Interviews Plasmatique [Interview] By Release Promo Posted on 9th June 2023 21 min read 0 0 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Share on Linkedin Plasmatique is the melodic techno project of slovakian producer Zuzana Retkesova, known for her progressive melodic techno productions. As Zuzana Retkesova has worked as an engineer and producer for the last 7 years in her own music production company, Zuzana eventually decided to start a project of her own. What defines your music? Zuzana states: “ Hypnotising, driving and I love arpeggiated baselines which is a key element of my sound.” I love Stephan Bodzin, Innellea, Adriatique and for sure Thomas Helmich there are a lot of influences from these artists. Following up on the success of Posthuman, PLASMATIQUE continues her innovative and progressive melodic path with Archetype and contributing to the 2023 HARTHOUSE release Dance With The Robots with the title Circularity. Hi Zuzana, thanks for joining us. What is your current mood and what was the last piece of music you listened to? Hi, thank you for having me. I’m in “work mood” and the last track I listened to was Eric Prydz -Opus. How has your spring been so far and what are your plans for the week? My spring was very busy, I was working on different projects, making videoclips, travelling. Do you consider yourself a DJ or producer first? And which do you enjoy more and why? To be honest, it is fifty, fifty at this moment. But now I enjoy more DJ-ing, after covid time. Finally entertaining people is just great! Talk to us about growing up in Slovakia, how did you discover electronic music initially and who from your home country inspired you the most in your formative years. Growing up here was nice. Slovakia is beautiful country. We were basically out all the time with my sisters and friends. In summer swimming in the lake, in winter sledding on the hills. My best friends “little” brother Machyna introduced me to this kind of music, when he asked me, if I want to join for a venue, where Tiesto was playing. Party was insane and also the feeling I've had ever since, when I hear it or play it. From Slovakia I like DJ EKG, DJ EMTYDEE, DJ Progrez and from my hometown Žilina, Fricko Brothers. Slovakia is not a country people tend to associate with electronic music so how did growing up there influence your music taste and direction? Or did it at all? Yes, that's true, but I've been traveling and getting to know other countries, cultures, music and people since I was eighteen. So I don't think it would limit me in any way. :-) If you were a tour-guide for nightlife in Slovakia, what would be the clubs you’d take the people to see and what local DJs do they need to hear? Hmmm, best club is definitely Ministry of Fun in Banska Bystrica, *Enjoyclub in Žilina, Great Club Bratislava. And as I mentioned before, awesome party is when DJ EKG, DJ EMTYDEE od DJ Progrez is playing. And if you want more chill, then the best are Fricko Brothers. If you are not DJing or socializing at clubs, where do we find you? And doing what? You can find me in the studio working, after that I am spending time with my family or friends, travelling, going for concerts, sitting in old city of Žilina enjoying atmosphere and good food and drink. When you were first getting started in production did you have someone help you or are you completely self-taught? And what would you recommend new producers do to help with the learning curve of production? As I traveled, I also worked in Hanover. And there I met a wonderful, talented, hardworking and funny person. A good friend became a partner and mentor over time. So Thomas Helmich is to thank for making my teenage dream come true. I would say that this is true in all industries. If a person wants to be successful, he must constantly learn, not rest on his laurels and do everything to the fullest, sometimes even at the expense of his own comfort. Before starting the Plasmatique alias you were doing production work under your given name, tell us about that and why you eventually decided to create an artist moniker and start releasing your own music. I kind of took it from the opposite end than most DJs. Due to the fact that I have always been close to music and fate brought a successful producer in my path, I somehow automatically became interested in working in the studio. And then I brushed off my old dream of being a DJ. So, here I am! I never thought that one day David Guetta would include my track in his radio show. And I hope this is only the beginning. Stephan Bodzin, Adriatique and Innellea have been inspirations for you, tell us what it was about their work which initially inspired you and how do you try and incorporate those same feelings into your own work? It's like painting a picture that you can hear. They all have in common that they transport emotions in their music and this is what I am trying to do. You’ve recently remixed ‘Swipe Right’ by MightyandMassive, tell us about what attracted you to this project and how you approached the remix. When I heard this track, I really liked the vocals and thought that it could be a great song with a summer touch. I started with the groove, the cowbell and a kick, the rest was happening fast and came in quite handy. Your sound is quite dark and astral but also quite emotive at times, what inspires your work and was there anything in particular that has inspired your recent output? My work is influenced by my mood, my memories, my plans for the future, the season, and the last one was the real thing that influenced my last work. I adore spring, when everything comes back to life, the energy of summer, and on the contrary, autumn and winter are dark and gloomy for me. Let our readers inside your studio for a moment, what is your current setup and what studio tools are featured heavily in your recent productions. I work in Logic and Pro Tools in a hybrid setup because I am using some analogue gear and my favourite is the Moog Sub 37 which is used in every song from Plasmatique. For summing I am using the Dangerous 2 bus and my converters are Apogee Symphony and Dangerous Convert AD +. Just changed my monitoring from Barefoot Footprint to Focal SM9. That was a nice upgrade… nerd talk… Let’s look a bit more at production, once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you’re satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice? That is individual. Sometimes it remains lying down for a day, sometimes for a week or a month. But not longer, because the audience's taste changes very quickly. While it's waiting, I'm working on something else and then with "clean" ears I'll go back to the track and if I have a feeling that something could be better, I'll improve it. And who is someone you share your new music with first for feedback? My partner Thomas Helmich, label colleagues, family and friends. What is the task you enjoy the most when producing and what would you prefer someone else to do? The creation, the writing of the track, finding the right sounds and experiment with them. I don’t like to do mastering. Let’s talk about DJing briefly, it’s a unique discipline at the border between presenting great music and creating something new with it, between composition and improvisation to an extent. How would you describe your approach to it? For me it’s about to find the right mood. The technical side is kind of boring to me. I don’t mind if a transition is not working 100 %. The people should dance and have fun and that I transport the emotions right. How has your work as a DJ influenced your view of music, your way of listening to tracks and perhaps also, your work as a producer? I always liked everything new and different but memorable. So this is what I am looking for and what I try to achieve in both, DJing and producing. What would be a musical extravagance for your studio you would pay for, if you were very wealthy? SSL Duality If you could set up an event with a line-up of five artists of your choice, who would you book and what set times would you ascribe to the artists? Charlotte de Witte (3 hours) Adriatique ( 2 Hours) Innellea (2 Hours) Boris Brejcha (2 Hours) Thomas Helmich (90 min) What’s a book you’ve read or film you watched that has left an impact on you, and why? I read a book Tattooist from Auschwitz. It left me with the feeling that we should all learn from history so that bad things won't happen again and at the same time that sometimes it's incredible how strong the will to live can be and also, the deeper one falls to the bottom, the stronger one gets up again. Apart from music, what makes you happiest? My family of course and travelling. What does the remainder of 2023 hold for you in terms of releases and gigs? Anything you can share with us? I just recently started to work with a booking agency and I hope to get on the road very soon. Release wise I have some more releases piled up at this moment I am VERY excited about. Thank you so much for having me. It was a blast answering your questions. Follow along with Plasmatique's upcoming releases here: https://bit.ly/3MZsFTf