Ias Ferndale is a DJ producer of Electronic music based in Berlin. He finds his inspiration in techno, progressive house, and techno-house. He started as a DJ in the French rave party in 1999 then he turned to a musical production in 2000.
We caught up with Ias Ferndale to talk about his new release ‘Zawbiea’ via Polyptych and other musical projects.
Electronic Groove: Hi Ias! It’s a pleasure to be able to sit down with you for a chat. How have things been going? How is Berlin looking like at the moment?
Ias Ferndale: I’m very fine at the moment, it’s sunny, a lot of music. Berlin is not again out of Covid-19 but the end is soon.
Electronic Groove: You’ve got quite a lot of history under your soles…Let’s dive into that. How did you get started as a DJ and when? What was the scene like at the moment?
Ias Ferndale: (Laughter) Yes, I’m not very young now. I started to mix in rave into 1998 years. I was mixing exclusively hard techno music and psytrance in France. But with time, my mind has changed of vision and my test for the electronic music like house, tech-house and generally for the music with more slowly bpm has developed. It’s at this time that I decided to mix in club and festival. The scene was less problematic at this moment because the concerts were less complicated to organize and there was fewer DJ than now.
Electronic Groove: Do you think the electronic music scene has changed for the better since then? In what areas do you think we still need to work on?
Ias Ferndale: Yes, the electronic scene has changed a lot since 2000. Especially in the area of digital marketing and how to promote our music on the net. There are a lot of tools to know to develop your image as an artist on the internet. Before, there were not so many blogs that allowed you to make discover your music to the greatest number. I find that unfortunately today the music is consumed and thrown away. There is already a lot of things done, I don’t know what else could be done.
Electronic Groove: Why did you decide to get into music production? What tools were available at that time?
Ias Ferndale: For a very long time I have wanted to make my own music, at first it was more out of curiosity and then, with time. it became a very big passion. When you are a DJ and you mix other producers’ tracks, you inevitably think about making your own music.
At that time there were the same sequencers as now. The components have changed a lot for the hardware part, the plug-ins have improved and the sound quality with it. A lot of DJs were using Korg or Roland machines for live performances. I think that there is not much change at this level. It’s just the music marketing part and the software part that has evolved a lot.
“For a very long time, I have wanted to make my own music. At first, it was more out of curiosity, and then, with time,
it became a very big passion”
Electronic Groove: Speaking about music production, you’ve got your ‘Zawbiea’ EP out now on POLYPTYCH. What inspired you to write this one? How would you describe its sound?
Ias Ferndale: I’ve been very creative for few months and have a lot of ideas. ‘Zawbiea’ came out of all these ideas. I wanted to make melodic, hypnotic progressive house tracks with vocals. I think it’s nice. I also like the Arabic atmosphere in the vocals with the sitar. I tried to make a light EP with soaring sounds and vocals.
Electronic Groove: Do you feel your sound has evolved over the years? What things do you understand clearly now that you had a hard time within the beginning?
Ias Ferndale: Yes, of course, my way to produce has a lot of evolved. Mainly because I have a better command of my working tools. I didn’t use all the tools in my sequencer before. With time I used more and more techniques. My tracks have become richer and more pleasant to listen to.
Electronic Groove: Has the pandemic affected your creativity in any way? What do you do for inspiration outside of music?
Ias Ferndale: The pandemic actually increased my creativity because we couldn’t go to work and so I had plenty of time to produce new tracks. I also find inspiration in photography. I love to walk in nature and take pictures of landscapes or animals. It’s just a hobby and it’s not professional.
Electronic Groove: What is the single most important piece of advice you’d like to know when you were starting out?
Ias Ferndale: I would have liked to meet an artist who could teach me how to use my Logic Pro software much faster. But as they say, you have to do things yourself to learn better.
Especially in the mixing techniques because I think it is a very important step in the music-making process.
“The electronic scene has changed a lot since 2000.
Especially in the area of digital marketing and how
to promote our music on the net”
Electronic Groove: What’s in store for Ias Ferndale for the rest of 2021? What can we look forward to?
Ias Ferndale: I have many projects in progress. A lot of remixes for different artists who are signed on different labels. I can’t say much about it at the moment.
I also like to produce dark techno tracks on my label Volute Records based in Berlin which I created 6 years ago with two collaborators (Vonverhille and ROM303)
Electronic Groove: Thank you for sitting down with us Ias Ferndale! We wish you all the best!
Ias Ferndale: Thank you for welcoming me for this interview. Thank you for supporting artists and new talents.
Ian Ferndale’s ‘Zawbiea’ is now available via Polyptych. Grab your copy here.
Follow Ias Ferndale: Facebook | Soundcloud | Spotify
