Olaf Stuut opens up about his new album & the Amsterdam scene

Amsterdam has contributed more than enough creative excellence to the electronic music scene over the years. Concepts such as Rush Hour and Dekmantel have well and truly established the Dutch capital as one of the most forward thinking cities in the world when it comes to music production.

Now, it seems The Netherlands have blessed us with another cultured talent. Olaf Stuut is an artist/composer/producer who walks the shores of craftsmanship, in every form. “Ever an acutely sensitive and nuanced artist”, Stuut channels inspiration and influence into his creative process to produce pieces of music dripping in emotionality and sentiment. His latest album, Run, was released on June 10th and “sees him reaching the creative apex of his career” with 8 carefully crafted pieces of music.

We sat down with one of Europes most exciting up and coming producers to discuss Run, creative inspiration and the health of the scene in Amsterdam.

What are your earliest memories of music? And how did this influence your exposure to electronic music?

I couldn’t remember if I wanted to. My parents were both musicians so my first few years I was in the theatre most of the time. Electronic music though is a different story, I think I had my first real experience of electronic music buying a Happy Hardcore CD on Queensday when I was about 5 years old. I liked the cover a lot and went nuts on the music (laughs).

What was the first record you ever bought?

My first vinyl was Jeff Buckley – ‘Grace’. I’m still very much in love with the album to this day. A shame he couldn’t make a lot more.

Your forthcoming album, ‘Run’, maintains sounds dripping in angst and emotionality. The title itself illustrates someone trying to escape. Where does the inspiration for such sounds come from?

We all try to escape from something now and then, may that be emotions, addictions, work or relationships. If that thing is close to yourself, they always tend to come back in one form or the other. In the end you always have to accept something and if you do, things get easier. Music shouldn’t be only beautiful or aggressive, it should contain all these things, each its own place in the musical landscape and reflect life’s bitter sweetness.

How do you feel your creative process and production methods have evolved since the release of Equilibre?

The foundation of my process is actually quite simple and always has been. If I like something I built further on that element, try to find sounds that complement the previous one. And with these steps, it’s always the most fertile for me to go on an adventure within the making of these sounds, to try to bring the best out of each element and find out what they could mean in the bigger picture.

You are truly a craftsman in every sense of the word. Sounds are beautifully constructed to create such immersive and inspiring pieces. Do you feel this is something that is becoming lost within electronic music? Or is it still very existent?

I don’t think it’s lost at all. People just have to look for it a bit harder. I do think more people could make electronic music from the heart. I feel the need contributing to this “scene” for sure.

You’re influenced by artists such as Jimmy Hendrix; this surely is the inspiration for your method of warping a synthesiser “to create faux natural sounding overtones and undertones” that sound like an acoustic instrument. What kind of software and hardware do you use for this method? Is this something you knew from the beginning or did the idea formulate over time?

It’s mostly filters and the right amount of distortion to get that rough sound. But there are so many ways to accomplish this idea. Either go from acoustic, stretch it to the electronic side or the other way around. I like to play around with these thoughts. A lot of things just come up to me walking to the supermarket. Little concepts I want to try out and then try to make it rhyme with the rest of the story. The challenge is to make the instruments alive, to let them speak for themselves so they open up a door in your mind. Adding voices helps a lot too, because it becomes more personal and relatable, less abstract or at least somewhat understandable.

The opening track and final track both feature a collaboration with Marlon Penn. How did this formulate? Maze also maintains a progressive sound; did you look to much progressive rock in order to find inspiration for this?

I’ve known Marlon for a couple of years now. The first time I saw him perform blew me away. He also had the emotional dynamics I was looking for in music. We became good friends, but never made a lot of music until later on. Most of the times it was just jamming and trying out new stuff, from some of those jams we eventually made “Run” and “Maze”. I almost never look to other music for inspiration for a track, at least not creatively. Everything might be originated from other things, but never really consciously. If I do think about it that way, my process feels stained and good music doesn’t come out. So I try to keep my mind as blank as possible.

The titles of each track on ‘Run’ provoke great curiosity in me. ‘Gravity Assist’, ‘Extended Travels’, ‘Lush’ and ‘A Scape Reality’ all bring images of a scenic alien utopia to my mind. Where these names chosen carefully to go hand in hand with the sound the album maintains?

I carefully think of names for every track. For example if you listen to Gravity Assist you can really see/hear the process happening; coming closer and closer and get slingshotted away again. Extended Travels (E.T.) has a more personal story to it, it’s actually for my stepdad who passed away last year. He often said we are all stardust and will be stardust once again. I’ve always been interested in physics and astronomy, I get a lot my inspiration from that. It opens up my imagination.

The scene in Amsterdam looks to be in great health at the minute, but as an outsider looking in it’s difficult to develop a true reflection of what it is really like. From the perspective of someone fully immersed in it what are your thoughts on Amsterdam’s scene? Not only within electronic music, but other forms of music that intrigue you. Anything that particularly excites you?

I think the scene is quite dynamic, especially with the festivals. That really sets Amsterdam apart from most cities. Most festivals are actually in the city, which changes the environment entirely, so you can actually escape the place you want to escape from in the same place. But there are a great number of good producers in Amsterdam and very versatile as well, which is a good thing in my opinion. The number of labels are vastly growing each with it’s own style. I think we all respect each other for their own capabilities and are a very open and friendly little creative society. Because it’s such a colourful scene, it’s hard to see what it actually is.

You’ve worked closely with Max Cooper in the past, and you are performing alongside him at the forthcoming Farr Festival. Has working alongside him inspired you to look at the scientific elements within electronic music? Or is this something you had already implemented to your creative process?

It was always a part of how I made music, or what sounds I like. I think it’s more that he showed me people accept the sound and gave me courage to exploit these ideas and find my own path with it.

All of your artwork for previous releases, as well as ‘Run’, is beautiful. Do you produce the art yourself or do you work closely with artists in order to produce a piece worthy of the music?

I almost always have a very clear view of what I want to do with my artwork, with those ideas I try to find a common ground with a visual artist. For “Run” I worked with Jord Noorbeek, a good friend of mine. I sketched out the idea for him and he was able to bring it to the next level. I’m very happy with the final (vinyl) result.

Any future projects you can tell us about? ‘Run’ looks to be an album that will firmly establish you as one of the most exciting producers in Europe, what are do you hope is still to come?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my next project. The only thing I can tell at this moment, is that it will be based more on jamming than thinking about a form or shape of a track. If that means it’ll be more danceable or not is still a question for me as well. As for hopes, the only thing I care about is being inspired and loving the creative process. Without that I almost feel useless.