Meet Technetium: Gerald Smolders & Robin Wagemans. Two friends with the same love for melodic techno. When meeting in high school they didn’t share the same musical interest but over the years this changed. While studying chemistry in university their interest in electronic music grew and the DJ-duo Technetium was formed. The name Technetium comes from the chemical element technetium.
They make floating melodic Techno with atmospheric sounds that take you on a journey. Soon they will release their “Space” EP via Tanzgemeinschaft Records.
Ahead of their release, they provided us with a nice guest mix to promote their upcoming work.
We also took the time to get to know them a bit getter and send them some questions to answer. Enjoy their interview.
Connect with Technetium on Soundcloud | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
Thanks for your time doing this interview. How are you doing?
Great, the holidays are coming and we think it’s a great time. Also, a time to reflect on the past year and we have to say that we made some progress this year with some releases on some labels that we had been following for a while.
A little introduction for our readers. Where are you from and what do you find inspirational about where you’re living?
We’re both from Limburg, Belgium. Robin is from Kortessem and I (Gerald) am from Alken. But I live in Rijkhoven, Bilzen now near the castle of Alden Biesen. I think the ambient and atmospherical music that we want to make the castle of Alden Biesen is very inspirational. Also, the open fields while walking with my dog inspire me by creating an empty mind.
We also had a lot of talent coming from Bilzen (Joyhauser, Biesmans) whom we can look up to. In Kortessem you have Pelace. Two friends of our age who are also making it in the scene and who are producing great music that works very inspirational.
Please give us an insight into what we can expect from Technetium over the next few months…
We’re working very hard on new music. We want to evolve our sound and I think this is going very well. Also, we’re busy with some breakbeat tracks that are going somewhere but we’ll see if they will ever be released.
Soon, we will have a release with Tanzgemeinschaft. Looking forward to that one.
Technetium – Space will be out on Jan 20. Stay tuned.
What or who were your early passions and influences?
Robin: I started listening to electronic music with my older brother when I was driving to school. He listened to electro and minimal. So, when I started to listen to electronic music the first songs were made by Goose. Their album “Bring It On” in particular. After that, came a bit more commercial music. Later on, my taste in music evolved to minimal and techno. Especially after going to the Extrema Outdoor festival for the first time.
Gerald: My biggest influence was my brother when I was young. He listened to rock/punk rock and with that, I mean Linking Park, Limp Bizkit, Metallica, Foo Fighters,… So, that’s the music I grew up with. After meeting Robin he started to introduce me to EDM. The first artist I fell in love with was Avicci. After a few years came tech-house/disco which evolved into techno which evolved into melodic techno.
And what are currently your main challenges as producers?
The main challenge for us is to keep innovating and keep creating fresh and new ideas. We want to make music that goes outside the line of thinking. The biggest influence in our productions are the synthesizers we work with (novation Peak, Moog Sub 37 and DSI rev-2). A lot of our sounds are made with these three. I think the idea of starting every time with a clear patch gives us the opportunity to create something different every time we start a new project.
When it comes to your field, producing, are there any particular ideas or pioneers that you go back to frequently or who really influence your thinking about your work?
As artists, we see Jonas Saalbach, Pelace, Sam Shure and Inellea as our biggest influences but we listen to lots of unknown or less-known artists in the scene by following different youtube channels and we think you learn from all of them just by listening to their music.
How would you describe your sound of today?
Our sound is best described as melancholic and atmospherical. This, in combination with more ambient and melodic sounds. We try to build the tension until one climax but in our sound, we believe that the build-up and the tension that comes along with it is the most important part of it.
Collaboration can take on many forms. What role do they play in your approach and what are your preferred ways of engaging with others through, for example, file sharing, jamming or just talking about ideas?
In the past, we didn’t really have many people we knew who were doing the same thing as us. Since we’ve started releasing via labels like Liminal and Melodia we’ve got more connections and things like talking about ideas are starting but it’s still in an early stage. In the future, we hope to collaborate with other artists so we can learn from them. We believe that putting minds together will result in great ideas but that’s future talk. We’ll see what comes along.
Which track did you recently rediscover?
Gerald: Nathan Fake – The Sky Was Pink (James Holden Remix)
Robin: The Mackenzie Feat. Jessy – Arpegia (Without You) (Long Trance Mix)
What is your favourite track at the moment?
Our favorite track of the moment is Sam Shure with Permutation. It has everything a track needs to have: tension, buildup and a great atmosphere and melody. We played it in almost every set we did this year.
Thank you.
