A highly regarded name in the hard trance scene, of late German duo Hennes & Cold have been working away solidly in the studio on new material to follow up from past dance floor hits such as ‘First Step’ and ‘The Second Trip’. As seasoned veterans in the field of DJing and producing it seems that Australian audiences are really in for a treat on their upcoming tour, and with a headline slot at Transmission the pair are ready to let loose after being cooped up in the studio for a little too long, “Brad, our Australian agent, says Transmission is a huge party, one of the best around and that we must play… And believe me, we trust Brad! We both cannot wait to experience this for ourselves! We are spending so much time in the studio it can be hard to make such big trips – but we definitely have to come for this!” Speaking with Kai ‘Kan Cold’ Winter, one half of the duo, ITM’s i_have_ADD found out what audiences can hope to expect.
Kan and production/DJing partner Michael first met on the German club circuit, Kan as a producer and Michael as resident DJ at Paramount Park, “We both come from Frankfurt, one of the two birth places (except Berlin) of German techno. We both started our DJ career in a ‘classical’ way. Our first jobs were in cafes and small clubs with a crossover sound. At this time I began producing my own records successfully and Michael was resident DJ at the third biggest techno club Paramount Park located in Frankfurt. Also we both knew Kai Tracid, and during my time at Paramount Park Kai Tracid told me that when we finish our first production we must show him first!” As successful producers and remixers, I was interested to learn what initially drew the pair to the harder style of dance music, “Maybe because my singing voice is not so good, haha! But really, I much prefer the electronic sounds that I would listen to in my house. Boris (my partner from Derb) spent a lot of money and bought some synths and other equipment and began making pop music in 1991. I hated it! I had to convince him that electronic music was so much better for us. I also began buying equipment and started producing with the help of Boris, and so we started making some styles of techno music. Trance, progressive, tech house, etc. The interesting thing about this music is that you can put really different styles and still have that techno vibe.” Interestingly Kan cites electronic music with melody as a key influence over his approach when producing, an element that undoubtably helps to make Hennes & Cold’s tracks stand out, “Most people would say Kraftwerk are an influence, but they are not so much an influence as someone who made this style possible. Personally I prefer Depeche Mode, I think many musicians are influenced by Depeche Mode because they produced an electronic kind of music with fantastic melodies. That is really the most important part of trance music; MELODY!”
Not surprisingly when asked for his thoughts on the current state of the German dance music scene Kan was rather critical, quick to distance Hennes & Cold from the recent influx of inane euro-trance infiltrating the airwaves, “It’s boring at the moment in Germany, we prefer to play international. The German market is getting down. The problem is, that most of the producers want to make the big money very fast. The scene is broken, because these producer don’t make their own stuff, they do only cover versions of old songs, nothing new! When I compare the German dance scene and the rest of the world, especially UK, Japan, and Australian scene, I do not want to live right now in Germany. I’m really sad about the situation, because only a few peoples believe in what they are doing. Most people only want to make millions, and forget what we have built in the last 10 years.” When quizzed on what direction he saw dance music heading in the future Kan was able to give an insight into the sound of new Hennes & Cold productions, highlighting that melody is playing a big part, “The popular style changes every 6 months! At the moment it’s really fast, today it’s trancier, tomorrow harder, nobody knows what’s coming up next. Most of the people say it will go harder – techno, banging, etc, but I say it will go trancier. I mean, the important part of the music is the melody, whereas most tracks at the moment don’t seem to have any kind of strong melody, only drums. I try to make my own style, not focusing on others.”
After more or less locking themselves away in the studio of late, I was keen to hear how Hennes & Cold approached their productions, “It’s difficult to say. Normally in the beginning you have an idea, maybe a groove, sometimes a melody, sometimes a sample, although it is really hard when you have finished a track to put a vocal over the top. It is better to get all of the elements together at the start (before you arrange the track) so you can better work with all elements you want to include.” Kan also going on to add, “I think especially during the last year we put more melodies into our tracks. However, Hennes & Cold productions are also very pumping and banging. Now I sit longer in front of my computer searching as much for a melody as for the drums!” Good news for local fans is that the pair often like to trial their newest tracks on the dancefloor, “It is very important to play or stay at parties and clubs and to listen to what the people like at any point in time. Usually we test new stuff when we are playing, so we can see what we have to change”, with Kan also giving an insight into what sound party-goers can expect from their set at Transmission, “We have no favourite labels, we are only concerned that the music is good! Normally we play a lot of stuff by our production team; Scot Project, Derb, all of the ‘Druck’ label and of course our own Hennes & Cold productions. Plus of course some stuff from our home label Tracid Traxxx. When we play only our stuff we have done the last year we can play 2 hours alone!”
Hennes & Cold have experience across the entire spectrum of dance events, from intimate club gatherings to large scale events and parties across Europe and Japan, I was interested to learn the duo’s preference when DJing, “Playing at small clubs its really great. Normally you have more contact and more of a connection with the people when you spinning at venues that are not bigger than 500 people. But our recent experiences with really huge parties, especially in Japan, playing to crowds of 5,000 to 25,000 people, have been wonderful!” Having toured Australia before Kan still holds vivid memories of local audiences, listing their Sydney and Melbourne dates as rather memorable, “I have never seen a party crowd quite like the Australian crowds before. I remember a huge party called Pharmacy in Melbourne – crazy people and really well organised! Also the gig at Plastic in Sydney was fantastic. A small venue, banging people, good sound, really amazing!”
Hennes & Cold play Bass Station in Melbourne this Friday May 23 and Transmission Live this Saturday May 24. To buy VIP Tranmission tickets click HERE.
