Photo by Jason Evans

Many bands and producers have waxed nostalgic for the shoegazing sound of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and the Cocteau Twins over the past few years, but few have had the skills or ideas to do anything but. Ulrich Schnauss has nicely filled this niche with his ever-developing sound, which marries the blissful rush up of shoegaze dynamics with the finely-tuned soundscapes of electronic music. His latest album, Goodbye, fits his majestic and oftentimes hazy melodies into more traditional song structures. It’s a significant change for Schnauss, and I wanted to know more about it. I talked with Ulrich via email between tour stops about leaving the comforts of the studio, partners in sound, and the material left on the cutting room floor. (interview by Steve Mizek)

I’ve read that before you finished Goodbye you had several albums worth of material you were unsatisfied with. How was it different from the final version? Will any of that material see release?

Ulrich Schnauss: I had to throw away a lot of material that I liked on its own but that didn’t work in context with the rest of the layers that were used in the respective song. Sound-wise my main priority for this album was to have it mixed in a away that the layers merge into each other to create one big sound. I had to make some occasionally painful decisions getting rid of stuff. I will probably use some of the sounds that are not featured on the album on future releases – but having them play different sequences.

While Goodbye is a close sibling to your previous albums, the more traditional song structure make it markedly different. Can you tell me a bit about how that change came about?

I found it very liberating to restrict myself to more traditional ways of structuring a piece. However, with Goodbye, at least for the moment I’ve done everything that I wanted to do using the song formula. For the next album I’d like to work with more open structures that will hopefully allow me to focus even more on the sound-scaping side of things.

Are you planning more music under some of your other monikers like Ethereal 77?

I would really love to work on some drum & bass tracks again — especially as moving to London and listening to the local pirate stations has reminded how much I used to love it – and still do. I don’t know if I’d come up with anything that would be good enough for a release, but I’d certainly have a great time working on it.

Photo by Jason Evans

In your Myspace bio you’re quoted talking about songs in terms of colors. Do you specifically try to make your songs have visual properties? What kind of affect do you want your music to have on listeners as they hear it?

Associating music with a non-musical aspect (like visualizing sounds as colours) is something that can be very helpful as a guideline to decide which elements are still missing in a song or which should be removed. Even more than if I was just listening to what I’m doing the colour association is letting me know in a very direct way if I’m adding elements that are not suitable for the overall “sound picture.” I’m just happy if people seem to be able to use my music in a similar way that I listen to my favourite records: it’s great if music manages to elevate you out of reality for a few minutes reminding you of the fact that there’s (at least in theory) the possibility of a different life.

You contributed a song to the soundtrack of the movie “Elizabethtown.” Are you looking to use more of your music for films? How interested are you in the interaction between your music and film?

It’d be fantastic if there were opportunities to do soundtrack material; trying to adjust your music to a movie is a restrictive but at the same time inspiring and challenging way of working. “Elizabethtown” was just a license for an already existing song. I hope there’ll be the possibility to compose something specifically for a movie some day.

Let’s talk about some of your recent collaborators: Judith Beck, Robin Guthrie from Cocteau Twins, Airiel, and Longview. How did they come about? What did you take away from your interactions with them? Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?

Judith Beck sang on A Strangely Isolated Place already. We got really excited about the vocal sound we were starting to get, but there was only a limited amount of space to make use of it. It seemed to be a natural progression to have an increased amount of vocals on the next album. The voice is still used as an instrument among other instruments and in a quite textural way, but I wanted to give Judith more room to work with different moods (“Medusa” is a good example for that). After I did two remixes for Longview we stayed in touch. Rob and I wrote “Shine” together and as they were already looking for a keyboarder anyway it seemed to make sense to try if it would work. Playing in longview is very likely the most productive and fruitful collaboration I’ve ever been involved in – I’m very excited about the new songs we’ve been working on throughout the last year. As for Airiel, I was really flattered to be asked to contribute some synth stuff to one of my favourite band’s album! We met each other the first time a few years ago when I was supporting M83 in chicago. Robin Guthrie did two remixes of tracks from the second record – a truly overwhelming experience. I still find it quite unbelievable that he was up for it!

Ulrich Schnauss and Judith Beck, photo by Jason Evans

According to your Myspace profile you’ve going to be on tour for quite a while. How do you feel about touring? What are the best and worst aspects?

The worst aspect of touring for me is to be away from the studio, which really is the place where I feel most comfortable and at home. The best (especially on this tour) is that touring gives you the opportunity to meet up with friends that you otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see in person. I never had an urge to be on a stage or to perform, but I do accept that it’s necessary in order to get your music heard and that a lot of people really seem to appreciate if you’re playing gigs.

I noticed a few of your dates are actually DJ gigs. Do you do much DJing outside of tours like these? What kind of stuff do you usually play? Do you keep up with techno/house at all?

I do quite regularly DJ in London – friends of mine there are putting on two regular nights (Sonic Cathedral and Club AC30) which focus on shoegaze, psychedelic and electronic music. I usually play a lot of the current American bands that I’m into mixed with some classics from the early 90s. Ido have some friends that were involved in the techno/house thing (or are still doing it), that’s how I occasionally get an update on what’s happening with that scene.

As technology grows more powerful and easier to access, electronic music is becoming easier to tour with. What kind of live show are you doing these days? What do you want future live shows to accomplish (with all media)?

One issue I had with touring was that I wasn’t too happy with the previous live set-up, as I was mainly playing keyboard alongside backing tracks from the hard drive. I’ve put a lot of work into developing a more open set up that allows me to improvise and do things in a different way each night. I hope that Judith will have time in the future to play an entire tour with me. It was also great fun to perform an acoustic version of “Shine” with Rob in New York, something I’d de be up for repeating any time.

Photo by Jason Evans

What words of advice do you have for budding producers?

It took a long time until I had the courage to do what I wanted to do musically. I always had the impression that it would be necessary to compromise between what I wanted to do and what a certain scene in Berlin would allow me to do. Ironically the first record that got some recognition was Far Away Trains Passing By which I recorded after I had more or less given up on the idea of ever being able to fit in. I’d therefore recommend to somehow try to be confident enough to develop your own musical identity rather than paying too much attention to the peer pressure that is being put on you.

What can fans expect from you in the next year or so?

There’s gonna be more remixes and hopefully a Longview album. I’m recording an album with a singer/songwriter and am doing some production work here and there. Besides that, once I get back home from the current tour I will also start recording material for the next album.