Zûg – Cult Music
It may be somewhat of a challenge to take Javier Zugarramurdi Garcia aka Zûg seriously, often photographed pulling funny faces with his kids by his side. But tones of serious can be found in his music. Let’s call it a “labour of love” - it started in his home town in Uruguay...he was playing the drums for three years (and studied it before) until he got into electronic music and started making beats in the nighties. .
That flame is still burning bright in Berlin today where he moved some 7 years ago. When Javier is not busy with web design and uploading videos on his daughter’s YouTube channel (“El Mundo de Maravillas de Mila”) you’ll find him making his own musical stories on labels like Minor Planet Music and Propersound. His music is all too easy to sink into, warm inviting tones yet there’s an intriguing complexity behind it. It seems as though he has found the formula for creating cult music – timeless works that move the listener to that otherworldly state.
A man no short of words, we listen to his thoughts on music making and playing. And there’s no Zûg journey without the musical element, so there’s a podcast for us too.
What keeps you busy these days?
My family… I have two kids. One is six years old – my daughter, and my son is just two. They are amazing… I enjoy and spend a lot of time with them. And of course making music (which I love). I use my creative side and make web design for work – websites, logos for clients like DJs and artist management. I’m freelancing so I can divide my time between family, music and work.
“Find something you love and you’ll be working all the time”. Does this relate to you?
I have to say that for me making music is not to work. When I make music I'm not doing it to make money, it's something that I love, I really love. Music is something to enjoy, I don't want to have it as a work, I don't want to go to work every weekend. If I have a gig once a month I am very happy because I go and play music with people around me to enjoy and have a great time. It's all pleasure... just lovely.
You’ve released music on Minor Planet and most recently Propersound, but you’ve also been playing for a while…
Making music is everything to me, it’s a fantastic way to spend my days. These days I don’t play so much. I had a gig recently with Minor Planet Music at Club der Visionaere which is happening since last year and I have another gig with Domenico Rosa from Propersound on the 10th of November at Red58. I’m starting to get some more gigs because of the labels and the releases but other than that not so much. I used to play a lot lot lot back in the day in Uruguay and when I came to Europe I was playing in Barcelona, Ibiza, Italy etc.
On mixing...
It’s really two different worlds. One is sitting in your studio by yourself and getting lost in sound, equalizing and tweaking, imagining… that’s producing and I love it and do it daily. On the other hand when you DJ you’re playing music out loud with people and for people and having fun. I love to make long mixes and equalizing, blending frequencies, like how I produce… I try to make it so that the people don’t know a new track is in. When people don’t know that it’s a mix it’s the perfect situation. Replacing elements of a track for elements of the coming one... smoothly.
So how did you get into production?
I started cooking beats in the mid 90s. I was in Montevideo and I had got some software from a friend – it was Impulse Tracker running on DOS it was really hard to use, but it was amazing at that time to make your own beats. Then I got some other software called VAZ – a kind of modular software which came together with another fascination, connecting sound modules, filters, envelope generators, LFO's and that stuff. Now that I live in Berlin (20 years later) I have the real thing it's like a dream come true. At that time it was just a software and that was it. I didn't have internet or anything in Uruguay – it was the beginning of my journey in electronic music so it was really the unknown. To live in Berlin today and to have this machine by my side to work on – I said it already but it's like a dream come true. I feel like it was made for me and people like me, it becomes a part of us... a labour of love.
Do you prefer it?
I like it because it’s physical. So instead of pointing with your mouse and looking at a screen you're tweaking real knobs, connecting real cables – it puts you altogether in another situation. You’re staring at all these modules, all these cables and some ideas come into your mind like, what if I connect this with that and what if I make this sound pass through this filter and what if I put the filter before or after the VCA or enveloping... endless possibilities. You can make music on the computer too but it’s too perfect, too clean and at the end you have these effects to make it sound ‘more vinyl’ (because it's too clean, too perfect). For me it ends up sounding colder… I love analog – I get dirt in my signals, sometimes I get noise and if I record a 10 minute track it's all the time changing, evolving, it makes it more real, more human.
So what’s your set-up like?
My set up has been growing since I moved to Berlin 7 years ago. I started with the modular in 2011. And the good thing about modular is, for example, if you want to buy a good synth it costs 1,000/2,000 euros or more. With the modular I bought the rack and a filter and then start adding modules with the time. Then I bought a console and some other synths.
How about your process?
Today I record everything live in one stereo channel from my board with 12 channels maximum. Most of the channels come from the modular, drums, bleeps and effects, and then I have a couple of synths to make pads and polyphony. I'm also using four busses of effects. That's more or less my set up. I don't use a sound card, I use a DAT recorder to convert analog to digital. I'm creating different length loops and sequences with the computer to then play them live with my mixer, fading things in and out and playing with effects in realtime. That way I drop the sounds in the mix when I feel it and not sequencing them visually in a grid. I feel is more natural that way. It helps with the flow. Also I need to adjust the mix as best as I can because I record all in one go to a stereo channel – I can’t go back to edit or mix. So I record the tracks 2 or 6 or 7 times and get all different versions of different lengths and its over, next one.
What was your concept for the podcast you have recorded for us?
I went through the music that I produced in the past year, selected like 15 tracks. Then I separated the ones close to 120bpm and the ones close to 130bpm and I liked more the 130bpm selection so I mixed those to avoid pitching up or down my tracks. Also I love to mix them with automations in Ableton. The perfect mix.
Do you play out live?
I started to prepare for it but I realized that I don't want to bring a computer and be staring at a screen if I’m playing live in front of an audience. So if happens it would have to be without any computer. I have a few ideas in mind…Something that I am working on is an audiovisual project ‘Ona’ which involves connecting sounds and visuals in real time. It's really trippy… I love doing it. Eventually I want to perform it in a place with good acoustics and two to three projectors. It's a big project that I would like to have ready soon.
So what about your inspirations and influences? Are there certain artists, musicians, DJs and genres that have helped shaped what you listen or play to today?
I would not give names – it's better people do this when they listen to music. Some people have already drawn comparisons with artists that I love, which makes me feel totally honoured. I know I am not copying, I am making my own style but of course I can feel my influences.