Inpetto Podcast 030 June 2013
TMN: Today I have the pleasure of interviewing our two wonderful July Resident Artists Marco and Dirk who make up the insane German electronic group Inpetto. Hello to you both and thanks for taking the time to chat with me and your Music Ninja fans today ☺
I: Hi, it‘s a big pleasure!
TMN: So, let’s start off from the beginning, or actually, let’s just start off with this. You are brothers who make amazing music together. I think the world loves a good set of siblings who carry extraordinary talents and produce amazing results. How is it going to work with your brother everyday?
I: Yes, we are siblings but we do not have exact the same interests, opinions and ideas. But knowing each other for so long and working together since over 15 years may make it easier to bring different ideas together to a complete work.
TMN: Now, when you were both young, did either of you have musical training or did that come later in life?
I: The only musical training we had, were the school lessons in music, which were quite interesting in the beginning, when you learned some basics about notation and sounds.
I: No, actually not. There‘s no musician in our family. Our interest of making music appeared when we visited a fair and played around on a keyboard the first time. It was around the early 90‘s. We were kids, and we forced our grandma to buy that keyboard for us.
TMN: Fast forward a bit now and tell us, when was the moment you both realized, hey, I want to make music, that is where my passion is. I’m not talking about huge light coming down moments here, but we all know when those little moments happen, when was it for you two?
I: Yeah, it was not a single intense moment, but a development over a long period of time. So, after getting that first keyboard the interest for making music was in us and pushed us to learn more about the possibilities of producing and finally got a substantial hobby. We spent more and more of our money and time and did a couple of our own tracks. That time came, when Dirk carried these tracks along into the club in which he was working as a resident. And we realized that some people really liked these tracks. And this was kind of a moment, where we thought: “Yeah. That‘s cool! Shouldn’t we sent these tracks to a label to get our own a release perpetuated on a fine piece of vinyl?” But we never thought of doing this job on a daily basis. This happened after we released “Toca’s Miracle” in 2000 and after we finished training for “real jobs”. Dirk a Dental Technician and Marco Electrical Engineer.
TMN: You two are also two-thirds of the dance act Fragma correct? Can you tell us how that started off?
I: After sending out our first tracks to some labels and getting no answers by many labels, we finally got an answer for one of our tracks from the desk of Ramon Zenker. He really liked it and asked us to team up on this track. We were enthusiastic about this idea, because he is an experienced producer and we were big fans of his work.
So we founded the act “Fragma” together and finally got our first release which was called “Toca Me”.
TMN: But at the same time you were doing Fragma, you two also started Inpetto yet Inpetto didn’t really arrive to its full potential until a few years ago. How was it trying to balance being in two musical groups at the same time? What was that like creatively?
I: Inpetto was started at the same time Fragma was founded but was just a remix-project for “Toca Me”. Inpetto was not the only side project we did over the time, we also did a lot of tracks and remixes under an alias named “Duderstadt” and ghost writing for other artists also. Being in more musical groups is a good possibility to let out different kinds of creative ideas. So that was also the reason for reviving the Inpetto project after some years.
The first track we did under the alias Inpetto was the remix for “Toca Me” and had the style of italian club music, which was very popular in the club we worked for at the end of the 90‘s. So, the main reason for choosing this name was is quiet simple: The German term “in petto” is sounding Italian and decently underlined the style of the remix.
Later on we changed this term to one single word “Inpetto”. Reason? I think it was preponderant something like an accident! 🙂
TMN: And now, here you are, focusing solely on Inpetto and embracing the wonderfulness that is your music. What are some hopes you have for yourselves and your music this year?
I: Yes, we put the focus on Inpetto, because this is the kind of music we like and want to produce right now. And we hope that many people out there keep liking our new stuff, even if it sounds a bit different from the last records.
TMN: As musicians who have a few years under their belts and have seen a lot when it comes to the music world, what would be some advice you would give to up-and-coming artists? What advice would you give sibling artists (the music industry has quite a few of these!)?
I: Due to the affordability of the requirements for making music MANY people produce music and are ready to get discovered by the audience. It’s very hard to get a release or earn money out of your music. Record labels are getting flooded with tracks every day. Keep that in mind, but never give up. Getting a “No” doesn’t mean that the track isn’t good. Maybe there´s just something missing or it doesn’t fit to a label´s policy.
Your knowledge about producing and composing is nothing worth without any good ideas. And good ideas come along with fun! And that should be the main reason for you, to make music.
Not sure if it is a big difference if you are siblings or not. In our case we had prevailing the same interests and it worked out fine.
TMN: Well now, let’s shift over to some fun questions. You are Germany boys so tell us, what is one of the best things about Germany?
D: Autobahn (no speed limit)
M: The possibility to get easily to an airport and fly to other countries for vacation.
TMN: Favorite German dish.
D: Big Mac Meal 🙂
M: Currywurst with Pommes Spezial.
TMN: You have traveled a lot and played all over, what are some of your favorite cities and festivals that you have played in?
D: Fav City: Los Angeles – Fav Festival: Nature One
M: Favorite city: I love Miami – Favorite festival Nature One, Germany
TMN: What are the outfits of choice when you take the stage for a show?
D: T-Shirt, Jeans, clean underwear.
M: The clothes that aren’t just in the washing machine.
D: Robin Williams
M: Dirk
TMN: What is in your pockets right now (go ahead and check)?
D: Used Kleenex, Cigarettes, Lighter, iPhone
M: Money, keys, Fisherman‘s Friend.
TMN: Are you ready for a quick rapid fire session? I know you are so here we go, don’t think too hard ☺
TMN: I can’t live without…
D: Smartphone and Air
M: Technique
TMN: Favorite beer (hey, we know Germany)
D: Heineken
M: Beck‘s
TMN: Morning or night
D: Morning
M: Night!
TMN: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer
D: Don´t care
M: Summer please!
TMN: Cats or dogs
D: Both
M: Cats (don‘t force you to take them out for doing a poo in hard rain)
D: Garden State
M: Okay, kind of a smart suggestion right here, huh? I‘d never admit watching chick-flick movies by telling you a single title of my huge chick-flick collection!
TMN: Best hair in the music industry
D: Josh Gallaghan
M: Google “Shaun Baker”
TMN: And finally guys we have one question we ask all our artists, if your music were a type of animal, what animal would it be and why?
D: A monkey that just ate a butterfly… So this is both then, crazy and beautiful.
M: Uhm.. Wait a Sec. What was the name of that animal walking around with a bassdrum?
TMN: Marco, Dirk, thank you so much for sitting down with me today and especially for being our wonderful resident artists this month! As always, best of luck this coming year, we are excited to see what you have in store ☺
I: Thanks very mucho! The same to you.
