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Zardonic (real name Federico Ágreda) is a multi-award winning keyboardist, DJ and producer, best known for creating varied genre-defying drum and bass and electronic dance music infused with hard rock flavours. He was the first Venezuelan drum and bass producer ever to release a single internationally with his first vinyl on Death Brigade Records in 2006. Now hailed one of the top 10 best mask DJs in the world with an impressive international tour history and a multitude of #1 Beatport drum and bass releases under his belt, Baesse.de caught up with Zardonic to discuss his approach to sound and performance, where he thinks the scene is going, and more.

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Hi Zardonic!
Perhaps start by telling us a little bit about yourself. You’re originally from Venezuela – how was it growing up there, especially from a musical perspective?


Hi guys! First of all, vielen lieben Dank for the opportunity! I’m glad you guys reached out! I guess my homeland will always be my homeland, and a part of my heart remains with it. We had a very rich musical scene that spanned all genres. From world-class orchestra directors like Gustavo Dudamel, to metal guitarists like Marcos Rodríguez, who also played with Rage until recently. We also have Arca, an electronic music producer with credits that include Björk, Kanye West and Rosalía. Then there’s Vytas Brenner, who was originally born in Germany, but moved to Venezuela at a very young age, and Gerry Weil, who was born in Austria, but says he is „more Venezuelan than Arepas“. We always welcomed foreigners to our country, and especially loved them when they embraced our national symbols and shared our patriotism.

Where are you living at the moment and how does it compare to Venezuela?

I live in Germany! It’s a wonderful place for sure, if a bit too quiet at times. But I have a lot of respect for the way society works here. They have worked very hard to keep social peace and you can actually trust the system to a greater extent than you could in Venezuela. The food is delicious and the landscapes are unbelievable. I am thankful and blessed to live here!

How and when did you first get into playing and making music?

I can remember as far back as when I was 3 years old and I had a small Casio keyboard, so I think synthesizers have been a part of my life since well before I sat down for the first time and hit record to make my own music. As a child, I remember recording techno sets from the radio, and even tried to beatmatch and mix as I recorded. Usually, whenever the moderator would talk, I would stop the recording, go back to the beginning of the beat right before he talked and hit pause, then hit record on the next beat right after he was done talking. I was 6 or 7 when that would happen. I also had a home recorder that I would take everywhere with me to sample everything I liked. The dog, the blender, the kitchen fire and my mom in the background angry and worried because I could burn myself and the recorder, which I would place right next to the fire.

Then they figured the thing to do would be to get me in music school. I always loved the piano, but hated that school. All those pentagrams and outdated systems were too much for me, especially after I saw an uncle of mine recording and sequencing everything on his computer. This was in the early 90s, so MIDI technology was in its infancy, but was still working. Then I started getting lessons from a really nice lady. She had a piano at home, and she could understand me so perfectly. She figured out I didn’t want to do the whole „do, re, mi, fa, sol“ crap. I wanted to play songs! So she would teach me children’s songs, of course. In my head it was a bit corny, but I was happy to have someone that would at least have the vision to understand that. So the first song I learned to play was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Unfortunately, after three lessons, my family never took me back there. I had no idea why, until they told me the old lady had passed away.

Fast forward a few years, and I discovered satanic music, so my parents were naturally extremely stressed out and worried because their kid seemed about to join a satanic cult and sacrifice children for lucifer, and take drugs, and all those things that people thought metalheads did. After all, they were burning churches in Norway, so every metalhead is the same…and no no no no no no way! The one and only conversation we had about went was along the lines of:

„Mom, can I get an electric guitar?“
„NO!!!“
„Ok“

So being unable to learn the electric guitar, I continued playing with a keyboard I had at home. Another Casio, but bigger. And I decided I was going to do black metal with it. This was, in its infancy, the same idea that made Zardonic into what it is: making electronic music with synthesizers that sound like metal riffs. Obviously right now it’s a very different thing, but when my family thought they could push me away from that by limiting my access to certain instruments or to having a band, I became a solo artist and mastered the synthesizers, and with this very same career I now pay my dues and help my family. Life’s just funny like that.

Which artist (or artists) would you say was one of your biggest musical inspirations when you first started out?

I just remember that I was listening to a loooot of Metal. Like, a loooot. Emperor, Mayhem, Burzum, Enslaved, Arcturus, Limbonic Art, Darkthrone, Thorns, Dodheimsgard, Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle Of Filth, Strapping Young Lad, Death, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Dark Funeral, Testament, Meshuggah, Morbid Angel… you name it! Then I moved into some Nine Inch Nails, Atari Teenage Riot, Counterstrike, and I slowly got into Drum & Bass from there.

How would you describe your sound, in your own words?

Metal & Bass, Drum & Bass + Metal, Electronic Dance Metal, Bass Metal, Metalstep. There’s been a few names for it depending on which music scene you come from.

In particular you’re known for performing wearing the enigmatic alien-like Zardonic mask – what does the mask mean to you personally?

The mask represents the human duality. Our capacity to do good and evil is exactly the same, and while it is shaped by certain circumstances and a little bit of brainwashing, we can always, always make a choice. But before we can, we have to KNOW we can. There’s a buddhist concept about the Observing Mind and the Thinking Mind. If you step back and „observe“ your thoughts for a second, no matter how twisted they could be, you start to discover this freedom that comes from knowing that you can still decide to act on these thoughts, or not. „A Beautiful Mind“, the award-winning classic film, is a great example that I remember for this. For those who don’t know, this movie is about a Math professor who actually finds out that he is Schizophrenic. He still struggles with knowing what is real and what isn’t, but once he identified which ones were his imaginary friends, he learned to ignore them no matter how much they tortured him. That’s how the Observing Mind works. If a man like that is able to keep himself in check, so can regular folk like you or me. Back to the example of Germany: well, Germany changed. Yes, there will always be the ghosts of the past, but the decisions we make TODAY are what counts.

You released ‘The Become Remix Album’ on the eOne label just last month, right? This features various remixes of your tracks from your original ‘The Become’ album from 2018. How did you realize and bring together this remix project?

My basic process when it comes to collaborating or getting remix treatments from someone are simple: they have to be awesome people, we have to get along, they have to like my music and I have to like theirs. If one of those things doesn’t work, I’m out. It’s a piece of me, and I want to trust that to people that I know will do their thing with genuine love. You can have the most talented remixer out there, but if he has no respect for you as a person, or they just don’t like what you do, no matter who it is…it will sound like shit because there’s no genuine intention behind it. This album has people who are not only super talented, but have been amazing to me for no reason at all. Pythius is my beer bro. He loves IPA, and I hate that shit. So I drink Trappist Ale instead. He’s also into Black Metal, so that’s another positive thing. Merikan was with me on my last birthday. We were together having drinks in Naples. Hocico asked me to do a remix for them, and the first thing I did was call the guy. He’s Mexican, so we share Spanish as our mother language. After the first talk, I had an idea of who the guy was and I was happy to do this for them. Next thing that happened was that I got a free ticket for two days at the Amphi Festival. They took me backstage and gave me an endless supply of tequila. Then they did a remix for me. That’s how it works. I can keep going, of course, but I think I talk too much and this interview is getting way too long already. They know who they are, and more importantly, I know who they are. They’re all family to me!

In terms of studio setup: do you have favourite pieces of equipment / software that you’re particularly enjoying at the moment?

Most definitely my monitoring setup has proven essential for my productions at the moment. I had no idea how important it all was until I started obsessing about improving it, especially because I started doing mix and mastering jobs for other artists outside of the Drum & Bass scene. When you need to deliver a rock record for a band that will get released on Entertainment One Music, that’s an indie label that makes more money than most majors! They’ve released anything and everything from Snoop Dogg to Zakk Wylde. So I am competing with the best of the best. Having a pair of Quested monitors, a pair of PMC monitors and a Trinnov Room Correction system in an already well-treated environment has been part of what makes the difference in the sound I am able to produce right now.

Any production tips you can give our aspiring producer readers?

TREAT. YOUR. ROOM.

Which current Drum & Bass labels or artists do you think are making some of the most exciting and pioneering sounds at the moment?

Most definitely Blackout Music NL. They’re pretty much single handedly saving new school Drum & Bass. Merikan, Pythius, Black Sun Empire, IHR are pretty much almost everything I play, together with classic tracks I love them because they just don’t make them like that anymore. I wish Drum & Bass would stop being so minimalistic and obsessed about sounding perfect. I miss some of that raw sound from the mid 2000s. Best era of Drum & Bass!

And which non-electronic music artists (bands etc) are you listening to right now?

Rotting Christ has been on repeat for a while for some reason. Love the atmosphere in their music. Also, I discovered this German band the other day called Cytotoxin. They have a song called Radiatus Generis which is one of the most insane piece of modern metal I’ve heard in a long time. Just avoid watching the YouTube videos they made for it. It’s just more of that try-so-hard-to-be-funny stuff that everyone is doing right now, trying desperately to become a meme. Other than that, the music is really fucking good!

Who would your ‘dream collaboration’ be with (who would you really love to work with in the future)?

Probably Trent Reznor. But he has to be nice to me first.

How do you see the current state of the drum and bass scene worldwide? What do you think the greatest challenges that musicians in general will face in the coming months?

All I can say is that we can’t remain quarantined forever. I’d rather die of coronavirus from playing a festival than spending the rest of my life locked at home.

And we’ve got to ask – how have you been affected by the current pandemic situation? I guess that this has impacted on plans to tour or to play concerts at the moment… What kinds of activities are you undertaking instead?

Well, thankfully there’s still enough people out there who trust my work as a sound engineer and remixer to keep a busy schedule in the studio, but if it wasn’t for that, or the help we got from the German government, I’m not sure what would have happened to me.

Do you have any upcoming touring plans for when (hopefully) that’s possible again?

A lot of shows were postponed or cancelled, but there’s still hopes for a show we had planned for September which is Baroeg Open Air in the Netherlands. Let’s hope that happens, because Atari Teenage Riot will be playing there and I need to make a Zardonic Remix happen!

So what’s next for you? What production projects are you currently working on, and any plans for further releases in the near future?

At the moment I am wrapping up the mix and master for the soundtrack of Hellbound, which is a badass FPS developed by Saibot Studios. The soundtrack for Superhot: Mind Control Delete will be released soon as well, and I should be done with the new Mikey Rukus album for Entertainment One Music. Mikey Rukus is the music director of All Elite Wrestling which airs on TNT. He’s another guy I love, super hard working and dedicated musician. Happy to have the blessing of working with such amazing people!

And finally – what’s been the most exciting highlight of your musical career so far?
I would say having the opportunity to do the Superhot: Mind Control Delete soundtrack. Doing music for video games has always been a dream for me. I hope I get more jobs like that!

Thanks for the interview. Highly appreciated. Some “famous last words”?

No matter where we come from, we are all human. This is something we all ought to remember to stay together.

Links:
https://freednb.com/tags/ZARDONIC/
https://www.facebook.com/zardonic
https://twitter.com/djzardonic
https://soundcloud.com/zardonic
https://www.zardonic.net/
https://www.youtube.com/c/djzardonic

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