Interview: Herwig of Zoom Records and Alphastate

T Zero - Could you tell us how and when you got involved in techno? What inspired you to get involved as an artist?
Always made music, played in bands and stuff. punkrock style. waz working at several clubs, and one time i ended up setting up a soundsystem in a warehouse for a party. that was in 88, i was 15. bought a sheet of acid from one of the djs there. and actually ended up staying instead of heading out and tripping my balls off at some bondfire. was very impressed that you couldnt see anyone on stage, cool concept that there’s no star to identify with, the djs were actually set up in a seperate room without visual contact to the crowd. plus a good party on acid converted lots of other people too, as we all know……those beats will suck you in sooner or later, i was quite impressed by this (to me) new interpretation of music. after that i bought a sampler and started integrating more and more elektronik elements into my music. buy more gear, buy more gear….really got into the convenience of working alone and slowly built up a nice homestudio. Currently i’m running a studio/production company (=>alphastate) with 2 other guys here in LA.

T Zero - Where do you currently live and work on music?
North Hollywood/L.A.

T Zero - What are your current projects? Can we expect more releases on Zoom Records?
Depends on the zoom guys. have a bunch of unreleased material at the moment, havent been pursuing to get it released too much. lemme know if someone’s looking for tracks….. i’m currently involved in a project called MANKIND LIBERATION FRONT. it’s not straight clubstuff, but has vocals and is a more “poppy” song type deal. album comes out feb 99. club remixes of the first single CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE will start appearing in september, video is in the works right now. more of a studio project, the record’s all done and we are working on a live set right now. just played a show here in LA at the viper room, rumor has it that we’ll be touring spring 99 with republica, also have some gigs in europe end of 98.

T Zero - What other releases have you done and on what other labels can interested listeners find more of your music?
TELEPATHIC : PSI 019
TELEPATHIC : PSI 024
TELEPATHIC : PSI 026
ZOOM : INFOCALYPSE INC.
ZOOM : CYKLIK RMXes
ZOOM : CYKLIK promo/orig mix & smack3000mix
RAW FORMS : dub plate # 3
ALPHASTATE : BEND comp CD

T Zero - Do you have a favorite track (that you created)? Which one was most successful in your view? Why?
No favorite track. the newest one usually. cyklik made some waves because it’s kinda catchy i think, i got some newer unreleased trax that i consider way cooler, havent found anybody to put em out yet.

T Zero - What is currently your favorite piece of studio equipment?
I feel nauseaus when not in direct contact with a s3000 akai sampler. gear is good, drugs are better. dont believe in specific pieces of equipment, it’s more about what you do with them then what they are.

T Zero - What other artists currently interest you?
Fred giannelli/kooky scientist, mick harris/scorn, christian fennesz, massive attack, steve reich, panasonic, farmers manual, duran duran varies on a day by day basis. like lots of different stuff. also like Black Sabbath

T zero - Thanks so much for any answers you can provide and please keep me updated about releases in the future. Good luck…

Submit a comment January 18th, 1998