 Brothers Bert and Maarten Wilmaers from Belgium began their music career in the mid 80s pursuing a childhood dream of rock stardom with Bert on guitar and Maarten on drums. In the mid 90s when dance music was taking over the charts, DJs and artists such as Roger Sanchez and Masters at Work inspired the duo to experiment with loops and disco samples. The brothers’ first big break into the industry was in 1998 when Bart Grinaert, the top man at Headroom Music, signed them to his umbrella label. Here they honed their talent and their musical mission crystallised - Filterheadz was officially born. News of their fresh and quirky style travelled fast and record label Mostiko was next in line to offer them a bunch of remix work of which Minimalistix’s Struggle for Pleasure stood out amongst the rest.
Following this rapid success and a stint in Ibiza Filterheadz gained Carl Cox’s interest. Cox’s record label Intec snapped up the talent and subsequently Filterheadz released Sunshine and Latin Loopworks which proved to be the Ibiza Favourite and the massive summer anthem of that year.
Filterheadz went on to release their debut mix CD – Tribalicious and in 2004 their single Yimanya stormed Ibiza. Just about anyone from the dance floors to the consoles, Tong to Sander and Jules to Tiesto were all supporting Yimanya in full force. Extensive worldwide DJ tours soon followed, but they still found time to remix for Faithless, Dido, Delerium, Tranquility Base as well as the biggest dance tune of 2004: Eric Prydzs Call on Me.
Filterheadz have since formed their own label Love Distortion and continue to release big hits including Endless Summer which again has secured major support from big players such as Tiesto and Above and Beyond. Their new single Blue Sky Happiness will be hitting the dance floors and shops in October, but your luck is in because we have a sneak preview on our site. Filterheadz have taken time out from their hectic schedule to fill us in on what they have got planned for the rest of 2006 and how GURU makes remixing so much fun!
FX - What projects are you working on at the moment?
F - Right now we are doing tons of new music. New Filterheadz tracks for our own label Love Distortion but also working on some interesting side projects. The main goal is to make a lot of progress with producing our first artist album. So busy times in the studio.
FX - Has there been a key point in your career that has led you to where you are today?
F - Of course there were points like the first release, the first remix, the first remix for a major artist etc. But really I see it more as a long evolving story. Because we make electronic music our sound is constantly evolving as technology is evolving. A new synth or fx can really change the way you think about arranging music.
FX - What first inspired you to use music software?'GURU makes remixing so much fun. Just throw all the parts in it, randomly pick a bunch of patterns or start banging the trigger finger. Instant inspiration :-)'
F - The possibilities. For people starting right now it’s hard to imagine the enormous evolution made over the last decades. We started out when we were kids, making recordings by bouncing from tapedeck to tapedeck and always adding another instrument layer as well as good amount of noise :-)
These days everyone with a decent computer can make recording with hundreds of tracks and dozens of fx. That is an unbelievable luxury.
FX - How has music software affected the way that you make music?
F - Using music software and doing everything inside a computer is a knife that cuts both ways. Having these infinite possibilities is a fun idea but it also makes it so much harder to make decisions. In the old days you had to finish a mix because it was “on the mixing board”. So you couldn’t really start on another mix before you finished the first one. These days I know a lot of producers have hard disks full of half finished tracks.
'Not only do all the beats start from there, but also basslines, vocals and just about everything else gets a GURU treatment.' FX - What FXpansion products do you own and how do you use them?
F - We have GURU & BFD. I can honestly say that GURU changed everything for us. The combination of GURU & the m-audio trigger finger is really the centrepiece of our studio. We see it as a very sophisticated MPC. In a way it’s old school because you go back to a pattern based working method & cutting edge at the same time because of all the cool features in GURU. Not only do all the beats start from there, but also basslines, vocals and just about everything else gets a GURU treatment. One of our standard practices now is to play a keyboard part, bounce it, slice it up in guru and make new patterns by hitting the trigger finger. It’s a very inspiring way of working. Plus you can insert fx for every individual pad, so that opens up a new world of possibilities.
FX - What would be included in your dream studio setup?
F - As we spend so much time travelling, we are really happy with how powerful laptops have become these days. One of our favourite things is to compose music at airports. You watch the people go by and write little soundtracks. Because we don’t use a keyboard at that moment, we have to draw notes into a sequencer. We find this to be a very interesting way of composing because you can’t rely on what your hands usually do. It’s a bit like painting. You paint a few notes and stand back to listen then paint the sounds you hear in your head.
FX - Is there any software innovation that could be a valuable addition to your studio?
F - I can’t really pinpoint anything right now, but I’m sure companies like FXpansion will come up with new ideas & products that will make us think: How did we ever make music without this.
FX - What have the Filterheadz got in mind for the future?
F - In the nearby future: work on our album and do lots of touring. Over the coming years: Combining our pop/rock background & our experience in electronic music to produce some innovative pop music.
|
