Sep 17 Interview with Claes Rosen!

Sometimes you find producers that just have the gift to create something incredible time after time and it ends up you don’t even need to listen to it, you know you are going to be on a journey once there is new material out. Swedish “man of melodies”, yeah we think you all know who we are talking about now, Claes Rosen is definitely one of them and is today with us for an interview. With releases during the past years on huge labels such as Unreleased Digital, Silk Digital, Silk Sofa, Silk Digital, old progressive label Nellie Recordings, Kristoffer Ljungbergs newly established baby Macarize and a bunch more, we are truly happy to have him with us today to let him speak as much as his music normally does. We hope you will enjoy it!

Hi Claes!
How great to see that you wanted to tune in with us, we are truly happy and honoured to have one of the biggest names in the business with us. We all know you’re located in Sweden, what are your thoughts about the progressive scene in Sweden?

Well, if you can call Swedish House Mafia progressive house, then the scene is big. The type of music I make seems to be liked more in the eastern region of Europe.

You are living in a pretty small country if we talk about the population, just over 9 million people, at the same time there are so many good producers and some of them definitely leading names on the EDM scene, what are your thoughts about it, how come?

Hmmm, I haven’t got a good answer on that one but I guess we Swede´s know what´s poppin :) Also I think it’s the right time for electronic dance music now, people like to party and that is where the partymusic comes in.

You’re not only a producer working with your own material, you’re frequently also making a bunch of remixes for other producers. Could you try and describe to us, what the differences is in producing from the beginning (your originals) and rework someone else’s ideas?

I´m very keen when it comes to good music, I get loads of promos every week and sadly I can say that not much is good in my ears but when I come across something good, it’s GOOD!

When I make a remix I need to feel the track in some way. It can be a specific sound or just the groove in it. I always listen carefully and hear what’s missing and/or if I can make it better. Maybe I can change the bassline and that way make it more different. I like to keep the main things from the original track, you must hear the original in there somewhere.

I personally (among a lot of others) think you are a truly creative producer coming up with great melodies all the time. What do you see as a main strengths as a producer?

I can say that I’m born with an ear for music and especially melodies. Though I find it very hard to mix the track (equalizing). I can make a track in a couple of hours but to get the mix right can take months.

If you are to give an advice to people learning to produce, what would be an important advice from you that they could follow?

Make what you like but don’t do total rip-offs.

Do you have a “special way” while working on your tracks. Could you try and describe how you work from start to finish when creating you melodic progressive tunes?

The last months I have gone back in time listening to older things I did maybe 7-8 years ago. A lot of the stuff is really good (melodic) but the mix sounds shit so I try to make them more up to date. I have thousands of small music clips and if I hear something good I might “steal“ from myself :) and combining several tracks into one final one.

If I start a new project I do like everyone else, first the beats, then the bass, then the synths, then the melodies, then the mix and small changes. For those who wonder it is called “finlir“ in Swedish. :D I always come back to a track, I have never finished one in a single studio session.

The most of us that listen to your music are definitely interested in how you do it. What programs do you work with, any specific vsti’s? Also, do you work with both software and hardware?

I’m kinda stuck to Reason, :D. I know how to make music in that one so it’s hard to switch. I’ve recently tried out to rewire it with Ableton but much of the synths is still from Reason. If I lets say switch to Logic I need a new computer and you will not hear so much from me because I need to learn Logic. I have too much material in Reason that I need to finish before I make a switch.

What’s your opinion about progressive house music, how would you define a good progressive track?

All the styles are making me dizzy. I didn’t choose to make progressive house. The people commenting my stuff said “nice progressive” So I guess I am not a “style person”. But if I would define a good track I would say, not too loopy, good selection in sound, a good hook and groovy.

A lot of the music today is not sold its spread through Internet and musicians hardly make any money at all on their productions. What are your thoughts about the sharing through blogspots, forums and all other ways for illegal sharing of music and what do you think there is to do about it?

I think blogging about it is good but uploading the full track is a bit harsh. Better to direct them to Beatport or something. My tracks have been leaked before release a couple of times and I find that very annoying, but when the track has been released it’s very hard to stop the illegal downloading.

If we look in to the future, what can we expect in the coming months from Claes Rosen and your productions?

I have a new two track EP coming out on the Swedish label Macarize.
Also a few of my older tracks are getting remixed and will come out soon as well, both on Silk and Spring Tube.

A big thank you for making this possible, any final words to your followers at Progressive House Worldwide?

Just keep your eyes open, I will make music until the day I die so just keep on following me and I will deliver. Here you can follow me:

www.soundcloud.com/claesrosen
www.facebook.com/claesrosen