Florian Meindl is an Austrian DJ, producer and sound designer. In addition to numerous collaborations with international artists he is busy with producing remixes (currently for Röyksopp & Hot Chip) and has just successfully completed his BA studies at the London College of Music. He also writes articles about music production in magazines like “FutureMusic” and does music production shows for the “Berlin Mitte Institut”. Till now his productions have been released on famous labels such as Trapez, Stil vor Talent, Resopal, Herzblut and Kling Klong. At the moment he is building up his own label FLASH Recordings and with the production of his first artist-album. So today, we have the chance to offer you an exclusive interview with him. It follows notably the one of M.A.N.D.Y. and Thomas Schumacher. First of all, I would like to thank Florian who answered our questions.

 “Hello Florian,

Some day ago you released a remix for the track “I Feel Better” from Hot Chip. Could you please give use more information about this release?
> This is an important moment in my career because I wanted to work more with musical structures and vocals and at that time all these remixes came along (Royksopp, Juan MacLean, Hot Chip). I was asked via twitter from Felix (from Hot Chip) if I want to do a dance mix of their new single and two weeks later it was done! It was very hard to get it released thought because EMI is a major label and seem to be a bit slow in communication if the issue is not very important to them but my label manager Marco has been very though and got the license to release it on my own label at the end!
For my upcoming album I will do something with singers as well in order to make my own songs, let’s see where that leads me, I will never forget the dancefloor though, but I also want to create a bit more listening music in the future.

What will be your next one?
> The next release will be the first album single on my own label FLASH Recordings (http://www.flash-rec.com/) – I’m not sure which song I will decide on but probably something for the dancefloor including a vocals, I often play it in my dj-sets and people seem to really like it a lot! You can get registered to the newsletter if you want to be up to date with my releases.

2010 will be over in one month. For 2011, what we expect from you? An album? New tracks? A compilation maybe?
> As before mentioned the album and a website update for FLASH and also a lot of releases by my core artists like Daso, Martin Patino and Daniel Kampf. There will also be a FLASH Circle 2011 compilation again, the last one was a big success so we will do it each year now! I will also publish an article again in Future Music Magazine, this time about acoustics – I’m currently building a new studio with an almost perfect acoustic situation and I want to show people that it can be a real pleasure if you are an audiophile person and producer.

After we gave this little introduction about your music news to our readers, we wanted to get back to your origins. Indeed, you are a “young” artist on the electronic music scene, nevertheless you have already around 20 000 fans on Facebook. You’re only 24 if I’m right, so could you please tell us in a few words, how did you become a DJ and producer?
> My problem, but also motor is the fact, that I always think I’m not good enough and indeed there are other unknown genius, much younger, producing incredible interesting music – but fortunately sometimes there are moments when I’m happy about things I achieved and as I said, I always push myself to do things and learn things I’m interested in as good as possible to constantly develop myself and my productions. I’m happy about the high number of fans because I like to share the things I do! I like to make people happy, to change them in a positive way and to get feedback.

At the beginning, did your family understand what you did for a living? And now are they proud of what you achieved along the years?
> My father did understand it because he is a bit similar to me but he is focusing on other, completely different things. My mother is a very cautious person so she didn’t understand it but now everything is fine and yes, I’m glad that they are proud, it’s worth a lot.

It appears that everything changed when you met Oliver Koletzki, founder and owner of Stil vor Talent. Could you please tell us how did you two met, as it was certainly an important milestone for you?
> Yes it was definitely a milestone in my career, I remember the moment when he called me the first time, it was one of the luckiest moments in my life. I sent him a demo besides 30 other labels and almost nobody replied except him and Trapez rec. So the next steps have been releases on his label SVT and Trapez, which started my career as a producer. Straight after I felt that I will be able to make a living out of my musical activities I moved to Berlin and did my thing day and night and fortunately it worked very well. Oliver and me profited a lot from each other, he showed me many things about melodies and pushed my name in the scene and I provided him with fresh beats, samples and produced things with and for him. Now our ways split a little bit because we both building our own labels but in the future there will be some collaborations again like a SVT vs. FLASH Labelnight in Watergate Club Berlin. (27.05.2011)

Do you think that “Sputnik” was your first hit that opened you some doors?
> Yes it was a very fresh sounding track at that time but the real door-opener was BLAST on Trapez and also later the collaborations with Oliver like “Tiger”. These tracks got played a lot and they still sound really good, I still play BLAST in my sets, I consider it as timeless and completely on point, very close to perfect.

Now you moved to Berlin. Some days ago, I interviewed Thomas Schumacher and Emerson Todd who live there too, such as Troy Pierce for instance. What is so special about this town, that is so hot in terms of techno and minimal music scene? Is there a special water?!
> Well, I come from Austria so I can tell you the water in Berlin is simply not very good, but for electronic music — especially techno and house — it’s a paradise. I enjoy having a lot of music producers around me who I can meet and work with. The rents for flats and studios are very cheap (this is changing slowly though because so many people move to Berlin) and you can find all sorts of restaurants and shops I appreciate that. Also almost all the important companies — which are involved in electronic music — are based in Berlin like Native Instruments, Ableton and many labels. This is very useful because I often help those guys to develop new products such as the X1 or the S4 controler etc.

Do you have some objectives/challenges for 2011, things you would like to reach and succeed?
> My album should surprise everybody in a positive way and my label FLASH should continue to develop. My label partner Marco and me have to continue to work hard to get it run smoothly, a label is not easy to manage these days and we have little arguments every now and then because it hardly finances itself but I’m sure we will be rewarded in some time and everything will pay off. I also want to start writing a book about different things, it will be focused on music but should include also other things like technical and physical aspects of sound, experiences from my gigs, recording experiments, studio tricks – everything. I just don’t know yet how to pack all the information I want to give to other people into a book and on which themes I should focus. Maybe I will finish the master in Music Technology fist in order to gain more knowledge. I think it is a project to be realized within the next 5 years though.

I’ve read that you have released more than 100 tracks. So, how would you describe your process of working/producing, the emotion you would like to share with the public. What are your sources of inspirations?
> There are many reasons why I’m doing this, the most important reason is maybe because I want to create something new and also because I want to express different things to either make people happy, to make people think, to change them in a positive way or just to see how they react. Since my childhood I always loved to build or create something, it took me a while until I found music but before it was loudspeakers of all kinds, RC boats, different wood things, I even constructed machines during my time in the mechanical engineering school in Austria. If I would stop creating I would maybe feel very uncomfortable.

As you come from Austria, are there one or two Austrian artists you would like to introduce us today? Maybe some who are influencing your works?
> When I got into electronic music in the age of 12 I was a big fan of Mike Vinyl who played really energetic techno and was mixing very well. Eric Fischer and Martin Klein introduced me to the deeper side of techno. There were also all these FM4 Radio guys like Makossa, Sugar B and Slack Hippie who played this trippy dubby house sounds. Kruder & Dorfmeister also impressed me very much with their deep listening music. D-Tex is a Disco freak who showed me the housy side of music. There are many new talents, maybe I should mention the ones who release on my label: Ken Hayakawa, Fabian Feynman, Ned Rise, Catekk.

Moreover Florian, what did you know about the French electronic music scene? Are there some artists that you know? You particularly love their works?
> Sorry to grab the most obvious example but Daft Punk is a milestone in electronic music, they created so many good records, unbelievable. Laurent Garnier is also very interesting dj and producer. The most significant thing I connect with France in terms of music is electro and French house, Filter house you know? Terrence Fixmer also did some really good tracks.

Florian, to conclude this interview, we have a few more questions to better know you. Sometimes one word is enough!

The song you advice us to listen in your discography?
>  Florian Meindl - Beat Spyder (Resopal)

An artist you would like to work with, one day?
> There are many but Jeff Mills would be very interesting.

Are you using vinyl or mp3 for your mix?
> Good Quality mp3s (320 kbs) and wavs

Three words about France?
> Very good food

The software you use to produce?
> Cubase5 / UAD plugins

Your best souvenir of this summer: a place where you played for instance or an anecdote?
> Swimming and djing in Sicilia

The best 2 clubs in Austria (name and city)?
> Flex Club Vienna / Cembran Keller Linz

Somewhere you would like to mix one day: in a club or in the nature!?
> In a club with perfect acoustics plus a Function One soundsystem and a lot of music lovers.

Your favorite track these days?
> Kasper Bjorke - Heaven (Nicolas Jaar Rmx)

Some words about our website Actualités Electroniques?
>It’s good that pages like this are existing and people like you work hard for pushing electronic music to the next level and provide music enthusiasts with information and interesting articles!

Florian, thank you very much for the time you devoted to Actualités Electroniques and particularly for this interview. We will wait for sure for your next productions. We hope to see you in France soon maybe for a mixed session. See ya!”

Dj Aroy

MORE INFO ABOUT FLORIAN MEINDL
http://www.florianmeindl.com
http://www.facebook.com/florianmeindlartistpage
http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/florian-meindl/id370341438?mt=8
http://www.myspace.com/florianmeindl
http://soundcloud.com/florian-meindl
http://twitter.com/florianmeindl

http://www.flash-rec.com/
http://soundcloud.com/flash-recordings

BONUS - Hot Chip - I Feel Better (Florian Meindl Rmx) (FLASH 027)