Over the past few months Jens Gad the producer, writer, musician, remixer and engineer of Enigma, Sandra, TAAW and Andru Donalds has been a source of new music and conversation with us. We have established a very good repore which has led us to this very open and refreshing interview.
Jens is finally introducing us his hidden gems after gaining an incredible experience with his collaboration with Michael Cretu, the mastermind of Enigma. We are very proud of being able to present you this very exclusive and deeply detailed interview. Hoping that you'll enjoy it as much as we did arranging and producing it. A lot of questions were natuarally slanted at his Enigma background and you will be delighted to read
many of the "gems" of info from over the past 10 years. You can sense by the way Jens answers the questions with a truly child-like energy. His passion for life and
music is unbounded as well as his never ending search for new media outlets.
It was a great delight that he enabled the visitors of EnigmaMusic.com, Enigma
Message Board Members (EMB) and our affilate web sites, with the opportunity of
asking their questions directly via our questions database. The question selection process was pretty tough due to an unbelievable amount of submissions from
around the globe. We, the editors were stunned with the variety of fans and their origins. That said we had the un-envous task of editing the questions down to reasonable amount to present to Jens.
Questions submitted from: Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United States and many more submissions that we were unable to include…Our global community grows each new day, with a stunning dynamism…
We would like to thank to Jens Gad for taking the time to answer these questions from the fans around the globe. This has truly been a thrill for all of us.
PART 1: Questions from the Editorial Staff at
EnigmaMusic.com
Q
Jens, what is the most beautiful experience you've ever had while listening to music? What were
you listening to and what was happening around you? Tim Carney, Maryland, United States. A
I remember some depressing moments like having split up with a girlfriend and other things where I received a lot of power and hope from music. Tracks I remember causing this were,
"Dancing on the Ceiling" (Lionel Richie), "Run to You" (Bryan Adams), "Emily" (Nationalgalerie"), "Rhythm is Love" (Keziah Jones), "Heaven Must Be Near"(Ingrid Chavez) and my long time favourite "Lovestruck" (Jesse Johnson, an old Prince mate from Minneapolis)
Q
Based on these recent samples of your solo work, it appears that your artistic influence over the ENIGMA project has increased with each release. Is Michael slowly preparing to hand over the ENIGMA project to you entirely? Christopher Messick, Alabama, United States.
A
No, ENIGMA will be him forever. He often mentioned to me that I should take over someday - I just laughed loud and said to him: "Look at you; I'm sure you will be producing in the studio like this ´till the age of 95!'' - I have never seen any person in my life working as passionate and possessed as Michael.
I was in the privileged position to be as close to him as a brother during many years and have learned and assimilated the spirit of ENIGMA along with Michael's whole philosophy of life - numerous unforgettable experiences, sometimes working 3 days and nights without sleep. Needless to say that this will have a deep influence on my life and work forever.
Now, having created my own studio facility here in Ibiza -Thanks to Michael, ENIGMA
and the numerous fans worldwide!!!- I have the freedom to produce and create
whatever is on my mind...
So, ENIGMA will never be handed over to me but I feel that we share the "philosophy
and knowledge" of the project, and this "essence" has to be taken much further in different shapes and colours, I think.
I was always very drawn to the style of the first two ENIGMA albums, in the years,
when this sound was "born" and captured millions of people's hearts. I feel a strong passion for keeping this music alive, so (as I told already briefly in the announcement) I tried to "reanimate" this style in a new way with my new project "The Secrets of Obsession".
A new element I used here, which I always wanted to bring into ENIGMA is the
beautiful traditional Chinese one-string instrument
"Er-Hu Violin" - used in the track "The Delta of the Red River". The album will be on the market in April 2005.
On the album "Achillea - The Nine Worlds" I worked with classical vocalist Helene Horlyck to combine an "Enigmatic" but evolved musical base with her outstanding voice and lots of solo guitar - sounds almost impossible, but - hear for yourself! - Very homogenic and aesthetic music vision. This album is finally on the market and can be ordered from around the globe on: www.bscmusic.com
The third forthcoming album will feature Spanish speech and ethnic chant of the singer
Luisa Fernandez, this project even has pop
potential and is mainly aiming at the Spanish speaking territories - and following my passion for this language living in Spain for 11 years.
Q
On your "Intro" page, you're quoted as saying "A firmly held belief that it's better to approach something with child-like enthusiasm and optimism than with music business cynicism." Can you give an example where "business cynicism" has disenchanted you, and how the event(s) changed the way you run your own
business? Sherry Wynn, Washington State, United States. A Oh God! These moments have numerously happened, being truly encouraged by all my ENIGMA years, I still believe in the weirdest ideas, no matter how anti-trend they might seem, whenever you have this special unexplainable feeling - "go for it!!!"
In general, the music industry believes in what is selling at the moment, so they feel very happy to buy new projects following the same recipe. Fighting for completely new ideas which of course might seem unfashionable in that moment has become very very difficult. With an inner smile I will always remember Michael's words when he describes how his record label reacted on his presentation of the Sadeness single... They didn´t want to release it! And now...it´s become.........
Well, the message is clear: "Believe in your ideas and fight for them."
Concretely I'm now targeting much more on small labels, I strongly believe in the internet as it makes global sharing so easy and cheap, my dream would be to sell my records directly off my website, from producer to audience... at a much cheaper price. This is still a way to go but I feel we're nearly there!
Q
You are an innovative artist, musician, producer or let's say ''music engineer'', what do you think about the evolving nature of today's technology? New sound formats are becoming experimental fields for musicians, so, would you consider releasing music with different recording techniques such as 5+1/6+1 channel audio instead of current stereo format? Onur Tezgeldi, Istanbul - Turkey A
It's nice to listen to surround sound, I'll also do 5.1 releases, but I regard it more as an add on, I guess the digital quality we have now is about the maximum you can get - it's identical to what you hear in our studios. The interesting fields now are: compression to get smaller files, say mp3, and distributing the files while respecting author rights. The most common situation to hear music is still in a taxi or in a shop, and here often you don't even have stereo speakers...
Q
A Question covering your 3 Dimensions: In the last decade working with Cretu on music;
As a writer, what is your favorite track?
As a producer, what track gave you the most satisfaction?
As a musician, which song gave you the most satisfaction to play on? Martyn Woolley, Midwest, United States. A
Co-writing "Push the Limits" and then producing it together with Michael was quiet an intense experience,I love how the groove part in the middle turned out.
As a musician... - imagine the following scenario: Me with the Guitar soloing and playing like mad - in a volume like deep purple on stage - and Michael on the Wah Wah pedal at the same time trying to express what I was playing... - that was "I Love You - I´ll Kill You" ...
Q
Having built your new studio and with the influx of a lot of new material from you does this mean that you are now working just solo and with different artists and will no longer work as close with Michael on future ENIGMA projects? Martyn Woolley, Midwest, United States. AOnce you met Michael and have been involved with him, you must always work with him again, this is almost like an addiction...
In the moment I'm very focused on my ideas and it takes a lot of energy to launch new productions, but for sure we'll do projects together again soon......and
''Life and its possibilities are still endless...''
Q
Digital studio techniques have progressed so much over the last 10 years, the sounds we hear these days are so much easier to copy and emulate - do you think this will make it harder for musicians to evolve ground breaking and unique sounding albums like ENIGMA MCMXC a.D anymore? Martyn Woolley, Midwest, United States. A
Co-writing "Push the Limits" and then producing it together with Michael was quiet an intense experience,I love how the groove part in the middle turned out.
No, it's all still about the idea you have in mind. And the really good and innovative sound-elements still are very difficult to copy.
Thanks to technology EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE now - no matter how weird the idea is you have in mind - you can make it audible the next hour in your studio - but - without a great idea you are ...lost, no matter how fast your computer works. I think there are a lot of great material on the market, this innovation is happening all the time.
Q
One of the most frequently asked questions that no one seems to be able to answer is; "Where was the video "Return to Innocence" filmed? Sherry Wynn, Washington State - United States. A
I think it was somewhere on the Spanish mainland, I'll ask Michael the next time we meet.
Editor's Note: We did some research and found out the exact location of that video; it was shot in Malaga, Spain . This area of Spain is used for a lot of movies, commercials and pop videos. Also shot close to this area was the "Andru Donald's" video "All Out Of Love". Co-incendently one of the set workers on that video supplied the horse that was used as the Unicorn on the "Return To Innocence" video - small world!
