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Introducing He/aT // He/aT
"I had gotten to the stage of my career where I wasn’t happy and felt like wanted to shake things up a bit" the artist behind the He/aT moniker offers up when asked about the relatively new project. "Something that makes me cringe is when you get techno producers who change their name, make a big thing of it and tell everyone they are doing it to put out different music and its exactly the same stuff as they were making before. I decided to do it as an experiment to see if my music would hold up on its own without any social media campaigns or heavy PR or anything; organically rather than play the game which i’d been used to and is “the norm” these days. This interview is the first thing I have done actually."
As an artist whose resumé includes running multiple labels, and releasing via an assortment of well reputed imprints, the decision to work facelessly for this latest project was certainly a bold one, preventing him from relying on previously established connections.
"I had absolutely no idea how [the releases] would go down until the (limited) DJ mailout for the first EP." he states. "The best bit was seeing people who had never been into my previous stuff love it and when it dropped in the shops it sold out in a couple of days which was amazing. Hardwax called it “killer techno” on their writeup which was nice as they are obviously really picky and it gave me a lot of confidence going into the second one. The He/aT music is a lot more experimental than my previous stuff and it’s fun working outside of my comfort zone, but at the same time, It feels like a totally natural process."
Whilst the establishment of the project has undoubtedly been a risky one, it appears so far to have paid off; the five-hundred copies of He/aT 001 selling out in quick succession of their release mid-way through this year.
"The techniques I use when making the music are different and although it’s a new approach, i’m finding it comes really easily." He/aT says of the new approach to production the project has prompted. "The four tracks for the first EP were made over a solid five day period from start to finish. The second EP was a bit more drawn out. I just wanted to go all out and not fall into the usual comfortable studio ways and traps with this thing and keep it fresh and fun for me."
Monday sees the release of the aforementioned second EP, blending four tracks of rough-edged, yet incredibly melodic techno. Despite the fact this is being made publicly available next week, from the sounds of things it shouldn’t be too long before we can expect to see more He/aT material dropping.
"I’ve got one track left to do on the third EP, and i’ve been working on an album for the fifth or sixth release." he expands on the future of the project. "The plan is to stay anonymous until then if I can. It’s not easy! As for other stuff, after the first EP, I got quite a few requests from various labels about doing remixes and EP’s and I just wanted to hold off from getting back into that cycle. I had got into loop of saying yes to a lot of stuff which I wouldn’t necessarily be 100% into before and, again with this project, just wanted to go against everything I had done before. I’m not going to be as strict after this second EP and but I’ll see what happens, there are some really interesting things on the horizon. I’ve also just joined Elite for my DJ bookings / Live shows. They work with people I respect and have always been very professional and have a good team there. So i’m really excited about what’s next, but one thing I am applying to this project above anything else is patience; I don’t want to do anything unless its 100% right."
You can keep up to date with the latest He/aT developments through Twitter & Facebook, or via his Soundcloud.
Bookings & Management: chris@elitemm.co.uk
- Published
- Nov 29, 2013