Danish born producer Uffe has just dropped his spectacular multi-instrumental album ‘Radio Days‘ on the Copenhagen based label Tartelet Records (home of Axel Boman, Max Graef, Kenton Slash Demon). Having listened to the album continuously for the past 2 months, we thought it would be criminal not to invite Uffe to record a mix and give him the opportunity to discuss the makings of his new album in detail. His mix delivers a diverse selection of tracks, featuring music from Sound Stream, Axel Boman, Max Graef, Theo Parrish, Bruce, Flying Lotus and many more.
Hi Uffe, thanks for recording your mix for Inverted Audio. Can you tell us more about it, where you made it, how it was recorded and your track selection?
The mix was recorded at Red Light Radio a couple of weeks ago. For the past few months I’ve had kind of a stack of tracks that I thought would go nicely together in a mix so I brought them to the radio and recorded a few different mixes with slight variations but chose this one in the end as it was a bit more spontaneous in terms of selection and mixing.
I used to spend weeks doing a mix, selecting and making perfect mixes, but these days I enjoy it more the way I did it now. Even with sloppy mixing. I love the diversity although the selection might end up being a bit schizophrenic. But in my head it makes sense so…
Congratulations on the release of your new album ‘Radio Days’, I’ve been listening to it every day since I first got hold of it in February, it’s a truly unique album fusing moody house, soul, downtempo and electronica, perfect for all types of scenarios. From the outset what was your aim for this album?
Thank you! I wanted the album to be a diverse mix of music. Because those are the type of albums I like myself. But also to kind of showcase my musical heritage to people. I listen to so much different music that inspires me and I produce a lot of different stuff too. But very little of it gets released. With the album format I feel you can get away with doing something like that.
Is this album a reflection of previous releases, or a completely new take of your music?
A bit of both really…but I wouldn’t say that it’s entirely “a new take” rather than just moving forward.
The name of the album ‘Radio Days’, suggests looking back at the days when local radio was paramount to discovering music. What’s your definition of the title?
Radio was a huge inspiration for the record and it has always been a huge inspiration on me in general. I grew up listening to the radio.
During the time the album was made I also started to play more and more often on Red Light Radio in Amsterdam, which influenced my music making quite a lot.
The tracks on the record are a selection of tracks made over the course of the last two years or so….so not much of a concept in mind really. But radio seemed to be the thing that tied it all together in the end.
Last Saturday I hosted a 6-hour radio show on Red Light Radio as a kind of release party for it – to kind of close the circle. It was great!
Where did you spend the majority of your time writing the album?
Sadly behind the screen…I haven’t had a fixed studio for a very long time since I’ve been moving from place to place over the last couple of years. So I’ve kind of narrowed my studio down to being my portable Vestax turntable, my Boss 303 sampler and Logic. Occasionally a microphone. It works but I can’t wait to get a proper studio together again. The album was made in Amsterdam.
In the summer of 2014 I went into the studio for a week in Copenhagen with my good friend Jeppe (produces as Rewolmer). We recorded some things live instead of samples and mixed it together so the whole sound became more coherent over the course of the various styles and so on.
Being signed to Tartelet Records, how has the label helped shape the album? Did you work alongside any of their artists, Max Graef perhaps?
It has helped it to influence it quite a lot actually. Not in terms of collaboration but more in terms of new friendships and inspiration. I met Max and the whole Box-Aus-Holz crew in 2012 when I was in Berlin to celebrate the release of the Stræss! EP and we’ve been in touch since.
I think the Tartelet Sound definitely made me dig more into my hip-hop and jazz past which I’d kind of neglected because of my obsession with techno music back then. I like Tartelet’s approach; they really have this ‘anything goes-fuck you’ attitude, which I love. They will release anything as long as they think it’s good. Emil, who runs the label, once told me “fuck it if the track isn’t mixable”. Respect!
Being such a rich blend of genres, I’ll take the liberty of asking you what types of music you listen to at home or in the club.
At home, everything. But these days I’m pretty much only listening to jazz. I definitely have obsessive tendencies when it comes to digging a certain style of music. And I think my roommate is getting a bit sick of me blasting out spiritual free jazz in the living room constantly.
In the club it really depends. It’s been ages since I went out come to think of it. I heard Andras Fox play a couple of weeks ago here in Amsterdam, which was pretty dope! I guess I like to hear people go from style to style in their sets without thinking too much about it. A night of deep house only will just send me home to sleep.
Who are your favourite producers to date?
Oh man, too many to name.
The album artwork is great, where did you source the photo and who’s that mohawked punk rocker?
Glad you like it. All the photography is mine. I take pictures if I have my camera on me – check out my website for more photos. I have around 30 undeveloped films lying around here, so check back later, might be an update sometime soon.
Let’s talk more about the album; do you have a favourite track? Mine would have to be ‘I Can Show You High’.
I think that’s my favourite too. It really grew while in the studio with Rewolmer and Lotte Rose. Lotte is singing on the track too. But the track reminds me of that great session in the studio. And that track sparked a new project that I’m working on with Jeppe and Lotte. More news soon.
But, personally it’s such a strange collection of tracks on the album. Some were made in a couple of hours and some took weeks. I really like ‘For A While‘ as well. Because it was this kind of moment where I thought to myself ‘can I actually pull this off on the record’?
The album carries many vocalists, I assume that your voice features, but who else did you work with?
Funny thing is that it’s actually only me singing. Except Lotte as I mentioned on “I Can Show You High“. I’m still learning how to sing so I guess I’m still experimenting with what my voice can do and what it can’t.
In terms of producing the album, what types of instruments and equipment did you use?
It’s pretty much only samples. A few synths here and there, but nothing to brag about really. I have some shitty equipment but I don’t really play any instruments so it’s rarely being put to use. But I couldn’t care less about equipment.
What’s next for Uffe? Will you be taking the album on tour?
Well there might be a little live band thing going on at some point, but it’s too soon to talk about now.
But speaking of bands, I started that new project with Jeppe and Lotte from Copenhagen, which I’m very excited about. And there’s a little clubby surprise record dropping sometime soon. Some more dance floor oriented things that didn’t make it to the album.
Apart from making music, what else do you do?
I’m studying fine arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. I’m in my last year and (hopefully) graduating this summer. If you’re in Amsterdam in beginning of July come by and see the graduation show.
Finally what’s the weirdest thing you’ve watched on YouTube recently?
I think it was some super hyper video featuring 3 young Asian American guys on the most underrated Asian noodle soups or something. It had several millions views – that kind of freaked me out. I get a lot of cooking tips from YouTube and sometimes I end up depressing places like that.
Uffe’s new album ‘Radio Days’ is out now on Tartelet Records, order a vinyl copy from Juno.
TRACKLIST
1. Soundstream – A2 (Inferno)
2. Julie Driscoll – Lament For Miss Baker – Open
3. Plus – The Search – Plus
4. VIVIAN – 5 (unreleased)
5. Axel Boman – My Dirty Laundry – Barn003
6. Max Graef – Nr 05 – GYM007
7. Uffe – Solid Satin (We Can Do Something) – Forthcoming
8. Percussions – KHLHI – TEXT029
9. Felix De Luca – Camouflage (Shatter Hands Remix)
10. Oliver Lake – Intensity – Heavy Spirits
11. Wendell Harrison – Love Juice – Organic Dream
12. Theo Parrish – Falling Up – Falling Up
13. Bruce – Tilikum – Just Getting Started
14. Uffe – When There Is No Sun – ? ? ?
15. Bobby Hutcherson – Mtume – Head On
16. Flying Lotus – An Xbox Killed My Dog – Internet
Discover more about Uffe and Tartelet Records on Inverted Audio.
UffeTartelet RecordsFunkHip-HopHouseJazzSoul