YELLOW-STRIPE /// INTERVIEW PANACEA

YELLOW-STRIPE (YS) - You are one of the oldest artists in the dark and hard Drum & Bass scene, can you tell us how you started?

THE PANACEA (PAN) - I guess i have been around for quite a while, you can say that. my first LP was released in '96. shortly after finishing my school education i released my first record on chrome (position chrome was called chrome when i started to work for the label, we changed the name in '98). i had been producing since '91 but it took me 5 years to get to the point where i thought i could release a record, where i thought my music was good enough to be presented to a bigger audience. ever since then i have been working in the music business full time.
i have to say that i believe i had an easy start simply because at that time, nobody was doing what i did. i came from a country (germany) that at that time had not produced a DNB artist with an international profile, my sound was totally new and about 100% harder than anything that had been released in the uk, the press liked me for my musical background (choirboy, classical trained singer) and my record label (force inc., position chrome's parent label at that time) gave me an international platform and infrastructure.
also, even at that time early in my career, i gave my music a face and wasn't just another incognito producer.
All that combined helped me a lot at the beginning and over the years but has also made me more vulnerable to criticism and jealousy.

YS – Some have said Drum & Bass is going through an extremely creative phase, with artists all over the spectrum experimenting with new sounds and vibes and getting themselves heard. What are your feelings on the current state of Drum & Bass, and where do you see it heading?

PAN - Yes i think that is correct. people have grown tired of wobble and want to move on. i think the so called minimal dnb is a very promising new subgenre. i can feel it in my own music that i quite enjoy a less "full" production these days with big reverbs and a focus on a few good sounds, rather than 40 different tracks in one tune. but then it seems as if everything is possible anyways, i like my sets to be quite varied and i play lots of different styles and speeds………so really everything goes as long as it's good!

YS – What is the most valuable advice you would give an aspiring artist?

PAN - be yourself, don't listen when people tell you to be more like this or like that, don't try to imitate, innovate!

YS – Where have you enjoyed playing the most?

PAN - impossible to say but one of last years highlights was playing in mexico city for the first time, the rave was in a church!

YS – We know you have a new album in the works, can you tell us what to expect from it and what else you have planned for Position Chrome in 2010?

PAN - i guess with the album i am trying to really sum up the last years for me musically. there is a bit of everything on there and not just straight-up dancefloor tunes but also tracks that you can enjoy at home. i have been collaborating with artists that inspire me with their work alot like limewax, lethal and donny and had cooh and dean rodell remix older panacea tunes. all in all it will be a hefty package. we have put alot of work into the cover design aswell, and i would go as far as to say that nobody in the dnb business has ever done anything quite like it before. i went to a professional photo studio in munich where a crew of people worked with me for an entire day. the photos were shot on a state-of-the-art hasselblad camera and each pic is 150 mb big...you can imagine the resolution. i am extremely pleased with the result but can't really say more...you will see! furthermore we have just released our first audio 12", which obviously is a banger and we have more in the works from cooh, the sect, lethal and counterstrike! 2010 should be a good year for PC.

YS - At the moment which upcoming talents seem the most promising to you?

PAN - right now i think dub elements have impressed me a lot with their current tracks, they just seem to get better and better with every track they make.

YS – What are your TOP 5 tunes ever?

PAN - 1. the klf - what time is love
2. messiah - there is no law
3. sunnO))) - it took the night to believe
4. underground resistance - sonic destroyer
5. front 242 - rhythm of time

YS – And your TOP 5 tunes at the moment?

PAN - 1. counterstrike and the panacea - the minotaur
2. dub elements - bass 2 the tope
3. current value - black box
4. florence and the machine - you got the love (jamie xx rework)
5. chris liebing and tommy four seven - bauhaus (sledge mix)

YS- This New Years Eve was the first you played in Portugal, and one of the few events where you performed a live act. What does your live act consist of and what do you aim to transmit with it?

PAN - i am playing live of a roland 1624 hd recording system, where the tracks i play during the night are split up into individual stems that i can mute and alter to a certain extend.

i am also using an alesis air fx tool and my old yamaha su 10 minisampler for added fx. all in all a pretty simple setup but still much can go wrong. on nye i had to reroute my output channels because the ones i had originally activated simply didn't work. obviously when i got back to the hotel they did........bizarre things like that happen every time. however i am presenting to the people a unique mix of my work and on nye in porto especially i played alot of material of the new album so people got a pretty decent preview there.

"Daniela Ferreira" - What inspires you to write music?

PAN - i get very inspired by urban life in general, a busy metropolis seems to always make me very creative. i love artists like anish kapoor, matthew barney, takashi murakami and anselm kiefer but also fashion designers like rick owens and gareth pugh inspire me with their work!

"Pedro Martins" - Why not more music videos?

PAN - simply because i am insane perfectionist and after shooting "The Evil Seed" i guess it would be hard to find anybody that wants to work with me. i can tell you that the process of finishing the video was painfully time-consuming…..and ruined my friendship with the director. when i have a clear vision of what i want to do i will go to great lengths to see it finished one to one to what i had in mind.

"Mikey Porto" - What really turns you on in music as a spectator or listener?"

PAN - very hard to describe, i would say a certain feeling........but i don't think i can describe it very well, something in between excitement, appreciation for the new and energy. i know that sounds abstract but as i said it's very hard to describe for me. as you can see i am very much into all kinds of different styles, i love drone metal as much as opera or dnb. i have always been like that and i have always been very much interested in styles of music that are out of the ordinary. hence i have very little interest in pop music for example where everything seems to be so streamlined these days.

"Renato Moreira" - Do you see The Panacea as a mainstream artist?

PAN - I find that to be a very interesting question that i have thought about a lot myself. i guess you can say that i am more mainstream than others, simply because i have become quite well known for what i do over the years, but also as mentioned before i am an easily recognizable individual and i never hide behind the dj booth but put on a proper show visualizing my music. i guess all those things are things that a mainstream artist would do but still i produce my tracks with integrity and fully without commercial intentions. so i guess i am really something in between, using pop mechanisms to present an utterly anti-pop product!

YS - Do you want leave a message for Portuguese crowd?

PAN - i would like to thank them for their continuous support over the years. everytime i have been invited i had a great time with you and i will continue to give my all at the shows. i was very touched when i played a show in portugal at my birthday and the crowd started to sing the birthday song.....a truly unforgettable moment. thank you all again!

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