Q+A: 5 minutes with Wareika
German electronic triplet Wareika has released their latest LP, a 45-minute unity divided in two parts, via the Ornaments imprint. Titled, Tizinabi, the album is a hybrid of sizzling Jazzy guitar, and synthetic tonal accents, with vocal scats demarcating the in-between spaces and giving swing to the rhythmically complex composition. Not only is the project available across digital platforms but has also been stamped in a transparent marbled vinyl, which is available for purchase here.
Stream / Download: Wareika – Tizinabi
Touring often and further honing their improv-heavy live sets, Wareika continues an astounding run of 300 concerts performed in the last decade. Touching on upcoming shows in the interview, the band spoke about their use of weird and wonderful instruments, their performance philosophy, and the decisions that define their sound. Without further delay, here is Wareika.
Set the tone for us. Why the arts?
The only way to talk about the truth, without getting pathetic? A universal language that transcends borders like looking at planet Earth from outer space? A journey inwards without dogma? You name it!
Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?
Both! Sometimes a melody or a rhythm is searching for the right sound to manifest itself, sometimes a sound is asking to become music. Most often it is actually an emotion, maybe a hidden one, that tries to find its way into our perceptible world.
Tell us about the chemistry you have with your fans on stage.
They partly induce the music that we play. They produce a big portion of the “vibe” that we express in musical ideas. Because we play 85% improvised music on stage, it is a 100% shared process between “them” and “us”. The Wareika Live Set lives and dies with the audience. Join us at Club der Visionäre or Get Perlonized. Then you will understand what I am talking about. Everyone present, whether on stage or on the dancefloor, is creating the magic together. I think John Coltrane must have had this experience in places like Village Vanguard …
What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?
Various and a lot from many different acoustic, electric, and electronic instruments as well as analog, digital and DAW sequencing, recording and mixing styles as well as improvisation concepts inspired by Jazz, Classical, Raga and Maqam music.
It is a journey from plucking a sarod, hitting a snare drum or conga, detuning a piano or finetuning analog oscillators to setting up the recording chane of choice to programming synths to getting weird-wired on the modular to mixing everything to taste to building an unheard-yet instrument if required.
Take us through a day in the recording studio.
Ok, let’s say Monday? Doing maqam exercises on the Oud for two hours, getting stuck with a certain melody, programming it into midi, fiddling on a synth for an hour to sound right, setting up a modular patch with 808-ish drums and two basslines and a housy stab in 10 min, recording congas into a sampler module, modulating it with complex trigger sequences, midi-clock everything and record into 8 channels, doing a rough mix, recording a guitar solo and some acoustic percussions on top… having a new track ready in the afternoon.
Or Tuesday? Chopping a 4-hour 4-channel recording session into 2467 pieces and re-arranging them within the next 4 years to become Tizinabi.
Wednesday… 🙂
How do the three of you resolve differences of opinion and make decisions about the music?
The most important decisions that define our sound and style significantly are made in recording sessions when we record improvised electronic and acoustic music together. The communication happens in milliseconds; we are reacting to each other without really having time to think. It’s more like someone sits down by the piano and says: hey listen to this! And the recording of an album starts in an instant. On the other hand, in the evening we might listen to an old Robert Hood set together and agree: let’s make some 142 bpm techno tomorrow. The 3 of us bring together such a wide horizon of musical experience and knowledge from J.S. Bach to Arabic maqam to that very record to spin at Goldengate tonight that we are too amazed to really argue when it comes to music.
In your new album, each song transitions smoothly to the next. How did you compose the album to achieve this effect?
It is actually one song. It was recorded in one very very long improvisational recording session and later we re-composed it step by step into a format that fits on a record and still captures all these overwhelming shared emotions of a beautiful afternoon on a clear day.
What gets your creative juices flowing? What was the spark that ignited the inspiration for ‘Tizinabi’?
We had a very deep conversation about the roots of the rumba clave and various other music-ethnological topics that morning that blew our minds, and later we started fiddling around with piano, guitar, and a drum machine. It was one of those days where everything, including the weather, seemed perfectly arranged. From the beginning of that session, we couldn’t stop the flow of energy that brought ideas and ideas and ideas for hours. Sometimes this just happens. You cannot plan it, and you are very thankful later that a few microphones were on air and the recording button was hit early that day.
Give readers 3 words to describe your latest project (one from each band member).
Energetic.
Psychedelic.
Compassionate.
What’s on your current playlist?
Again, after so many years, Ravi Shankar every night and Surf Rock and House music in the morning.
Break down the news for us: what can we expect from you this year?
A whole BUNCH of super hot vinyl and for sure some super hot shows, including GET PERLONIZED in August.
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