Nandu

Nandu – My Studio

I remember sitting in my bedroom five years ago with a pair of horrible speakers, creating my first EP to ever be released. It sounded awful, but the ideas behind the music were good, I just wasn’t able to perform them fully. A few months later I moved into my first ‘real’ studio.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that to me the studio is where ideas can be processed and polished. I constantly get new ideas, and I can make drafts of them on the go. But the studio is where the music comes alive. This is my studio – I actually share it with some very cool guys – but this is where I produce my music. I share the studio and gear with Djuma Soundsystem, Bongo & Pusk and my good friend Radeckt, who is also the other half of my second project, Leman & Dieckmann.

Workspace

In the creative process of writing music I am very intuitive. I need to get jams and ideas from my head, into the machines and then into the computer – and it has to go fast. Not because I’m in a hurry, but because I often feel like the ideas give birth to new ideas, therefore my workstation is very important. I need to have things close to me, and be able to do more than one thing at a time. This picture shows my typical workspace. Everything is connected, but in a very dynamic way so that I can quickly change direction if needed.

Organic Grooves

If you have listened to some of my music, you have probably noticed the organic feel of my tracks. I have a background as a jazz musician, and I have always loved to jam. It’s essential for me to be able to just grab an instrument and just become one with it. It might sound like a cliche, but nonetheless that’s how I create my grooves. In that process I also have to add that I delete a lot of terrible rhythms. This picture shows some of my different percussion instruments from all around the world, cymbals, drums and of course my beloved trumpet. It’s a King Super20 Silver Sonic from 1963. It has a very distinctive, warm and rusty sound. I actually inherited it from my ex-sister-in-law who forgot to give it back when she played trumpet in high school.

Tascam M-208

This is probably the piece of equipment I use the most in my studio. Almost all recordings are done here, as well as a lot of the mixing and effects. I’m not really an expensive microphones kind of guy (I’m broke), so this is where I add colour to my recordings. Everything is patched so I can easily sum it through the mixer. The EQs are very colourful and the preamps sound good – not in an expensive kind of way, but in a Nandu kind of way. Also adding effects via the sends is the most dynamic and intuitive way of doing it in my opinion. Almost all of effect processing of my recently released LP Love You Til The End (on Constant Circles) was done on this mixer.

Vermona DRM1 MKiii and Monarch EEM-2800DS

A match made in heaven. We have some compressors and different small effects in the studio, and this picture shows us part of a rack with all kinds of goods in it, but I can’t walk you through it all, so what I really want to talk about here is the combination of the Vermona DRM1 MKiii and the Monarch EEM-2800DS. Actually the DRM isn’t mine, its Radeckt’s, but as brothers we share. The Vermona is one of the best drum machines I have ever worked with. The kick is amazing, it’s so easy to handle, and the insert feature on the front of the rack on each channel is just amazing. But the magic really happens when I combine the making of hats, claps, and high grooves on the Vermona with the EEM-2800DS. It’s a bit broken, so the delays are very unreliable. It sort of jumps around in tempo, and then it has this colour which makes it sound like it was built in an old garage in 60s Germany. Almost all of my hats, claps, etc are made this way. Simply amazing to work with.

Moog Mother-32, TC Electronic Hall Of Fame and Alter Ego V2

Last year I turned 25 and for my birthday we had all of my friends over for dinner and a party. I hadn’t really had any birthday wishes but suddenly my wife asked me to sit down and she came in with what I thought was a shoebox. But as you might have guessed by now it wasn’t a pair of sneaks but the one and only Moog Mother. It had just been released and she had been through hell to get it in time for my birthday, so everybody tipped in and gave it to me. This is without a doubt the synth that has biggest personal value to me! With that said, it’s a big part of my productions (amazing bass, leads, and what an amazing sequencer), but it is also one of the main instruments of my live set. And when paired with the TC effects you only have to touch the attack a bit, open the filter and add some noise and it sounds like DJ Koze is making love to Mind Against. And when you then start playing with the patches… well, I literally can’t say what it sounds like ’cause I think you would have to censor it!

Roland Juno-106 and Hohner Pianet T

I don’t think the Juno needs any introduction. It’s one of my basic tools for all pads and leads. I bought it from Denis Horvat a few years ago, just before the price went through the roof. Unfortunately three of the chips died within a few weeks, but I got a tech here in Copenhagen to custom build some new for me and it sounds amazing.

The Pianet is just a very cool instrument for those of us who love the sounds of the 70s electro pianos, but are on a budget. The sound is amazing, but there is no ADSR-control on it, so if you want to modulate the sound it has to be with effects – but that’s actually what I find really fun, so it’s not a problem for me.

Alternative Jams

One of my most important tools in the studio is “play around with everything”. Of course a trumpet is meant for trumpeting, but how does it sound if you put a microphone inside it and record percussion through that? Horrible! But it was worth a shot… What I mean is that it’s very important to play around with everything. Every time I’m stuck in a project I go to the Pianet and jam a bit. I turn up some African funk and jam along on my djembe, and when I need a new shaker I try to rub the plastic bag that I brought my lunch in against a shaker. And time after time I find some magic in these weird moments.