2010 has been the year of Tensnake. On the back of ubiquitous anthems Coma Cat and Holding Back (My Love) and his various remixes (including a clubbed up version of Goldfrapp’s Alive ) the Hamburg producer is set to land in Australia to play a string of dates, including the 2011 Field Day. So what’s he packing for his virgin voyage down under?

“First of all, I’m bringing my laptop,” he laughs. “I hopefully will bring a bag full of fun. It’s going to be my first time in Australia and I’m really excited to come and play there. I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about the festivals in Australia.”

So, resisting the urge to ask what ‘Tensnake’ refers to, I want to know how he came up with the track name for Coma Cat? “That’s a pretty short story actually. When I made that track I came from a party the night before. I met a person at the party, a girl actually. We had a nice conversation and everything. But later she got really drunk, more drunk than me – and we got the name coma cat for her.”

The result is a hypnotic house bomb that has found its way onto dancefloors everywhere. Despite his love of warmth and exuberance, listening to Tensnake’s tunes you can’t help but feel there is still a minimalist aspect to his work.

“I think that’s true,” he agrees. “I wasn’t against minimal or all that. I just was not very much into it. During that time I really missed the melodies and the warmth. Minimal was pretty much all based on effects in a way, and for me I was just lacking the musical part in there.

“I was really happy when I heard stuff coming up, like the new disco, when I heard the tracks form the Scandinavian guys like Prins Thomas or Lindstrøm. That was really exciting and was motivating me a lot in producing new tracks.

“I think you are right though,” he continues. “There are of course some really minimal elements in [my work]. For example, I really like, if you take Japanese stuff…like I listen a lot to Richie Sakamoto. I think he’s a really good example for having a pop music element but also in a really critical, very minimal way. So I think you can have both.”

Tensnake also takes the house sound and updates it for a contemporary setting. Was this something he was conscious of? “To be honest, I don’t think too much when I’m producing,” he says. “It’s more about creating a certain vibe for myself. I don’t like being too dogmatic while I’m producing. I try and keep up the fun.”
Whatever the method, Tensnake’s sound is firmly based in disco, boogie and early ‘90s house. What is it he remembers of the early ‘90s that had such a strong influence?

“I was socialised mainly by the late ‘80s radio pop music that was played over here. But also the early ‘90s club sound. I started to go out in the ‘90s, so I think for me the ‘90s were for me a decade for important club music.”

It is hard, he says, to name anything in particular. “In the ‘90s I started to go out, I heard techno music for the first time, and all the electronic stuff, and it was such a whole new universe for me,” he says. “I call it, for me, the MTV time. The music television, when it started to get broadcasted in Germany, was really exciting. In the last few years I just realised how important it was for me. And back in the ‘90s sometimes you thought that’s crap, it’s bullshit, and now you look back and think, ‘Well, it wasn’t that bad’.”

Tensnake’s music and remixes also play around quite a lot with a range of sonic textures. How, then, does he go about creating the sounds he makes?

“It’s different. It really depends on the production. Sometimes I’m trying to really recreate a certain sound signature from maybe disco or boogie. I’m always excited about how people are engineering or doing the mix-downs. It’s really different, but I have no master-plan when I start producing the track. I can’t tell you the secret. It’s just really intuitive the way I produce.

“What I’m trying to do maybe is to produce a track that works in a club but also is kind of timeless in a way; that maybe survives for a few years. I hope it’s not too much attached to this time at the moment.”