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THE UNITED COLORS OF
RALF GUM...
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If a regular to IDMW, then hearin’ of Ralf GUM on those pages shouldn’t be anything of a surprise… Not only because the man has graced us with quite relevant editorials over the last months, but first and foremost because of his consistent contributions as both a DJ, producer and manager of the Germany-based GoGo Music label. 2008 definitely seems like a key year for our long time friend with the fresh release of his Uniting Music debut album, surrounded by a whole bunch of talented artists such as Wunmi, Monique Bingham and Diamondancer to name a (very) few. Check out the groove!
Words: MFSB
Hey Ralf, glad welcoming you on board for a brand new round. How have you been? How about the overall feelings following the recent release of this first album of yours?
Thanks for asking. I am felling really good now that the album is done and out, even I am still pretty busy as, after finishing the production, I continued to work seamless on the promotion for it and already on other projects.
Uniting Music, a title which may sound like quite an ambitious wish following the countless divisions/subdivisions which have occured on the said dance music front over the last decades. Was this your initial meaning by the way and, as a direct result, the basic idea around which this album has been conceived?
Well, I did not have the divisions within the dance scene in mind, but chose the title because of various other aspects. The whole album is composed without breaks between the tracks, as a continuous piece of music. I decided to make the album that way because I think especially the home-listener is not interested in listening to an endless beat intro or outro in each song. As well, I wanted to do something different than the usual collection of “club-tools”. Another aspect reflected by the title is a personal one. As a DJ and as well as a producer I unite music all the time. And a third idea and wish is that music unites people. I like the multiple meaning of this title actually...
Never easy to jump from single releases to an album. Have you met particular difficulties while debutting on this kind of exercise???
There have been a few difficulties productionwise, especially as each song intervenes into the next one. As it would have been impossible to produce all songs in a raw, I’ve had then to go back and forth between the tracks to make the equalieation fit between them. What has been a challenge as well was to get all vocalists that I wanted to feature on the album. And of course there’s the fact that it takes much more time to produce 11 songs at the same time as compared to the work on one or some singles.
Albums on most cases sound like geared towards a more mature audience as compared to simple singles. Would you agree???
Yes and no, speaking about my album in particular. Of course every good album should reach and be a joy for listeners of all ages and of course I hope my album does appeal to various audiences, but I think the same applies for my music when I produce a single. The difference might be that the mature audience does buy a CD.
The exercise of an album most likely stands as a statement. In other words, it’s supposedly show a bit more as to who its author is about. Let us know about your current state of mind as far as our environment is concerned…
I didn’t chose this point of time of the album release to make a special statement. I’ve wanted to do a long player for a long time now, but simply did not have the time to produce an full-length album earlier, as building up the label kept me busy and other releases as the two Raw Artistic Soul albums deserved my full attention. Nevertheless the moment of the release is accompanied with a major changes in my life, as I am getting married this Summer. I am quite contented about everything at the moment.
Let us know about the running order of its components. Is it meant to add more signification to the album itself as a whole?
I definitely decided to do the album with no interruptions from a song to anotherto make the people listen to it entirely. The whole album should be seen as one work of art and not as an accumulation of songs by one producer. Maybe I will release the tracks that will not get a single release as an EP or release a divided version later on, so that DJs can play all of them.
You’ve managed to gather a whole bunch of different guests. Let us know about the reasons of your choice of the latest on a specific cut rather than another one…
I want to answer this question in general. For me a good vocalist not only verses his technical skills, as e.g. a perfect intonation, but can give the song a meaning by the way he phrases and expresses himself. As I left the writing of the lyrics to the singers, it was extremely important to me to get artists who are able to write intelligent lyrics. A song has to tell a story to be a good one. It took quite a while till I had decided who to ask and I am happy that the featured talents have come to work with me.
I guess the process must have taken quite some time. How long has it taken to produce the whole?
It took two and a half years from the very first notes untill all was done. The rough structure of the album was done before I started to contact the vocalists. Then it took more than a year to get confirmation of everybody I wanted to include on Uniting Music. It was quite easy to convince the few singers on the album who I’ve worked before, as e.g. Inaya Day. Others like Beate S. Lech who are not closely related to the house scene were a little sceptical. After they heard the compositions I had in mind for them, they were delighted to join in and everyone is pleased with the way it came together.
After I had all vocals together, I started to record additional musicians and did the final production.
Any extra work that was initially supposed to be a part of the album which you’ve finally postponed?
No, all the 11 tracks have been finished in a rough version, before the vocals have been recorded and it was clear that they will be a part of the album. Should I decide to leave out one cut or another, then the whole concept of the compositions getting from each other wouldn’t have worked anymore.
What did you get in terms of experience as compared to the recording of a single?
As I most oftenly work on several productions next to each other, the fact that I worked on the 11 songs at the same time wasn’t a big new experience. The fact that they all had to be similar-sounding was kinda new. I think that I have ‘my sound’ on every production, but as the tracks intervene with each other, they really had to sound equal regarding the eq-s of each instrument and proportion of bass mids and highs. What was new was to record e.g. the brass section at Phil’s Raw Artistic Studios. It gave me an interesting insight on his way to record.
I remember you speakin’ of the limitations of the mp3 format on an editorial of yours some time ago here on IDMW and you wish to have the vinyl saved… Doesn’t look like it’s the case. How do you feel with the progressive installation of the laptop at the forefront of the DJ mixing process???
I am no objector of mp3’s in general and in my editorial I just wanted to point the generation who grows up with mainly mp3’s only, that there are negative aspects connected with this technology too. Of course, I also enjoy travelling with a CD-case only, instead of breaking my back because of the heavy vinyl cases. The laptop is a nice thing for sure as well, as it enables the DJ’s to carry their whole music libraries with them. As long as there are high quality mp3’s or even better wav-files on the laptop, there’s nothing to say against it, even I still like to dig in a record case instead of scrolling through endless menus…
We all know how technology has helped to cut the production costs. To which extend as compared to a few years ago?
Of course the technique to do some first productions has decreased drastically, but it really depends on what kind of music you record and what kind of result you expect. You can do good productions with a PC and some software for a few 1000 $ already. If you do a lot of live recordings with musicians and if you want to do high class sound, you still need a good sounding (and expensive) studio room with good microphones, pre-amps, compressors and so on... As well as a lot of the vintage instruments which are still sounding much better than their rather cheap plug-in clones.
As a reverse, the incomes have obviously decreased in the mean time with the possibility given to download simple files as opposed to buy CD’s not to mention vinyls. Has this drastically changed the point where an investment such as a single not to mention an album becomes profitable?
Basically there’s nothing to say against the replacement of physical sound carriers by downloads, as the incomes for a download is for the label pretty much similar to the one of a physical copy. Additionally it has to be considered that a download release means quite a small investment compared to the pressing of records. The problem is the illegal download and file sharing, which leads to the decreasing incomes.
Both DJing, producing and managing a label has pretty much become like the norm along the years. How do you deal with all these activities to be run simultaneously? What’s a typical working day/week for you? Can you still manage to have sort of recovery periods?
I try to organize my day as effective as possible. During the day is office time and during the evening I entrench myself in the studio. At some points, it’s quite hard to be really creative after a working day in the office as the label is a lot of work of course. Especially with the decreasing market for our music which is afloated with releases nevertheless, each record means a lot of time in the office. Hence there are days when I simply feel too exhausted to do music in the evening. This is one of the reasons why I do not have even more releases, because as a matter of principle, no production leaves my studio that does not satisfy me 100%. So all in all, I hardly find the time to recover, but my lady forces me to make at least two short holiday breaks each year.
We all know how an album has to be supported most likely with a tour. I guess you’ve already thought about this. How do you feel at the perspective of live experiences??? Anything planned already? If so who to expect with you on stage?
I am currently touring as DJ for the album with gigs almost everywhere. A real live performance of the whole album is hardly possible as already the vocalists live widespreaded around the globe and a club could hardly afford to fly them in for a gig.
In addition, I am no exceptional gifted live musician. I am a wizard in the studio and can play some keys or percussions for my productions there, but on stage with top musicians, I would rather feel out of place. To add a bit of live experience to my DJ sets on the tour, I play some of the gigs with Steffen Meder of SUGAR BEAT who supports me with his drums.
Looks like you’re the subject of some heavy care in your native country with the support of TV channel 3Sat. Is it to say that things are changing as far as welcoming a soul oriented album is concerned in Germany??? I guess you might see this as the result of continuous efforts of yours along the years…
Unfortunatelly I can not report a big change regarding the music scene and coverage of our music here. As said on an editorial of mine of these pages some time ago, there are a few places where soulful music is played, but it’s still the exception. The same applies for the music press. They tend to write about what’s hip and in their eyes it’s still mainly the minmal and tech-house stuff. Of course, there are exceptions and you can find brave people pushing the music they believe in. The fact that my album received this feature was a great advantage of course and I think you are right that it’s a result of my determined work and as well speaks (hopefully) for the quality of the album.
I’ve noticed the presence of obvious new names among the guests on your album, like Oliver Leicht, Mike Avery and Dennis Legree. One word about them? Anything to expect from them individually speaking on your label?
Dennis was already featured on ‘Try Me’ the duet with Inaya Day and since then I always wanted to do another production with him. Mike Avery was a lucky discovery and Oliver Leicht a recommendation from Phil Kullmann. I guess I will work with all of them again, but currently there’s nothing in production yet.
Forthcoming projects…
Oh a lot…2008 should be a busy year. I will be releasing more singles from the album throughout the next months including fresh remixes of course. The next one after “If No Harm” will probably be the Wunmi tune “Brother Like No Other” with remixes by Benny Pecoraio and the Qualomota crew from Paris. There will be new releases on GOGO Music coming from Roberto De Carlo again featuring Joshua and Raw Artistic Soul as well. I am working on a new tune with Ladybird for the 4 Ears project which I started with Benny Pecoraio. I am working on a track for Kissey Asplund and a follow up to ‘Kissing Strangers’ with Monique. And I am currently doing a playback for Robert Owens, which might be for his next album.
Vielen Danke lieber Freund and can’t wait readin’ your forthcoming editorial on these pages...
RALF GUM – Uniting Music CD/LP (GoGo Music)
RALF GUM featuring RACHEL CLAUDIO – If No Harm (GoGo Music)
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