Interview : White Zone

White Zone is a German producer who offer a complex and spare electronic music. Tendances F&Y interviewed him, trying to know him better and understand his influences and musical tastes.

Hi Ralf, first of all, can you introduce yourself briefly ?

My name is Ralf Neumann, I am a bassplayer, electronic musician and DJ based in the Ruhr area in Germany.

Why did you chose this pseudo "White Zone" ?

I picked White Zone because of my fascination for the white colour. As I needed a second word...voila...White Zone sounded good to me...

And about your music, how would you define it ?

Hypnotic rhythmical electronic constructions spiced with bleeps and field recordings with a lot of love for the detail....

What are your main musical influences ?

To much to mention here, during the last weeks I listened to a lot of stuff from SUPERFLU, I am shure this will have some impact on my next tracks.

Now, can you speak a little bite about your new EP Cerebellum ?

Well its out since 1st of July, the tiltle came up while reading something about the human brain which is, if you ask me, a really fascinating part of the body.
For choosing Cerebellum as title I can say I liked the word and how it looks in the written form.
Cerebellum contains 6 tracks showing most of the spectrum of my music, from Deep Dark Techno, housy tunes, more minimal stuff and ambient influences as well.
There is no message in my music, tap your foot, bang your head or even dance to it...

Is it your first EP ? What's the main difference between an album and EPs ?

No, I released an 2 track EP on monoKraK and also one track as part of a sampler on Subversive Media last year. Usually EPs contain fewer tracks than albums, mostly 2 to 4 tracks.

You're based in Germany like a lots of electronic music producers, how do you explain that Germany is one of the most famous place for electronic music in Europe ?

Maybe its because of Berlin, the so called capitol city of electronic music with its extended nightlife. You can find a very big network of record labels, clubs, Djs, producers, it´s a cross-fertilization.

And what about playing in clubs ? Do you prefer playing live or a DJ set ?

Playing DJ sets is great and always will be, especially when it comes to back-2-back sets.
Playing live is a totally different thing, its more complex, you can be very flexible but you have to be much more concentrated. What I love about playing live is the freedom for improvisation which feels, as a musician, very natural for me.

Do you plan to have a special live after your new EP is out ?

No, I am focussing on production for the moment and new tracks are on the way.

Finally, when would we see you in Paris :) ?

Whenever you call me....

Thanks a lot for those answers and see you in Paris!

Thank you too

(French version soon)

To illustrate this interview let's discover one of his track Demand for equality released a year ago and offering an hypnotic electronic music :