Hi Dominik. First up, the traditional question: How did you get interested in making electronic music? Which artists & labels where your inspiration?
I was growing up in a very rural region here in Germany. There were no clubs where this music was played. So we listened in the beginning of the 90s every weekend to the radioshow "Clubnight" on HR3 were Sven Väth was playing. It was the first music which really interested me and this fascination is in me until today.
Because I'm coming from a region between Frankfurt and Cologne I was inspired by both of these Techno-metropols. On the one side there was Frankfurt with it's hard, melodic Techno style with labels like Harthouse, and on the other side Cologne with it's minimal stuff like Profan. I think you can hear these both inspiration sources in my music today...
Other than musical inspirations, what other facets of life inspire you?
I am a real nature lover! I'm studying ecology in Bonn, and I am a passionate ornithologist and sometimes work as a ranger in national parks. I take a lot of inspirations from the nature, how everything is floating, but everytime it can happen something unexpected.
What is your current studio set-up, & how many hours per week would you roughly spend writing music?
I am realizing these inspirations by working, nearly solely, with the computer. With this system I'm very familiar and can work very quick and efficient. In the past I had a lot of analogue equipment, but I sold most of it, because it's sometimes too complex to work with it for a longer time. I also use very often samples I recorded in the nature. It's very different how many hours per week I am producing music. Sometimes I do it nearly the whole week, till 16 hours a day, sometimes nothing for a month, to collect new inspirations. My album "flora&fauna" for example I produced completely in 3 weeks!
Your first full-length album, entitled 'Flora & Fauna' on Traum, has been very well received. Could you tell us the feeling behind this LP, the title & the artwork?
This album is a real piece of myself. It's the way to link both my passions, nature and techno. I selected 10 animals and flowers of our homely flora and fauna, which have interested me and wrote a song for them. Sometimes I also used samples of these animals in these tracks. On the backside of the cover, I wrote a small story to each animal/flower, to show the listener how wonderful our nature is. It should inspire the love of nature, or they simply should say: "hmm, very interesting, I didn't know that!". The cover shows these 10 animals and flowers. I made it together with Jaacqueline from Traum. It took 6 weeks of time. So it was twice as much time than doing the music for it :-).
What do you do with yourself when you are not producing music?
I am studying at the university, watching birds or simply relax from doing music :-).
How does nature play a part in your music? Working as a part-time nature park ranger, do you often take a DAT machine to sample the many sounds of nature?
Yes, as I already mentioned, I am a real nature fan. In my remix for Dirt Crew for example (Dirt Crew - Largo (Dominik Eulberg Remix) (Dirt Crew Rec) -> December 2004) you can hear a 3 minute nature break of animals I recorded in my home region.
Where do you see your sounds evolving over the next couple of years? More darker rhythms, more melody, more minimalism, or all of these elements?
I think I always want to do a lot of facettes of styles and feelings. Only doing one style would be boring for me. Like in nature, there are sunny days, rainy days or snowy days.
You have had recent releases on Traum, Sniper & Raum musik. What other releases & remixes do you have coming out in the near future?
Already available is a record from me on the young Cologne label Paltzhirsch under a pseudonym Rocco Branco. For this there will also come a Remix EP by Misc. and Einmusik in the beginning of next year. There will also be a Remix EP for "Die Rotbauchunken vom Tegernsee" by Tobi Neumann and Robag Wruhme on Traum. In January comes a new Trapez ltd. from me and also a track on the Interkontinental on Traum. Also there will come something on Raum...Musik and of course the remix for Roman Flügel "Geht's noch?" on Cocoon and remixes for Le Dust Sucker and Dirt Crew. At the moment I'm working on remixes for Tiefschwarz, Nathan Fake, Einmusik and Gabriel Ananda...
Do you have any plans to launch your own record label in the future, host a radio show or increase your DJ appearances to showcase your music & the more minimal side of house & techno?
I am thinking about doing my own label for nature lovers. But I don't really know yet, because everybody is doing their own label at the moment. But I've got a vision of doing something which is linked very close to the nature, perhaps sponsoring nature projects with the label. I'll finish studying and then, I hope so, working in a national park, showing people the beautiness of our nature, living in an old farmhouse with a chimney and producing in it's warm firelight brawdy minimal pushers in the evening.
That sounds like a great vision...Thanks for your time Dominik, & good luck with your future projects.
Related Links:
http://www.dominik-eulberg.de
http://www.traumschallplatten.de/
INTERVIEW: Daniel Filipovic, daniel.filipovic (at) gmail.com , exclusive for www.mnml.nl
