Tensnake Interview: Mainline to success

Image: Tensnake

Hamburg's Marco Niemerski aka Tensnake is responsible for creating some of clubland's most instantly recognisable, feel-good groovers. Records that have transformed even the most mundane dancefloors into vivid party paradises, a knack he has pretty much had since his production career has been active. 

The emergence of the steel drum led anthem 'Coma Cat' was the turning point. After Defected eagerly latched onto the track and released it in 2010, it devoured the festival circuit and the White Isle alike, soundtracking the summer for so many revellers. This was music best served with sunshine.

Tensnake was far from a one hit wonder, in fact the quality productions just kept coming. His remixes of huge commercial tracks from the likes of Lana Del Rey, London Grammar and Friendly Fires were another indication of his expansive skills in the studio.

Not to mention his debut album Glow, which cemented his reputation even further as an artist, not just a DJ. His music is accessible, irresistible but most of all, it's good - great in fact.

His work behind the decks (listen to his Nocturnal Wonderland mix above) doesn't fall short, he's a master of both trades. Boasting an assortment of underground tracks, disco classics and full frontal party bangers, his sets have made him a crowd favourite across the globe, and a valuable addition to any line up.  

Ahead of his New Year's Eve gig for Defected at Ministry of Sound, we caught up with Marco to talk through his musical influences, his biggest tracks and the never relenting trend of nineties house music. 

You've spent a fair amount of time in Ibiza and in particular Space for We Love and then Glitterbox this year. With the news emerging that Space is going to change hands after next year's season, and that Carl Cox has explained that's why he's ending his residency and he's voiced his concerns about it all becoming too 'VIP', how do you feel about the transition? 

To be honest I really liked the old Space, the We Love parties and all of that, and it changed anyway. I think Ibiza in general needs to make sure that it's not becoming too commercial. Well it's commercial already but there needs to be places that are a little bit smaller and that keep the original vibe.

I think what Carl is getting at is that it's more like a sell out. I can imagine that some people think that it's a sell out and the quality might be lacking.  

What did you think of Glitterbox? It must be a breath of fresh air in regards to its disco/house music policy and atmosphere in comparison to a lot of other nights on the island?

I really appreciated the effort from Defected and I think that despite the fact that the crowd were of course quite commercial, they took myself quite well. I went quite deep disco-y in the beginning and it took them a while to adapt but I didn't want to be a one trick pony, I wanted some variety. I think Glitterbox have really nailed that sort of thing. 

Germany boasts pioneering electronic musical forces like Kraftwerk and DAF, but your music seems to be more heavily influenced by that flavour of disco and house music, how easy was it to get hold of that when you were growing up? 

I think it was the pop music in the eighties that influenced me. The German pop music was very much influenced by the US military, people were stationed in Germany so they brought all the black music to Germany. That led to a real mixture of German/American music culture and it also influenced the German hip hop culture.

It was all very accessible I would say we had a lot of good record stores back then and I mean for me, in particular it was very easy because my brother was very much into it. I just needed to go over to his room and grab all the records. In general it was just the sound of the eighties in Germany. 

Your track 'Mainline' (above) features the lyrics from the 1979 track of the same name by the funk and soul group Black Ivory. Is that how you establish ideas for certain tracks, appreciating a component of one track and then revamping it?

Not necessarily, 'Mainline' was a special case because actually my cover version is a cover of a cover which was by the Jason Load Experience from the nineties. He took the 'Mainline' lyrics but changed the music to... Was it UK garage? I might have been American. I can't remember. Basically I just updated his version and never planned to release it actually.

I used to play it in my sets and I remember Andy Daniell from Defected heard it once and was like 'what is that?' and I said 'it's just for my sets I don't plan on releasing it.' And he was like, 'let's do it'. And that's how it got released. It turned out well and people love that tune. 

How did you get Syron involved to perform the vocals? 

That happened because I watched a video of Syron and MNEK, I can't remember what track it was, but I really liked her voice and I was looking for a singer from London and it just all came together. 

Your version of 'Mainline' has a sound of the nineties and it definitely blurs the lines between pop and dance music, but it still sounds completely unique to you.

A lot of artists seem to be desperate to make a certain sort of house track and then they just stick some nineties vocals over it, and it all just ends up sounding a bit similar. Why do you think this sort of sound is dominating the dance, and the normal charts at the moment? 

I think it's just a fashion. I think it's becoming less so now, I think it's going back again. 'Mainline' came out quite early when the mixture of house was on the rise, a little bit later on Disclosure obviously had that success worldwide. Before it was all dark and minimal and there was a lot of ketamine influenced music I think people just get bored of one sound and they're looking for something else.

Suddenly there was this blend of, like you say, pop music. Nineties house music was in the charts, so you can see why it's been brought back around. Yeah, I think it's just a come back from the nineties sound, just a little bit updated and that's why there's this big pop house thing going on but I think it's going back again.

I think a lot of people just were in it for the money and they thought they could get their music on the radio if they just added some vocals to it. 

The commercial success of 'Coma Cat' (above) came as a bit of a surprise at the time. The track didn't seem to have any intention of being as big as it was, and still is. Have you ever been tempted to try and create a track that would hit the big time in the same way? 

'Coma Cat' was definitely an accident. A happy one. Nobody expected that and I think you can't really plan that sort of stuff. I mean, back then I was producing in my room, I had no contacts, no nothing.

When you work in a big team or big city and with the right record companies it's more likely that you can have commercial success but it's hard to plan. I never went for the commercial success, I think in general I produce easy access music in a way, I like melodies.

Even when the Glow album came out, some people were surprised because it was released on a major label, it wasn't club music at all. It was mainly pop music again and that was just what I wanted to do back then. I wanted to release an album that made sense to me and that wasn't just a collection of similar club tracks. I wanted to produce a journey that you could listen to from the beginning to the end.

But I don't know what's next to be honest. I think commercial success should never be the motivation for success, unless that's your job, but it's not my main job to get on the radio. 

When you put Glow together and you ended up working with Nile Rodgers for two tracks (listen to one, 'Love Sublime', above), surely that was a dream come true? He must have influenced you immensely? 

Oh yeah absolutely, just meeting him and talking to him and hearing all the stories was amazing. To see that a person that has had such a huge success in his life and who has worked with amazing and famous people in the world but can be very humble and grounded at the same time. 

I think a lot of people could learn from him. But you're right, it was a total dream come true. It was surreal and bizarre.

Because of who he is, when you were working together did you ever feel obliged to let him take the full lead during the production process? 

No not at all, first we had a long chat on the phone and I had to drink a lot of red wine before that call, he made it very easy for me. I basically sent him two tracks and they were almost finished, not quite, and he said 'I really like this, do you mind if I'm just your session guitar player'.

I felt a little bit embarassed but I just thought whatever he felt was right we should just do. He added his guitar magic and that's how we worked together. 

Do you ever think sometimes that you were born in the wrong era? That you would have been more comfortable kicking back with Nile in the seventies and producing music then?

I'm absolutely happy to be here. It's the right time. For a weekend I wouldn't mind taking a peak at Studio 54 or to be able to see the old disco music rising. It must have been so amazing because it was something totally new and it just happened and it was gigantic. But I love stuff today, everything is so modern and we have all these possibilities. 

We recently interviewed Nicky Siano (owner of The Gallery club in New York) and I found so many amazing pics from the club - everything looks so vibrant and luxurious. I'd love to go back in time and experience it.

Of course. It was way more glamorous back then and there were more secrets. In general you had to make a bigger effort to get to things, to get to good music, to get into the right club. These days everything is accessible and everyone knows everything. In a way it's a lot more boring. 

So hopefully less boring, we're approaching the end of the year now, what have been the highlights of the year been for Tensnake? 

I would say the Ibiza season was very good for me this year. I played shows at Pacha and also at Glitterbox like you mentioned. I'm very happy where the music is going these days, it's constantly changing, it's very open minded which I think it was a plus.

Not that long ago everything was put into genre drawers, you know? Like these days you can play whatever you want to play if you do it right. Coming back to your question, I had a really good summer as you know I'm in Los Angeles at the moment and I'm enjoying my time here because I've started working with people and building up a network.

I also moved from Hamburg to Berlin and I've got a studio there so 2015 was a lot of new steps up. It was never boring, if anything it was exhausting. I didn't make any music this year so I'm really looking forward to making music that will come out next year. 

Has living in Berlin influenced you musically at all since you've been there?

Not really to be honest, I mean obviously I knew Berlin from before and I'd been there a lot. I don't really go out that much because at the weekends I'll be playing at other clubs and during the week I catch up with friends and family and doing boring human stuff.

Although it doesn't influence me musically, I still absolutely love it. Like this summer I got a Vespa and I was just riding around the city enjoying myself. I had such a good time. 

You're seeing out the year with Defected at their New Year's Eve party at Ministry of Sound. You must have a great relationship with the team?

Absolutely, I have a really, really good relationship with Defected. I feel like I owe a lot to them because they did an outstanding job with 'Coma Cat' back then. I also feel like they had in the past, and still do have, a very important role in the club scene.

They're constantly releasing good music and they're constantly amazing me. Sometimes I think 'I've heard it all' and then they release something totally unexpected and I appreciate that. And I know Andy Daniell very well and I think he does a great job. I'm very happy to end this fantastic year with Defected.

So is it just a DJ set at Ministry?

Yeah just a DJ set, I don't tend to do live sets any more these days. I feel more confident at the moment playing DJ sets, also there's no new material. Whenever I do a real live show I think it will be new album material presented more in a concert venue rather than in a club. 

Yeah surely playing live sets with old tracks drives you insane, does 'Coma Cat' ever make you want to cry?

[laughs] You know what, I still like it. Sometimes I don't play it or I play it as an encore and people just go crazy. As long as people are happy hearing it, I'm happy to play it. 

The NYE period is probably the biggest on the party calendar. What do you love about it all? 

I think New Year's Eve is always a special night. It's the end of the year and the period before the next year, around Christmas time and stuff. People get loose, they're relaxed and they don't think about their jobs. It's a very special time of the year.

What I like in particular is that people will dress up and really make the effort and they'll go to a special restaurant or they eat at home but they have a special dinner. It's just a bit more glamorous than other nights I would say. 

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