Name: Paul Nawrata aka URBS
Occupation: Producer
Nationality: Austrian
Current release: The new URBS album Geheimland is out via Compost March 3rd 2023.  
Recommendations: Phew, I'd love to recommend hundreds. I'll stick to music and I'll go completely random:
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker – Mute
Benitez y Valencia - Desdichas



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I've been djing since 1991 and started producing in 1996 with my friend DJ Chaoz who had an Atari running Cubase and an Emu ESI-32 sampler. We tried to make what we called dope beats, a largely instrumental form of hip hop for DJs. We were not really able to emulate what our heros did, so what came out was kind of weird and original and got released on Uptight Records.

Before hip hop I was listening to all kinds of music, especially noise rock and post hardcore, but my influences also included synth pop, avantgarde techno, independent, classical music and film music. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time alone and that made it easy for me to immerse myself in music very deeply.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I don't know about the physical and chemical principles, but the greatest music always gave me goose bumps.

I love haunting melodies, music that transports a lot of raw emotion. I've always preferred slower kinds of music as I was looking for groove even when I didn't know what exactly that was. When hip hop came into my life the dopeness of the drums and the repetition in the loops had a similar effect on me.

When I make music I try to evoke the same emotions I felt so deeply when I was a kid.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I've always dreamed of making “Urbs music”, my very own style that covers all my tastes in equal measure, completely independent of all categories.

With Geheimland it's the first time I feel I've achieved just that, and I've been on it for almost 30 years now.

Toujours Le Même Film from 2005 also has moments that feel like that to me.



Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I hope my identity is always changing, always evolving. But I'll always be central European, with a bourgeouis and catholic background that is both worth embracing and running away from.

Being exposed to romantic composers, rock and European pop as opposed to soul, gospel and funk is a chance and an obstacle in equal measure. At the end of the day it will contribute to my stylistic independence.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I want to be wildly enthusiastic and critical in equal measure, allowing the primitive instincts to take command from time to time. To say it with movies: The Naked Gun is just as great as Apocalypse Now and Le Mépris.

I try to incorporate all my tastes and preferences and I try to embrace my weaknesses and turn them into strengths. I try to have as much fun as possible when creating, always questioning my own pretentiousness.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

None of these topics excludes the others. I'm definitely not looking for “music of the future”- that can only ever be a platitude, because at the end of the day it will always be the music of today, and soon yesterday.

Manuel Göttschings E2-E4 is a musical piece from the early 1980s even if it influenced the music that came later.



Mudhoney channeled Led Zep and Black Sabbath, yet they influenced countless bands that came after them.

[Read our Manuel Göttsching interview]
[Read our feature on Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4]

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I guess my most important tool is my taste.

Apart from that it's Logic and it has been for two decades now. I'm not a technically gifted person and I need my equipment to work reliably and staying the same over a long period of time. I still learn new methods with my setup, so I don't see a point in changing it until the point where I feel limited.

My strategy is to invest a lot of work and time in a comparatively small output to compensate my lack of musical and technical skill.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

I get up at 6.35 in the morning with my son, getting both of us ready for the day and then I take him to school. After that I'll go back to sleep for an hour, then start my day tending to the house, doing the groceries and writing emails. I'll try to find time to do the kind of things in the studio that do not require much creativity, like fixing a mix or organizing sample libraries.

I spend the afternoon with my family, cook dinner and in the evenings either go into the studio and create or look for music to sample or music to inspire me, or maybe read. That will be until 1 or 2 a.m., and once again I will not have gotten enough sleep.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

It varies, but the most common way for me would be: being blown away by a loop I find, then try to combine it with every single sample in my library, which can take hours. I'll have a pool of 20 to 30 interesting options and will try to find the most promising ones.

I'll start playing stuff on the keyboards to come up with links and a homogenic environment, then again combining these links and bridges with more samples. Ideally a shape for the song will materialize. At that point it's either good enough to be finished or otherwise I'll shelf it forever. If something is missing I'll invite friends to play, most often that would be bass, guitar or wind instruments.

I don't recommend this working method to anyone, it's just a way that works for me. People with more talent can probably come up with a whole album in the same amount of time.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

If you have someone to listen to music together, fully focused, without the bloody phone ringing and other distraction, sitting quietly, listening loudly, passionately, emotionally, analyzing - that's the greatest luxury!

The quality of collaborations depends on the persons involved. I've never found real equality in the studio, and in most cases it's necessary for someone to take the driver's seat. But again - that's just my personal experiences and I wish everyone a way of collaborating that makes all involved equally happy.

If it get's really serious for me, I have to be alone and then maybe get feedback for the results before going back to the studio alone to process that feedback. I very much related to the song “Collaborations Don't Work” by Sparks ... and Franz Ferdinand.



How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I try to express my world view without words, so it will always be a rather escapist form of reaction. To get my view on this across, let's take three examples:

“Rebel Withou A Pause“ by Public Enemy,



“Lili Marleen” by Lale Andersen and



“Cold” by The Cure.



I think they are all reacting to the world outside, the social framework, in the most intense way. They are all incredible pieces of art by persons fundamentally different from each other and functioning for fundamentally different listeners in fundamentally different ways. You're very lucky if you can appreciate them all - the songs, the performers and the listeners.

Now who am I to judge what's the ideal way of reacting to the world - it depends on the socio-economic framework, the timeframe, and above all the creator and the listener. Artists will have to be true to their character to retain a certain amount of credibilty.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

To an immeasurable extent, and in many different ways. I think it's an enormous advantage if you can appreciate the most different styles of music and in effect the most different ways of dealing with these heavy topics. If you're both able to cry your heart out and to laugh in the face of death.

Again, let's take three songs: “I See A Darkness” by Bonnie Prince Billie,



“Six Feet Deep” by the Geto Boys and



“Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” by Monty Python.



They all help me deal with the fear of death and the grieve of having lost another person I loved. If you're able to deal with all these expressions of joy and pain you will eventually be able to express them in your music and help other people.

[Read our Bonnie “Prince” Billie interview]

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Obviously science has a huge influence on the way we create.

The most interesting aspect that comes to my mind answering this is the matter of AI soon being able to emulate the kind of formalistic music that makes up most peoples spotify playlists, most DJs setlist and most movies score. I bet it will be harder for AI to replicate the music of LaVerne Baker or John Coltrane than the music of your favourite electronic music producer.

In a way it's Kraftwerks vision fully realized and I don't know if I like the prospect.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Historically there was little difference between craftsman and artist, that only evolved in the modern age. A lot of artists would profit from reconnecting with the world of craftmanship - myself certainly included.

I guess it's down to humbleness. I love to cook and in a way it feels easier to learn in that field than in my actual profession as musician. Why that is I still try to figure out, maybe because the results don't take so long. But maybe at the end of the day the cup of coffee in the morning is more important than the music? I'd definitely choose music over coffee if I had to choose, but I guess that's not the case with the average human being.

So to come back to your question - I can easily work with my shortcomings in music, but my shortcomings in the art of making coffee will meet more unfiltered rejection.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it is able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I've now tried to answer this question from different angles for twenty minutes and I must say the answer is no, I don't have an explanation.

Is it simple physics? Is it the memories we attach to music? Maybe it's exactly this inexplicability that attracts us in the first place.