Melbourne producer Roland Tings talks Berlin, Naivety Towards Music and His Lack of Interest with the Mainstream

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Melbourne producer Roland Tings talks Berlin, Naivety Towards Music and His Lack of Interest with the Mainstream

With his debut LP making waves across the globe, Melbourne producer Rohan Newman, aka Roland Tings, begins his national tour tonight at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney and we were fortunate enough to have a chat about his stay in Berlin, his ‘ineffable signature sound’ and what it was like to work on the Internasjonal imprint ahead of the big night.

I see you’ve been residing in Berlin, what’s it been like living in such a unique and diverse city? To what degree has your stay influenced your sound? And what are the reasons behind your move?

That was a few years ago, I was there for a few months after I finished my LP. I’ve had a few extended stays there and every time I come back with something different. The narrative of “move to Berlin, wear black and make techno” was something I was pretty keen on avoiding. But I absolutely picked up a lot of appreciation for faster and more functional sounds. I think this influence is going to come through on whatever I release next. Inspiration works in funny ways and I was inspired as much by what I didn’t hear as what I did hear.

Few visits to Berghain?

Just enough 😉

You released your self-titled debut album very fittingly on Australia day this year on Prins Thomas’s Internasjonal imprint, with the likes of Jacques Renault, Mano Le Tough and Roman Flugel having worked with the Norwegian label, what was the process like and how was it working alongside them?

To have the blessing of Thomas was a big deal for me. He was quite involved with the A&R side as well as mixing the record. I really had no idea what I was doing and to have his hand guiding a lot of the process was a real relief because he’s been there and done that. To be releasing alongside those guys was really weird for me, they’re all people I’ve looked up to over the years.

From your releases with 100% Silk and Club Mod, to your album, how do you think your musical styling and perspective on your work has changed? If there has been change, what has influenced this change?

With my first EP I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Over the 3 years between those records I think I gained more of an understanding of how to make music. Essentially the LP is a snapshot of where my brain was at over those years trying to learn how to make music. Naivety is something you can’t really fake and I think that it comes through in my work; I think thats part of what people find appealing about it.

There’s a real Chicago house vibe with your work, but I’ve definitely noticed a strong European flavour, in particular with the percussion work and lush synth-laden cuts, as well as a calypso vibe with tracks like Venus.

From your ‘Milky Way’ 12” in 2012, to your recent remix of Seekae’s ‘Worry’ (which is absolutely beautiful by the way), there’s definitely a vivid signature sound you emit, but it’s somewhat ineffable for myself and to friends that I’ve asked. So how would you describe your music?

Like I mentioned that naivety before, I really don’t know how to play any instruments so I go about things in a pretty weird way. I use lots of note quantisation, jamming with arpeggiators and then editing their output to come up with melodies, using audio to midi converters on weird sounds, hardware sequencers that behave in weird ways. A lot of what I do relies on randomness which I then harness and sort of mould into something that appeals to me. It’s a really great thing to be told that I have a vivid signature, that’s something that I think everyone works towards. It just comes down to the way you learn to work and the gear you use.

With such a trend for placing vocals over tracks to make it easily digestible and more palatable to the masses. One thing I really dig about your album is the fact you refrained from putting vocals on it, thus making it a raw body of work, which is completely your own. Was this an important thing for you? If so, how so?

It wasn’t a conscious decision. I don’t pay any attention to the mainstream electronic music scene and certainly when i was making the tracks for the LP in 2012 I had even less awareness of what was popular. The idea of “mass appeal” was and continues to be very uninteresting to me.

I’m a big fan of the artwork used for all of your releases, with the obscure and minimal imagery drawing parallels with your sound. Are you into your art? Who did you work with on designing your album cover?

The artwork was done by my good friends Tin & Ed. They are amazing designers from Melbourne who work on the boundary of art and design. I think their rendering of the visual side of Roland Tings has actually helped me form a really good idea of what I’m trying to achieve. It feeds in directly to what I’m doing.

Bringing it back to a domestic front, how do you think the Australian scene is progressing?

It’s cool here right now. I’m meeting lots of people who have been working on music for a few years and are just starting to come through with some really interesting music. I think in the next few years there will be a shift in Australia from this overdone EDM sound to a more considered hybrid as people dig into the history of dance music and realise this is a genre that existed for a very long time without any “drops”.

Where do you like to party when back home in Australia?

At a dinner table with my friends.

Who are your top 3 up and coming artists at the minute?

1. Douglas Fur

2. GL

3. J Amir

What are your top 3 go to tracks at the moment?

1. Untold – Motion The Dance

2. Fripp & Eno – Wind On Wind

3. Arp – St Tropez

Finally, with such a steady and calculated (by this I mean you haven’t simply chucked a plethora of material out for the sake of it, you’ve been purposive with your approach) rise in the last couple years, where to from here for Roland Tings?

The Pub.

You can purchase Roland Tings self-titled album on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/roland-tings/id949855985

Tour dates are as follows:

Saturday May 16 – Brisbane, TBC Club*
Tix via: http://bit.ly/1DhRXRf

Wednesday May 20 – Sydney, Oxford Art Factory
Tix via: http://bit.ly/1I6Bdi5

Thursday May 21 – Melbourne, Howler
Tix via: http://bit.ly/1aJPBBP

Friday May 22 – Adelaide, Rocket Bar
Tix via: http://bit.ly/1EuhkCC

Saturday, May 30 – Perth, At The Pile
Tix via: http://bit.ly/1CSwyvX

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