - to buy this music without even leaving your chair has become normal, so why not to use these distributions?! I think it’s great - a shift of thoughts and habits could be very good and open up new perspectives.
- Which tendencies can you mark out in contemporary electronical music? Which ones are developing and which ones not?
That’s hard to tell for me to be honest... There are many very interesting tendecies (f.e. the feeling that sound- and motiondesign are becoming equally important!) but in regards to electronic music I'm afraid that history repeats istelf without beeing really new quite often. I think we have sooo many releases to listen to which we might already know but didn’t acknowledged yet (for me one of those is Tim Hecker’s "Mirages" and "Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again"... I’m actually listening to those while I’m writing this mail ;))... Too many artists focus on pure technicalities rather on what music IS meant to be in the first place - transporting emotions! I would like to hear more of really soulful electronic releases (like Tobias Liljas "Time Is On My Side" which is one of the best releases of last years output for sure, or Ben Frost "Theory of Machines")... These combine best of both worlds for me.
- If that's not a secret, how is your music produced? What hardware/software do you use?
It’s not a secret yet, it’s very simple: I use live 7.0 and resampling, resampling and resampling... Distilled as much as possible to get the essence out of things...
- Do you accentuate high-tech sound design or prefer intuitive approach for expressing your creative ideas in a particular composition?
I'm trying to do both... If you have a sounddesign job you just need to be on spot and precise - there's no room for being "artsy" aside from being able to feel what's needed. ;)
On the other hand I try to be as open as possible for my personal work (in motiondesign as well as on albums). It’s a good balance as i can do certain things on the one side and need to be almost a different person on the the other...
- What should be done for your arrival and playing at some event? (for example, in Russia?)
Flight, hotel and a distinguishable salary ;) I'm rather accessible in this concern as I love to play live and would love to see more countries and getting in touch with people as well...
- Thanks for the interview. What will be your final words for us?
My pleasure! :)
Hmmm... conclusion... regarding the tendencies mentioned above, I'd wish music would be more appreciated again and regain more of its importance in general... But thats the "mission" the musicians and we should take on this task! It’s a great one and isn’t learnt easily... So: onwards!! ;)
- Hecq
july '08