As the pulsating beats of Helena Hauff’s recommended track, Before You Go by Vertical 67, reverberate through the air, we delve into an intriguing conversation with the multifaceted German artist. With a background spanning fine arts and systematic music science and physics, Helena Hauff seamlessly navigates the realms of creativity and scientific inquiry. In this interview, she shares insights into the coexistence of her diverse educational experiences in her artistic practice, reflecting on the dichotomy between her rational, scientific persona and the emotional, intuitive essence expressed through her music. She also explains how her compilation Fabric presents Helena Hauff came to life.
Hauff’s journey unfolds as she explores the intersection of science and the enigmatic realm of the human soul, pondering the connections between her love for physics and the visceral experience of music in a club. Her artistic expression, both as a DJ and a music producer, becomes a cathartic release for the emotional side that balances her inherently rational nature.
The conversation delves into the intricacies of her creative process, uncovering the significance of movement in DJing and the dual nature of her music creation—embracing both the physical and emotional aspects. As she unveils the process behind curating a compilation, Hauff sheds light on the challenges and excitement of bringing together a diverse array of tracks, spanning both established and emerging artists.
The interview concludes with a reflection on the profound impact of artists who influenced Hauff’s musical journey, shaping her path and culminating in her recent compilation project. From her love for cooking and food culture to her newfound passion for climbing and bouldering, Helena Hauff reveals the multifaceted facets of her life beyond the realm of music. Join us as we unravel the layers of Helena Hauff’s artistic odyssey and the complexities that make her a captivating force in the world of electronic music.
What track would you recommend listening to our public while reading this interview?
Helena Hauff – Before you go by Vertical 67. It’s kind of random, but it’s one of those tracks that I have been listening to a lot recently, I’m totally obsessed with it. And I wish it was out on vinyl. So please, if you read this interview, can we have this on vinyl? I love the talk, Amazing!
Having two types of education, one more experimental in fine arts and another more scientific in Systematic Music Science and Physics, how do you manage to make these two aspects of your background coexist in your daily artistic practice?
Helena Hauff – I don’t think they come all togheter very much, to be honest. I have always a huge love for all sorts of arts whether it is fine arts or architecture, interior design, design, fashion, music and culture in general. I have always had a huge interest in that. At the same time, I was a massive fan of physics and I still feel a huge love for physics and the interest on how did the universe start. What forms the universe? What is it made out of? What is time? What is space? How do you measure them? Those questions really interest me and I want to know more.
But I’m not sure if I actually see much of a connection between that and my artistic life. In fact, if anything, the way I am as an artist is very, very different to the way I can think about the world, usually with my day-to-day life. I’m a very rational person, not very emotion-driven. When I make music, though, I try to let go and be more intuitive, listening to what I feel and feeling the moment. When I DJ, I try to react to the crowd and feel the energy.
As a scientist or like somebody who’s into science, I would never use the word ‘energy’ in the way that I use it when I talk about a club. I would use the word energy in a scientific way and I hate the way the word energy is misused, in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to like any kind of religion, spiritual matter or alternative medicine. But when I’m in a club, I experience energy. In a weird way I’ve got a split personality when it comes to my scientific background and when it comes to my love for all sorts of artistic expressions.
Was it hard for you to bring out this more emotional instinctive reaction?
Helena Hauff – I probably needed it in some way as a release because I’m so rational. It helped me to balance my life. It’s nice to have a release for your emotional side: if I didn’t have that I don’t know what I would do with it. And I don’t know how I would access my emotions and how I would show my emotions and how I would communicate my emotions. Having music is a tool to talk about emotions and experience it and release it.
Do you think there is a meeting point between science and the unknown of the human soul? And in visual terms how would you represent it?
Helena Hauff – Of course there’s a meeting point. We’re trying to find out why things are and what they are and how we can describe things and how we can measure things. And when it comes to the human brain we’re learning more about it. And there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to science. So if there wasn’t anything unknown we wouldn’t have science because we would know. So science is all about finding out about the unknown. It’s literally what science does. And that’s also the thing that excites me so much about it. When it comes to music it’s a very physical thing, not only related to sound waves. It touches you physically, obviously, when you think of the bass that you can feel in a club, you can feel it in your body.
It also makes you move and that’s why I am a DJ, because I love to dance. Music that makes me want to move is really something. That’s why I’m into techno. That’s why I’m into electronic music. It’s got the rhythm, it’s got the beat. It wants you to move. But I’m also into ambient music which touches you on a different level. I’m not religious but I really like church music. I’m really into organ music, for example, it touches you in. The emotion that it creates, is a feeling that you can’t describe. And that’s probably the unknown. I don’t know what is it that I’m feeling and it’s fantastic and beautiful. Obviously there is something built into the human system, and I don’t know what it is that makes us experience such things, I’m not sure if my cat’s got the same. It’s probably the most human that there is, that we have the ability to feel emotions while looking at art and listening to music.
Do you compose your music or play your music also for yourself, to be able to move?
Helena Hauff – Well first of all, I think when it comes to moving while you’re DJing, it took me some time to be really comfortable with it because people are staring at you. And some people really like to be stared at. But some people don’t. And I was one of those. I felt very uncomfortable with people looking at me. I didn’t want to be on a stage for this reason. I wanted to be a DJ because I love playing music to people. Somehow I liked the idea of being on a stage but it was also very intimidating, especially at the beginning of my career. And I think other DJs have the same: you don’t feel as free moving as a DJ as you would in the audience.
But now I’m actually genuinely enjoying the music and I’m not stressed about something. I can just be free and express myself exactly the way I want. And I can tell that the crowd is having a good time and they’re together. It’s a fantastic feeling and I’m not self-conscious about it anymore. I don’t really care what people think. When it comes to making music, I always stand up. I always move when I record tracks. I don’t go into the studio and I think “I want to make music that is made for dancing.” Because, as I said, I also like ambient. I don’t always need to have a beat, a rhythm.
I go into the studio with whatever I feel like in the moment, and let it happen. Sometimes I start off with some rhythm, some dancing and I strip a bear off any rhythm and all that’s left is just soundscapes because it just takes me there. I do find both things equally exciting, I think. The things that make you move and are more physical, the things that are probably more emotional and a little bit more brainy, as if it’s happening more up in your head rather than in your stomach. I think both are of value.
What is the logic behind the design of a compilation? And what are the mental structures?
Helena Hauff – A compilation is difficult. First, you are not allowed to have every track on there. You have to ask the artist if it’s okay to have the track on the mix. Initially you have some tracks and then you’re not allowed to use them and you replace them with others, which takes you into a different direction. And all of a sudden that one doesn’t fit anymore and you’re replacing it with something else. It’s a very long process and you end somewhere very different from where you probably started. But it’s exciting and it’s different from what you would do in a club because you can play whatever you want, obviously. And you have the reaction of the crowd as well.
When you’re at home and you’re working on a mix, it’s more structured. It’s probably more scientific. But yeah, I’m very very happy with the final result and I’m happy with all the artists that are involved in the compilation. A lot are my favourite artists, as two of the very most influential artists in my career, which are Orteca and Radioactive Man. I was an I am a huge Orteca fan and when I first started DJing and started buying records, I collected all of their releases. So I went digging for everything that they’d ever released, including the one track that is now on the compilation. I was obsessed with Orteca. I went to Copenhagen to see them play live.
The very first electronic record that I ever bought was by Radioactive Man. Radioactive Man, his first album. I fell in love with electro when I found that record. He’s been very important for me as well for my career, so it’s really nice to have those two people on my compilation.
What were the most significant steps to achieve a project like this?
Helena Hauff – I started december last year, and then I worked on it for like maybe three, four months. I wanted to re-release tracks on the compilation that are hard to find on vinyl now. Rare tracks. Or tracks that have never had a proper good pressing. I wanted to have some tracks that made sense to have on a compilation on vinyl, hard to find elsewhere. Some old tracks and some rare tracks, then also key tracks that I think are very important in electronic music. Like the Illektrolab or the Radioactive Man track. If you are into electro, you need to know about those tracks. They just never grow old, I know those tracks are going to be relevant in the next 20 years.
I also wanted to showcase music by new artists. I always think it’s interesting to create a bridge between what’s going on right now and the past. That’s the amazing thing about DJing. You can take things that are 30 years old and put them right next to something that has not even come out yet. Then you have a connection when they are overlapping: you’re making them making love. They’re forming something new that is something very old and very new at the same time.
Since you’re talking about very selected pieces, what is your source? Is it old shops or do you go to gigs or you’re just diving into the web? Where do you do your explorations?
Helena Hauff – I go to record shops and I also search online a lot. I’ve been collecting records for a while now, for 15 years. I have a big collection. Sometimes I go through my own collection to find things, like the Orteca track, for example, I think I bought this record in 2009. And I had actually forgotten about it until I moved house and I went through my collection again. I’m still going through it. I’m trying to reorganize everything and I’m rediscovering things that I bought a while ago. It’s never ending. It’s nice to go to record shops because you have the shop owner doing a pre-selection for you. You can find things that you would have never thought, and you didn’t know you wanted that. You know, when you search online, quite often you have to know what you’re looking for. It’s a bit more specific. But then you can also do random things like going on Discogs and do some search and just see what’s on. You can find very surprising things. I think one of the great things about the internet is definitely finding records. It’s fantastic. I love physical records stores, but the internet is another great source for finding stuff.
And you also spread geographically. Does it happen for you to just explore in places that are really far from Europe?
Helena Hauff – Rarely, because I travel the world, but usually I don’t have time. It’s like flying in and out, which is a shame. But if I do have time, I try to go to stores and find things. So last time I went to a record shop was in Melbourne. And I found some really cool records there. I think also Asia, where I am going now, is a really, really interesting place to go record shopping. I think the selection that you find there is going to be quite different, too.
What was the starting point for the entire project of this compilation?
Helena Hauff – It was probably me playing at Fabric, enjoying the club and connecting with the resident DJs there and forming bonds. And, you know, there isn’t one starting point, but then when it comes to the creative process, honestly, it’s hard to tell. I wanted to do something. I wanted to record a very funky mix. And it turned out quite different. I wanted to have a lot of old school Detroit Electro (she laughs), and it turned out quite different. Actually I know where the starting point was, because I wanted to have an unreleased track by myself on there. And I had the track Turn your sights inwards. So I actually used that as a starting point. And then I thought, what else? What idea does this give me? What other artists would I associate with that track? So what could I incorporate in the mix that resonates with that track? So that was one of the starting points. And that’s why I wanted to go a little bit more funky and a little bit more light. I wanted the mix to be less dark, but more light and somehow it ended up completely different.
Why did you decide not to use social media? You no longer consider them a valuable promotion tool? – The person who is asking you doesn’t use social media, by the way.
Helena Hauff – I decided a long time ago that I didn’t like social media. I was on MySpace in 2008. And I was on there for two months and somehow I didn’t enjoy it. I thought it was weird. I thought it was really, really weird. Publishing personal stuff online and sharing it with people that I didn’t know. I thought it was weird that all of a sudden I cared about comments and likes on my page from people that I didn’t even know. Why do I start to obsess with what people think about me and the interactions? Why is having more friends on that page giving me a good feeling? I didn’t like that, I thought it was dumb. It also took away a lot of time, it was very distracting. And then I said to myself, oh, I’m going to delete this. Facebook just started becoming a thing with my friends: I tried it and I hated it. Then Instagram came. And I am happy I decided not to join it. When I think about it, I have mixed feelings to whether it’s a positive thing to not be on there or a negative thing. I’m happy that I’m not on there. But sometimes I also think it would be great to be able to share my thoughts on certain topics and interact and maybe make a positive change. I also can’t help to promote things that are important to me. And I don’t mean myself, I don’t really care about the self-promotion aspect, as I guess my career is going well, so I don’t feel I need to promote myself anymore. I’m happy with where I am. I could be more famous, probably, but I’m cool with the way it is.
Do you do something else other than composing and playing music?
Helena Hauff – Yes, actually. I have a huge love for cooking, I love buying food and preparing it. I love going to food markets and seeing all the lovely products and getting inspired by the beautiful colours of the vegetables. I am obsessed with food and food culture and really enjoy cooking. I’m also obsessed with climbing and bouldering, being outside and touching rocks and climbing up mountains. It started recently. I’ve been bouldering for about two years, but I’ve recently started climbing outside as well, rock climbing, sport climbing. Every time I have time off, I dedicate my time to climbing. I just came back from Sardinia, it was amazing.
