Artist interview #8
GENKI NICK
Artist
Q: Who are you? Where are you from? And where are you going?
A: Genki Nick, based in Montreal’s south shore. I came to Canada 10 years ago from France. Where am I going : Destination Unknown ; )
Q: What brought you to music production? Why are you loving it?
A: I always loved electronic music for so many years. It began when I was a young boy with Oxygen/Equinox and Magnetic fields by Jean-Michel Jarre in the late 80s. Followed by Kraftwerk. Later, there was the beginning of techno music with artists like Scooter, Sash, U96, DJ Quicksilver…so many bands at that time, a few are still producing on a regular basis. So, that is how I wanted to create my own tracks.
Creating a track is a nice way to spend time, thinking about how to arrange it, mixing it.
Q: For how long have you been producing? And what are the main pieces of your setup?
A: Around 6 years now but the first 3 years, it was like 12years ago with very limited knowledge trying to mix tracks to sound like my favorite tracks at that time. Youtube was not super popular back in 2013 ; )
The past 2-3 years, I learnt a lot and tried to make tracks better and better from a technical point of view.
Q: What are the main pieces of your setup?
A: An old Korg RADIAS, my old time favorite Roland FANTOM and other Roland plugins like the classical Jupiter 8, Juno 106, Juno 60, System 1 and System 8. The Legend HZ is also a very nice plugin to get the vibes of analog synths without spending too much money..
Q: How do you see (and go through) the technical sides of production and especially the Mixdown stage?
A: Always struggling with the mixing part haha. But I learnt a lot (Thanks to Elliott!) and try to put in practice, experiment with all possibilities from my Daw (Cubase). Lots of hidden features and sometimes, there is an interesting article or video about how to do this and that. It is always nice to discover new ways of doing the mixdown.
Less is more is the rule but not always easy to implement : )
Q: What’s your latest release? And do you have any upcoming projects?
A: For the time being, I am producing several progressive tracks – not yet released. So, my latest release is a mini album with 3 tracks that tries to capture the old analog synths feeling. Most of the tracks were done using the Legend HZ plugin and the Roland SE-02 (100% analog collaboration with Roland and Studio Electronics). I like doing instrumental tracks like those 3 as the creativity process is without any limits.
Q: Anything else you would like to share, maybe for people beginning music production out there?
A: The technical aspects might be difficult to overcome at first but as long as you enjoy making music, it will always be a pleasure to produce tracks.
Q: To finish with some music, what’s your favorite track those days ?
A: Scooter – Ten Feet: I like the drop at the end of the track and the overall energy.