From his tiny room in Amsterdam Nachtbraker (translation: night hawk) produces house music in the night and when the sun comes up he either studies, sleeps or produces some more. After years of repeating this process Maurits has developed his own unique style and that is something you can truly respect. Not following a trend and letting your creativity do it's thing is a virtue only acquired when one has confidence in their sound. Nachtbraker seems to be on the verge of a breakthrough. But when do you breakthrough? I don't know. Maybe if you've had gigs in other countries? Check. Releases on big labels? Double check. Ass-slapping reviews about those releases? Triple check. Oh well did he do a podcast for the Muziekbeer yet? QUADRUPLE CHECK.
I did a small interview with Maurits Verwoerd about this podcast, his view on producing and the hype his latest EP received. His EP, titled Gute Laune, was featured on the MUZIEKBEER here.
What's up Maurits. Can you tell us what
your thoughts were behind this podcast and how you recorded it?
Sure! This time I recorded a podcast with
some dubby chuggers and deep minimal tracks. I wanted to show the other side of
Nachtbraker… the darker side.
I chose to start off with a track by
Floating Points (“Wires”) to slowly get into the set. I really dig that track,
amazing composition (as all of Floating Points productions are). Its that kind
of track where you can just dream away on but also gets that head noddin’.
After the short rhodes (I must say, my favourite instrument) Pol_On comes in.
This is where it starts to get deep and rough, I know that because I always get
that dirty face when I play that track. It’s like smelling your own farts which
smell awful but you kind of dig it at the same time.. that kind of face…
Okay
let’s move on. After that I stall it for a track or two and than the real dubby
mofo’s come in. Tracks by Isherwood, Deso, Henry Gilles and friend of mine
(Levi Verspeek, one to watch if you’re into this minimal deep vibes) really
want to make you move every part of your body. Rauwkost (at 1hour 33min) and
Rozzo (at 1hour 39min) will pull you out of the dreamy dubby minimal and you
might notice you can’t prevent your feet from tapping the ground.. Finally a
track I really, really like as well is by Kjofol (album on Apparel Music) damn
that drop at about 1hour 53min and all these textures and percussion sounds. I
just had to include this masterpiece in the mix. But just have a listen for
yourself ;).
You seem to be on a roll lately. Your
third release on Heist Recordings titled Gute Laune EP received a lot of
positive coverage on the internet (and in sets). How does that make you feel?
Did you expect it? Or was it bloody-fucking-time?
Haha, both. I did some releases on Deep
Edition Recordings and Piekup Records about two years ago. I thought I was
ready to get my shit out there.. but I changed my mind so I waited until I got
the right sound before I wanted to release anything. The EP on Apparel Music
(Lonely Wally EP) was the kick-off. Four really deep tracks for their limited
catalogue. I’m really honoured to be part of the Apparel Music family now,
since I followed them for quite some time. I actually included one of the four,
“Aauw”, in the mix. The two tracks on Fullbarr’s compilation (which should have
been released in March but they were postphoned for some reason) continued in
the same vibe (except for “Shower for an Hour”).
Regarding the Gute Laune release.. I kind
of expected that a lot of people would like it. Its a perfect combination of
tracks for an EP. On A1 “Gute Laune” gets the mood right on the dance floor, B1
side “Bluebottle” is the intelligent one with a funky electronic vibe and B2’er
“Xantippe” is the deep rough motherfucker. I really benefited from Detroit
Swindle’s popularity with this release since they are in the spotlight, their
label Heist Recordings is too. And that is what I need, more visibility and
exposure. Both the hardest things to achieve as a producer nowadays, especially
if you don’t produce simple dance floor hands-up-in-the-air tracks.
But anyways, I said I kind of expected
it. That is not entirely true. The awesome feedback by legends like Jimpster
and Luke Solomon, Shur-I-Kan and Till von Sein, as well as the positive and
well written reviews on my EP. I did not expect that to happen.
How hard was it to get your name out
there?
Hard.. and it still is because I’m not
there yet. Far from it actually. I got a great release but I think I will only
feel I succeeded when I get this thing going steady for at least a year or two.
So many, talented but also untalented, producers and Dj’s are doing their
things at the moment. It makes it almost impossible to stand out, or at least
to get people to have a really close and good listen to your music. But I’m
still growing and we’ll see where it goes.
Gute Laune EP sounds mature and very distinct. I don't
know a lot of producers that do things this big, this early in their 'career'.
Do you feel you've made a lot of steps, producer-wise, prior to this
release?
Haha thanks, thats a great compliment.
Yeah I really did make some steps, as I said before. It took me some time to
figure out the right sound, but I actually still am. And I feel every good
producer is. Music is moving forward, everything is moving forward and so
should my productions. I try to see what other music is out there and what
other well-known, but even more unknown, producers do and try to capture how
they get that feeling inside a track. For me, the most important thing in a
track is that it has to grab me. It has to display this kind of feeling you
want to get your hands on, and you sure as hell know how.. but you don’t
exactly know what it is. That is the magic behind great tracks. Producers
like Fred P, Floating Points, Theo Parrish, Pepe Bradock and Henry Gilles are
masters in transferring emotion and feeling in a track (and DJ sets). I know
this all sounds really vague, so lets just keep it to the old slogan “House is
a Feeling”.
Everybody always writes about you how you
keep your head down and work hard on your music. Now you and me both
know there's dozens of DJs that release nothing and only want to spin the
tables. How come you've focused on producing first and deejaying second?
Simply because I like that the most. The
magic of creating your own track, the control to implement anything you want in
there.. there is nothing more satisfying than that. I kind of sound like an
addict now right haha? Well, I guess I am.
But besides that, my second favourite
thing is playing someone else’s music. The DJ in me is just as strong. Always
looking for new and exciting stuff by other producers, and when I find it, I
feel this really strong urge to play out those tracks. I send them to friends,
post them on Facebook, play them in podcasts, let my parents hear them (hoping
they would finally like the music I play… to no avail), pulling my roommates
out of their beds when they’re still asleep or trying to sleep.. It’s a cyclic
process which drives the people close to me crazy. Especially my roommates and
my girlfriend. Oh but now I’m forgetting my lovely neighbours. I would now like
to take the opportunity to thank them for not ringing the doorbell when the
music is too loud.
Okay, just between you and me.. The only
reason why they don’t ring is because I live on the second floor and the
doorbell downstairs is broken, ghehe.
What are your short-term plans for
Nachtbraker?
I want to continue producing tracks and
develop my sound. The latter would be long term since there’s no end to that.
I’m trying to work on a live set, but its hard since I’m addicted to producing
music. So when I finally start to work on my live set I always end up producing
a new track.. very frustrating. But I’ll promise I will have that live set
ready soon! Second I just bought two Technics. I really want to learn how to
mix vinyl. At first I couldn’t afford turntables, let alone records. But I’m
finally making some money now with some gigs. I feel obligated to learn how to
play vinyl. Not because a good DJ needs to know how to play vinyl and
beatmatch. But because there are so many goddamn awesome records which are
vinyl only which need to be played out (see, that compulsive behaviour, that
urge..).
Any upcoming releases?
Yep! Very proud to say that I have my
second vinyl release on Dirt Crew Recordings, which will be out probably in
September! Very excited about that. Furthermore I got a very deep dub
techno’ish track coming up on a compilation for Apparel music’s anniversary
this summer. I’m also talking to an English label (which I can’t mention yet)
to do a vinyl release late 2014. So lots of exciting stuff coming up!
Thanks for a two hour musical glimpse
inside your head. I really enjoyed it and I hope you did too. I have one last
question. What's your favorite bear species?
My masculine side says: GRIZZLY BEAR
YEAH!! My feminine side says a cuddly teddybear.
