Wederom een interview van de Globalforums, ditmaal van Globalhardcore.net. Het onbekende en relatief nieuwe hardcoreduo Syndemic kreeg 12 vragen voorgeschoteld. Wederom in het Engels.

Syndemic bestaat uit Bob Olde Hampsink en Guido de Beer. Eerstgenoemde is wellicht beter bekend onder de naam Sinith (Theracords, o.a. een mix in de livesets sectie), laatstgenoemde onder de naam Drone X (Truecore records) en van sommige reports en columns hier op Musicincontrol. Hun stijl varieert heel erg tussen industrial hardcore, IDM en ambient en alles wat ertussenin valt. Eigenlijk valt nooit van tevoren te zeggen wat dit duo in petto heeft. Één ding is zeker als we de geluiden binnen de scene mogen geloven en we de tracks beluisteren op de Syndemic Myspace en de release op Globalhardcore: het zijn niet zomaar wat jongens met wat knip en plakwerk van samples, we zullen veel meer van ze horen! Op dit moment staan ze getekend onder het steeds groter wordende gratis netlabel FoolsForest (Ultraform, Tapage, Dimensioncrasher) en zit er een release aan te komen op een redelijk bekend hardcorelabel. Voor meer informatie, lees het interview of check de links onderaan dit bericht.

1 – First of all Hi Syndemic! Thanks for doing the interview. How are you guys ?

We’re great! Just working on some new stuff together at the moment at Bobs place, so we’re being productive as we speak. Thanks for the invitation!

2 – How did you guys meet? Did you meet in school, online, etc?

We met online, actually via Globalhardcore. We added eachother on msn and talked a bit about music and productions. Both producing the same type of music and both having the same interests, it quickly became obvious we had to team up to see where we would end up.

Guido: I found Bob a bit arrogant at the beginning, considering he gave my tracks really harsh comments, haha. But when I realized he was right, we started cooperating more and decided to start as Syndemic. I went to his place first time and we started producing serious shit.

Bob: We had to get used to eachother, but since we shared almost the exact same interests, it just HAD to work out!

3 – How come you guys produce various genres, such as industrial hardcore, IDM, experimental, etc.? Why not just stick to one genre?

Cliché answer warning: We want to express ourselves with the music. For instance, we both don’t always have a hardcore mood, so the tracks won’t all be hardcore as well. It purely depends on what we feel like doing. When we start producing a track, we do not want to be pushed into a corner concerning the outcome and the genre it is supposed to be in. We just insert different things and elements to see what sounds good. And thats a useful plus when being in a duo, you never exactly know what the other has in mind in doing next when hearing your edits.

Besides this, the experience of producing different things also matters: Exploring different styles and genres makes you aware of the possiblities and charateristics of the other genres. it is a great learning experience to try and make something completely different. Some IDM influences can really help setting a great mood for an industrial track. Hell, we sometimes even start out with making a great ambient track and end up fixing a rough industrial beat under it.

4 – We know you guys are an upcoming act, how are guys gonna rise up and show the world who Syndemic is?

Simply by making music and sending it around. Fools Forest is already a great initiative and an awesome possibility to present your tracks on a free basis and be listed next to big names such as Ultraform and Audiowarp. We believe that if you really have heart for the music and push through in trying to innovate and create something new every time, you will be heard no mather what. What also helps is that letting ourselves be heard isn’t particularly our goal. We just want to make good music even if no-one would like it and listen to it except us, every experience that comes along is a bonus.

5 – How do you guys approach making a new track? Is it through inspiration, do you guys discuss about it or just randomly produce a track?

We do not really discuss it, and if we do, we often end up making something completely different than discussed anyway, so that’s rather useless. We tend to listen to releases to get inspiration and ideas. Then we usually start out with one of us making an atmosphere, kick, drive or other element and the other just fixing in new elements, then we swap and swap and swap. We’re a tagteam really, we don’t cooperate. We can’t stand each other (just kidding).

We do swap though, but we keep on listening if the track sounds right and share opinions with eachother. It helps that we mostly agree about how to proceed with a track. If one has a good idea, just try it and then see what the other has to say or add to that idea. Thats how we construct tracks together. It’s a symbiotic experience really, and up until now this went quite natural. When Guido adds an atmosphere, Bob adjusts the mastering a bit better and so on. We perfect eachothers work.

If we start out separately (considering Guido lives in Utrecht and Bob in Amsterdam, this happens quite a lot), one works on something new until inspiration is lost a bit and then sends it to the other to ask for an opinion or ideas, or to proceed with the track. But this does not always work well because you do not have immediate feedback, so we actually prefer working together face to face.

6 – We know you guys have an upcoming release on Fools Forest, but also I’m sure you wanna release on other labels as well, so how do you guys feel about free music versus paying for music?

Guido: Free music for the win! The internet is a great way to let yourself be heard if you use it right. I like to publish some tracks for free, because people then get to know you and your work and might appreciate further work and it can get you bookings. Next to this, most modern artists already take into account that they only get money for bookings. If only governments would look at it from this side instead of trying to close a door that cannot be closed anymore by chasing illegal websites. I’m confident that people would buy music a lot more when governments start subsidizing and supporting initiatives like Beatport and JUNOdownload, making it a lot easier. Movies is a different case ofcourse.

Bob: The most important thing for a non-commercial artist is the platform of distribution. We want our music to be heard (and eventually liked) by as much people as possible. Plus we got jobs anyway don’t we, hehe.

7 – On Global Hardcore, we see that guys have made a Top 10 list from December 2008, and 9 out of the 10 are all Syndemic and plus you guys have created more tracks since then. Do you guys plan on making an album or releasing all of these tracks somehow?

Many of them aren’t suitable to be released (yet). Either Guido is too perfectionistic or some of them still lack a decent outro or other elements, haha. Creating an album is still far away for now, we first have to have some steady releases going before we can think about trying to make a consistent album with enough good tracks. We’re sometimes a bit too enthousiastic with producing new stuff as well instead of really trying to finish the older tracks. Finishing and mastering a track is also an important part of producing, maybe even the most important part.

8 – When are we gonna see you guys put up a mix or see you guys perform?

Whenever we get invited really, haha. Bob has already put up some hardtrance mixes under his Sinith alias, Guido has not got enough hardware and experience yet to actively start mixing. We also believe that you have to start when the time is right. Do not try to perform when you’re not ready for it just because someone asked you for a booking. You will only end up wih a negative reputation.

9 – Which artists do you guys listen to these days ?

Guido: It varies quite a lot actually. I listen a lot of DJ Hidden stuff lately. Some of my other heroes are Ophidian, Tapage, The Outside Agency, Mindustries and other Enzyme producers, plus Broken Rules, Promo, Peaky Pounder and such. But also Michael Andrews, Trentemoller, Booka Shade, Burial, Incubus, Gui Boratto, Style of Eye, Olafur Arnalds and many trance, clubhouse, techno, minimal and dance artists. I get inspiration from many different styles and it depends on my mood what I want to listen.

Bob: I listen to alot of music, especially IDM by i.e. Hecq, Nebulo, Tapage, Autoclav1.1. I also listen to soundtracks by Clint Mansell, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Sean Murray etc.

10 – Besides producing, do you guys hang out at all or are just producing-buddies?

To be honest, we haven’t had the time to hang out that much. Most of the time when we see eachother, we just want to produce as much as possible because we’re only together for a day. But we did have a great time together at Q-Base. Guido now has more time and Bob has moved closer, so hanging out can be done much easier now (and will be done a lot more too).

11 – Putting Syndemic aside for a second, do you guys have any plans or goals you want to achieve seperate from each other?

Guido: uhhhh finish University? I would want to travel a lot actually, I want to see every continent (perhaps even including Antartica). Perhaps if we dó manage to break through, this dream of travelling and seeing the world becomes reality. Next to this, I’d love working in the musicindustry, thats also why I’m doing a lot for Musicincontrol.nl lately.

Bob: finish Uni aswell and also getting somewhere with the music (perhaps filmscore composer or something). I just want to get the most of life!

12 – Thanks for the interview guys! I hope you enjoyed it, last question: when will we be able to download your release on Fools Forest, and is there anything else you would like to tell us, that we forgot to ask you ?

Stay in school!!

No wait, seriously: All the FoFo release needs is a cover, so expect it online really really soon. Just keep checking on http://www.foolsforest.com. But we will also shout it around most probably anyway. Furthermore, there is another release coming up, an industrial hardcore one. But I’m affraid we cannot tell you much about it. Keep in touch on http://www.myspace.com/darksyndemic and http://www.foolsforest.com. Thanks for the great questions!

Interview made by KAi (matrixlogin12200) and Slipovic

Informatie, track previews en bookings:
www.myspace.com/darksyndemic
www.foolsforest.com