THE ELECTRONIC CORNER
Moogulator
Moogulator's Diverse Ventures in the Music Gear World
Moogulator says:
I needed a name for a forum to post in
On my live set I have a lot of Roland and Korg stuff
Nowadays, I don’t think it’s a good idea to release studio material
Most new products have a lot of memory and functions, but the jamming feeling is lost
Moogulator is a german artist very busy with lots of music gear related stuff. What are we talking about exacrly? Let’s find out in this interview for ‘The Electronic Corner’.
Sir Joe: The name Moogulator, makes me think that you have a soft spot for Moog products.
I needed a name for a forum to post in. It was about music gear, and I just needed a silly name.
Since I was interested in the Emulator Two and Emulator Four, which I was using at that time, I decided to combine Moog with those names.
SJ: So it’s not that Moog means something special to you, compared to other brands.
Moogulator: No, it’s not a form of advertising by using my name, it was sort of a coincidence.
Eventually, I adopted it as my artist name because I used to have a project called ‘Consequence’, and the name was a bit too generic for me.
I was also planning to change style, so I thought it would be better to change name as well.
I received some bad feedback about this, because Moogulator sounds a bit like I’m demoing some electronic synth stuff, but it’s actually my project name and I like it.
SJ: So, which brands do you actually like or use most in your projects?
I need small synthesizers, and when I started to play live there weren’t so many in the market, so for example I went for a microKORG, because of its size. It wasn’t the best I could imagine, but it still works, and I’ve been using it a lot for playing polyphonic stuff, since you can do almost everything with it.
By the way, I don’t use Moog on stage, I only used it for one concert, at the ‘Machine Fest’. I have one behind me right now, but I don’t use it on stage.
You run or collaborate with sequencer.de forum, with gearnews.de, with SynMag Magazine and you have your own YouTube podcast, Sequencer Talk.
Of all these activities, which is the one you feel more confortable with?
Moogulator: The driving force of course is making and performing music. That’s what I really love and what drives me to make all the other things.
The forum was easy to create, I did it by myself because I’ve been in forums before, and it’s a lifetime thing. All the rest is stuff I really wanted to do someday, and I did.
The newest one is the four year old ‘Sequencer Talk’, which I do more for fun than for earning money from. Normally you like the newest thing more than the rest, just like the latest album you have released is the best you ever made.
In general, though, I love everything I do, but sometimes I drop something when I get bored with it, or if it requires too much work, or maybe it is not interesting enough for my audience.
SJ: Is your being so busy one of the reasons why you don’t release so much as a musician?
What I really love, though, is playing live, because you can see me as an artist, and I can see how the audience reacts. To me, that is the best experience, and that’s why I always invite people to watch me live on stage.
Also, in my live performances I like to change the arrangement of the songs every time.
After 2006 the world changed a lot about producing records, and that’s what brought me to operate this way. You can find stuff on YouTube, I play on LSB TV and so on.
Maybe I will release something in future, but in an era where streaming dominates, I don’t think it’s a good idea to release studio material, even though I admit it’s a good feeling to make a new album and hold it in your hands.
SJ: Especially when the production is so good!
The other day I was listening to Frozen and Locked, the opening track of ‘The Digital Anathomist Project’ and I was really impressed by the production.
I was wearing headphones and the sound was so clear, well defined and deep at the same time, that I thought: “This is Krawtwerk”, although the style was more similar to Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, let’s say Warp Records in general.
Did you do all by yourself or you had somebody helping you with mixing and mastering?
SJ: And you never tried to get signed by Warp Records, did you?
Moogulator: Actually, I tried after I completed my record called ‘Real or Not’, which was kind of synthpop mixed with britzel pop, or something like that, but they said they were not interested.
It was quite long ago, about 24 years, and I never tried again because I’m really bad at asking for things.
So, for example, I’ve never ask people to make me play somewhere.
In one of the first episodes of ‘The Electronic Corner’ I interviewed Sergio Calzoni, who makes ambient music, and he told us how exciting it was for him to play in a church.
You did the same few years ago, when you played at the Nazarethkirche in Munich. How was it?
Moogulator: Actually, it wasn’t the first time I played in a church.
Of course, there is much more reverb and also the feeling is different from a club.
The performance you just mentioned was for the ‘Ambient Waves Festival’, which was organized by a friend who’s really into Tangerine Dream and similar, but who is also open to newer music.
It was held in an expensive residential area, so the feeling was quite unique.
It was interesting to play with bands that play other genres, and I tried to adapt my music to that room so that the room itself became part of it.
It’s not an easy concept to express, you should had to be there to understand what I mean.
SJ: Now I’m going to turn you into a wizard, at least for a few minutes.
Let’s pretend you work in a big synth company and you have special powers, so you can invent something that does not exist yet and that would shake the market and make lots of people interested.
What would it be?
Moogulator: There are some old synths, groove boxes and sequencers that I perform with because they are really cool for jamming.
The new products have a lot of memory and functions but the jamming feeling is lost. I would like to bring that back, but at the same time have a portable instrument with a good sound, of course.
All these features are available in the market, but not within one single keyboard. For the kind of music I make now, that is my wish if I had special powers.
(Now I invite you to watch the following video, starting at 22:36. Get ready for an exclusive and never-to-be-repeated live version of the song K-Emotion).
Don’t forget to visit Moogulator official website