Name: Kuf
Members: Tom Schneider (synth & sampler), Valentin Link (bass), Hendrik Havekost (drums)
Nationality: German
Current release: Kuf's Yield is out via macro.

If you enjoyed this Kuf interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit the group's official website. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For us as a band beeing on tour is very important. We get inspiration from beeing in special places, festivals, experiencing music together, dancing, seeing other acts perform. We can relate to these shared experiences when creating our own music.

We played extensive tours in Japan, South Korea, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Italy to name a few. We are very close for some weeks and afterwards we find ourselves in a rehearsing room with a lot of impressions. The way we communicate about musical ideas is often based on these shared experiences,  e.g. 'do you remember this song or vibe at this place x'.

Another important point are new instruments or samples. New sounds often make new musical ideas possible and open the door to new creativity.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

There is one element in our music that obviously needs a lot of preparation: sampling. Tom thinks about which samples he wants to use for a new album before we start.

For our album Universe we wrote six RnB tracks and gave them to three singers who recorded vocal tracks on them. As a next step the isolated vocal tracks became the source for a sample library that Tom was then experimenting with when we were jamming as a band. This material became very characterstic for the album.



In most cases these samples are morphed and manipulated a lot, but especially on Universe some of the tracks still contain longer vocal parts of these first RnB sample tracks.



Apart from this very intentional preparation, it's also very good to have a stock of exciting, diverse samples on the sampler. E.g. field recordings, sampled instruments or pre-edited textures. Afterwards a longer, collective and creative process starts. We don't know in which direction a new album is going to for a long time. Sometimes the whole picture only becomes clear to us when the final tracklist is fixed.

On our album Gold it was different – we really had kind of a vision here. We started working on the album just after finishing our EP Odyssee on which we created a new sound for ourselves that we wanted to explore further on Gold.



So we were really fast in composing and producing. Just some sessions and it was basically done in 12 days.  



Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

The most important thing to get into the right mood is to play together. Especially when we meet again after some time: It is a good way to find out what the others are musically up to at the moment.  

We often play really long sets (1,5 - 2  hours) without a break, like playing a concert, not only jamming but performing improvised sets. We get a lot of ideas from these sets, sometimes directly afterwards, sometimes when relistening at home.



It's also important to have a good time together, enjoy playing, maybe have a drink, listen to music.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Sometimes we transcribe good parts of our long sessions. Another option is to start with preexisting ideas. Most of the time these are based on a characteristic sample.

In the case of Yield there are very different starting points: "Patterns" started with very dense samples that combine a lofi synth chord, vocals and a vibraphon sound. Pears started with the rhythmic pattern of the bassline and the drumgroove.

On 'Re:Re:Re' we made reworks of tracks from various macro artists, so the start was a little different. It was exciting and challenging, because the samples we took out of the tracks already had a very strong aesthetic. We jammed around with them and worked on the best ideas that came out of that.



Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

To capture ideas, it is essential that everything is being recorded from the very first moment. Sometimes even the first jams make it on the record in the end – if they have that special magic …

But most of the tracks get a longer treatment: some tracks get played over and over again, some just get some overdubs, some completely change their character in the process.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Our collective composing process is not very controlled, as described before. We start with something, but it often has an unforseeable development until the track is finished.

However we start to get very controlled and detail-oriented when it comes to the last 20% and the mixing.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

The way we produce our songs automatically leads us to many different directions. One way to keep track is to regularly listen back to the 'essential' version or most unique and inspired moments from a first recording.

Everytime we have the feeling we're not going in the right direction, listening back to these references helps us a lot. These essential versions contain the core of an idea and are very important in our writing process.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

There are these rare moments when everybody in the room can feel this sort of 'magic' happening. We often feel this while we are playing and creating in the very moment.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

One very helpful indication for us is to check if really every single element of a song is strong on its own. That's most likely some kind of proof for the song to be finished.

The line-up of a trio gives both, a lot of freedom for interplay and at the same time the need for every voice or element to be strong.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Mixing is just as relevant to us as the writing, composing and arrangement process. We are usually quite confident and clear about how we like to sound and have developed our own, sometimes unusual or experimental approach to achieving a certain vibe.Therefore the whole production and mixing process is in our hands and its only the three of us.

Sound design is a really important part already in the early stage of the creative process. Listening back to convincing sketches and creating a vision of the aesthetics have a big impact on the further composing and arranging. A good mix at an early stage can give us a clearer idea about the quality of the instrumentation.

From the first idea that we record into ableton live, Hendrik will start experimenting with different approaches of eqs, compression, saturation etc. to find aesthetics for the drums, for example clean vs dirty-lofi or processed vs organic, that suits the idea, the groove, the sound and the instrumentation of keys and bass. Then, as the track developes, the mix always gets adjusted to the latest recorded version.

Of course we might change or finalize mixes later when we have a better idea of what we want the overall album to sound like. Once we have the final mix of an album, we give it to a mastering studio.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Often the time between finishing a song and the actual release date can be quite long. We try to avoid the emptiness by already starting new projects and songs.

So mostly when we release new music, we are already inside the process for something new.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing 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?

Regarding the example you're giving, one key difference is probably the fact that music can be shared infinitely and is never really finished. For KUF it's a collective experience to make a new song.

One very exciting thing about sharing ideas in music is, that you can always, even years later, discover new things in the playing of the others. The process of writing a song never really ends for us, because as soon as a production is finished, we start creating live versions of the studio productions.