After 3 excellent EPs on Areal Records and some appearances on various compilations (Areal, Cocoon...), Michaela Dippl aka Ada, presents us her first album. The female producer and songwriter from Cologne creates a nice, simple and melodic music in a really personal way, influenced by the pop and rock music as well by the minimal style which is characteristic of her hometown. Her album Blondie was released a few weeks ago and that's a really good occasion for us to ask some questions to one of the most acclaimed producer of the moment, known for the quality of her productions, but also for the efficiency of her live-acts.

- Atome: Could you present us your musical background and your influences?
- Ada: I think I'm much more influenced by Pop / Rock Music with vocals than electronic music. I was always listening more to music with vocals than to instrumental stuff. The first instrumental music I listened to was Jazz. My vocal-teacher is a Jazz-Singer and she introduced me to this kind of music. I started as a singer of a rock-band in 1994. After a few years I had another band with guitars too but also synthesizer and sampler. That was the first time I got in touch with this kind of instruments. At this time I also became more interested in electronic music like "Plaid" from the label Warp. I found a record of them at a fleamarket and bought it because of a track with vocals of Björk but later I got more into their instrumental stuff and also other music from this great label.

- A.: Actually who are your favorite artists?
- Ada: Live-acts: Metope, Sid le Rock. DJ's: Jan-Eric-Kaiser, Falko Brocksieper, Superpitcher...

- A.: You are releasing records on Areal, it's a good and very innovative label from Cologne. How did you get in touch with them?
- Ada: Michael (Metope) and I have been friends for a long time and we both used to live in a small town nearby Frankfurt. We had a music project called "lava lounge" in 1998 where I was singing. Matthias (Konfekt) was the one who gave me the user manuals for my first Electribe sampler (he was working at a music store). I remember when Michael told him, that I've made some tracks with this machine and my keyboard (which was a very cheap and old one) he was just laughing, because he wouldn't expect anything serious from it, but when he had heard it, he asked me to make the next Areal record and that was my first 12": Blindhouse / Luckycharm.

- A.: You perform live without using a computer? Why this choice? What kind of gear do you use on stage and in your studio?
- Ada: Oh, I think it's just because I've started to do this kind of music with a sampler and I'm used to work with it even though I also work with a computer when I'm producing at home. Meanwhile I bought another sampler (Electribe SX) and I still use the old one (Electribe S), a synthesizer (Microkorg) and sometimes my voice.

- A.: As a producer, what is your use of the Internet?
- Ada: I don't use it for producing, but to give interviews. :)

- A.: You seem to have traveled a lot during the last months ? What's your worst and best remember on the stage?
- Ada: Oh it was just a few days ago, when I was playing in Turin, Italy. The DJ who was playing before me played more like hard stuff and I was curious how people would react when I would start with one of my slowest songs with vocals... and when I started some people put sparklers on and listened exactly to what I'm doing. The worst experience was a long time ago when I was singing in my first band. It was one of my first gigs and I was quite nervous. Maybe that's why I forgot to plug in the microphone cable. I was singing and nothing came out so I was looking to the sound engineer with an angry face. When he pointed at the microphone and I could see what happened I felt very ashamed.

- A.: Let's talk about “Blondie” now, it's a really good album, could you tell us a few words about it?
- Ada: It took me a few months to finish Blondie. I produced it at my home, even the vocals, so it wasn't always easy because of my neighbors. I had to work with headphones very often and I don't have monitor-speakers, just the speakers of an old sound system. So I always burned CD's with the tracks to hear it on different sound systems and mixed it again and again. But the good side of it was that I was always working within a nice atmosphere.

- A.: There are some vocals on the album, which subjects do you generally approach?
- Ada: Yes there are more vocals on it than I've planned it to be. My first plans for the album were to make many short instrumental tracks, but when I had finished the first song with vocals I got more into this. Now I'm glad that I've done it this way. It's were I come from and also I think it fits to my music very well.

- A.: What are your projects? Do you plan to collaborate with other producers?
- Ada: I've just finished a new track with Metope. It will be on the next Onitor compilation. I'm also planning to start a new project with my friend Carolin who's singing on one track of my new album.
www.areal-records.com
Nhar, 18/11/2004