{"id":53274,"date":"2023-03-03T16:50:14","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T15:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/?p=53274"},"modified":"2023-03-03T17:55:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T16:55:01","slug":"interview-blac-kolor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/en\/interview-blac-kolor\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Blac Kolor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>As Blac Kolor states in his own Bandcamp: Black is not a color. Black is the mixture of all the colors. With his music, he has known how to mix every kind of tone to create a body of work, that even a decade of releases, it&#8217;s still unpredictable. The German productor talks in this interview about how was growing up in East Germany and also comment some of his records, released by legendary labels such as Basic Unit Productions, aufnahme + wiedergabe, Ant-Zen and Hymen. <\/strong><strong>He will make us dream in color with his impressive live at DarkMad, that will take place on the 29th and 30th of April in Madrid.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-53293\" src=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-1024x672.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-768x504.jpg 768w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-1536x1009.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-1170x768.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02-585x384.jpg 585w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/BK_Promo_02.jpg 1558w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>\u2014How was growing up musically in East Germany? We also asked The Exaltics this same question last year. Was it difficult to find records?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Seen in hindsight, growing up musically in the GDR was quite ok, since you haven\u2019t had any comparison to how it could have been. Of course, we always looked westwards, heard western radio stations, and watched western TV. So, we basically consumed worldwide music somehow. It was frustrating not getting the music physically. But need is always the mother of invention, so a vivid copy culture came up and heaps of tapes made the round between kids. And at the end of the day, it was much more special for you to get your hands on a dodgy tape, copied and copied again, instead of just going to a record store and buy stuff. Since you barely couldn\u2019t find any decent records, the hunt for new music via copied tape was our way to satisfy our needs. But nevertheless, after the wall came down, I spent my first western money on several <strong>Front 242<\/strong> records. \ud83d\ude09 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014In an interview you said that you got your first cassette in 1985 and that it was one of Depeche Mode. What album if I might ask? What did you feel listening to it for the first time?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014It was <em>Some Great Reward<\/em>\u00a0and it was not my first tape, but the first original one by <strong>DM<\/strong>, with proper cover and shit \ud83d\ude09. So that was my sanctum back then when I was 12. It was my fav back then and it probably still is (alongside 101), only hits. I was totally into it. Listening to it a million times. Think, the ruff industrial like elements caught me, without knowing that other bands laid the foundation for the sound. A couple of years later I understood that. When you had more information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014When I am writing this interview I am listening at the same time to De\/Vision, one German band that never hid the Depeche Mode influence. Why do you think that Dave Gahan\u2019s band was so popular in Germany?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Oh, I love <strong>De\/Vision<\/strong> \ud83d\ude09. <strong>DM<\/strong> was so popular because of the content. It was a hit machine. Everybody loved it and could deal with the sound. It was fresh and always creative. We all wanted to be Dave back then. Plus,<strong> DM<\/strong> played in the GDR just one time, in 1988, which created a massive hype around the band especially in the Eastern parts of Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014Later you got into industrial with bands like Throbbing Gristle and Skinny Puppy. It\u2019s an important influence in your music. How did you get into that style of music?<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-53297\" src=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2-1024x1022.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2-768x767.jpg 768w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2-585x585.jpg 585w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/throbbing-gristle_2.jpg 1081w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014At the end of the 80s, I got introduce to these bands by a friend. The copied tape business, you heard that already. \ud83d\ude09 When the wall came down and we had access to the physical releases we basically gathered around our local record store and shopped everything the record dealer recommended. Heaps of stuff to catch up with back then. In 1990 or maybe 91, I finally realised, this is basically my kind of music, triggering more emotions within me than any other styles. And it is still ongoing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014How did you start DJing? Any DJ that you saw as an influence?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014I started DJing in the early 90s together with 2 friends, establishing the Electrosmog crew. All out of the need to hear our kind of music in the club. So, we created our own local club night on a regular base and taught ourselves the DJing mechanisms\u2026 Learning by doing it in front of the audience basically. All very naive and simple but without any fear of making mistakes. The people honoured that behaviour since we brought them their music \u2013 lovely times. And to be honest I had no real DJ role model back then. So, no name dropping here. \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014And when did you start organizing parties? At the same time that you created Electrosmog, right?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Yes, as said, we started in the early 90s. Think that around 94 or 95 we had our first event. A <strong>Project Pitchfork<\/strong> night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014At that time, you were DJing with the aka Santini. What records were your favorite back then?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014I played all stuff from <strong>Project Pitchfork<\/strong> up and down. \u201cDhyani\u201d, \u201cLam-\u2018Bras\u201d, \u201cIO\u201d \u2026 all masterpieces. Also played a lot of EBM like <strong>Front 242<\/strong>,<strong> Nitzer Ebb<\/strong>, <strong>Le\u00e6ther Strip<\/strong>, <strong>And One<\/strong> and stuff like that. My favourite tune back then was <strong>Wumpscuts&#8217;<\/strong> \u201cSoylent Green\u201d for sure. The name Santini came from the movie that got sampled here by Rudy Ratzinger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014<strong>At the end of the nineties, you started djing Drum \u2019n\u2019 bass and breaks. I was also listening a lot to those styles at the time. How do you remember the scenes back in the day?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Oh, that was just the best time. I neglected the dark scene almost totally back then, slipping right into that massive energy drum\u2019n\u2019bass could deliver at the end of the 90s. The DnB scene was totally different since it was not about artists and image in the first place. It was all about the music and the rave feeling. Pure energy. I loved that and still do. We still had our regular club night going but I kind of preferred doing the Drum\u2019n\u2019Bass warm up under the hidden moniker of \u201cFiesemopp\u201d. The people hated it but knew their dark hits will come later, so they let me do and didn\u2019t kick me out of the room. Fun times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-53300\" src=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Blackcolor1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Blackcolor1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Blackcolor1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Blackcolor1-585x585.jpg 585w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Blackcolor1.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>\u2014What made you start producing music? It was around 2009, right?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014It was probably already in 2008 or even earlier. I can\u2019t define from which date on you could have called it \u201cproducing\u201d. I only wanted to be a better DJ and I knew I had to listen to music in a more granular way, I had to break music down to its fundamental parts in order to get a better grasp of music. Over the time, I realised that producing my own shit brings me much more joy and satisfaction then spinning music from other people. So, the eye of Mordor basically moved to the production level for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014<strong>When did you meet Daniel Myer? I guess he has been an important influence in your career as you have released most of your albums on his label, Basic Unit Productions. Just in your second release there is a remix from his Liebknecht Aka.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014I think it was 1994 or maybe 95, that Daniel approached me via a mutual friend, asking if I could design a flyer for his event Planetmyerday, since he saw one of the earlier design I did for Electrosmog. We became close Friends and I basically slipped into the role of art direction for PMD back then. We I started making music I always gave Daniel the first listen. Which was not very successful for my ego in the first few years, since I was just not ready for an own proper rel\u00e9ase and Daniel let me know this in his very own style \ud83d\ude09. That changed with the first demo of what should later become the track \u201cRange\u201d. Daniel liked it and gave me the opportunity to release my first material. I own him a lot. And of course, he remixed a lot for me from then on. But I never got a <strong>Haujobb<\/strong> remix, I asked a million times. Consider that as a life time achievement. One day there will be a<strong> Haujobb<\/strong> remix of a <strong>Blac Kolor<\/strong> track. But we must wait.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014How do you remember the composing of your first EP <\/strong><em><strong>Range<\/strong><\/em><strong>? How do you see it nowadays?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014As said, it all started with the track \u201cRange\u201d from the self-titled EP later on. I earned more and more production skills back then and got more confident about the question which sound and techniques could be mine. The positive feedback enabled me to focus on a narrower range of sounds and styles. I kept on producing more stuff like that and my first proper release was born \u2026 and so the moniker <strong>Blac Kolor<\/strong>. I am still proud of the result nowadays. Considering the circumstances and the level of skills back then, I still think it was the right thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014<em><strong>Kold<\/strong><\/em><strong>, released only a few months later, is more industrial techno. Why the change?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Well, I think <em>Kold<\/em> was created even before \u201cRange\u201d finally came out. I knew I would like to have a proper album right after the EP, so I produced a lot of stuff in order to find my sound and tried to put things in a context, creating a concept. So most of the sounds of <em>Wide Noise<\/em> (inclusive Kold) were created pretty much parallel to the<em> Range EP<\/em> sounds but got kind of parked for the album. So, for me it was not much of a change. It was more an early way of putting sounds into a concept. For me the sounds or tracks of<em> Range EP<\/em> clued together perfectly back then laying down the foundations of the first proper album.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014In your first album <em>Wide Noise<\/em> you already incorporate a concept, right? Is it difficult for you to tell a story through techno music?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-53303\" src=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor2-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor2-585x585.jpg 585w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor2.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Yep, as said above, the conceptional approach was essential for putting together <em>Wide Noise<\/em>. And yes of course, storytelling via Techno is nearly impossible when you don\u2019t have lyrics to transport or accompany a story idea. There is always a huge space for interpretation when you just hear sounds, without having a spoken word. I always tried to transport the conceptional idea via vox samples or phrase from movies or so to push the reception of the sounds in a certain direction, creating thereby the wanted mood or maybe restrict the space of interpretation a bit. I want to work more with lyrics in the future (via featured guests of course, don\u2019t be afraid, you won\u2019t hear me singing in the future\ud83d\ude09) in order to bring more storytelling into my music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014<em><strong>Born in Ruins<\/strong><\/em><strong> was a autobiography album about growing up in the RDA. I read that you had a happy childhood in a ruined background. How do you think that the experience has marked your life?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Oh, well, of course it marked my life fundamentally. Experiencing and growing up in two totally different social systems shapes you automatically in a certain way. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to see and experience 2 systems consciously. If I would have grown up in Florida, I think <strong>Blac Kolor<\/strong> would never have happened, though \ud83d\ude09\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014You said instead that &#8220;<\/strong><em><strong>Stormfly<\/strong><\/em><strong> was more dance-floor-oriented.\u201d Do you try to have a balance between dance-floor material and headphone one?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014It depends on my mood. Sometimes I feel a need for some simple bangers just to see the people or myself dancing and not thinking to much about it. Sometimes I\u2019m just bored by all the club material and slow down automatically in my productions. But there is definitely no strategic thinking of balancing out these two worlds in my mind. Sometimes I feel ready for some rave, sometimes it has to go deeper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-53306\" src=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor3-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor3-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor3-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor3-585x585.jpg 585w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor3.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>\u2014In an old interview you said that you were a \u201cdigital boy.\u201d Seeing pictures on Facebook of your impressive analog gear makes me think what made you change?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Well, I basically became the classic modular victim. For many years I successfully ignored the hardware area, except of some bread-and-butter synthesizers I always used corresponding to my digital stuff. Then I started with a small eurorack, I don\u2019t know why. Maybe I wanted to create more experimental sounds without using a computer or maybe I wanted to touch more things, I don\u2019t know. At least there was no deeper need to start with Modular and I basically never thought of the analog thing as the logical conclusion (most of my modules are digital anyway). But when you open the box of pandora it\u2019s like an unstoppable conflagration. Typical modular victim. And I love it soooo much. Doesn\u2019t make my music any better, but it definitely lets me have much more fun. And that\u2019s what it is all about for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014In an interview, you said that \u201cstaying unpredictable is the main reason my music sounds the ways it sounds.\u201d\u00a0 Do you think it\u2019s more difficult after so many releases to stay unpredictable?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Absolutely, I have to produce much much more music to come to the next release, since a lot of tunes don\u2019t survive my quality assurance anymore. I find myself more and more thinking: \u201cno, get rid of that, you have done that already\u201d. On top comes that I get bored from things pretty fast. I feel always a huge tension and it\u2019s rather challenging to find a decent balance between creating new things and enjoying myself and trying to stick with a kind of a typical <strong>BK<\/strong> sound by the same token. But maybe that keeps me being productive. Probably, it\u00b4s the oil for my engine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014You do the artwork of all your releases. How would you describe the image that you have been giving to the music of Blac Kolor? How do you work the visual part?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Artwork is always on eye level with music for me. Sometimes I even have a visual first and try to make music for it then. The creative process behind making designs is pretty much the same when it comes to make music. Having an idea in your mind or even a concept, mocking around with the tools, iterate until your brain says \u201cstop\u201d, refine it \u2013 done. It\u2019s hard to describe the visual image, since it\u2019s hard to describe my music. It just has to fit together. Maybe the consensus is that everything has to be kind of gloomy, dark, weird, unpredictable in certain aspects and always with a straight message. No random \u201cbackground-meets-typo-shit\u201d. But at the end really hard to describe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014You said in an interview that you were not very interested in the industrial\/EBM scene. Any artist that has made you change your point of view about this lately?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Well, define scene!? I consume music completely free of the idea of a scene. Of course, we are all kind of caught in our bubble, but at least I try not to think too much about it. And there will be no name dropping here. \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014You have released a few EPs on one of the most popular and influential labels at the time, aufnahme + wiedergabe. According to you, how has Philipp Strobel\u2019s label changed the scene?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014As said, not thinking too much about a \u201cscene\u201d, lets me struggling with the answer here. Phil at least teaches the young audience the old stuff in a very consequent way. Other labels (from what we might call \u201cscene\u201d here nonetheless) got an older target group and it\u2019s really hard for them to reach out to younger people. At the end of the day, Phil is just mixing together what belongs together. Berlin helps a lot here, to be successful with this approach. \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014How was working with Jean-Luc De Meyer in<\/strong><em><strong> Awakening<\/strong><\/em><strong>?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-53309\" src=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor4.jp_-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor4.jp_-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor4.jp_-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor4.jp_-585x585.jpg 585w, https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/blackolor4.jp_.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014It was lovely, since he is just a nice person. He is one of my idols from the older days and I was of course totally over the moon, when he asked me if he could add on some vox to a track he heard at my live set in Oberhausen a couple of years ago. The process of melting together his vox and my music was really easy, since Jean-Luc had an exact plan how it could sound good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014Your last EP has an interesting concept \u201caddressing the oppression, exploitation and eradication of indigenous peoples by the western world.\u201d To follow the concept, you based the tracks on elements of four different tribes.\u00a0 How did you come along with this idea?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014The basic concept for <em>Roots<\/em> was in my head for a long time. I think I saw a documentation about how they treated the Indians in Canada, especially their kids, back in the days. That was pretty much the trigger, where I said to myself, do that concept now. I collected a shitload of samples from different tribes all over the world, selected 4 of them (because I love 4-tracker-EPs \ud83d\ude09) and started to write music around these very snippets. Every track with a different approach but all with 118 BPM. I really wanted to limit myself here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014Lately, you have released some material in legendary labels Hands and Ant-Zen. When you are recording for a label, do you try to make music that fits in the catalogue of the label? I mean, always following your style.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014It\u2019s mostly the other way around. I produce the stuff I want to do in this very moment and when I\u2019m happy with the result, I seek for a matching platform, where this very music could come out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014Although I already asked you about Daniel Myer, I would like to know more about your involvement in Planet Myer Day? You do the artwork but do you also do anything else?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Hard to describe. I mainly do the graphic stuff, but since we are all friends in the PMD crew and trust each other, we of course also talk a lot about the booking and the overall concept of this event. I always have a clear notion about things and love straight communication, so sometimes I might be a bit more than just the art guy \ud83d\ude09.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014What are your plans for the future? <\/strong><strong>What happened to <\/strong><em><strong>Weltenbrand<\/strong><\/em><strong>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014<em>Weltenbrand<\/em> will come out end of summer 2023 on beloved Hymen (which was my requested label for that concept) and will come with a very special artwork. The whole is much more an art project than a regular release. Stefan from the label and myself really want to create something different here. And I\u2019m pretty sure that it will turn out beautifully. Apart from that there will be a single release corresponding the album a couple of months before and I will probably close my 24U bandcamp series very soon with Volume 10. And I started a few collaborations, we\u2019ll see how this will turn out.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u2014What can we expect of your performance at DarkMad? Is it going to be a live or a DJ-set?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u2014Well, what to expect? Expect a fully concentrated guy surrounded by several machines, trying to entertain the audience and make the people dance \ud83d\ude09. It will be a 100% live set. I pretty much ended my DJ career \ud83d\ude09.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">See u all in Madrid. I\u2019m looking very forward to playing the DarkMad festival.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Blac Kolor states in his own Bandcamp: Black is not a color. Black is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[840,30],"tags":[319,830,417],"class_list":["post-53274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-darkmad-2023-en","category-interviews","tag-ebm-2-en","tag-industrial-techno","tag-techno-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Interview: Blac Kolor &#8212; El Garaje de Frank<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"DarkMad 2023 &#8212; Interview with German producer Blac Kolor who is playing at DarkMad at the end of April in Madrid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/en\/interview-blac-kolor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview: Blac Kolor &#8212; 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