Catching Up With... Oliver Huntemann (& his Magnet Video Premiere)

Having released three albums to date, he’s on the verge of his fourth, ‘Paranoia,’ right now, Hamburg resident Oliver Huntemann has deeply explored the realms of his outsider techno. His discography is impressive, an array of remixes, collaborations and 12”s for the Ideal Audio label back up his trio of long players, and on the eve of his appearance at the WYS! Bank Holiday special this Sunday night he caught up with team WYS! to premier one of his upcoming album’s accompanying videos and discuss his incredibly hands on ‘Reactable’ live performance… Hi Oliver, what have you been up to recently? I'm hard at work on the fine-tuning of my Reactable Live Show, which I’m performing on Sunday at fabric for WYS. I had many things to program and to change after the first test-gigs in Paris and Vienna… so on Sunday I'll be on stage with optimized sound of the Reactable and a brand new LED-lightcage! You are returning to WYS! this Sunday with your ‘Paranoia LIVE Tour’ – can you tell us more about the project as a whole? ‘Paranoia’ is the name of my upcoming album, to be released 2nd of November on my label 'Ideal Audio.' More than nine months of work and sleepless nights are included in that album and the gig at fabric will be the kick-off of the release tour. I'm very happy to get the tour started in London, it's such a unique vibe. Still one of my favourite places! Can you tell us more about the creative process behind ‘Paranoia?’ What were the big challenges you had to overcome…? Last summer I felt very creative and thought that's the best reason to start a new long-player. I had tonnes of ideas in my mind and had good results very quickly. Together with my studio wizard André Winter I was locked in the studio over autumn and winter. I wanted to stay tuned-in with my sound in a way but also wanted to make steps forward. That's why I don't have only club-tunes on ‘Paranoia.’ I had the idea of implementing downbeats and sound collages to tell a story too. Another important approach was the invitation of vocal artists like the great Robert Owens and Ane Trolle from Scandinavia, who was also performing for Trentemöller. Last but not least I wanted to create not so common tracks for the dancefloor. The best example for that might be ‘In Times Of Trouble’ which works prime-time without any beats. No kick drum, no hi-hats, no snare – just the energy of sequences and basslines. Producing this was really fun. Below is an exclusive sneak-preview of one of the album’s accompanying videos – how and why did these come about? I had the idea of making videos of all tracks of ‘Paranoia.’ During my travels I always meet a lot of video artists and I asked them about it. They all were infected after listening to the music and wanted to become part of the project. Directors from all over the world took part of it, such as Manuel Nogueira from Sao Paulo, Seb Rekorder from Brussels, Boris Nikolov from Sofia and Xenbel from Hamburg – just to name a few. The videos are fantastic and they are included on a bonus DVD together with the regular CD. ‘Magnet,’ which you can see below, is a powerful tech monster and we decided to use snippets of my Reactable performance. It was shot at the very first gig at Neidklub in my hometown Hamburg by Sebrok. He is one of my artists for Ideal Audio and he was DJing that night. I didn't know that he's an experienced film director too. He used to work for MTV few years ago which you can see in the result of the video. Having played for WYS! at fabric before, can you tell us a bit about your experience last time around? WYS! at fabric has become my favourite event in London over the years. I like the way Cormac, Jacob and Peter are doing their job – so emotional. All gigs have been more than great. I have the feeling the crowd on Sunday is going to be different, more intense and more into the music. It's a big pleasure and huge fun playing for them. I remember the first time I played for WYS! in Room Two, wow! That night blew the roof down. What can people expect from you performance on Sunday? They going to see me standing with my Reactable in the middle of my LED-lightcage, playing the shit out of my soul – if I can say that here. My Reactable performance will be seen live and direct on video screens. Expect some older tunes and a lot of the new stuff. Looking forward to see the reaction of the people watching the show! Catch Oliver in Room One on Sunday at WYS!