It has been some time since we received a new album from Misanthrop, an artist who continually challenges the status quo with his forward-thinking neuro-laced productions. A true artist in every sense, the Neosignal boss speaks with UKF about all things Trashworld, an album created amid the chaos of our current global hellscape.
Misanthrop engineered Trashworld cohesively from the music, artwork to the videos and visual aspects, making it less a product and more an outlet of D&B expression. Join in as we take a deep dive into the making of the LP as Michael Bräuninger reveals more about his approach and the pressures behind releasing material that feels right to him.
Congrats on the new album, you’ve been slowly releasing a few singles. How did you decide on which one to let go of first?
To be honest, that’s not very strategic. The decision is just, these feel right, you know? And then I decided on three singles. Which is funny, because I usually prepare stuff very upfront, like a real German guy.
But this time I wasn’t really preparing anything. I was just feeling, maybe just reacting a week before and then making assets for it, videos for social media and stuff, which is a bit stressful, but I can, at least react a bit on whatever my current feeling is.
Sometimes something in the world happens and you decide before, “I will make it like that,” and then you just do something really weird and it doesn’t really fit into the time, you know? In these times, you never know when the right time to do it is.
So I can’t really say why I decided. These tracks just felt right.
I’m doing the artwork and, of course, the music, and all the social assets, all the videos, the editing, the animation, everything. I’m doing that by myself because I want to keep that process in-house, for it to be my decision and to be my creative world.
With the curation of the album, it does feel very timely with the way that the world has been and the message behind the music…
That’s what I always try to do. And that’s quite a lot of work. But it pays off in the end because it feels right. It feels like it’s you.
When did the label Neosignal first get started?
That’s a great question because I can’t really remember when the time was, to be honest. I have to look it up. It must be fifteen years or something.
It’s really a long time now. It still feels like we built it up yesterday because time is running so fast sometimes. Florian (Phace) and I built it back in the day with just having in mind that we wanted to release our tunes on it. And then it quickly developed into a label which has released with a couple of quite good artists.
Absolutely, it’s a huge achievement. Do you have anything coming out this year that you’d like to talk about on the label?
We had one of the first releases from Mefjus and Imanu back in the day. So that’s quite an achievement for us. When you look back at the catalogue, all these guys just went by our label first.
It’s quite funny, because back in the day, we planned very precisely and strategically. But nowadays, if it feels like we should release something in six weeks, we can do that.
You had to do it in a long-term planning way. But now, when I’ve got something ready and I feel it’s getting out and Florian feels the same about that, that’s our agreement. If it should be out, then we release it within six to eight weeks. It can be spontaneous.
What would you say the biggest change has been as somebody curating a label over the last fifteen years?
The physical distribution has changed completely. In the beginning, we had to make our minds up about physical distribution and the creation of vinyl or CDs and all that stuff and creating artwork for that, which is a different thing than just creating something digital and uploading it to Spotify.
It feels different. Sometimes it could fail, you press it on vinyl and it fails, and you have to do it again. So the whole time frame had to be planned blindly in advance, but nowadays that’s totally gone.
You can still do vinyl, but it doesn’t really feel like that anymore. I liked that time but it’s better now to make quick decisions. It doesn’t feel that heavy anymore.
You mentioned you created the artwork for your own album. What inspired the visual direction?
Well, the album is called Trashworld because when you live in this time, you can feel like there’s a lot of bad news influencing you. I need to vent that bad energy somewhere, and for me, this is the way I do it. I just use music for that.
A lot of people say, don’t make music with a negative vibe. People don’t want that. They want to forget problems when they’re in the club but I don’t feel like that. I never thought about the audience. It was something I thought about for me, because making music is about me, and I have to solve my problems.
This is a let go of angry energy inside myself. And the result is that album. It’s an ironic view on the world.
With that in mind, was there an “a-ha” moment when you knew it was finished?
For me, when I DJ, I always play my own music. I don’t play other artists’ music, which makes it stressful sometimes, because if you DJ every weekend, you could just ask friends for new stuff or buy tracks. But when you play your own stuff, you have to produce it. And that’s stressful, because you don’t want to get bored playing the same tracks over and over again.
So there was always this big pool of tunes. And I selected the tunes which I thought fit together in a vibe. Then the process afterwards is getting that selection together and finding a theme for it. That’s the fun part.
I had maybe ten folders of different artistic directions and I had to decide on my own, but I like that.
Do you watch the charts after releases?
No, to be honest, I don’t care. The music is, as selfish as it sounds, in the first line only for myself. I do it just for me. Of course, I’m grateful for the fans and that I can live a good life with that.
But I’m not the guy who needs a big following or to be pleased by the audience. I should be happy. And if someone else is happy too, great. We’re in the same boat. That’s it.
What was the last show you attended as a fan?
That’s a long time ago, but I’m looking forward to seeing Autechre in Munich in September. That’s very experimental IDM. That’s the kind of music I listen to.
Are you making other genres on the side?
Yeah, I’m doing a heavy IDM-influenced project at the moment where I programmed my own software for it, my own effects, instruments, sequences, everything. It crashes a lot, but I’m getting there. I’ve been working on that for three or four years. It’s interesting.
Is creating from the ground up your favourite part?
Yeah, absolutely. I started as a DJ, and then I wanted to produce my own tracks to play them out. That was my initial drive. But it developed into really liking the process.
If I could earn my money in the studio, I would stay there the whole day. I wouldn’t leave. DJing is fun as well, but if I had a choice, I’d be in the studio all the time.
Has your style changed over the years?
I think it changed a lot. And that’s what I want. I don’t want to repeat myself. People come up to me and say, can’t you do stuff like you did back in the day? I could. But it would bore me to death. I’ve done it already.
I think Kate Bush once said you have an obligation as an artist to reinvent yourself all the time. And that’s something I really try to do.
How do you feel about no phones on the dance floor?
It’s fun. I’ve had it a couple of times. Some festivals don’t allow them. I like it but people should do what they want. Times change. It’s interesting to see videos later and see how the crowd reacted. But personally, I’d prefer people stay in the moment.
Any upcoming shows?
There are a couple lined up, Berlin, Toulouse and others. But nowadays shows sometimes get confirmed four weeks before, which makes it hard to plan. Sometimes you don’t play for a month, then suddenly four or five times. That uncertainty is part of it.
Are you happy with the feedback so far?
Definitely. It’s different from before when you sent promos and barely got responses. This time I got a couple of answers from people I didn’t expect. That was cool. Very positive stuff. Let’s see.
