Name: FCL
Members: San Soda, Red D
Interviewee: San Soda,
Nationality: Belgian
Occupation: Producers, DJs
Current Release: The new FCL EP Can We Try Remixes, featuring vocalist Lady Linn, is out via Freerange. It features reworks by Jimpster, Ben Hixon, and Deetron
Recommendation for Lede, Belgium: Come visit the music academy in Lede where I teach and share your thoughts with my students :-)

[Read our Deetron interview]

If you enjoyed this FCL interview and would like to stay up to date with the duo and their music, visit their respective Instagram profiles: San Soda; Red D.



Are there examples of minimalism in music – and outside of music - that impressed you early on?

Definitely, I’ll never forget hearing my first Theo Parrish track. It was “Dusty Cabinets”.

It only contains a few elements, entirely done on the SP1200 I assume.



I remember being struck by the enormous impact every part has and the space in time that allows so much groove and elements to move and dance around.

It’s the type of minimalism that is pure and raw, not overthought.

Were you ever interested in minimalism as a style – from the Philip-Glass-variety to solo instrumental work to minimal techno? If so, tell me a bit about your interest in this.

I had a techno phase while living in Berlin.

Going to Berghain and hearing every musical detail so clearly in a club environment definitely made me think differently about music production.

Do you tend to find that, as many claim, “less is more?” Are the notes you don't play really as important as the ones you do play?

I don’t think it’s about the amount of notes, as long as the notes that are played serve the right purpose.

Same with elements in a track or songs in a DJ set.

Many artists are becoming more minimalist in their music as the years go on, focusing on the “essence.” How is that for yourself and how would you describe your development in this regard?

I feel like I haven’t even begun producing the music I truly want to make, so it’s hard to say. Up to now, everything I’ve released has felt like an experiment - the result of learning how different pieces of gear and techniques work, rather than mastering them.

Soon, for the first time in many years, I’ll have a proper studio again - one that’s entirely mine, not an office or nursery on the side. I’m really looking forward to starting the second chapter of my music-making life, where the creative process will be more about refining than discovering.

What were some of the starting points for your most recent release?

The last few tracks I finished were remixes which definitely helps because you immediately have a context, certain limitations and a deadline.

How did a minimalist mindset possibly inform the creative process?

The limitations help you make pragmatic choices which is completely fine as long as they don’t cross the line towards lazy choices.

Do you like to set yourself limitations? If so, which were some of those limitations for the new pieces?

One of my early releases was called The Limited Gear EP.

Any producer knows that creativity often opens up when you reduce your options. If you can maintain that discipline - and just as importantly, set the right boundaries for your creative process - it can be incredibly liberating.



That said, it’s becoming harder and harder to do. You can record a hundred takes of the same part, have near-infinite access to sound presets, stem separation, immersive sound …

Technology keeps removing limits and offering more options, while we, as a species, seem to be getting worse at making the right decisions.

Thanks to sampling and digital synthesis, there are endless possibilities for sculpting the sounds and overall sound design of a piece or album. What are your considerations in this regard?

A few years ago, when I started teaching music production at the academy, I began warning my students about the trap of constantly buying new VSTs, sound packs, and plugins.

Instead, I encourage them to build a solid favourites library - a collection of sounds and elements they truly connect with - and to keep returning to those.

Rather than searching for a new sample or synth every time something doesn’t quite work, creativity often flourishes when you reshape what you already have into what you imagine you need.

Would you say that you approach your creative tools with a minimalist mindset? Or do you need a wide choice of instruments and tools to make music?

As you get better at synthesis, recording, and arrangement, you learn to extract more from less. Over the years, I collected way too much gear and too many records - until it all became too much.

Eventually, I got better at choosing only the tools I truly need to express what I want.

Reducing one's options and techniques often implies a different way of working with the materials. Tell me about yours, please.

Spending more time in the analogue world is an obvious one. Trying to stick to the first recording of a take is another.

Objekt also wrote a great manual once that provides you with a hands-on approach on finishing a track pragmatically, I can definitely recommend it.

With so much incredible music instantly available, are you finding that you want to take it all in – or that you need to be more selective? How do you pick the music you really want to invest in?

After DJing and collecting for 20+ years, strangely enough, selecting music has now become very binary for me. It’s as if I believe there’s a kind of meta-truth out there, above everything else, where a piece of art is either forever good or forever not good - nothing in between.

At one point I owned far too many records, and I let a lot of them go. I wouldn’t say those records were bad, but they weren’t part of that essential truth.

In any case, I don’t think I’ve bought or played a record recently that I won’t continue to consider great for the rest of my life.

Would you say that minimalism extends into other parts of your life as well?

Absolutely - especially after becoming a parent. I’m currently building the house we’ll live in for the rest of our lives, and we don’t want to bring in anything that isn’t truly meaningful to us.

Not just materially, even when it comes to time, I feel the same way - you don’t want to waste too much time on things that don’t hold real value.