teshno

i first got wind of these on ben watt’s weekly kiss show a fortnight or so ago…

confirming britain can do the sort of deep shit that surreptitiously sweeps your mind and feet away as well as any of their european counterparts, bearweasel have both impressed me and – more importantly some would say – ben watt recently. The fluid mix they turned in for the buzzin fly boss kept me locked in for the duration, so i thought i’d see if i could find out more about a pair who only release on mates’ labels [murmur, viva, 8bit - pretty fly mates, eh?]. here are my findings which include some fairly insightful thoughts on piracy, creativity, and the world of production. pretty funny in places, too…

[as will always be the case with teshno interviews, the artists pick the post's accompanying image. this one will be explained if you read on...]

dean mushin/bearweasel – solo or duo – please explain?!

d: well, i’m dean muhsin, but bearweasel is myself and louisa (page). we don’t dj together, and lou isn’t djing right now, so it’s my name that gets used on flyers, but bearweasel is two of us…

why bearweasel? where does that come from?

d: ah, it’s the age old story of choosing a nickname on a whim, then regretting it down the line! i call lou “weasel” as i struggled with louisa when drunk, she calls me bear because i look like one, apparently!!!?

how do you manage deejaying and producing together? who does what?

d: well, i’m the engineer so i’m pretty hands on, and i tend to start ideas too. however, the development of ideas is where i struggle and lou provides a bit of backbone.

louisa: dean could watch a loop going round all day whereas i get us to move on to other parts / finish the track! we bounce ideas off each other really well and if you get writers block doing a track at least there is two of you to work out the bit that you got stuck on.

how would you describe your sound to someone who didn’t know?

d: when we started we didn’t want a sound, we wanted to make a whole load of different sounding house music, but there are a few elements which always come through in our tracks now. dubby sounds and lots of sub bass with grooves sums it up.

louisa: warm, deep, dubby for me…

tell me about your formative music years…

d: my formative years musically speaking, were exactly the same as any with older siblings. i just listened to their music, which has its benefits and drawbacks. my brother got into breakdancing so kraftwerk, doug e fresh and the like caught my ears but i also got a fair bit of wham and other toss from my older sister. once old enough to buy my own stuff, it was rave stuff, early grooverider tapes i used to buy from bass generator records in newcastle. i can’t talk about music formative years without mentioning shindig in newcastle, though. scott bradford and scooby pretty much defined “how”, and to a certain degree “what” i play to this day.

louisa: i always wanted to be a dancer until i was in my late teens and released i would have to stop going out clubbing every weekend if i was to make a career out of it! so in a way, music has always been important because of dancing. plus my dad is really into music so i remember at home or in his car listening to talking heads, blondie, the stranglers then a bit later into the prodigy / leftfield etc. we would always share cds… well i would introduce him to an artist or band so that he would start liking them too and buy all of their albums so i wouldn’t have to! i then started going out to loads of drum and bass events which slowly progressed into going to house nights – i still love fabric on a saturday night.

do you play any instruments? there be a musicality to your beats…

d: lou used to be a dancer so has an acute sense of rhythm, and i’m not too bad with the keyboard but that’s it – i guess that’s why our tracks are so simple.

and what drew you to electronica?

d: hearing electronic music as a kid is pretty mental, for anyone – i think most people my age seeing and hearing synths when they were kids was pretty fascinating. i was pretty geeky too, into computers, so music made that way was hugely appealing.

louisa: as i said before, it was definitely my dad who probably drip fed me electronica without me even releasing from a young age!

where do your musical ideas come from. how do make yourself sound different when anyone with a pc can [try] make music?

d: we make functional house music for the dancefloor, so our ideas come from there. i like to remember a night out and try to make the perfect tune for that night. sounds incredibly sad written down, that! as for sounding different, the best way to do that is to not think about it. every person is different and even with identical kit, an identical brief and identical experience of a genre, they’d make different music. i think there’s a slightly dangerous over-intellectualisation of dance music right now, and some people are writing music with the sole purpose of being different and that is as bad as making music which sounds like everyone else – just write what you feel.

louisa: if we start analysing what we are making, we often never make anything that we particularly like so then it ends up in the virtual bin. some of our best pieces have been done really quickly, it all just starts slotting into place and makes ‘sense’. we both are into the same types of dance music so that means we often end up listening to the same stuff plus going out to the same events. i’m trying to listen to other types of music other than dance as well…i’m nuts about the band friendly fires – i haven’t fallen in love with a band / artist for aaaages and i can easily listen to their album every day!

there’s a lot of depth to your sounds, what draws you to the deep?

d: i just like getting locked into a groove, and with an incessant 120+ bpm banging along things would get pretty boring without something to lose your head in. for me, big saw tooth synths and builds and drops every ten seconds just snap me out of the groove, but a bit of depth and soul add to it and keep things rolling. i also listen to a lot of house music at home, stuff i wouldn’t necessarily play out – and that influences me and draws me towards deeper sounds.

how much do you talior a mix to the dancefloor in front of you? what do you look for in the crowd?

d: i have a specific process i go through on this, it keeps me sane and fights off the nerves. for the first half an hour or 45 minutes of the set, i try to please myself and ignore the floor. once i’m settled into a flow and feel comfortable then i start to vibe off the dancefloor and see where that takes me.

you only release on mates’ labels, right? why is that, is it sustainable, and if a big name came calling, would you break your rule?

d: yeah – we work with mates because it’s easier to moan at a mate than it is someone you don’t know, lol… actually, there’s some truth in that, but the real reason is that mates trust you to deliver without heavy handed a&ring, and that freedom is important to us – we don’t work well under pressure! people like kev from tsuba, the audiofly lads at supernature, steve at viva, stuart at murmur and jose at bloop understand us – that’s invaluable. if a big name comes calling, it’d be hard because they’d have to wait – we’ve got commitments with who we work with, and that’s about all the music we can make right now. when our writing process is faster, then we’d be silly not to take opportunities, though.

how did the ben watt radio slot come about?

d: ben popped up on aim and asked. it’s no secret that i work in music promotion and have done for a long time, so i’m pretty easy to reach industry-wise, and ben was very kind to allow me on to his show. he’s played a few of our bits, but it was a nice surprise to be asked. i’ve got a lot of respect for ben, he’s done so much and to go from being a multimillion selling artist to investing all of his time and energy into house music is pretty inspiring.

what do you think about the constant clamour around this genre or that – people doing whatever’s en vogue? not everyone can be innovating all the time, right?

d: quite right. i’m not saying we need more “fodder”, and i’m not saying that there are those out there who stand alone as innovators, but house/techno wouldn’t be where it is without a high turnover of music – and not all of it can be classic. as i said before, people should make what they feel – ignore the trends, ignore criticism and just crack on!

louisa: we have been listening to loads of house tracks that were released 10-15 years ago – still sound amazing now and i think that’s the key for a quality piece of music. i also think you can spot the people a mile off who happen to follow trends too much, whether it be djing, production or even clubbing.

do you think there’s a value in living in berlin when doing your job? would you ever head over? doesn’t it reduce the pool of creativity everyone being one place?

d: yeah, of course – it’s always nice to feel surrounded by artists, especially if the rent is cheaper! i’m not sure i’d move there, as much as i think i’d enjoy it, i love the uk too much – it’s a strange place when you take a step back, and that keeps me interested in it as a country. your last point, i think has some validity – but while berlin has it’s fair share of “big names”, creativity and good music seems to be coming from a myriad of places, so i don’t think berlin has a monopoly on it by any means.

louisa: i haven’t been to berlin but some of the nights look amazing. the city itself seems very cultured and art focused, which must affect the general creativity of the place and not just the music scene.

detroit this, berlin that, manheim or frankfurt the other, where are you representing? is it tough not being from somewhere of known heritage like that – a lot of djs represent their city’s sound… except english ones?! (london/bristol/sheffield and their bass love aside)

d: i’m representing me! i’m half english, quarter burmese, quarter indian. i’ve lived in newcastle, yorkshire and the south of england – so where do i choose, all of those places have had an effect on me. if i was forced, i’d say i represent staines, where we live now. i absolutely adore the place, it’s the epitome of riverside, suburban life and it keeps us sane! there’s a fair old bit of musical heritage around these london orbital towns, i’ll have you know…….

lou: ‘staines house’ doesn’t seem to have a ring to it yet but give it some time

what would you say to people who think house and techno is drug music: music that can’t move you the way lyrics and guitars can?

d: if that’s what they think, then that’s what they think. i disagree of course – any music can move you, it just depends on what it is, and what it was intended for, too.

louisa: i would probably tell them to go and listen to a dj set from reboot / dj sneak / luciano / cassy and try not to move or feel something!

people who complain about music piracy are…

d: on to something – i can’t begin to explain the far reaching effect piracy has on music. by that, i don’t mean the music industry, i mean the actual music – i know too many artists and labels who have struggled and given up because they simply can’t afford to do it anymore. the worst thing is, it’s the smaller artists and labels who really suffer. however, one thing that really fucks me off about the industry, is the moaning djs who go on about piracy, yet don’t submit playlists to the prs so artist they’re making money out of can get paid! the prs (and their non-uk equivalents) should make it easier to do this, too – so they’re partly at fault.

louisa: agreed. it always guts me when i find out that our tracks have been uploaded to some illegal download site. all the hard work that has gone into something and someone decides to give it away. especially when you can go and buy a good quality legal download from beatport etc.

vinyl or digital?

d: for me, digital. i do think it’s nice we have these choices though – it must have been quite depressing ten years ago to find out you can’t buy a 12” locally because distribution didn’t reach that far…

louisa: i love the smell / touch / large canvas for artwork plus the certain warmth you get from vinyl. however it takes up a lot of space and weighs a tonne!

what’s your biggest regret?

d: my life is a string of regrets – i’ve spent a lot of time doing and not thinking first, but what can you do but learn!?

louisa: eating a massive jacket potato about an hour ago. i think i need to have a lie down!

who was the last person to impress you and why?

d: harland miller who has only just appeared on my radar, and is a fantastic, funny artist. oh, and louisa who made some wicked jam this weekend (rock and roll)…

louisa: hahahahaaa! i think i would say jose belo who runs bloop recordings. we met him properly at sonar and he is such a nice bloke. wish he lived down the road from us so we could take him for a pint!

what did you want to be when you were a kid?

d: in this order: a binman, a pilot, a member of altern8, jeff mills.

louisa: dancer or a vet probably!

where are you going now?

d: for lunch, i’m fucking starving!

this question is from jet project [last interviewees] – who is your favourite ghost?

d: my gran.

louisa: i always used to see a dog sat on the stairs in my old house. i didn’t mind him but there was some weirdness in that house – we found out that a long time ago someone had murdered their brother in the garden and then that person got arrested and hung, drawn & quartered in the village!

d: what a fucking yokel!!!!!

finally, please leave me with a question to ask the next person i interview [seth troxler]…

for a young man, you wear a tache with the confidence of a seasoned pro – are we to assume you’re older than you say you are???

check them out over at myspaz/bearweaselaudio, or catch dean playing steve lawler’s viva night at ministry of sound on august 21st.

alternatively, listen to the kiss show, in full, without stings, over at soundcloud