87 - nthirteen

Giannis Kampiotis
June 20, 2023

Artist Interviews 🎶 Studio Tours 🎛

Hello music people 👋

Today in the spotlight, nthirteen

Coming from Germany, he began his musical journey as a guitarist in emo, postpunk, and postrock bands, which sparked his interest in guitar pedals and recording equipment. Eventually, he ventured into the world of synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines, and his passion for modular synthesis is growing since 2019 🎶

Read Time: 5 minutes 📰

Studio

Gear List

my 2 x 104 hp intellijel modular cases with modules by
make noise, noise engineering, mutable instruments, intellijel etc.
(Modular Grid)
SOMA - Pulsar-23
1010music - Bluebox
some Moog semi-modulars
Sequential - Prophet 6
Nord - Stage 2
Fender - Jazzmaster guitar + some others
almost every Elektron box
Teenage Engineering - OP-1
Teenage Engineering - OP-Z
Apple - Macbook Pro
Ableton 11 & Push 2

This issue is brought to you by

Our own G.A.S. Newsletter Instagram Profile

Follow to see in-studio videos from the featured artists 🎛️🎚️

Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

My name is Andre. I am from Erfurt, a small town in Germany. My artist name is nthirteen.

I started my musical journey as guitar player in emo, postpunk and postrock bands. That's when I started with guitar pedals and recording gear.

Later I got my 1st synth, an op1 from teenage engineering. And by the time I collected more and more synths, samplers and drum machines.

Since 2016 I play solo live with some machines, guitar and vocals. I was never popular or financially successful with my music, but I can't stop thinking about it every day. Since 2019 I drifted into the modular world and since then became obsessed with it.

I work as a freelance filmmaker and as proud father of three - time is always on the short side.

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

It's my modular. I have filled 2 Intellijel 7U Cases with 104 HP each.

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

I guess that would be an old sm58 shure microphone I still use.

Walk us through your process for creating and producing music.

That changed quite a bit over the years.

Nowadays I always start with a fresh and clean patch. I often prepatched these in mind while riding my bike or get inspired by a video on instagram. Sometimes this can take hours before I get something out of it. I quite enjoy that process often more than the result, which is often just a short video for instagram.

Looking back at these 500+ posts - it's a pretty good journal of what I did over the years. I also released some of these jams as albums on Bandcamp.

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

Change is everything. Everything changes.

That's a pro and con.

I often get tired if something works, so I try something new. It's quite frustrating. I wish I could do just one thing very good, but I learnt that I am just not that perfectionist person. More a lazy workaholic...

How would you describe your style?

Difficult for both - me and listeners. I started with ambient electronica but lately moved more and more to techno.

What is a big challenge you have as an artist?

My biggest challenge right now is to make my modular transition also happening live.

I still play my old set with pretty old songs live, because I still don't feel confident enough to perform something just on the modular.

I try to practice that live situation at home, but it still does not work as I was hoping.

Also that live booking process is still just a pain. I am the worst booker in the world...

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

Yes, but I was sort of forced to replace band mates with machines, as my number one priority became my family.

So writing/rehearsing/recording/touring with bandmates wasn't an option anymore. Sometimes I miss these days, but honestly there were also a lot of compromises and drawbacks.

Now I can do what I want. 100%.

Anyway I would love to play with a drummer again sometime. But theses guys are rare and hard to find, where I live.