Written Interview with Ben Lukas Boysen for FWD.DJ 2018

Listen to the mix here: http://www.fwd.dj/mix/fwd113-ben-lukas-boysen-retrospective-showcase/

Where was this mix recorded and what do you want listeners to know about it?

This mix was recorded in my berlin home and studio. I wanted to collect some of the remixes and productions from my catalogue that are very close to my heart and/ or that i connect a lot of memories to.

Your soundtrack (along with the amazing Sebastian Plano) to the PS4
game ‘Everything’ was released on Erased Tapes last year. As with
all your soundtracks, it worked very nicely as a stand alone album.
Do you always approach commissioned works to succeed as a stand
alone release?

If I can, yes. In my opinion music needs to be able to work as a musical piece as much as it works as a supporting atmosphere for a film / game etc.

That’s not always possible of course but especially in EVERYTHINGs case it was easier as there is no direct narrative element to the game. The music does not have to regard any dramatization which helps painting with a broader atmospherical brush, figuratively speaking.

In other cases, like the last feature film I scored (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4531984/) we worked so much with the actual room sound and foley of the films setting (and very little music) that it was rather unlistenable as an album in its own right. So the plan is always to create something that stands on its own feet, double checked by reality and reason.

It’s hard to hear a difference between your stand-alone albums and
your soundtrack work. Yet one is driven by content given to you and
the other is driven by your own imagination. How does your creative
approach differ between the two?

In my own personal work always contains aspects of a soundtrack as I think and compose in images and scenes and situations much more than in musical terms.

That’s why a score feels quite natural to me as I need to apply my working process to somebody else's ideas and feelings - which is very helpful because I never have this kind of guidance on my own of course. It’s wonderful limitation that makes me focus on particular themes and instrumentations before I start writing, whereas these things are very open and subject to change in my personal projects.

You are an avid user of Ableton and are able to see the
evolution of software & equipment they have created over the
years. What do you see the future of these tools looking
like?

Ableton is a company that really builds on the users opinions and sees them as an integral part of their product - so there’s a really good connection between them and the artists.

I find the current software market very overwhelming and therefore not very appealing to me. I have my go-to devices in soft-and hardware and get proactive when I need a solution for a new problem.

I have a hard time just staying literally updated as this distracts me from making music too much. As i’m using Ableton since version 2 it’s very natural for me to find my way and learning new features feels easy. Now, something like modular synths is still (or at this point) very alien to me. This is not the only topic where I feel I would need to educate myself more to make a somewhat founded general claim about technological developments in the future. Just for myself I can say for sure that it’s all about downsizing and having no excess soft- or hardware. Having the right tools in the right amount (which could still mean a lot of things) and not being forced to be inside an ever expanding gear bubble feels utterly liberating to me and this is where is see my future going.

For the majority of your musical career you have released under the
moniker HECQ. You recently announced that your HECQ persona will be
taking a little break as you focus more on the output you release
under your own name. What was the impetus behind this decision?
What can we expect to hear from you in the near future?

I think I made this statement sound much more dramatic than it is. HECQ is not going anywhere really - I owe this project a lot of things, if not everything. Because of this I don’t want to keep pushing for ideas and concepts but instead they have to develop naturally. I always had a plan for the next album while working on the previous or current one and for a while there was nothing happening - „chansons de geste“ was already a bit of a mental stretch for me, despite the fact that it’s probably one of the album closest to my heart. I decided to just let things happen naturally, without a plan. This can mean that there’s another album this year or in 2,3,4 years. I basically did not want to convey the impression that nothing is happening - quite the opposite. Taking a break is also a creative strategy for recharging. I see now though that the statement sounded like I’m giving up the project, which will simply not happen.

What albums or musicians are really exciting you at the moment?

I’m in love with the work of the australian musician C.W. Stoneking. I have been for a while but at the moment I’m revisiting his album „Gon’ Boogaloo“ and there is so much raw inspiration in there, it’s incredible. Colin Stetsons soundtrack for „Hereditary“ is certainly one of the great albums of this year too, alongside the upcoming Helios album, which i’m sure will be very thrilling. The Autechre NTS sessions are also something I’m more than happy about - more food for my musical roots for sure.

Lastly a question from all the die-hard HECQ fans, are there any
plans for re-releases of your earlier albums in the same way Hymen
did the beautiful and well deserved re-release of Nightfalls on
heavyweight vinyl back in 2016?

Not at the moment, no. I’d love to see this happening and might get to work on this at some point but for now this is not on the horizon.

Tags: Ableton, Hecq