I'm Izmar Verhage, I live in Delft, which is a little city in between The Hague and Rotterdam (the Netherlands). My biggest passion is writing and playing music.
I started writing my own songs at the age of 11, when we got a keyboard at home. It was very basic, of course, just some standard chord schemes and a simple melody line and simple lyrics, but I really enjoyed it. I never stopped writing my own songs from that point onwards. I went from keyboard to trackersoftware (modedit, screamtracker, impulse tracker) to cubase on atari + hardware synths & fx & mixer to my current setup, which is a PC with Delta 1010LT and VST sequencers. I sold all external hardware.
All I know about my future plans right now is that I will definitely keep writing more songs and try various styles. My dream, however, is to make a basic living by doing live performances around the world and writing music for audiovisual projects, including feature films, documentaries and eyecandy.
Software only at the moment, except for some physical instruments. I try to play the guitar and sitar, for example.
Any live instruments used in production? Some ethnic maybe?Yes, my main instrument is keys, although I'm using software instruments played with a midi keyboard. Furthermore I sample electric guitar, bass guitar and sitar every now and then.
When not producing, how do you spend your days?Another passion of mine is altered states of consciousness and altered perception. I regularly induce such states of mind using psychotropic plants, extracts of them and comparable substances. I currently work in a so-called smartshop, a shop pivoting around the distribution of magic mushrooms and other psychotropic flora and information on these things. Furthermore I enjoy walking and cycling in nature, usually accompanied by exotic fruits, of which I'm a big fan.
Give us your musical influences. Who inspired you and still inspires you? Also, favourite genres, bands etc.I find this one really hard to answer, you know. Life in general inspires me to write music. Instead I'll tell you some of the more recent things I find very nice to play: Shpongle, Ott, Groove Armada, Zero 7, Floex, Bonobo, Ravi Shankar, Ananda Shankar, Thievery Corporation, LTJ Bukem & everything that comes from Good Lookin' (especially Logical Progression 1 & Earth 3), Another Fine Day, Baby Mammoth, DJ Shadow, Gaudi, Fila Brazilia, Future Sound of London, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Tosca, Peace Orchestra, Mr Scruff, Kid Loco, Planet Funk, Waldeck, Makyo, Paul W. Teebrooke, Sophie Barker, Bahamadia, Mos Def, Masta Ace and various throatsinging artists. I also enjoy listening to my own music.
I should add that one of the things in music I really like is breakbeats, funky beats that make you nod and/or dance. I think it was Music For The Jilted Generation by The Prodigy that has influenced me on that one.
What's playing at your place durring this interview? :)It's a pretty unknown album called "My computer - The sound of the humming fan"
What's your stand on netlabels?I think they're a wonderful way for anyone to get hold of legal free music and for artists as a release platform.
How long are you releasing on netlabels? And which are your favourite netlabels and artists?I've primarily released on monotonik/mono211, for a couple of years now, I don't know exactly for how long. Probably around 2 years? I haven't listened to an awful lot of netlabel music, but every now and then I check out something that's being released on mono and my favorite up to now remains Aleksi Virta - Meets Torsti At The Space Lounge. I think there's a lot of talent out there, but this is simply the only album I've played just as much as non-netlabel artists.
Do you have or plan to have any releases on real labels?I've gone through a couple of genres in the past 10 years and one of 'm is techno. I've done a release on a London acid techno label, a sublabel of Smitten. After that I set up a little techno label as a platform for 2 releases (Line recordings). The first release was two 8 minute tracks by myself, the second release was by a friend of mine, Joris Voorn, who made a remix of one of the first Line recordings tracks and the other side contains one of the deepest 4-to-the-floor tracks I've ever heard.
But as to my own releases, in a way you could say I'm quite lazy, because I don't really fight for a release. I'm a musician by nature, so I'll write music even when I'm a recluse. I really enjoy the fact that many people enjoy my music, so I also like to make it available in various forms. But I'm not so much of a demo-sender or model-my-music-so-it-suits-A&R-people kinda musician. I mean, I've sent my stuff out to labels like Ninja, Mowax, Interchill, Pork, etc. Pork was the only one to send a personal reply, which I highly appreciated, but there was no resulting release. Recently I met Mercan Dede or Arkin Allen, if you will, in the shop where I work, and he played my music to the guys at Interchill. Both Interchill and Mercan Dede say my music is cool and beautiful, but it's not 'finished' in various ways, mostly technical. So I guess I'm just gonna continue writing more tunes and develop my skills and keep sending demos and everything until someone is willing to do business.
(playing Telefon Tel Aviv now)
Is composing in altered state of consciousness (higher state of consciousness) a better way or just more interesting way?Interesting question. I think listening to music, but more importantly writing it behind the PC with headphones, was one of my first methods of getting into trance. So, not being so conscious about it, from the age of 12 and onwards I was regularly in trance behind my PC. When I was 20 I started experimenting with psilocybin mushrooms, the ones various native American indian tribes have been using for millenia to induce states of trance. There was this strange familiarity about the state of mind it induced in me and by now I know it very much resembles the lovely state of mind I used to be in as a kid writing music, and I'm still there nowadays, anytime I'm writing music and things are going smooth. But to keep things more concise, I rarely compose under the influence of psychedelics. I rarely feel like writing music when I use them. I suspect psychedelics have more often been used as an inspiration source prior to composing rather than during the psychedelic state of mind, but I haven't really looked into this, so it's only a hunch.
Can you maybe classify ways of altering states for producing?I once wrote a tune under the influence of San Pedro. It wasn't a very interesting tune, so it ended up on the pile of experiments that I rarely play or send to anyone. I've never written music under the influence of other plants, except for Cannabis. I started using this plant when I was 20 and I've looked back whether my music made any major changes from that point on and it doesn't seem to be so. Also, there are long stretches in my life of not using any plant at all and the music I produce then doesn't seem to be any different from the stuff I wrote in the stretches where I would use Cannabis regularly for example. Listening to my own music under the influence of strong psychedelic plants (like Mimosa hostilis) has been one of the most interesting experiences in my life, however, but that's another story.
Any planned future netlabel releases maybe?There's some stuff coming up on mono. Thanks Simon ;)
Are you performing at parties or just producing? I focus on producing. I've had aspirations to be in a band for quite some years now, however, and it seems I've finally met two guys who are looking for me and I'm looking for them. It's a project that is slowly gathering momentum, but the first 2 performances we did have been great fun and the reactions have been very positive. In the meanwhile I'm also willing to do solo live performances.
Now for some deep deeep deeeeeep questions for the ending.... What's your stand on remixing? Do you find it's kind of stealing other people's ideas or just another way of paying tribute to a good track? Has anyone ever remixed your tracks and would you like if someone remixes you?Remixing is fun! Iike to do remixes, it's very inspiring. As to stealing or paying tribute, I guess it varies from case to case. But when I do a remix, I usually write something completely different that only vaguely reminds of the original.
Paul Cooper from Kettering Deff Organisation (KDO) did a remix of my music around 5 years ago or something. And Joris Voorn remixed my track, like I said earlier. I always like it when people use my stuff as a starting point, so far... If anyone wants to do a remix, just contact me.
Words of wisdom for the end...Don't underestimate your inner world. Fantasy, imagination, inner dialogue, put these things into expression in the way that suits you best, so they become tangible and enjoyable for everyone else. Doubt everything you hear, see and read and test it by your own experience. Celebrate your own truth, nobody's wrong, nobody's right. And, above all, don't forget to have fun :)
DraCo