5 Steps With Gregor Tresher

Gregor Tresher is one of the techno scene’s most respected performers. As a producer, he’s graced myriad seminal labels, not least Drumcode, Moon Harbour, Cocoon and of course his own label Break New Soil. With his remix of Laurent Garnier’s ‘M.I.L.F’ out now as part of the French icon’s ‘Home Box’ on his freshly resurrected F Communications imprint we thought the time was right to invite Gregor to share 5 pivotal moments from his storied career with us. Welcome to 5 steps with Gregor Tresher. 

Sniper Mode

At the beginning of this century when I wasn’t sure if I was really going to make a living of this music thing, I was releasing music under a synonym: Sniper Mode. Besides some releases together with others, it was the first project that I really focused on and in the end I made three full-length albums, various singles and remixes for this project. Since I wasn’t making any money via music (or anything else for that matter), I still consider the music I made back then to be pretty raw and uncompromising – not so much from a sound perspective, but in general. I don´t think its the best music I’ve made to date, but I still like most of it in a way. I wasn’t aiming at the dancefloor or to make it into DJs playlists. It was really just the music that came out of me at the time and the writing process happened very naturally. The longer I keep making music the more I feel this is the right attitude for writing music in general and I try to get back to that state of mind when working in the studio nowadays.

Neon

Around 2004, when my first releases under my real name on Anthony Rother’s Datapunk label were released, we also went on tour together, or lets rather say he kindly invited me to play the opening sets for his live shows at the time – which was a really big deal for me. Anthony had just released his Popkiller album and was on top of his game, so I had the chance to play at all these top-notch clubs right away. Before that I had (more or less) only played smaller gigs at clubs in and around Frankfurt but quickly  found myself at venues like Fabric, Fuse and Watergate. It really was an exciting time and when I think about it now, it pushed my career a lot in the beginning. It was a chance I was given and luckily I managed to make something out of it. I met a lot of people at the time that I still consider to be good friends nowadays like Karotte or Billy Nasty.

About A Good Place

Every musician knows the ups and downs of the writing process – sometimes you feel you’re bursting with creativity and on other days you think everything you do is just shallow and not worth anything at all. Especially at the beginning of a career it can be a really depressing experience. The more you go through these phases, the more you learn that at some point your creativity will return. ‘About A Good Place’ was one of those tracks that just came out of nothing after a longer non-creative phase and therefore it’s a track that means a lot to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfvkHi6UBrs

Remixing Depeche Mode

I’ve been a Depeche Mode fan for over thirty years now. My brother, who is 9 years older than me had the first three albums and I can still remember sneaking into his room when he wasn’t there to listen to ‘Construction Time Again’ over and over again. I must have listened to it a hundred times; I was just blown away by it. Whenever someone asked me in an interview what my ultimate career goal would be, I always said, ‘remixing Depeche Mode’. My manager at the time had a connection to their tour manager and at some point I made it on the list of possible remixers for one of their upcoming singles. When it actually happened I really couldn’t believe it: even only working with the stems in the studio was just incredibly exciting. So in the end I handed in two mixes, just to be sure – rumour has it that numerous remixes were turned down in the past and and I knew if this would happen to me I would just be devastated. Luckily, the band actually liked them a lot and decided to release them both. I had the chance to meet the guys at one of their shows and Martin even seemed to know my music and said he really liked it, which was just incredible as he is my biggest idol when it comes to songwriting.

Remixing Laurent Garnier

I can still remember the first time I heard Laurent play. It was at the legendary Dorian Gray club at Frankfurt airport during one of the so-called “holy raves”, a party that went on for three days during Christmas. I was really blown away by the technical skills and the choice of tracks (and actually still am when I hear Laurent play today). It was one of the key moments that made me want to become a DJ myself. I went on to see his shows in Frankfurt clubs Omen and XS regularly – so to get a remix from him now, twenty years later kind of felt like going full circle: From being a fan to making music myself to being musically recognized and respected by people that were and actually are my idols – that really means a lot to me.

Gregor Tresher´s remix of Laurent Garnier´s „M-I-L-F“ is now available via F Communications at Beatport and iTunes.