‘Endtroducing’
Ghosten and his Oh Love EP
– Hi Theo, how are you and how does it feel like releasing music on Apparel Music?
Hi, I’m doing very well thanks. Currently enjoying a beautiful ovean view in Tarifa, Spain – gathering some vitamin D to survive a long dark Scandinavian winter. After shelving my Paxton Fettel project years ago, I spent alot of time figuring out what I wanted to with music and which role it had in my life. In the time away I made an Ambient Album as ‘Lord Of The Magi’ where I released and album on Tartelet records last year. Furthermore it has been quite some years of getting better at playing my instruments, working on new production techniques, recording more live instruments and reconnecting with music. I felt like I needed a step back. Now 5 years later, after much experimentation, practice and soul searching – I’m finally at a point where I feel extremely excited to release new music. Being a big fan and follower of Apparel Music for years, it’s no secret that I’m very happy and proud to be embarking on this new adventure with Apparel. A place to call home, that has very similar beliefs and understanding of music.
– Talk us through the creative process behind the making of this EP. How did it come about and how did you work on it?
While taking time to reflect I quickly realized that I wanted to make music that satisfied ME while making it. Just as when I was 14 years old sitting in my room playing around with Cubase. To a achieve that i figured out that wanted to introduce even more live and hand played elements to my music while drastically reducing the amounts of sampling. This was simply to have more compositional control. I often felt locked into certain sounds or aesthetics when samples dominated my music, and to me that felt like an artistical prison at times. So after years of studying music theory to get even better at it, and playing my main instruments a lot (Keys, Bass, Drums & Guitar) I felt like I had so much more capability to transform the ideas from my head into sound. While a big portion of the electronic scene has been obsessing about styles and sounds that I personally don’t find very interesting, stimulating or appealing, I sat down and thought – okay what would I like to hear on a dance floor, or in my headphones biking to work. I love house & techno but I wanted to merge it with my ability to play instruments – and my love for Jazz, Soul, Funk, Latin, Hip Hop and Classical Music, but without necessarily always relying on samples to get there. Oh Love is a great example of a track where i made a full jazz/funk track and then sampled and chopped myself to create that french touch/ house madness that is the middle section of the track. Higher is completely sample free, and features an incredible Singer from Argentina (Gabita) and Gotta Call Johnny is a testimony to not forgetting your roots and where you came from, so an absolute samplebased dancefloor ripper. How I compose, play, produce, and mix my music is all part of my artistic vision. Sometimes an idea comes from a technical aspect of a certain method, sometimes it’s a melody line in my head. I wanted to make music that made me want to dance, smile, cry, laugh and scream. It’s not so much about pleasing an audience, it’s purely for self satisfaction. That doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t satisfy other people too, but it isn’t the main objective. Some people see art and music merely as a product, I see it as a life long relationship that borders to the therapeutical. And if I start compromising, I loose myself. Gonna do my very best to avoid doing that again. The whole EP is recorded, produced and mixed in my studio in Copenhagen, not gonna write a gear list here as it would be too long and too boring, but people are always welcome to ask or check my IG, there’s tonnes of videos there showing the process and the gear. I’ve never felt as accomplished and proud even though no one has really heard the music I am gonna put out as Ghosten yet, and to me that is as green as a flag can get. It makes me feel very assured that I am here for the right reasons.
– Which are the main music influences that you brought in your EP? Can you share with us three tracks that inspired you during the making of?
The list of inspiration for this is as long as my relationship with music, but if I had to pick a few these would be it :