56 - Ma Foom Bey

Giannis Kampiotis
March 03, 2023

Hello music people 👋

Today in the spotlight, Ma Foom Bey

Coming from Germany, his love for electronic music began in the 80's, influenced by genres like Techno, EBM, and New Wave. He’s been DJing for over 20 years in cities like Cologne, Berlin, and Leipzig and also organises parties and hosts a DAWless event. Few years ago started using his DAWless setup to break away from conventional DJ patterns 🎶

Read Time: 7 minutes 📰

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Studio

Gear List

Eurorack

MIDI

Audio

At the moment I'm very happy with the setup. The fact that it's mobile and I can easily carry it around myself is very important for me, since I work in my home studio, in a studio that I share with my DJ collective and I like to work on music when I’m traveling. Naturally, my setup will continue to evolve, and I just bought a used Roland Torcido module that I am very excited about.

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Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

I am a 50-year-old engineer working as an innovation manager and living in Cologne (Germany) with my wife and two children.

My fascination for electronic music started in the 80's. I love synth sounds and was inspired by electronic music like Techno, EBM, Italo-Disco, New Wave, High Energy, etc. I grew up near Frankfurt (Germany), at that time the center of electronic music in Germany. This is where I experienced the first techno and acid parties, especially in a club called Dorian Gray. Later, in the '90s, I moved to Berlin, where the techno and electronic music thing was just about to explode. I was totally drawn into it, partied a lot and later started DJing.

Now I've been living in Cologne for 20 years, where I still DJ and have played clubs like Odonien and Helios37 here in the city, Tacheles in Berlin and Distillery in Leipzig, as well as doing radio shows. I also organize parties with my DJ collective Discobude and host a DAWless event called Modular Madness. For a long time I wanted to break out of the usual DJ patterns and techniques, so I started making DAWless music a few years ago.

Which piece of equipment in your studio is essential to your production process?

It is clearly the Synthstrom Deluge.

A beautiful boutique groovebox from New Zealand. It's an amazing device, so powerful, intuitive, hands-on and quickly became my heart and brain in the studio and the sequencer for all gear, including my eurorack.

What is the least expensive piece of gear that gave you the most results?

This is probable the MAM MB33.

A simple and fully analog 303 clone from Bavaria, Germany, with a great sound. I don't really produce acid, but I still think there is always room for a 303 in electronic music.

Walk us through your process for creating and producing music.

I often start by designing some bass and lead sounds on one machine, like the System-1m, or I patch the A-111-6 or Osires to create a loop, and then I add drums and more synth voices, jam, and later build the track.

I also still listen to a lot of music from many genres and watch jams and tutorials for inspiration and to learn new techniques.

What is a production technique that you always come back to?

What I find very helpful is sampling loops with the Deluge when I've created patches with eurorack, since it's so hard or sometimes impossible to recreate sounds.

How would you explain your style?

My tracks and jams are less housey than my Dj sets, more melodic-techno, if you will. Ambient music is also becoming more and more important for me.

What is a big challenge you have as an artist?

The old familiar problem of finishing a track.

I also neglect my music to organize events, build and maintain my studio, take care of social media.... These are all things I enjoy as well but unfortunately they also often make it easy to lose focus on music production.

Has building a hardware setup changed your perspective on music or life in general?

I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to jam and work with a DAWless setup.

One aspect is the drop in price of gear and the availability of information (e.g. tutorials, communities) that makes using hardware setups easier and more versatile than ever before. Not too long ago, my setup would have been very expensive, only accessible to a very small group of artists, and very difficult to learn. My first synth that I spent a fortune on was a HOHNER HS2. This must have been around 1988 or 1989, and I was overstrained and completely annoyed trying to get the synth to work smoothly with my Commodore Amiga.

Another aspect is the constant and overwhelming presence of computer and phone screens in our lives, which makes a DAWless and tactile experience very exciting, inspiring and liberating. Also, I feel that not using a DAW gives me the freedom to not pursuit for perfection in a production.

One tip on how to spark creativity?

Collaborate!

Being able to produce entire albums yourself and acquire the know-how without talking to a single person makes people forget how inspiring a simple conversation or jam with another artist can be. That was also my motivation for starting Modular Madness, a small event where synth enthusiasts get together to talk about music, explain they equipment, and yam.

I'm always amazed at how open and helpful the DAWless and Eurorack community is.