Sweet Headache

“I am usually among the first to arrive at a party and one of the last to leave” – Piet Bender interviewed

I first met Piet Bender a couple of years ago when he was playing live with his project Aera 128. I was impressed with the amount of groove boxes, effect devices and other sound hardware they had in front of them, playing a very dynamic type of Techno that’s not only danceable, but also playful, spacey and energizing.

I recently got the chance to interview Piet and talk to him about his project Aera 128, his solo releases and his plans for the near future.

First of all, here is a recent mix from him to give you an impression of his sound:

“I love DJing, and I am always very passionate and have a lot of fun when I am playing. I think people can see that and that animates them to party with me. This is pretty much the same when I am going out myself. I am usually among the first to arrive at a party and one of the last to leave.”

 You can quickly tell that Piet Bender is a real party animal and that he truly enjoys playing and listening to Techno music. In this light, it might be somewhat surprising that he is releasing his tracks on CJ Masou’s label Puuuhh Records - a label mostly known for it jazzy electronic sounds. Piet himself explains this with the intention behind his sound and the difference to most Techno productions:

“Many Techno labels always deliver the same kind of stuff. In contrast, I find the releases from my label colleagues quite refreshing, even if it is sometimes quite different from what I do.”

I asked Piet about the difference between his solo productions and the tracks that he releases with his buddy Takt:O under the name Aera 128.

“The tracks I produce with Takt:O are very playful and rhythmically different from most other Techno productions. He has kind of an electronic conga that we use a lot in our tracks, and we have a lot of percussions and ethno-influenced sounds in there. With Aera 128, we also work a lot more with actual sound hardware than when I produce alone. We typically meet once a week, set up everything and start to program beats and patterns, but no live set that we play is the same. There is always a lot going on when we fire sounds from 3 groove boxes. In contrast, when I produce alone, I typically produce straight Club Techno that I do mostly on my computer with Ableton Live and Native Instruments Maschine.”

Having a lot of things going on already, Piet Bender is not planning to slow down the pace in the near future – but he does plan to slow down the tempo of his productions in some cases:

“I am planning a new project with my girlfriend which will be somewhat more laid-back with vocals, guitars and some percussion. Apart from that, I will be releasing a new solo EP called “Remind Us” soon which will again be straight Club Techno. We are also redesigning our live setup with Aera 128 and plan to hit the stages a little more.”

To give you a better impression, here are a few tracks from Piet Bender and Aera 128:

marvis

Marvis is the founder of Sweet Headache. He is a music nerd from Cologne (Germany) and likes many flavors of urban electronic music. He has been active as a DJ and event organizer for more than 7 years.

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