There’s this mystery about Berlin-based Lårry even after having released several EPs on labels like Super Hexagon Records, Uncertainty Principle or Fusion Diagnostics as not much is known about them. However, it’s time to bring some light into the darkness and speaking of the latter Lårry have a preference for these things as they draw inspiration from computer games especially from the horror genre. Evidently their upcoming EP Nines on Awkwardly Social is musically and namely influenced by them. Shortly before the release and their live-set for HÖR we spoke to Lårry about their musical upbringing, Apfeltaschen, how their new EP came about and how they approach their productions. Additionally you can exclusively stream the EP’s title track Nines and dive into the sound-cocoon Lårry and their music provide.
Torture the Artist: Hello Lårry, tell us something about your day.
Lårry: Was bedeutet ,,day”? Die Tage verschwimmen…
Torture the Artist: How and to what extent has the pandemic influenced your daily routines? Have you discovered a change in your being and maybe even found or started a new hobby?
Lårry: Cooking and baking. I can’t remember what I used to eat in 2019.
I like to cook dishes that last a week or longer.
Torture the Artist: What are you eating in 2021, do you have a favorite food dish or menu that you like to prepare?
Lårry: I like to cook dishes that last a week or longer, so I always have food prepared. I currently cycle between a Moroccan beef stew, and a vegan stew. The trick is to gently sauté finely minced onion, celeries, carrot, and garlic in vegetable stock, and use that as your base. As for baking, I bake Apfeltaschen.
Torture the Artist: Quite some artists produce way more music at the moment, does this apply to you too or do you feel less inspired since club nights are missing?
Lårry: Fortunately, my main source of inspiration comes from experiences outside of the club world. But I believe the absence of club focus has freed me from certain conventions.
Computer games are a tremendous source of inspiration, typically survival horror.
Torture the Artist: So what can be an inspiration for you and also what has been inspiring you to produce your music?
Lårry: Computer games are a tremendous source of inspiration, typically survival horror. I have sampled Silent Hill 1-4and Resident Evil 1-3 more times than I care to admit. When an entire world gets under your skin, it is difficult for it to not permeate into everything you do. These games have an extraordinarily particular and restrained set of mechanics, as well as sound designs, produced specifically to invoke something otherworldly and unforgiving. This rudimentary approach to scope and scale definitely has a profound impact on me.
Torture the Artist: What made you fall for electronic music in the first place and how did that come about?
Lårry: My sister introduced me to Druqks when I was a kid. At this point I never really made the distinction between electronica and other popular genres. My other sister introduced me to a mountain of progressive Rock, so synthesizers and sequenced music became as familiar as a barre chord riff. However, it was sophisticated drum programming that made me fall. My brother introduced me to Drum‘n’Bass, but I knew that Vordhosbn was unlike anything I had ever heard before.
Torture the Artist: What does Nines refer to: the London-based rapper, the movie, the saying ‘dress up to the nines’ or something even more spectacular than the aforementioned?
Lårry: Nines Rodriguez is a character from the tabletop RPG Vampire: The Masquerade, later adapted into the computer game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. If anyone is either remotely interested, Emshen is taken from the fictional steppe language in the Russian survival horror series Pathologic.
Torture the Artist: The music on the EP ranges ‘from idiosyncratic techno swirls to emotive peak time bangers, every track has its own story and character’ – what’s a little anecdote you can share with us?
Lårry: A1 contains a sample of someone very special laughing. They don’t know yet, and I think they’ll either be flattered or hate me. B1 contains a 10 year old drum recording of my old band.
Torture the Artist: Also since you mentioned the old drum recording of your band, do you check old material in order to create something new out of it for your productions or do you revisit older drafts do you proceed in the studio?
Lårry: I have another project, which requires sonically acoustic drums. I find myself going back over these old recordings regularly. But in the case of Nines, it was rather interesting to take it completely out of context. There is an almost vocal-like quality to the timbre of the loop.
Torture the Artist: Most electronic music is aimed for the (currently non-existing) dance floors, don’t you fear all this music that you worked hard on is over-heard or lost since it cannot or barely be played out to the masses and people generally do not check too much club music these days?
Lårry: I simply have no way of telling how much club music is being released or listened to. Perhaps this detachment is best.
Torture the Artist: We are not going to ask you what artist you would like to share the studio with, because it is just not possible at the moment, but what’s an artist you would like to work with remotely, and why?
Lårry: My friend Christoph. We have discussed the possibility: potentially something with guitar.
I am aware that I have somewhat pigeonholed myself into Techno.
Torture the Artist: What’s the sub-genre you feel most comfortable with, and what kind of track would you like to produce that you have not?
Lårry: I am aware that I have somewhat pigeonholed myself into Techno, as that is where I do feel most comfortable. My next release is a Drum‘n’Bass EP, but a good friend and colleague referred to it as “Techno at 180.” I would love to produce pop music.
Torture the Artist: So you are musically rather versatile. What’s a headline you’d love to read about of yourself in a mag?
Lårry: “Techno Supergump Lårry Trips Into Pigeonhole and Breaks Both Arms”
Torture the Artist: How awkwardly social are you or are you rather the opposite?
Lårry: I am awkwardly socially awkward.
Torture the Artist: What is something that you don’t take for granted — in your personal life or otherwise — and how has it filtered into your career?
Lårry: Unfettered freedom to consume and express.
Torture the Artist: What are three tracks that you will definitely play once clubs are allowed to open again?
Lårry: Since I don’t DJ, I would play my own music live in a heartbeat. Hopefully more than three tracks.
Torture the Artist: What’s the track of your own to start the night with?
Lårry: A big burst of white noise over a 40Hz sine wave.
I break down my latest projects into stems.
Torture the Artist: We heard that you are currently preparing for a live-set, what is your process when creating a live set and also how flexible are you to change something within it while performing?
Lårry: I break down my latest projects into stems. My projects on average contain 8-10 layers, which is perfect for the APC40MkII, as it has 8 faders. It is then a process of determining how to transition from track to track, and navigating through the largely varying tempos. If I find myself with gaps, I simply write new music specifically for the live set. There is enough flexibility and room for error to keep me on my toes.
Torture the Artist: What’s a super power you wish you had and what’s the occasion you’d use it for?
Lårry: A working pancreas. I would use it as much as I possibly could.
Interview by Holger Breuer
Pictures by Alana Naumann
Torture the Artist 