Part 1
Names: Thomas Lemmer, Adrián Marquez aka Oine
Nationality: German (Thomas), Spanish (Adrián)
Current release: Thomas Lemmer & Oine's ONE VISION is slated for release february 23rd 2024 via SINE.
Recommendations:
Adrián:
Book: The Three-Body Problem
Music: Rival Consoles still an inspiration for me.
Thomas:
Book: The creative act (Rick Rubin)
Music: Oine’s music.
If you enjoyed this interview with Thomas Lemmer & Oine and would like to stay up to date with their music, visit their official Instagram profiles: Thomas Lemmer; Oine.
We also have an earlier 15 Questions Interview with Thomas Lemmer, a conversation about his creative process, and a feature with him about the Roland Juno-60.
What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?
Adrián: Before this collaboration with Thomas Lemmer, I had already collaborated with other music producers remotely in similar ways, using platforms like Google Drive or WeTransfer to share our ideas. I feel quite comfortable working in this manner. Having the support of a friend to develop an idea with an extra set of ears is a refreshing aspect of the music production workflow.
Thomas: The earliest collaborations I had started in a pop-duo I once had. I was getting used to writing in a team. But it’s a major difference when working on a piece of music sitting in the same room as opposed to working remotely.
However, this doesn’t mean it’s better. It’s just different and both approaches are having its pros and cons. Working remotely always needs some trust in the other person since you have little control over the process. But exactly this is the exciting part of it and intrinsically, I knew that Adrián’s parts will always be creative and exciting. I fully trusted him with everything.
It was a great feeling letting go of some things I usually control and being positively surprised with what he produced.
There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?
Adrián: I actually prefer the file sharing model for a reason. I personally spend a lot of time working on ideas or fine-tuning the sounds in a project to my idea of perfection. For this reason, I think having a partner in the same room could drive them crazy.
However, on the other hand, I truly believe in the symbiosis of two musicians in the same room making what they love, creating good ideas for a song. But I also believe that you need some space and time for yourself to make that idea perfect.
Thomas: It’s hard to say. I love both approaches. However, it highly depends on the person you work with. Since I worked with quite a few people face to face already, I can say that the personality of the person you work with makes a huge difference. You really need to resonate with each other. An example would be if two people are not willing to give the other person its space to develop ideas, it’s getting different. But with most of the people I worked with it was a win win situation in terms of creativity.
When working remotely, you take your own decisions, but you also must live with what you got offered. But usually nothing is hammered in stone and having a good conversation about the vision and ideas is key when working remotely. I would say that I enjoy both approaches.
How did this particular collaboration come about?
Adrián: After my No Return EP was released, Thomas wrote me a message, and he told me that he would like to make music together. I think I took 2 seconds to say yes, I'm totally in. After that, I sent him some ideas for a song, which became our first single, 'Inner Force.'
We enjoyed the experience of working together so much that we finally decided to collaborate on an entire album.
Thomas: Yes, absolutely. When I heard Adrián’s music the first time, I just felt a connection. It was just a feeling and I thought, I need to express my admiration to him and his music. On a side note, I told him that I would love to work with him. I was really happy getting such a quick and positive response.
What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.
Adrián: Thomas Lemmer is a voice of experience to me. He possesses extensive knowledge about the organization involved in the process of creating a significant project, as we did. Furthermore, he understands the industry much better than I do.
I can say that working with Thomas has been incredibly beneficial; I've learned how to make things possible, which is priceless. In the realm of music, Thomas has a sense of beauty that resonates with me. He has the ability to make everything sound profound and meaningful, which is something not easy to find these days.
Thomas: I knew absolutely nothing about Adrián before I contacted him. All I knew was that he worked with the same label, Sine Music. I only heard his music and was immediately inspired. I felt a musical connection between us, and it turned out that there was indeed one.
What I love about Adrián’s art is his attention to every little detail. He is so obsessed with getting it right and finding the right sounds. While this sounds very technical, he doesn’t miss the creative and emotional part of the music. There is so much soul and warmth in his music. He’s incredibly talented and a very warm-hearted person.
What do you generally look for in a collaborator and what made you want to collaborate with each other specifically?
Adrián: I believe that anyone with a pair of ears has something valuable to contribute to a project. For me, any idea is usually very welcome, as are any criticisms. In the end, music production often becomes a solitary process where you are alone with your music playing through your speakers or headphones. Therefore, it's quite likely that you might lose some perspective on what you are doing.
It is important to have people who collaborate with you, providing feedback or adding something that could be the spark in a song.
Thomas: It’s the creative aspect that drives me the most. It fascinates me how different “my own” music sounds if I let other people in.
I first experienced it though remixers that worked on my music. Getting this different view on a first demo or an idea is invaluable. On the other hand, I love adding my ideas to someone else’s idea. The challenge is then to lift this idea to another level. You don’t want to destroy the idea just because you were asked to contribute.
When working with Adrián, I sometimes offered a few more ideas where I wasn’t sure. But he picked the right tracks and sorted out the rest.
Tell me a bit about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others?
Adrián: Today, I'm working 100% in the box, which means using digital instruments and processors. I've focused my studio on creating a great sounding acoustic environment with a high-end monitoring system. My current speakers are the Hedd Type 20's, powered by the RME Fireface UCX II. My headphones are Audeze LCD-X.
My main digital instruments are Omnisphere and Kontakt, but I also spend a lot of time deconstructing samples to create textures and tones that are impossible to achieve in other ways.
Thomas: I enjoy working with external instruments and have quite a collection of synths at my disposal. My DAW is Cubase. In terms of collaboration, I think that maybe some of my instruments and their unique sounds tend to contribute to my own handwriting in the songs we worked on together.
What I felt was a key ingredient when it comes to our collaboration was having these different setups. Adrián uses Ableton. I use Cubase. He uses VSTs that I don’t have and vice versa. This forced us to live with what the other person offered. Meaning, the sounds that we used were basically burned as WAV files on our hard disks. This forced us to be creative in a different way.
I remember a lot of occasions where Adrián just used my tracks and did things with the WAV files I would have never done myself.
