INTERVIEW: BAREM [M_NUS]

Hello MTLiens ! I think we all noticed that Montreal has been on fire lately , bringing us all kinds of international artists not only monthly but WEEKLY ! A huge step for the scene ! With igloofest, the boys at Microzoo and Safari @ Salon Daomé I can honestly say that 2011 is going to be a sweet journey into the international sounds of electronic music …which is obviously great ! On March 8th , the Safari crew will take us to the next level with non other than Minus artist BAREM ! For the occasion, I (Omar Diouf) and the rest of the Duke crew prepared a little interview and information about the Argentinean beat maker/DJ !

ENJOY ;)

 -----------------------

BIO : (source : www.residentadvisor.net)

‘Everything you do in life affects your music if you do music with passion. It's YOU in there, with everything good or bad inside’.
Barem

Mauricio Barembuem (aka Barem) perfectly personifies the new breed of electronic musician who has grown up in the digital age, using intuitive software programs like Reason and Ableton to spontaneously express ideas and emotions. On-line distribution has also made it possible for them to reach out and connect with audiences across the globe, no matter where they are - Buenos Aires for example, where Barem grew up amid the hustle and bustle of a city on the edge.

His teenage years were spent playing blues and rock guitar in bands but this always meant compromise. He longed for a purer form of self expression and eventually found it through electronic music, fascinated in particular by the way some DJs could impose their own personal vision onto the music they played, elevating it to an art form. It was exactly the inspiration he needed and Barem was soon experimenting with sampled loops and buying records (7th City, Spectral, Perlon and of course Minus). However, becoming a techno producer/DJ in Buenos Aires was easier said than done with gigs were few and far between. He was close to quitting a few times but found the right people at the right time and the solid advice they gave kept him motivated and focussed on his goal.

It was to be a defining moment and from that point on his induction into the scene was fast and frenetic. He released the Kleine EP on the free net label Unfoundsound in July 2005 with the track Suki grabbing the attention of many prominent DJs, before graduating to Foundsound with his first vinyl EP - Campo Madness in May 2006. Meanwhile, his relationship with Minus was already taking root. Richie Hawtin encouraged him to submit some demos after hooking up in Buenos Aires, one of which – Opal, appeared on the Min2Max LP which kick-started a period of non-stop touring across the US and Europe as demand for his live performances grew. Two Minus releases then followed in quick succession. 2007 saw the release of his Never Better Than Late EP before 2008’s superb Kolimar EP signalled a distinctive evolution of his sound, adding organic, house inflected grooves to his repertoire. Listening to both EPs, it’s clear Barem concentrates most energy into creating the powerful bass lines that underpin his work. His expansive use of reverb and delay create space for subtle percussive elements to skip and snake while distant, sometimes eerie melodies occur on random, secondary levels as a result of these interacting elements.

Some tracks just sound right from the first moment you experience them to the point where it’s often hard to appreciate the intricacies that lie within. Whether on outstanding remixes like Fuse’s Substance Abuse from last year’s Plus8100 retrospective or his recent outing on Foundsound with the epic Heyday, it’s all about keeping things simple and staying true to the old school, minimalist approach that first got him hooked, his definition of which is both insightful and considered:

‘’...Minimal is not really a sound... it's just a way of making music. It represents good taste, stylish sounds, the underground, afterhours... Whatever native roots you have, whatever music you like or liked in the past, it all fits in there and it's not dying in my opinion. It's just arrived at the point where we’ve rediscovered how free and amazing the concept and the reasons behind it are...’’
Which goes some way to explain his decision in 2008 to step back from performing live to once again concentrate on DJing, infusing his sets with warm, Latin rhythms as he blends his favorite tunes from a cross section of electronic genres past and present. His sets have graced some of the biggest events around – the Detroit Music Festival, Time warp, Miami, Ibiza, ADE...not to mention 2009’s Contakt special at Brixton Academy and the Minus North American bus tour.

 -----------------------

INTERVIEW: (by Omar Diouf)

DUKES: Hello Mauricio ! first of all…we are here to talk about Music, a passion we all share so what I want to ask you is, how did you first get into production/DJ and what still motivates you to do it today ? 

BAREM: Hi! Well, first of all and like most of us, I got into it by going out and having fun with friends. Sometimes by having fun you find things in life that turn out to be exciting and interesting. Things you wanna follow, you know? That was it, I decided to follow that one and here I am 8 years later.

There are many motivating and demotivating things happening all the time doing what I do. I love a lot of people around the music scene; I got to know amazing human beings behind some artists, labels, clubs, etc. Also being able to go to places you love all the time to just hang and do what you love is a wonderful thing. You don't need to renew that motivation very often... It's very hard to get tired of it. But often you change the way you do it. For example, some years you might get more easily bored at parties, then you don't stay that long. Some other years works the other way around and you party more, some years you take better care of yourself, etc. Music that comes out is also like that. Sometimes you love a lot of the stuff coming out and that makes you wanna play more and sometimes everything sounds boring and all the same and in those moments you rather stay home.


DUKES: What is the perfect setting for Barems music to come to life ? in other words, what’s your ideal spot for producing?

BAREM: It doesn't really have to do with a specific spot or city to me. Of course I have to be somewhere that I consider to be 'home', either Berlin or Buenos Aires. I can't make music while I travel. Not even work on ideas for some reason.

But there are also lots of periods of time where I am home and I don't feel like working on music, and rather get out of the music world for a bit and do other things. So you could say my perfect setting is when I'm home, I have lots of free time and I feel inspired and excited to create something new.


DUKES: Have you ever been to Montreal before ? what have you heard about our scene here ? compared to South America or Europe ?

BAREM: Yes, I've been there twice, once to play at MUTEK festival and another time to play at piknic. When you think about the music scene in the territories you mention, North America in general is very particular compared to Europe and South America. The scene there is smaller, but more sophisticated in a way. People in the U.S. and Canada, specially in montreal because of MUTEK and the big amount of very talented canadian artists that came together with it, usually think of what we do as an art form, instead of a show business, typical of bigger scenes. I'm just generalizing though. There's people with both views in all 3 territories of course.


DUKES: Which upcoming artist would you say is an inspiration nowadays in electronic music ?

BAREM: I'm not looking at others for inspiration these days, in fact, the music I've been working on lately is more based on myself and what I've done in the past 5 years. My favorite from last year was Stimming, because he gave minimal techno a new turn after a long time of all the same. This year I would say, pay attention to the Time Has Changed crew from France. Timid Boy, Acumen and all those guys are on fire!


DUKES: What can Montreal expect from your set on March 8th ?

BAREM: Everything I like in between techno and house. Groove, fat basslines, fun tracks and some mental stuff.


DUKES: Any new projects coming up ?

BAREM: I'm releasing my first full album in a few months, which makes me very happy. I've been trying to make an album for years, and now it's finally done. That will come together with a brand new live show with visuals, which is cool too 'cause i haven't played live in two and a half years. Too soon to present that in montreal in march though... Still finishing all that. But maybe I'll drop some tracks when I DJ there on the 8th ;)

--------------

For more info about the show and Barem Music check the links below :)

Until then get ready !!! It's gonna be a HOT one !


Event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=190921087598081


RA DJ Page : residentadvisor.net/dj/barem

Website : wwwm-nus.com

Twitter : twitter.com/baremmusic

Discogs : discogs.com/artist/barem

Facebook : facebook.com/baremminus

Myspace : myspace.com/barem_