Tantum is known as a locally-acting drug with local anaesthetic and analgesic properties for pain relief. And Tantum is also a producer from Karlsruhe (Germany). His music grows of analog-synths, passionate melodies and driving beats. His new EP has just been released on the Monaberry label. The whole package includes remixes of Dürerstuben and label chiefs Super Flu. We had a little talk with Tantum to learn more about his sound, the studio work and him as an artist.
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Hello Tantum, hope all is well these days? How is it going?
Hey! Hope you’re all well too! I’m feeling good, especially now during the holidays. I like to take the time to rest and enjoy the time with my family and loved ones.
Tell us about you as an artist, please. What inspires you and what kind of music do you love most?
These days I get a lot of inspiration from Traveling. Visiting different places and experiencing different cultures definitely got me inspired. I focus on the little details, impressions and the atmosphere of the places I visit. For me personally, I listen to all kinds of music. Really anything from Rock to Hip Hop to Folk music. As for Electronic music, I’ve been digging Jeremy Olanders recent work, as well as Tim Engelhardt and Pryda (recently rediscovered my love for his prog. house classics haha).
Any idea where your passion for electronic music comes from?
Sure! What really got me going, was when I’ve visited my first Electronic music festival (Nature One 2013). It is a bit different from the music I make nowadays, but that definitely sparked my interest in the whole genre of electronic music. For me, it also felt more natural to express my emotions through electronic music with synthesizers, than just playing the electric guitar.
Who or what is your biggest influence?
Probably just everyday emotions and situations. I always try to build a little story, kind of like a tiny universe within each track, that hopefully, other people can feel and relate to when listening. Other than that, I look up to prog. house legends like Guy J, Jeremy Olander, Pryda and Deadmau5 a lot, which definitely shaped my sound.
Tell us about your new release on Monaberry called “Bonsai” which is out now already. What’s the story behind the cooperating work on the tracks and how much does it differ from your previous work.
Super stunned about the release! I’m really glad that I got the opportunity to contribute to the label, especially so with my personal all-time favourite track “Bonsai” which I’ve been working on since 2016. I think the release differs in a way, that the tracks are a bit more “daring” than what I did previously as in having a less linear structure. Especially “Into Yam” is obviously different since it’s based around Oluhle’s magnificent voice!
As for the story, it was actually Samer Soltan’s idea to incorporate Oluhle’s singing in one of my tracks. We then started working more and more on that track and focused it more around the vocals she made.
Do you like Bonsai trees by the way?
Yes! Totally love them, very pleasing to look at. A tiny piece of beautiful nature, small enough to put on your desk. In fact, when I first started the track “Bonsai”, I had a small bonsai tree on my desk (that’s why I named the project file Bonsai, and it stayed that way ever since).
Besides little trees, what’s your secret weapon in the studio?
Valhalla’s new Delay plugin is definitely a signature sound I use in my tracks nowadays. It does a lot for placing sounds and you can modulate the time value to do some really trippy effects. Other than that, I love granular synthesis utilizing synth or percussion samples as well as my lovely Korg MS-20 mini, which I use every now and then in my productions.
And how do you look back at the past months? Any highlights you wanna share with us?
I’m pretty happy with the way things go recently. As far as my music goes, besides the Monaberry EP, of course, playing at the Eden Hill Festival in Taiwan and visiting the notorious ADE Festival right after definitely has been a highlight!
Give us an insight into what we can expect from Tantum over the next few months.
There’s definitely gonna be a lot of music to look forward to! I’ve teased some upcoming originals in my Monaberry podcast if you’re curious. I’ve also had the pleasure to be invited as a remixer for some records that will be released soon. So definitely keep an eye out for that!
Thank you for the chat!
Thanks for having me 🙂