Dachshund.
The dance floor decides.
Dachshund on dub echoes, jungle memories, making room in a groove and releasing music on his own terms through Clapper.
In conversation with Dachshund
A sample can carry an entire era back into the studio. For Dachshund, a chance encounter with a sound he remembered from jungle became the starting point for “Spectrum”. In these five questions, he traces the echoes of those early influences, explains why subtraction can rescue a track and describes what a club system reveals that studio monitors cannot.
From the studio to Geneva’s dance floors and lakeside gatherings, Dachshund talks about the decisions and places that keep his music moving.
Echoes of jungle.
You explored dub, jungle and drum & bass before moving into house and techno. What from those early days still finds its way into your tracks now, even if a listener might not immediately notice it?
Some influences stay with you without you even realizing it. I think you can still hear them in the color of my sound and in the way I use echoes. They also come through in the hardware I use, like the Roland Space Echo RE-201, which has a strong connection to dub music.
A more conscious example of this is my track Spectrum, which is a direct consequence of my love for jungle. I used the same sample that Origin Unknown used in their legendary track Valley of the Shadows released in 1993. The sample originally came from a Future Music magazine CD.
I stumbled across this sample by chance, and it immediately reminded me of that tune. So many memories of that era came flooding back, and I literally got goosebumps. I knew right away that I had to make a track with it.
Room for the groove.
When you’re working on a groove, how do you know it has enough life to carry a whole track? Can you remember a time when taking something out made it work better?
You’ve touched on a crucial point. It’s not always easy to know when a track is finished, because you can keep working on it indefinitely. I’ve often made the mistake of overworking a track, only to realize in the end that an earlier version was actually better.
Sometimes it’s hard to take something out, almost as if you’ve become attached to it. But removing elements is often the solution when a track needs more room to breathe.
I remember doing this on my track Break: I removed all the melodies and kept only the stabs. It might seem simple, but it turned out to be really effective.
At the end of the day, the people on the dance floor decide what works, and thankfully, they don’t always agree with you!
A label without a fixed style.
You release music through other labels as well as your own, Clapper. Is there a record you made that explains why having your own label matters to you – something you wanted to put out exactly on your own terms?
That’s exactly what I want to explore with this new series on Clapper: releasing a track every three weeks, without sticking to a particular style. I want to put out anything from something atmospheric or experimental to something more classic, depending on what I feel like making.
Elixir and Reboot The Future are good examples. I’m not sure either would have found an obvious home on another label, especially as standalone singles.
The dance floor decides.
Has playing one of your own tracks in a club ever changed your mind about it? I’d love to hear about a moment when the room showed you something you hadn’t heard in the studio.
Yes, both in a good way and a bad way! In a club, you don’t hear all the details of a track, but you feel its energy much more intensely. A club sound system is far more powerful than studio monitors, and it can really bring out mixing mistakes. One thing I often get wrong is giving the kick drum a release that’s too long, which can turn an otherwise fairly calm track into something more techno-oriented.
On the positive side, I’ve also had tracks that weren’t even among my favourites get an incredibly enthusiastic reaction from the audience. At the end of the day, the people on the dance floor decide what works, and thankfully, they don’t always agree with you!
Geneva, beyond the club doors.
For someone who has never been out in Geneva, what would you want them to experience beyond a list of clubs and DJs? Is there a night or a personal memory that captures what the scene means to you?
My favourite club in Geneva at the moment is Audio, with its high-quality Lambda Labs sound system and international line-up covering a wide range of tastes. L’Usine and Motel Campo are two other classics.
If you’re more into live performances with modular synths, check out ADSR Geneva. They organise live sets and experimental performances in a variety of venues across the city, often in alternative spaces.
One event I particularly love is Soirée au bord de l’Eau. It takes place outdoors, right by the lake, at a windsurfing club, only once or twice a year. It’s a popular event in Geneva, and I love its lakeside setting.
Dachshund
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Courtesy of Dachshund · Sophie le Meillour