Written Interview with Olaf Stuut for FWD.DJ 2018

Listen to the mix here: http://www.fwd.dj/mix/fwd101-olaf-stuut/

You are based out of Amsterdam. What can you tell us about the scene there differs from the other meccas of electronic music in Europe?

I think the Amsterdam scene is really focused on quality, people do have a lot of attention for the music that is being played which is a good thing. This creates unity on the dancefloor. There’s only one thing I would love to see changed in the near future and that is the need of a permit to stay open later than 05:00. The main reason for this is not that the clubs are open longer in general but more the tension curve in a night. A general night out in Amsterdam begins at 22:00/23:00 and ends at 05:00 (if the club hasn’t got 1 of the 5 permits given in A’dam), and everybody is “fashionably late” so they arrive at 01:00 approximately. The clock is ticking already, everybody gets wasted in a short period of time. This creates such a different vibe then it could be elsewhere, especially in Berlin you notice that there’s not such a pressure to HAVE FUN in the amount of time you can spend in a club, which makes it much more free.

What is your current setup for live and studio production? What is your most indispensable piece gear/plugin?

At the moment I’m in between studios so I have a very basic setup right now. One thing I recently bought which I love to death is the Electron Heat (distortion box) which gives such a nice colour to the sound, also its interesting to use it more as an effect in stead of just colouring the sounds. Another machine I can’t get enough of is the Vermona Perfourmer (4-voice poly synth), for melodies, for drums for chords it’s all usable.

Your music production always seems to contain a lot of color and unique rhythmic and melodic variation. How do you consistently inject these elements into your production while still making them cohesive?

Well I always play around first to find interesting themes or rhythms, once I have made something I like enough I just try to imagine what could work with it. Sometimes I have no clue and I just start to play around more. Every time some element fits, it fits. But it occasionally happens that I have way too much elements in the sketch and I have to delete most of them to get to something that works.

Who are your current musical inspirations? Who do you think are some of the most important electronic musicians in the past 20 years that have influenced your perception of the genre?

I think labels such as Permanent Vacation and Hivern Discs inspire me the most in the scene at the moment, apart from my mates on Atomnation of course.

What are your non musical inspirations?

That must be from films the most in my opinion. The way directors can make a vibe or feeling with simple elements is what interest me mostly. How to tell a story without telling (in terms of speaking, narration), only with the image, colours, lighting etc. I think this is pretty similar to music because it’s a language in it’s own. I think a lot of people will say that visual art in general does this too, but it misses the dimension of time, movement. The evolution in time is a picture/pattern in itself already.

How do you see the scene in Amsterdam and Europe evolving going forward, and what part do you hope to play in that evolution?

There are so many things happening on so many levels, it’s hard to say if the whole scene goes in one direction. But I’m glad so many people are trying to do their own stuff and create something new. I think that will always be the most important thing; try to find new colours and sounds and create new vibes, feelings that haven’t been felt before. I hope I can be a part of that horizon, if only for a few people out there.

If you could have any custom designed plugin made, what would it do?

Mmm there are so many already haha. Tough question, well one thing I would LOVE to see in the near future isn’t really a plugin but more of a hardware update on turntables. I think if this is well done it will change the way we look at DJ’s because it could mean it all becomes more of a hybrid system. If there could be a midi clock out from cdj’s a lot of interesting things could happen. Dj’s bring their own synth’s/drum computers and really add their own colours to a Dj-set. There will be a lot of possibilities, tools could be a base for an improvised tune on the fly for instance. This could make a huge difference if people really use these tools to their advantage.

You can see one final live show in your life. Who would you see and why?

To see one legend called Herbie Hancock would be amazing, he is such a brilliant player and actually made a huge step for electronic music as well.

Can you tell us a bit about the mix you made for FWD?

I always like to make mixes that cover a lot of ground, I get bored very fast if the tracks are too similar or too stale. This by itself is not too special but to make a coherent story out of it is the challenge. So many tracks from different sub-genres but in general just use the music I like to listen and dance to.

What do you have coming up that our listeners should be aware of (events/releases/etc)?

There is a fresh EP coming out very soon (4th of May) which includes 3 tracks. The EP will come out on Atomnation on vinyl and is called “Crown Shyness”. The previews will come online very soon, so stay close! I’m very happy with the final result, a bit more dance floor oriented in comparison to my previous EP but still with vibe in my opinion.

Tags: Amsterdam, Elektron