Lazer Squad has been making music for a long time from the German town of Wolfsburg. From metal to synth wave; Lazer Squad masters it all. Recently his great debut album ¨Undead Nightmare¨ was released. What else can we expect from this sympathetic musician? Time for an interview.
Lazer Squad, can you please introduce yourself?
Hey Sander, my name is Martin, I'm 32 and I live in Germany, Wolfsburg (also called Autostadt). I've been making music for over 15 years. As a young boy I started playing the drumset in a metal band (later also death metal/grindcore and punkrock).
My best buddy who's making electronic music for some years invited me to an electronic festival where he played on stage. That impressed me so much that I had the urge to produce electronic music since then too. So in particular I'm producing electronic music for three years and synthwave for about one year, but still playing also in metal bands. You can say I'm quiet busy when it's about making music. Without this I'd pretty much lost and I'd missing a lot I guess.
On Valentine´s Day your debut album ¨Undead Nightmare¨ was released. What can you tell us about this album?
It is my first attempt in making synthwave music. Before that I tried different types of genres (especially EDM, house, disco), but only with synthwave I found my type that suits to me the most. I'm a huge fan of videogames and movies especially in horror and/or ´80s genre. So I tried to put a lot of energy and that feelings into my songs. As a fan of hardcore music and as a death metal drummer I wanted to put some more aggression and power into this and less smooth and pleasant sounds.
How are the reactions on your debut?
I guess very good that far, but I'm still at the very beginning of my journey and I didn't get that much attention yet. But the community is very helpful with tips and tricks by getting more reach to the (synth-)music world. So I am very confident about the future. I'm already working on new pieces for a full length album.
You describe your music as ¨energetic synthwave¨, which I totally agree with. How did you came up with this style?
As I said, I got my roots in hardcore and death metal so I like it (mostly) the fast aggressive style ;). On the other hand I don't want everything out of control (faster, louder, heavier) but more variety and more dynamic. So I tried to put some more melodic parts and even some slower, more groovy parts into my songs rounded up with some sweet (mostly) female vocals.
Germany has a great history on electronic music. What artists/producers have been a big inspiration to you?
So in the earlier days as a boy of 12 years old, I started with rock/metal music listening to German bands like Guano Apes, Beatsteaks etc. My first contact to electronic music were artists like Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Faithless etc. I can't say that German electronic music brought me to this style of music I'm doing right now, haha. But there are some cool techno artists from Germany like Township Rebellion and Kollektiv Turmstraße, I actually love and which inspired me a lot in doing electronic music.
What are your plans for this year?
My plans are definitely writing new tracks for my next full length album. I've already got a dozen ideas for new songs and the feedback of the community makes me confident that I'm on my right way. Also I want to implement even more my roots of metal and ¨live¨ music into my music by collaborating with musicians from my hood or even from out there in the world.
Maybe I will do some shows at the end of the year. Who knows. I can't really imagine staying alone on stage. I was always playing with my band and I guess that is what I want to see if I'm on concert as a visitor - a live band. So I'm looking for good musicians to join the Lazer Squad =).
What equipment do you use in your studio?
I'm producing my music with Ableton live 10 and I've got this cool Akai APC40 MK2 MIDI controller.
Also I got these nice beatmaker kit by ROLI which contains the Seaboard for playing melodies on a keyboard and the Lightpad for playing some cool beats.
As monitors I use (as many people I guess) KRK Rokit 5. But the most important tool for mixing music for me is an old Philips radio (from somewhere out of the ´80s I guess). I use this cause it has no unnecessary bast boost, EQ's or something. That is maybe the type of radio which most of the people will hear your music. If you only mix your music on good monitors it sounds great, but on the kitchen radio or in the car it sound, it gets shitty. You get my point? =P
What do you like most about the ´80s?
Yeah, I was born in 1987 so I did not get that much of this time :). But it was the time where video games and game consoles became very popular with these awesome 8-bit soundtracks. Also a lot of these iconic action/horror started in the days which influenced me a lot afterwards. Sure the neon colours and the extravagant clothing did also their part to to love this era.
And finally, any last words to the synthwave community?
It's amazing how the community sticks together and pushes each other. That's what I really love about it. I see my work in good hands and that makes me confident in making new music for the community – for YOU out there. So be excited! =)
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