Wandering Through The Meanders: An Interview With Topper In Sight Of His Meander Record
We catch up with the minimal wizard Topper ahead of the release of his first solo EP for The Renowned Berlin-based Label
As his bio reads, ‘A contemporary voodoo child’: Topper is an artist with a central role in the minimal happenings in Berlin and beyond. Without having to mention the vast amount of labels he released with and venues he played, the fact alone that he’s the artist with most listings for CDV events should give an idea of how pivotal his role has been in the last 10 years for the minimal scene.
Matteo (aka Topper) grew up in the Italian city of Turin surrounded by substances and tunes typical of a hippie-kind of environment - the psychedelic influence can be definitely heard in his music and in this new release for Meander more than ever. We loved the three tracks of ‘Liquid State Drive’ and when the opportunity for an interview came up with the help of the Meander team, I couldn’t wait to work on this. Not only because of how much of a heavyweight Topper is for this scene and how much I looked up to him as an artist, but also because the three tracks on this EP are something mesmerising and tenebrous. The sound is sophisticated and as much as the beats are greatly-designed, steady and could definitely get a crowd going on a minimal dancefloor, it seems to me that these tracks are made to work well for home listening as well. The peculiarity of the micro-variations over the loops, the intimate, deep vibe of the pads and the jazzy touch to the intrumental parts of the drums, all go to form a unique listening experience that completely dominated my mood through its 30-minutes ride.
We are delighted not only to present you this exclusive interview with Matteo, but also to premiere the A1 from this beautiful record, ‘Parallel Interpol’. Enjoy the reading and listening!
Listen to our premiere of ‘Parallel Interpol’ from the record as you read:
Hi Matteo, very nice to be in touch for this interview. We were struck by your upcoming EP for Meander and thought it was a good time to have a chat with you on GB. We’d like to cover mostly the production of this record but also touch on some other points. Let’s start from this EP - could you tell us more about your collaboration with Meander? How did you get in touch with the label?
Hello everybody! Thanks a lot for reaching out to talk shop, happy to share some details behind my upcoming Meander EP. I’ve known David (DeWalta) and Fabian for many years, as we tend to hang out at the same places, mainly Club der Visionäre and Hoppetosse.
David and me also make music together from time to time (we released a track on Vinyl Club on a VA with Audio Werner back in 2018), so the EP came to happen quite organically, as I’ve been constantly sharing music with David and Fabi, and I had debuted onto the label on the Family Jubilee III compilation earlier this year.
“I actually never make music thinking about an EP or album, I usually send out a bunch of tracks and leave the choice up to the label, or in the case of my own label Dead Rail the pairings come out naturally as I make more music.”
When did you start producing these three tracks and how long did it take you to get to the final result?
I started those tracks between 2018 and 2019, and finalized the projects in 2020. “Liquid State Drive” and “Parallel Interpol” went through a couple of iterations before reaching the final form (the title track was actually a 30 minutes ambient track to begin with, the beat came much later…), while “This is the Way” is one of those tracks that come to be just in the span of a few hours.
The output on this EP sounds essential at times - however the feeling given is highly cinematic and deeply enthralling, and a trained ear will surely catch the depth in the sound design and composition. How did it come together? Were you going for a particular sound when you started developing it?
I actually never make music thinking about an EP or album, I usually send out a bunch of tracks and leave the choice up to the label, or in the case of my own label Dead Rail the pairings come out naturally as I make more music. In my productions I try to focus on a few “main” sounds, that I then augment with different layers (which I usually create with effect chains) that make them more “interesting” while also adding depth and width where needed.
I’d love to hear more in the specific regarding the drum/percussive parts of these three tracks. They feel to me as a combination of analogue and instrumental inputs, but I am not much of an expert in production. Can you tell us more about how you approached the rhythmic part for these three pieces?
You are right on point! I love to combine the sounds of my electronic drum sources with real drums or percussion. Unfortunately I can’t play those myself, so I rely on samples. For example the crazy jazz drums on Liquid State drive come from a VST and rely on very heavy use of follow actions and MIDI processing (for example using my Max4Live CHANCE probability plugin) in Ableton Live in conjunction with multiple FX layers.
What about the synth parts, did you use a specific piece of gear mostly or how did you approach this for each track? I really love the spectral feeling they add to the tracks' style (I’m thinking, for example, of the pad going in and out in ‘Parallel Interpol’).
We have the luxury to have various options in the studio when it comes to synths, so it really depends what I'm up to using on every given day.
Checking back the project files I can tell you that the pad from “Parallel Interpol” was made on a Waldorf Microwave XT through a Lexicon multi-effect, with extra layers coming from the Eventide H-3000 and H-9. The mix of those sounds then went through a plate reverb ITB for extra length and a kind of “glue” effect. The chord on “This is the Way” is a sample that I made a few years ago with the Bastl Microgranny that finally found it’s way in a track.
Finally the “pad” sound on “Liquid State Drive” is made from highly processed trombone samples.
How do you feel your production style evolved through time? What would you say are your main influences right now?
Since I started to play around with the first Korg Electribes and Roland grooveboxes ca. 20 years ago, I can say my production style has gone through multiple mutations. I started making music “properly” around the time of my move to Berlin in 2005, when I just had my laptop and some headphones. As I learned more and more I slowly started acquiring some hardware (some shitty Alesis monitors, an Electribe EMX and an Elektron Machinedrum got me through my first years. After 3 years my best friend Jacopo also moved to Berlin, and that kickstarted a greater GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) as we would split the costs of every purchase. That was also the start of the Triptease project.
Fast forward 10 years and we’re running a fully hardware based production studio together with our friends Daniele Papini, Stefano Meucci, and the other Triptease members Hugo and Francesco.
”Since I started to play around with the first Korg Electribes and Roland grooveboxes ca. 20 years ago, I can say my production style has gone through multiple mutations.”
We have roots from the same city of Turin so I thought it would be interesting to ask you, how do you think the city’s spirit influenced you? Both on a musical and personal level.
Turin has of course been fundamental in my growth (both personal and musical). We were lucky to have a great music scene throughout the 80’s/90’s and early 2000’s, both on the electronic side and on the “traditional” concert scene. In my teenage years there were cool events almost every night (Tuesday through Sunday), and Turin has had the luck to have a stable after hours spot in Doctor Sax, a little crazy club along the river that ran from the 80’s until just a few years ago.
I’m pretty sure that that kind of exposure to music (my parents have always brought me to concerts since i was pretty much a baby) paved the way to my music career, starting with the move to Berlin right after high school. Apart from the music scene Turin is an inspiring city per se, with its amazing history and architecture, the river Po with the hills (where i grew up) on one side and the Alps on the other, and of course the incredible foods and wines of the Piemonte region.
It looks like I wasn’t the only one to take advantage of this fertile playground, with many interesting electronic producers stemming out of Turin in past years like Stenny, Boston 168 and Voodos&Taboos just to name a few...
What else is coming for Topper into the rest of the year?
I’m keeping as busy as I can with my solo & band projects, so there will of course be more music coming out. I’m focusing a lot on Bandcamp at the moment. In the past year I started the CHRONIC series on my page, where I dug out some of my favourite unreleased tracks from the past 10 years, re-mixed (where possible) and mastered them.
You can expect a couple more CHRONIC EPs before the end of the year. We’re going through the same process for Triptease, so keep an eye on that page as well! My big 2021 project was the launch of my website MTT AUDIO SOLUTIONS, where I provide mixing and mastering, alongside sample libraries and other audio related services (like Audio-MIDI studio planning, sound design, etc).
I’m very happy to already have a few new clients and I'm looking forward to helping more people make and release their music. Finally I'm looking forward to getting back on the road for some gigs as the scene slowly gets back to work.
