A while back I opened a feedback channel on my Discord. The idea was simple. A place where people could drop unfinished loops and get honest feedback without the weight of a full release attached to it. I started checking in regularly. Giving notes. Listening more than I was talking.
One of the people posting there was interim.
The Groove I Was Missing
I came up through deep techno. For years I barely used claps. Percussion was an afterthought. Groove was something I knew existed in the abstract, but I wasn't actively reaching for it in my own productions. I wanted to change that. I just didn't know where to start.
Every time interim posted a loop, his groove hit different. Velocities placed like delays without actually using a delay. Accent notes in the MIDI putting swing into the kit. Shuffles in places I wouldn't have thought to put them. It wasn't a technique you could google your way into. It was a feel.
The Message
I did the simplest thing I could do. I messaged him and asked if he wanted to make an EP together. He said yes. He'd never done a proper techno collab before, and I'd never worked like this with anyone.
We had one Discord call to talk about workflow. My pitch was straightforward. Send me as many grooves as you want, straight out of session view, and I'll build finished tracks around them. That way I get to learn how you think about rhythm, and we end up with a record. Win win.
He sent me ten Ableton projects. Mordio 1, Mordio 2, Mordio 3, all the way up. I opened them one at a time, let the groove pull me in, grouped the rhythm section, added sound design layers on top, sometimes swapped the kick, and made sure each one sat in a proper mixdown. That was the whole process.
What I Learned
Working inside his grooves taught me more about rhythm than any tutorial ever has. The velocity trick alone changed how I write drum patterns now. Instead of reaching for a delay plugin to get movement, I let the MIDI do the work.
I also learned something bigger. A lot of collaborations die because both people are trying to control too much. We didn't. He made the grooves. I made the tracks. Neither of us second guessed the other. The EP is called Low Friction because it felt low friction the whole way through.
The Point
Low Friction isn't just the title. It's the point.
Stop putting obstacles in your own way. Don't wait for the perfect label, the perfect moment, the perfect plan. Make the thing. Release it. Build the portfolio. The labels find you when there's something to find. We all make music. We just don't release it because we're overthinking it. Low Friction is key.
The Record
Four tracks. Peak-time techno, built for the floor. interim's first proper techno release, and some of the most honest work I've put my name on in a while.
Tracklist:
- Yield
- Noise Floor
- Blind Handshake
- Emergent
Interview with interim drops right after the release, so you can meet the person behind the grooves.
Out April 17.
Listen
You're reading this a day early. Here's the reward.
The full EP is streaming below via a private SoundCloud link. Goes public tomorrow with the rest of the release. Blog readers get first listen.
Pre-order the EP now here.