Barem

Following in the large footprints forged by Villalobos, Barem has his heart in Argentina and his head wherever the techno is.  GIving it all up to live the DJ dream six years ago, he's never looked back and here chats to Pulse about his debut album, his journey so far and what drives him ever onward. 

Barem on Pulse

Pulse: Hello Barem!  Whereabouts are you at the moment?  Barem: I’m in Berlin right now, still in the middle of my album tour but coming back here whenever I can to keep other things moving. It’s very hard to get work done on the road.

Can you tell us a bit about some of your early experiences that got you into techno?  It all started when I was 16 or so. I used to be very shy and stay home most weekends until I got into house music. I got more and more into it and eventually started going to a lot of progressive house parties. There was this night at Pacha Buenos Aires every weekend that was very special back then and the whole vibe was great. But I got bored of progressive and started searching for other things. That was around the time I discovered artists like Josh Wink, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, etc. From that moment on I realized that was my thing, whatever you call it- techno, house, acid, minimal!

You’re from Buenos Aires, along with people like Seph and Jonas Kopp, is there a bit of a techno scene there? Yes there is. Back in the day, way before I got into this music there was a techno movement, but then it slowly faded out. I think when we started doing techno things again, some of it was back, but it was very small compared to the past. I had a weekly Wednesday party called Tekhne along with Pablo Denegri, Quik and Pablo’s girlfriend back then. Eventually we had to stop it ‘cause we couldn’t gather more than 50 people each time. But it helped us get an identity and progressively that developed into other things, new people and also new parties. Within a couple years we were all connected with artists from all over the country that did the same thing, mainly by a night called Club Minimo, that brought us all together. That along with some big international bookings on some festivals gave the techno scene a new face, and allowed us to get more inspired, release records, travel the world and finally put techno in a really big place.

What with touring, and then producing, where do you spend the majority of your what do you miss while you're away?  I use Berlin as my summer European base, but around November I usually go back to Buenos Aires to play at Creamfields Festival and change my base to Argentina until March. I miss friends, family and meat mostly. But I also miss a lot of people and things from Europe when I’m there. In the end, when you travel that much you learn how to accept the present and you don’t really miss things the way somebody that doesn’t travel does. Sometimes you wish you were somewhere else, but it never gets to the point where you feel miserable and cry.

The new release is great. The clear concept for this release is one thing that struck us. Can you tell us a little bit about the ideas behind it, and what led you to this?  I always wanted to make an album as a whole piece. I don’t really like albums where tracks are not connected to each other and that at the end of playing them you find no story, or timeline. So my initial goal was that, and it eventually happened by putting together most of what I did in the past. If you listen to the progression of my releases since I started putting music out in 2005, you’ll find significant differences in elements, deepness, groove, and structures. I evolved during these years and got excited by different things. The album gathers all that together, not in a specific way, but it goes back to my roots, my older past, my recent past, my present and some of my future. It doesn’t really do it in a specific order, but I think in the end it tells a story and it successfully connects everything I’ve done so far.

How would you describe the production process for this release?  This album was done with a technique that Jon Gaiser suggested to me last year. I never worked like this before. I usually work track by track, but for an album that’s not really the best way I think. Jon suggested me to work loop by loop, putting one idea at a time until I got enough of them to draw the story. Once all the loops were made, it was only time to sequence every one, find a nice balance and give shape to it.

“The feeling of beauty when the dust is gone and everything is clear” is your quote from the release. Was this a natural goal for the release from the concept of the album or did it come about through the process? The track After The Storm was the only exception to the production technique I used. That track was made before I even started working on the album. In fact because of that track I decided to make an album because it was the perfect ending in my mind. But I didn’t think about that quote until the record was fully done. I had to put titles at the end of the production process and present it at M-Nus. I knew that the name of that track was going to be the title of the album, so I thought of how the track make me feel like and what It made me remember and finally came out with After The Storm. The quote is a short explanation of it, and the sentence that all the titles form in the end is a nice way of getting there and make the album a whole also with the titles. I read in some review that to use a sentence the way I used it was pretentious and somehow arrogant. I would say it’s more arrogant to assume something like that without knowing me or asking me what was in my mind when I did that. It’s sad to see people trying to trash a little nice idea like that. Takes some freedom away from what we do.

Music has literally taken you around the world. What would you say to some one at home producing techno, thinking of giving up their day job?  That’s a tough one. I gave up school for techno when I was 20. And it wasn’t an easy decision. In fact, I didn’t make that decision on my own. A friend that was already big in the industry advised me to go for it and I followed his advice. My parents were very scared when I did, and I was scared as hell myself. But I would have regretted not going for it for my whole life I think, or wondered what would have happened. Today I sort of don’t even care what would have happened if I didn’t go for it, because I’m sure what I’m doing now and what I’ve done in the past 6 years on tour is 100 times more interesting, fun and exciting than any other path I could have taken. Just for the record I’m not advising anybody to quit their jobs or school. My advice is to follow your instincts and also take into account the moment when you make that decision. When I made it in 2005 things were a lot different than they are now in the scene, and maybe if I had to choose again now I wouldn’t know what to do.

What’s next? I’ve been thinking about it and I’m not so sure yet. I’m still in the summer time tour craziness and I’m trying to enjoy it and clear my mind from all the thinking, planning and doing I’ve been through since October last year. But times are different now from the years before and I feel we all need to do more and more in order to keep growing, so I think my next moves will be planned as soon as the tour is over.

Barem's debut LP, After The Storm, is available now on M_nus

Barem on Pulse