IN CONVERSATION WITH TINLICKER
Interview by Timotej Letonja
We had the pleasure to meet the Multi/Triple Platinum, Multi/Triple Gold, Dutch duo Tinlicker a couple of weeks ago. The duo, Jordi and Micha, are known for songs like “Because You Move Me” and “Hypnotised”.
Jordi and Micha talked with us about their upcoming third studio album “Cold Enough for Snow” dropping on February 16th, pre-save the album HERE. Three singles of the album have already been pre-released, the latest “Nothing to Lose” feat. Circa Waves, listen HERE, just dropped accompanied by a music video. But that is not all, Tinlicker will go on a EU tour in february-march. having conquered London’s Roundhouse last year, the duo return to the UK, to the legendaryTroxyLondon, Marble Factory (Bristol), Mandela Hall (Belfast).EU dates inc.Gashouder (NL), Elysee Montmartre (Paris), Magazzini Generali (Milan), Vicar Street (Dublin), Live Music Hall (Cologne), Fabrik (Hamburg)… breaking new ground in many cities/nations.
As a DJ duo, can you tell me a bit about how you guys are working together from beginning til today. How is the dynamic between the both of you while working on new music?
Micha: Well, we basically hate each other, so we’re never in the studio together. This is a unique moment. I’m good with violence. I love it. No, first of all, we always find it kind of weird to be called a DJ duo because we consider ourselves more producers than being DJs. There’s no fixed rule to how we work. Sometimes I start a track, sometimes Jordy starts a track. And one thing we do is that we finish it together.
Jordi: I go from left to right and Micha kind of grounds me from time to time, to get back on track and make sure we are on the same path together.
Micha: Yeah, Jordi is a bit more experimental and I’m a little bit more conservative and stable in the middle, so that’s how we don’t de-rail and that’s how we become creative.
I like the way that flows, that’s for sure. It’s always good to have different types of people working together. It’s a different type of energy, especially when collaborating.
Micha: Yeah, if we were the same it would be pretty boring or too much chaos, I’m not sure.
You’re also releasing a new album called “Cold Enough for Snow”, which is really matching the current temperatures here in the Netherlands, isn’t it? What inspired the album and how long did it take you to create it?
Micha: That’s a hard question. I mean, some songs we started two years ago. And this past year was really busy with doing shows, live shows and opening ADE with the Metropole Orchestra, so nothing was really done until last week.
Jordi: We basically wrote and finished most of it in the last month or last six weeks. That was a crazy time. I think it was a non-stop process in the last four weeks. We basically had 12 or 14 tracks ready, and one track was more finished than the other one. We also had collaborations with different singers and vocalists and we needed their approval as well. Everything went pretty smooth in the end, but that was a lucky shot.
For sure. How many tracks will the album have in the end?
Micha: 13.
Nice. May I ask you why you chose to call the album “Cold Enough for Snow”?
Micha: It’s a bit of a metaphor for last year. For us, it stands for the moment where everything can change. It’s like if it actually starts snowing, the whole world changes. And last year, we decided to undergo a lot of new adventures, like playing live. We also just switched labels. The possibility that everything can change is what the album stands for. And we like to keep challenging ourselves.
How was creating this album different to creating your previous albums? Like you mentioned, you were really finishing it within the last four to six weeks, but what was it like in comparison to your previous albums?
Jordi: We actually had more time to finish the previous albums, especially the second album. We finished that album during Covid when we didn’t have any gigs at all. And last year, we had a lot of new shows. We played more live shows instead of doing DJ shows, which actually took a lot of time to prepare. And if you’re away touring, you’re not going to be able to produce music, so there was less time this time and more pressure to finish songs.
Micha: I think it was basically totally opposite. During Covid, we were drowning in time, we had too much of it. And then you start doubting if it’s good enough. Like, are these songs good enough? Obviously, this time was different.
I can relate. When is the album releasing?
Micha: On 16th February.
Jordi: When it’s snowing and stuff. When we had the deadline for the album, to deliver the masters, I flew to Helsinki for a gig. Then I actually saw a lot of snow in the Netherlands, in Germany. And that was kind of fun.
Micha: It was snowing when the album was finished.
You’re of course going on tour for the album as well. Can you tell us a bit more about it? When is it starting? What will be some of the key moments during the tour and what’s the most exciting part for you going on this tour?
Jordi: We’re going to go on a live tour this year, which starts at the end of February.
Micha: We’re going to go on a five week bus tour through Europe. We’re really looking forward to it.
Jordi: I’m really looking forward to being on the bus for five weeks with him. I’m going to hate him so much.
Micha: So, in February and basically the whole March, we’ll be touring Europe, visiting most of the major cities, including Amsterdam. That one is sold out already. And then the plan is to do festival shows, promote the album and after summer, we’ll do a bus tour in the States. That’s our touring schedule.
Exciting year for you. From this album, you already released one track, “This Life”, which is featuring Tom Smith. How was collaborating with him?
Jordi: He is very nice to work with, even though we haven’t seen him in real life because we were all so busy. We connected by email and mobile phones and then he wrote the song. He’s a very kind, lovely person.
Micha: We liked his band as well, so it was a privilege to work with him. For most of our tracks, we will send an instrumental, a track we made, and then someone else will record vocals somewhere else. I mean, sometimes they’re here in the studio, but a lot of times they’re on the other side of the world recording vocals for us
Isn’t that the digital way of working?
Jordi: I prefer to see people in real life, but it’s sometimes better for the process. It saves a lot of time, it’s more convenient when people can record whenever they want to record. When you’re actually together in the studio, the magic needs to happen and sometimes it doesn’t happen. And then you’re like “Wow, well we had a nice day, but.. “
The creative process is definitely different. Especially collaborating with someone, another artist, who also has a different way of working, a different way of producing or creating music. Are there any other collaborators you can mention already for this album?
Micha: We have a track with Brian Molko, who is the singer of Placebo. Another one with Kieran from Circa Waves. We have the singer from Cloves, an Australian act. And then we have a few tracks with Nathan Nicholson and two tracks with Julia Church. So, quite a lot of vocals on this album.
Obviously, the music industry has since you started and also since you released your first album, but how did it change throughout the years in your opinion?
Micha: Our music is in between a lot of genres. It’s not really progressive house, it’s not really techno, it’s somewhere in between and that’s what we like. When we started, the music industry felt more boxed. If you made techno, then you could only make techno. So for us, there was not a lot of room. We were stubborn enough to keep going and I feel like the music industry opened up to being a bit more diverse when it comes to genres in general. You see more crossing over and it’s nice because that’s what we are doing.
Jordi: 10 years ago, we were also more aware of what’s going on in the scene or in the music scene. And now when we are going to make music, I’m going to try to be a hermit. I don’t want to be influenced from the outside, so I actually close everything, being only in the studio. And I don’t want to know anything about what’s going on. I think the less I know, the better in those moments. So yeah, that’s a change as well.
How do you feel like AI is adjusting to the way you make music? Do you feel like it’s going to have a big power in the future and the way artists produce music?
Micha: It’s hard to say. Probably. But it also takes the fun away from creating it yourself.
Jordi: What people do now with chat GTP is also kind of possible in music. There’s an AI software for recording vocals. There is a soft synthesizer. You can put a sound in a wave file of the synthesizer and recreate it with AI. I hope people are going to use AI as a tool to add on, to be more advanced or to make it easy for themselves in a certain way. But if people don’t make their own chord melodies anymore, what’s the purpose of making music at all? I mean, do you make it to be obsessed with it and have a hobby or are you going to make it to be like another successful artist? I think that’s the big thing that’s going on here.
Micha: Take it a step further. If we let AI take everything over, why would we still be here?
This question somehow always pops in my mind because everyone has such a different point of view on it at the moment. It’s so new and scary, but also exciting at the same time to see what it will do with movie making or music making, even photography.
Jordi: In the end, it’s up to people themselves how you’re going to use it. I’m not really scared of AI because it can help you. I’m more scared of how people make the choices they make.
Micha: But the thing is also, if everything becomes so easy, will you still feel satisfied? Putting in the work gives it value, so if everything is done for you, you might become really somber or depressed. That’s my opinion.
Jordi: Today, when I was cycling to the studio, I was really happy with AI. We know Spotify’s algorithm is also an AI. I put on one song and then let AI take over the music. I was curious what Spotify would let me listen to and I actually listened to a lot of good songs. I was really happy with it. So that’s the positive thing about AI and algorithms.
You obviously have such an exciting year coming up with the new album, with the international tour and festivals. Is there anything else exciting that you’re working on as well?
Jordi: I do actually have a couple of songs I made myself. I want to release those in February or March. Excited is a big word, but I’m kind of happy with those songs as well. And it’s just different from what we do with Tinlicker.
