Florian Meindl is a multi-talented and multi-faceted artist, who is renowned for his technical prowess. Producing for over fourteen years, Florian has become known for his deep, grooving powerful techno. His productions are characterised by his love of analog, which represent his true signature
sound.
Since 2006 running his own FLASH Recordings, the label showcases Florian’s musical vision, reflects his taste and gives him tracks for his DJ Mixes. At the moment counts with over 130 releases.
We had the chance to talk with Florian Meindl aligned to his latest album ‘Time Illusion’ release.
Electronic Groove: Hi Florian, thanks for the time to chat with us. You just released your new album ‘Time Illusion’ on April 7th; can you tell us about the concept behind the album and its creation?
Florian Meindl: Thanks guys. Even though it is not a pure concept album the title ‘Time Illusion’ is fitting quite well, because especially when I make music or play as a DJ or Live Act I lose my sense of time. In the studio when I’m relaxed I try to record little jam sessions of about 10 minutes, but when I check how long I actually recorded it’s often up to 30min. Whereas when I play live under pressure I’m sometimes finished 15 minutes earlier and then need to do more improvisations at the end! This made me think a lot about what time actually is, specifically what the tiniest fraction of time might be, or when and where does time flow backwards, because in theory time can also go into the opposite direction.
EG: How does a usual production day for Florian Meindl go? Are you structured or produce when the mood takes you and do you set out to create a specific piece before you sit down?
Florian Meindl: My production habits are as different as my tracks actually, some things kind of stay the same, like most of my tracks have straight kick drums and tend to reference towards certain moods and certain sound are just not contained in my music. Lately quite often I produce a whole track after I experiment and discover/learn new Euro rack modules or pieces of hardware. Sometimes I have two different parts of two different songs in my head and want to combine them – in general, by combining two things, which seemingly don’t fit together, new interesting results can occur! I like to discover routines but once they work I tend to build up a new way. Maybe not the most effective way to make music but that’s what always happens.
EG: ‘Time Illusion’ was produced with your analog equipment that aside to you tend to use a combination of Hardware/Software or just hardware?
Florian Meindl: Most of the tracks have been produced with hardware, mainly with my Eurorack Modularsystem but I also played some melodies with the KORG Minilogue and the NordLead. Everything was recorded through a Mackie 8-Bus mixer from the 90’s which sounds crunchy and warm – the 4 Stereo groups have been recorded in Cubase and edited a little bit and processed with UAD compressors, EQs etc. Some tracks like ‘Andromeda’ or ‘Inner Secrets’ have been recorded live in this session:
‘Time Illusion’ in a similar session like this:
EG: You are also touring the album live, how do you prepare for this and what can clubbers expect when they attend one of your shows?
Florian Meindl: Clubbers can expect to hear the source of my album played and improvised a bit more wild and alive than the original recordings and nobody knows what can happen, not even me. All sounds are generated with analog circuitry or with crunchy 12bit sample modules which go through analog filters and saturations and even a real spring reverb etc.
The preparation was a quite exhausting process because I don’t have a computer with me I needed to accommodate everything in 3 rows of ModularSystem so many modules have to fulfil two purposes or a modulation source has to be used for many modules so I need to remember some approximate potentiometer values in addition to some melodies and how to change sound design live. But after I found the perfect configuration and everything I need 1 day rehearsal before just to remember everything and perform it well and then fit it into the luggage which is also planned very carefully because of size and weight restrictions of airlines etc.
“I like to discover routines but once they work I tend to build up a new way”
EG: Your own imprint FLASH Recordings has been flourishing, what is your practice of choosing artists you work with?
Florian Meindl: Most of the artists I sign approach the label through the demo contact section on the website www.flash-rec.com but some also come either from recommendations or artists I met somewhere or who’s records I liked and approached. It can take up to 2 weeks but I listen to all demo submissions. I also check their profile, how they present themselves, where else they are releasing and what they post – but only after I really like the music.
EG: What is the record that you always carry with you, that never fails?
Florian Meindl: There are some records of that kind of course but at the moment it’s Shifted – Persistence of Vision (MB Elektronics). I also like the title of it. And, please forgive me, I also have to name at least one from my own imprint FLASH Recordings because I play it in all sets which is a very energetic big room track called ‘Jar’ from the French producer Jusai.
Florian Meindl’s ‘Time Illusion’ is already available on FLASH Recordings.
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