Name: Wareika
Members: Florian Haik Schirmacher (DJ, producer, vocalist), Henrik Raabe (DJ, producer, multi-instrumentalist), Jakob Seidensticker (DJ, producer, instrumentalist)
Interviewee: Florian Haik Schirmacher
Nationality: German
Current release: Wareika's Tizinabi LP is out via ORNAMENTS.  
Artist recommendation: The approach of Terry Riley to music, does touch ours in many ways. Tonalities, patterns, minimalistic focus and meandering in the sound. Our ways crossed already twice and it felt beautiful. Hope we can fulfil our music with bliss and gratitude on a clear day.

If you enjoyed this Wareika interview and would like to find out more about the band and their music, visit them on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud. To dive even deeper, read our Wareika interviews about collaboration, and improvisation. 



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you?

The creative process is a miraculous thing fulfilled with discipline and thankfulness. Thank you for considering our album for your readers, by the way. We are obliged to touch down with you even more:

Sharing different aspects is creative when you focus on a single outcome, like in our situation: producing the Album Tizinabi. We share the same fountain, the same origin. So the idea within connects people.

Where the impulse directly comes from, is a mystery. It calls the intuition, the unexpected, the unconditioned. This answer touches the truth. We draw a picture which is inevitable.

What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For this album a lot and the title Tizinabi does hint at your own, or “our common ground” - which doesn’t exist in fact. We are covered by too many layers of snow - it really needs some avalanches to reveal the pure rock, the main idea, the true intention.

Our common ground is simply a place which exist only in your dreams: this place which you can imagine is called Tizinabi.
 
For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work?

In this case it was simple finger work: rehearsing some Salsa Montunos to get the finger better flowing in a higher tempo.

Music is like every art: pleasurably hard work. This connects us to minimal artist On Kawara, who sits there daily, painting a picture of the date, each day he produces.



We are glad he did, so we can do something else - something without intention. A pure way of sharing our existence.

What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Our coincidence is the dialogue between human spirits, tones, rhythms.

Every pattern can be a magical carrier to create evolution. We experience the imbalance and destructive capability of each other - to transform that into something else is understanding.
 
Is there a preparation phase for your process?

Yes, it starts at five thirty in the morning.

Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions’?

Of course we do. Even building our own instruments, tunings and scales is part of the process. Our instruments provide a kaleidoscope of sound, so we feel urged to do transitions - taking the energy to another pattern.

We often use ancient tonalities. It feels more natural to us.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating?

Yes we all three do have them and we respect and love us also because of that.

Rituals are spiritual helpers of becoming a devotee for the greater good. Chanting and Yoga is part of our life.

What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

We believe if we can really focus on what we can give, many things become apparently useful. So we can sing with the words of Bob Marley and the Rastafarian Community: “The best thing in life is for free.”

What do you start with?

With an Impulse! Yes, we all love that label. Gabor Szabo - The sorcerer or many many more jazz albums by John Coltrane, for instance, or Max Roach …



Our own track “Impulse” has opened another creation due to our performance at Panorama Bar, where we played it in our hearts with such a youthful ease, that we want to recapture that vibe one day … or better tomorrow ... :)

The original was written during a period where we experimented with tact measurements: 7/8 5/4, 11/8 and layering two tempos over each other. We still learn, experience, explore.



What mainly makes a group work is to take everyone very serious and to speed up a process even if it’s not your own. It will benefit your development when you don’t expect it.

How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

The main thing is to start - it doesn’t have to be the start - but you start and take it from there. That’s something.

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

Working step-by-step-especially in a constellation where everyone has their own development, is chaos towards unity. A harmony park.

With the current album Tizinabi it is easy to say that we did a three day rehearsal, which became an album, because a lucky guy pressed the red button for the entire session.
 
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?

Taste can be distorted by so many influences, while unconditional love moves towards the pure spirit, right? Style or taste cannot create the unity of men.
 
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?

We have a feeling of perfection, which tones matter, or which ones give the right balance. The direction itself doesn’t matter.  We are quite John Cage’ish in this way.

We mainly feel the connection to all dancers in the world like Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, John Naumeier - those who have formed expression with a very very limited amount of tones.

Creating depth with just one gesture makes art valuable.
 
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?

We believe that bringing in unique aspects completes the spirit of Wareika. Overcoming our individual traumas and obstacles and turning the focus on dance music is a flower of life, everyone can evolve in it.

We can unite people, because we are listening to each other and bring in our best.
 
Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process?

Beautiful question, because we are still doing a full analogue mixing process and when there is something to dive in, or to change, we follow the path. Everyone has to be 100% down with it. Especially when you work in three different studios, the workflow can flow absolutely stunning. One can seriously work out details, while the whole process keeps on flowing.

We enhance the structure, by cleaning up the mix. Our sound is organic and has a distinct clarity. You can follow different paths in the same track and enjoy dancing to it. Multidimensional and holistic. Keep enjoying your way of listening- not getting one path to follow: climb on a tree and enjoy the fresh air and sun. You changed your position and from there you perceive a certain element more intense.

This offer, in a musical way, is Wareika.

How do you finish a work?

Even on a record, we keep a release just as a manifestation of an idea. So you can mix and blend our music in and out. It’s fun to mix different Wareika songs together: The Break in the second half of the remix we did for GusGus ("Thin Ice"), the Harmonie Park Album, or now Tizinabi: it will be released digital in four parts: so you can play and mix with them, like a vinyl record.



[Read our GusGus interview]

The vinyl is more a collectors edition, like a classic Impulse! record … :). But yes, you can buy two and blend them on and on together.
 
Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on?

We have mostly personal connections to our mastering engineers and yes, we do seriously double and triple check the masters on soundsystems, clubs and compare them with our mixes.

This has become a workflow and is part of the development of each song …

How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece?

For the “Tizinabi” song it took almost a year to feel satisfied and finalise the whole mix. It is composed as a one piece song, but has a lot of different themes which emerge into a development, which couldn’t be heard in the beginning.

What does this process look like in practise?

For instance, when Jakob mentioned that the bass drum could be just a tiny bit louder and we agreeed, the whole mix had to be done new. Balancing out a 60 minute piece, is like a film score - and you know how many tracks they can use sometimes … it’s like an avalanche.

And we had these situations a few times. We have our deepest gratitude and trust to each other, keeping on and taking the song onto another level.
 
What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally?

The magic consists in the fact that all constellations can turn and everyone grows into the project in its own way. Wether it’s a remix, a single or an album.

We are touched by the music and we want to create something better for the future.
 
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?

We grow with our audience, especially after releasing an album. We are super thankful for this and of course we help each other when there are some distractions or turbulences. We love to be found by pioneers, for whom our music is really talking to and we love our fans, to whom our music enhancing their (spiritual) life.

We feel aligned with the ambition to create a better future.

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?

When you grow a plant and create a new one - and give it for free to nourish the world. And you make sure that everyone can grow the nourishing fruit on and on. Then we might touch some of the evolution, which is inherent in the creative community.

The taste of good food, the smell of well farmed tea, is something we really like. Our world puts a patent or a logo or something else on it …. Musicians are marketing experts, or music is used as a marketing tool far too often.

This is so dumb in terms of resources. Music shall enhance creativity. Even the word happiness in connection with music, could be a hint to a commercial structure which doesn’t really put efforts in a better world we are working on.

What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Freedom.