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Ortzroka- Living The Dream
From their radio friendly rocking remix of Swedish popster Robyn to their (fantastic) electro-tech smash-ups of Simian Mobile Disco’s Hustler and their own distinctly Germanic minimal techno epics, uber-eclectic London production duo Ortzroka are suddenly ubiquitous though asking whether they’re ‘living the dream’ elicits an immediate and detailed response.
‘Dreams’ involve hard work, that’s for sure. For us, we love what we do, we’ve worked hard to get here but we’re also realistic about being right at the start of our musical adventure and we know there will be lots more hard work (and more dreams) ahead,” they say.
And the dream, they stress, isn’t to be as big as bands like the Chemical Brothers or Underworld.
“Its hard for people not to make comparisons to other artists and so far we’ve had features, reviews, and comments that mention Orbital, Leftfield, Booka Shade, Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin …The truth is however that we never really look at it that way” they say,
“The way we see it, is that our music is a direct reflection of what influences us at a particular point in time and that can be a person, an image, architecture, nature, sounds, conversations, an article in a magazine or even a film…. So far it seems, people connect to some of these moments we’ve created in remixes and originals and that encourages us to keep developing ideas and sounds. Whether or not that will get the Chemical Brothers supporting our live show one day remains to be seen.”
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): On the surface it seems like you've appeared overnight: when did it all begin?
Ortzroka: “It began a while back, we’ve been buddies since film school and the first musical nod was a very basic sampler and MIDI set up to write tracks for the documentaries and short films we worked on. It was serious because it was our future careers, but we both realised very early on that the musical element was the part that inspired us the most and so we kept the focus on that.”
Skrufff How important is it for Ortzroka to be a live band?
Ortzroka: “We’ve been developing our live show and we’re getting ready to start taking it on the road very soon. Whenever we work on projects they are important to us and this one continues to be an amazing and challenging experience. We’re quite nervous but exited about seeing the audience reaction.”
Skrufff: Ortzroka is both difficult to spell and tough to remember, what was the thought process that made you decide to call yourselves that?
Ortzroka: “All the catchy names that are easy to spell were taken- like Kraftwerk, Der Dritte Raum, Nitzer Ebb and GoldFrapp so we settled on OrtzRoka.”
Skrufff: How did you set about getting all these high profile remixes?
Ortzroka: “Like any artists you need to work hard to get noticed. If we look back a year or so ago we worked with friends to get our sounds out there. Yeah this included some swaps and stuff on spec but it really started kicking off when we remixed Peter Bjorn & John’s ‘Young Folks’. It was a chance to really show what we were about and we thank those who picked up on it early like Rob Da Bank, Redhotcar from Fluokids and Erol Alkan. These reactions showed the label (Wichita) it had real potential and it got included on the re-released commercial single. Since then we've been lucky enough to get noticed and remix the likes of Robyn, SMD, Dub Pistols etc. We now sit in a position where more people are hearing the remixes and asking for us to do something for them.” Skrufff: What do you make of London's music/ club scene right now, are you aligned with any particular circles?
Ortzroka: “No we are not part of just one scene that would be missing the point these days because what is so great is that it is finally okay to straddle loads of scenes. Creatively, music is amazing these days and people are open minded, you can go to a Camden pub and hear Detroit techno and you can hang in an East End bar and hear guitar music. This is a great time for artists, because we can experiment with sound and break barriers without alienating people or pigeonholing ourselves. In many ways OrtzRoka is a direct reflection of this new era, and so every track or remix we produce can vary in style or tempo or purpose and we love that. It keeps things interesting.”
Skrufff: Quite a few of your productions are minimal in style: how much is minimal a word you embrace?
Ortzroka: “Minimal’s become a genre of music which is strange, as we think it’s an approach to artistic creation and production. Most electronic music is quite minimalist in its approach, early Acid house and Detroit techno are fairly minimal, some of the biggest tracks from that era featured a drum machine and a couple of tweaking 303s and sometimes a vocal. Even going further back you look at what Martin Hannett did with Joy Division’s sound or similar techniques employed by other producers on early Depeche Mode records, Kraftwerk or even The Sex Pistols and they were pretty minimal. It’s about using effects and techniques to enhance the elements that you have and give them space to breathe to reduce/enhance their focus. Minimal is not a word we embrace or snub, it’s just an approach to production.”
Skrufff: Is moving to Berlin, an option you've considered?
Ortzroka: “We worry that there will be no one left in Shoreditch soon, or is that New Cross these days? Every other Hoxtonite seems to be ‘moving to Berlin’ of late; Why? Don’t get me wrong, Germany rocks and our label is distributed by Intergroove Germany and we love it there and their contribution to electronic music cannot be ignored but would living there make us better artists? If the meting pot of London / UK can’t inspire you as an artist you need to take a better look…the UK’s responsible for Orbital, Leftfield, SMD, Depeche Mode, Aphex Twin, The Orb, Joy Division, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd need we go on?”
Skrufff: Do you still have day jobs?
Ortzroka: “Yes we’re in a band called OrtzRoka. It’s not your regular job and there’s no sick pay but the perks are fantastic. Previously we used to work in TV as a progression from film school.”
Skrufff: What's been the most rock & roll experience you've had so far? And the most disappointing?
Ortzroka: “Going to the Winter Music Conference a couple of years ago, we ended up in some crazy parties, drunkenly speaking to P diddy, Sven Vath and Felix Da House Cat…as well as some of the hottest women on the planet. So it was a Rock & Roll week but then also quite disappointing because we soon realised that the girls weren’t sticking around for long once the aforementioned people were out of the place.”
OrtzRoka’s new single, ‘Midnight/Black Magic’ out now on Verk.
(Their remixes of Peter, Bjorn, and John, Dub Pistols and Rui Da Silva are also out now).
OrtzRoka are also playing live on the 21st November supporting Midnight Juggernauts at the Hoxton Square Bar & Grill.
http://myspace.com/ortzroka
Article by Jonty Skrufff
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