Ruxpin [Uni:Form/Electrolux] - Basterdized Interview March 2005 Born in 1981, Jonas Thor Gudmundsson, better known as Ruxpin first started producing music at the age of 14. His first release Mission EP was released on Uni:Form Recordings 1999 and the same year his first LP entitled Radio was released on the same label. Through his debut album, he got in touch with the highly acclaimed label Elektrolux where he released his next two LPs (Midnight Drive & Avalon) and also one LP (Magrathea) on their sublabel Mikrolux. Jonas has done various live shows with artists such as MúM, Biogen, Alex Paterson, Bola, Jega and many more. Basterdized is very pleased to welcome ..RUXPIN _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jonas, first off welcome to Basterdized. So, what you up to at the moment? R: I´m studying History at the University of Iceland. I play soccer with a 3rd division team and I´m currently working on my new album, alongside doing some remixes for Sutemos.net and Transistor Rhythm. So you can say i´m quite busy at the moment :)
Whats the meaning behind the name ruxpin? R: When I was younger there was a TV show about Teddy Ruxpin. They manufactured a teddy bear with a cassette player, which allowed him to tell stories. When i was in a electro/techno band we decided to chop up some samples of the tape and make him tell stories in sync of the music. It sounded awful, but it was a fun experiment. Then the name stuck with me and when i started my solo project I ended up using this name.
So what was it like to grow up in such a unique place like Iceland with its strange landscapes and midnight sun - are you a typical Icelander? R: Heh... a typical Icelander? Well... I don´t look like Björk, behave like Björk or sound like Björk, other than that I´m a typical Icelander. It was great growing up here. I live in a city of 25.000 residents, which some might feel is a very small city, but it is actually the second largest city in Iceland.
It would suggest that you got into the world of music fairly young. What were your first experiences with music and when did you finally come into contact with electronic music? R: You could say that music is in my blood. My grandfather played the violin with the Icelandic Orchestra, my uncle is a pianist at his local church, my mom plays the piano and so does almost every other member of my family. Music played a big part in my youth and of course I was encouraged too seek the path of music. My first experience with electronic music came from my brothers and my mom when I was 13 years old. My brothers were listening to “Rave” music and “Breakdance”. My mother was listening to Art of Noise. I started enjoying electronic music more and more, and the deeper I dug into Electronic music the better it became.
Do you have any formal music training? R: I studied classical piano for couple of years, but I just learnt the basics. I became the black sheep of the family for a while for quitting, but they understood where my true passion lay. More training would have helped, but there are some theories that think that formal music training can put boundaries on music production.
What musical styles have lead you to where you are today as a musician? Would you like to name check any Artists who have had an influence on you? R: My influences through the years have been: Queen, Tears for Fears, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Prodigy, Manix, Mixmaster Morris, The Orb, Orbital, Plaid .... You get the point!
How would you describe the kind of music you make? R: I´m not gonna give you this “I´m an artist and I don´t categorise my music”. Well... It´s electro. Some purist might not think so, but it´s how I categorise it. Electro is an wide-form of musical direction, not necessery only 808 and vocoders.
Q: Do you ever produce under different names or experiment creating different genres? R: I´ve produced Techno, Minimal and even House music under other aliases. I´m not going to mention any of my other aliases however, since I like to keep it seperate from my Ruxpin project. My true passion has always been my Ruxpin projects.
Tell us how you went about getting your first release. Was it as difficult at the end of the nineties to get your music out there as it is today? R: It wasn´t exactly hard getting my first release. When I was studying piano I signed up for a course, “Working with Midi”. My teachers there were Bix and Maggi from GusGus. Through them I met up with some good and talented people like Thor, Biogen, Cold and all the guys at Thule Records. They helped me polish my sound and arrangements. I sent some tapes to Thule Records and they liked some of my ideas and wanted to work with that. They were extremely helpful and they are to thank for me being in this business now. Working on that first album and finally seeing it on vinyl for the first time was an amazing feeling and a very fun process. I think the whole industry is on a slope at the moment. The EFA incident hit many good labels really hard, but more and more of the small alternative labels are coming up now, setting very high musical standards, which is a good sign.
I see alot of your music is released on CD. How important to you that your music also appears on vinyl? R: I guess my music is more CD friendly. My last album on Elektrolux “Avalon” never came out on vinyl and the reason is probably because the album is quite downtempo and not dj-friendly. That was their decision and I respect that. The vinyl format is very important for me though and I have plans trying to release some more uptempo vinyl-only material.
Care to talk us through some of your favourite bits of kit in the studio? Will you share any insights into the Ruxpin sound? R: I don´t really want to tell which one of my babies I love the most. About the insights into the “Ruxpin sound”, if it sounds good and feels good, then it works. I think that is the work methods for most people. If I have some “special” sound then I have made it accidentally.
Are you a fast worker in the studio? Whats the average amount of time you will spend on a track? R: I guess I´m a fast worker in the studio. I sometimes have problems working with other people, as I want to be in charge of the studio. That can be a bit annoying for my co-workers, and maybe that´s why I mostly work alone. If I don´t have a pattern that sounds good within 2-3 hours then I throw the track away and start again. The process of making a track can take from 6 hours to 2 days.
Do you get the chance to play Live much? Is it something you enjoy? R: I love to play live if the atmosphere is good. I don´t play much live in Iceland (1-2 times a year), since I don´t like most of the clubs and some of the promoters here. I love to play in Europe and I´ve only had good experiences doing that. I don´t do that often, since the price of the flight tickets from Iceland scares away most promoters, which I can understand.
It seems Iceland produces a lot of good musicians considering its a pretty small place. Why do think that is? Do you have alot of contact with other musicians there. Do you influence each other and is there any such thing as an Icelandic sound? R: The reason why we have so many good musicians here is because there is nothing else to do around here. The winters are long, dark and harsh, which is the best situation for sitting back in the studio and working on a track. In the summer we have almost 24 hour daylight, which can trigger insomnia, which is also a quite good situation for music production. Most of the artists here have good contact with each other and most probably influence each other as well.
Alot of music from Iceland seems to have this other-worldliness quality about it. To what extent do you think environment affects the music someone makes and would you be making the same music you do if you lived say in London? R: Wow.. this is a tough one. The view of mountains, glaciers, volcanos and the whole contact with nature probably helps subconsciously to bring out the organic side of music production. Environment playes the same role for the musician as it does for the painter, in my opinion.
Whats the actual music scene like in Iceland? What could you expect to see on a Friday night out in Reykjavik? R: The music scene in Iceland is similar to most other countries. There is one big record company in Iceland and they mainly release crap music, the likes of boybands, girlbands and coldplay-ripoffs. The same people who own the record company also own most of the radio stations and tv stations as well. That´s why most artists look to Europe or the States to release their records. I almost never go out on a friday night in Reykjavik. Not much to see really. The electronic scene is quite underground and it looks like it´s gonna be that way for a while. The drum & bass scene is quite big here, and that is thanks to the hard working people at www.breakbeat.is, who organise events in downtown Reykjavik every month.
Do you have any new work due for release on vinyl, where can people find your records/cds? I´ve got a track coming up on a compilation from Omniamm Records (New label from Danny Daze). I also got some releases coming up on Transistor Rhythm, which is more minimal techno. I´m currently remixing a band called FusedMarc, which will be released on Sutemos.net this month. I´m currently locked in my studio finishing up my new album. That is my top priority at the moment
Information http://www.hi.is/~jthg/Disco.html http://www.discogs.com/artist/Ruxpin
booking information:
Interviewed by Krusokane |
