Articles - Interviews

Alex Bau, despite being label manager of German based Toneman along with long time partner Sven Dedek, is also a celebrated producer of fine uplifting and sometimes hard or groove based techno.

Just as they see the birth of their second label, Pershing Records, with it’s first fine release by the duo Basic Implant, Alex took the time out after a hectic visit overseas to Canadian shores to speak to HKClubbing.com about the history behind the label, troubled times and the artists that have been involved in the string of successful worldwide releases over the years. Toneman are most definitely here to stay and are set to grow even stronger on the market.  DJ Alixir caught up with Alex to delve a little deeper into Tonemans’ world.

Alixir:  Hi Alex, firstly, can you please give us a little information as
to how exactly the birth of Toneman became a reality?  What lead you
and Sven Dedek into deciding to launch your 2 labels?  Did anybody
suggest to you that you should or was it merely an idea you'd had for a
long time?

Alex: In 1998 sven started producing music for labels like touchtone and fine
audio, later on we more and more produced stuff together. after some not so
nice experiences in the biz and especially due to the fact that we wanted to
have more influence on what we put out in what way we decided that it was
time for standing on our own feet. it also was very important to have more
influence on the style of music we wanted to be identified with. formerly
all the labels just wanted to have the hard edged sound from us only...

Alixir:  Where exactly did the name Toneman arise from?  Is there a story
behind this?

Alex: Well, it was sven`s idea. we expect toneman to be more than just a
company, it should be expected as a kind of personality that translates our
musical philosophy to the audience.

Alixir:  Obviously yourself and Sven are the forefront of the company, does
anybody else make up the Toneman team?

Alex: We have our booking agent verena and some more unregularly helping hands.
but the labelwork itself is handled by me and sven.

Alixir:  I'm guessing there is always a huge financial risk involved in
hoping that releases are going to be successful and what the record
buying public want to buy.  Has there ever been a real breadline
struggle in getting Toneman to be where it is today?

Alex: It`s always hard to make your business growing, but it`s not just a
challenge, it´s also a chance. you are your own boss, investing your own
money, taking your personal decisions. in the end it`s interesting to see if
your work is respected by the people or not. the main challenge is always
finding the right business partners. it the same like in any other business.

Alixir:  Are you purely a European distributed label, or are you
represented worldwide these days?  If you're not represented worldwide,
do you have any plans to further the sales network?

Alex: Toneman is distributed worldwide by neuton distribution, this ensures
that every recordstore in the world can sell toneman if the like. we have
nice feedback from all over europe, especially easternh europe, but also
some from brasil or more and more north america.

A1ixir:  You have some heavyweight artists on your label from the techno
community, who approached who?

Alex: We had some remixers, probably known to everybody: Chris Liebing, Rush,
Pascal Feos, The Advent, Justin Berkovi and more. but we are also proud of
out upcmoming new acts like Multitude or Grafit and we do a lot on our own
of course.

Alixir:  Are there any other artists that you would like to see releasing
on Toneman?

Alex: The list is as long as the list of really most respected artists for me.
it begins with Martin l Gore (probably never - unfortunately) and ends at
real techno acts like Adam Beyer or Steve Rachmad.

Alixir:  Who mainly deals with the A&R of Toneman, who's the boss of
whether a track is worth releasing or not?  Do you play these tracks to
a wide variety of people or purely judge for youselves?

Alex: The boss is basically the discussion between Sven and me. Of course we
have to take of what can be sold and what can not, but the main goal is
finding pure techno, high quality, no matter if hard, melodic, minimal or
whatever. it just should fit under the genre "techno".

A1ixir:  Following up from the release of the mix CD "Propulsion", how well
received was it?  Has the release been successful?

Alex: It`s sold out, so I guess it was successful. we also had some good
reviews and feedbacks from the magazines and the people.

A1ixir:  Promotion of any release is priority in any label's eyes, do you
always take every chance and opportunity to get your message across
about certain tracks?

Alex: This is a point we probably could do more, but we are not about pumping
up stuff with marketing. we try to educate people to listen to the music,
and not just reading the names on the records. It’s not easy this time, but
I expect this to be a honourable goal.

Alixir:  What's the furthest you've ever gone to promote a release, have
you ever found yourselves doing something that you wouldn't normally do
characteristically?  There must be some interesting stories to do with
this subject!

Alex: Well, promotion is part of the biz, and we are grateful for every chance
to make promotion in a correct way, but we would never pull this to the
centre of activities. The best promotion in our eyes is being able to
convince the people live in the clubs that we are all about partying and
doing nearly everything to get the party started.

Alixir:  Where next for Toneman?  Are there any future conquests laid out
yet?  This is a good chance to plug any upcoming releases!

Alex: We had some really string records during 2003, even if the market was
extremely hard this year. now we just started to produce the next basic
implant single "revenge of the 202", it’s gonna be the follow up of our big
success "revenge of the 101". Just imagine what comes up next year... ;-)
beside this we try to get around the globe more and more, presenting the
music to the audiences all over!

Alixir:  Alex, thanks for taking the time to speak to HKClubbing.com, we
wish you every success!

Interview By: Alixir