We recently received the debut 7″ from Goitia Deitz on DiscError and were pretty impressed by it. Check out the review here. Luckily we were able to get the duo to answer a few questions…
You have pretty much come out of nowhere. How did the Goitia Dietz project get started?
It started initially over a shared interest in Krautrock and Kosmische records. We’d been friends for a while and have both been making music separately, so one day we eventually decided to put our mutual synth collections to good use by playing music together. Everything flowed so naturally that we kept working together.
Going back through what you have recorded, a lot of the older material was more synth heavy and ambient. Why did you start using drums? How did the devolution of your sound unfold?
It was a natural progression from one to the other. The more we played the more comfortable we got and the more we wanted to explore new elements to our sound. After many pure ambient songs it just seemed that the logical progression was to try new elements – drums, percussion, etc. We’re constantly experimenting with new sounds and ideas.
A lot of what is being written about your record focuses on the fact that you go in to the studio with no plan of attack. How important is that to your process? Do you ever think that you will take a more traditional songwriting approach?
Everything we do is written, played and recorded live, and it’s vital for us to work that way. There’s an immediacy and excitement to our process which is really important to us, and was one of the reasons we started the project. Nonetheless we could work in a more traditional format, for instance with remixes, so long as we left plenty of room for improvisation.
Do you have any qualms with using digital gear or is everything up for consideration?
Not opposed to it, and we’re not purists when it comes to gear. As long as it sounds good, we’ll use it, although we prefer the immediacy of working with analog gear. It would be difficult to achieve the same sort of sound that we do with digital gear, and a big inspiration for this project was to move away from computer-based music creation, to make the process as immediate as possible.
Listening to Coma and Line there seems to be a lot of Krautrock influence to your sound. What are some of your touch points and inspirations?
We’re inspired by many of the classic Kraut and Kosmische artists: Neu!, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Conrad Schnitzler, Conny Plank, Roedelius, etc. But we’re also deeply inspired by a great deal of other artists, such as Eno, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Werner Herzog, Toshio Matsumoto and Bruce Conner.
Your music seems like it’s all done in one take which would translate well to the stage. Are there any plans for a live show?
Absolutely. Thankfully the way we work should lend itself well to performance. We’re tentatively planning some shows at the moment, but it’s always difficult to balance the constant need to create new work with the logistics of performing, especially with the amount of equipment we use.
You have a ton of songs up on your Soundcloud. Are there any other releases in the works?
Our Traces mixes, which contain most of our material from the past year, should see a tape release soon.
Some of the more ambient work you’ve done seems like it would be suitable for some sort of drugged out experience. Is that an influence on your sound or are the rumors of you being hardcore straightedge valid?
We’re not straight edge, but playing music tends to put us in a pretty meditative place, and we don’t really need drugs to achieve heightened mind states.
Are you open to collaboration with other artists? What artists are you most excited about?
Absolutely. We’ve worked with Theresa Dapra, the founder of Ministry of Dreams, a line of fantastic couture accessories and masks, as well as Stuart Argabright of Ike Yard (Factory Records) and Dominatrix. We also have a couple of short video pieces in the works by our friends Ciaran O’Shea (co-founder of Disc Error) and Kyle Moriwaki.
There’s a ton of current artists who we love, such as Elite Gymnastics, Beak>, Anika, Led Er Est, Factory Floor, These New Puritans, The Horrors, Scuba, HTRK, Tropic of Cancer, Clams Casino and Blawan, amongst many others.
what were you like in high school?
G: Quiet kid that worked at the local arcade and loved hip-hop/beats and video games.
D: I spent most of my time learning how to make music and DJ, putting together zines, and running around New York City.
favorite places to eat
Arby’s Fulton Mall (RIP)
Five Guys Burger
David’s Brisket House
Roberta’s Pizza
Miyake in Portland, Maine
5 top dj songs (OF THE MOMENT)
G:
D.A.F.: The Gun (Powder Keg Mix)
Legowelt: Sea of Nuhuhu
John Rocca: I Want It To Be Real (Farley’s Hot House Piano Mix)
Lil Louis: Music Takes Me Away
Isaac Hayes: Love Can’t Turn Around (Ron Hardy Edit)
D:
Factory Floor: Real Love
Muslimgauze: Infidel (Veil of Peace Mix)
Scuba: Adrenalin
CJ Bolland: Camargue
Dom & Roland: Can’t Punish Me
5 top listening songs / albums
G:
Popul Vuh: Aguirre
Suicide: S/T
Brian Eno & Harold Budd: Plateaux Of Mirror
Les Rallizes Denudes: Live ‘77
Gonzales: Solo Piano
D:
Brian Eno: Thursday Afternoon
Neu!: Für Immer
Mogwai: Happy Songs For Happy People
Portishead: Third
Geinoh Yamashirogumi: Ecophany Rinne
Goitia Deitz on TTL
Here’s a mix Goitia Deitz put together in anticipation of the release of the Romance/Coma 7″.
