Marco V interview - Moving On
Author: CLare Dickins
Monday, December 5, 2005
Forget everything you knew about Marco V. Forget the spanking techno percussion, forget the 145 bpm driving beats, the Dutchman's moved on.
Having made his mark with the gritty tech trancers Indicator, Godd and the now classic remix of Jens' Loops n Tings, Marco is getting his production kicks out of experimenting with the more downbeat forms of house and trance.
Completed with production partner Benjamin Bates, his latest artist album 200V is a thoughtfully crafted collection of floating trance ballads, Goldfrapp-esque electro and eccentric house cuts (think Angello & Ingrosso on 'shrooms) - for Marco and Benjamin, it's out with the old and in with the new.
"I didn't want to repeat myself over and over again. This music [the slower stuff] is what I'm feeling at the moment and this is what I want to play and how I want to be seen as a DJ and producer," Marco explains. "I still like the whole Indicator sound, but when I'm in the studio, that sort of thing doesn't naturally come out of me anymore. And it's not something I can push either. If I force myself to make a track like Indicator, it may sound like it, but it won't have the track's same impact, do you know what I mean-
"It has to come naturally, and if it doesn't, I can't try and be something I'm not. Maybe one day I'll have a good idea and we'll make a track like that, but not at the moment."
For the talented production duo, studio time is marked by an undeniable creative spontaneity. Marco can't pinpoint what pushes them to explore particular sonic tangents. "I always find it really hard to describe what's going on when we create something. When Benjamin and I are in the studio, we just work and then suddenly something happens! It's very strange! It's not like we start with a clever plan that we're going to make 'this' or 'that', we just experiment with different sounds and different beats and suddenly, bam! A song like Toys for Humanoids - it's not something that we're focused on, it just happens," he says of 200V's dirty-as-fuck breaks cut, one of the album's highlights.
"We made almost 30 tracks for the album and we had a lot of ideas that didn't quite work out, but we think we picked out the best ones.
"I get a lot of influence from other house producers or bands, but there isn't one artist who I can pinpoint as someone who has inspired me the most. You get a lot of input over the course of one-two year period when you create a new album. I'm very influenced by music I hear on the radio or in the clubs or even stuff I hear in the record shops," Marco explains.
Marco Verkuijlen first met future production soul mate Benjamin Kuijten in 1996 whilst DJing at de DanSalon, a popular club in the pair's hometown of Eindhoven. Benjamin had scored a job at Marco's light-jockey and the duo quickly hit it off. It wasn't long before the up and coming producer asked the seasoned pro if he could play him some of his tracks. "I had already produced a few tracks that he really liked, but he didn't know I was the guy behind those records. He told me that he also made music and asked if he could show me something, so we met up in the studio and from day one, there was a connection. From that day we started to work together on every production," Marco tells.
As for one person shouldering most of the engineering work, Marco is quick to reinforce that the partnership is equal. "No we both do the same stuff, but the only thing is that Benjamin sings some of the songs because he has a better voice than me. It's not like he does the melodies and I do the beats or anything like that, it's 100% equal. I know a lot of people think that, because most of the time one person is the DJ and the other is the producer, but it's not like that for us."
Such is the level of commitment< Tags