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musicXport.nl
46
Applescal
is on a roll
From hometaping radioshows to performing overseas in just a few years:
the career of Amsterdam-based producer Applescal has been evolving like
a textbook case of How To Become A Successful Producer. “You’ve got to
find your personal sound.”
By Alfred Bos
Applescal is the nom de plume of 22 year-old Pascal Terstappen. Last year’s
Summer, he released his debut album, A Slave’s Commitment, via Cologne’s
Traum label. For Terstappen, it was a dream come true. As a youngster, music
was his overriding passion. However, he never learned to read music or play
an instrument. Instead, his downtime from school was filled with taping Top
40 radioshows and splicing them into primitive edits. At the age of 14, he
borrowed music software from a friend and practised till his ears bled. “I’m an
autodidact”, Applescal confesses. “After four years, I felt confident enough to
send out demos of my productions.”
Applescal’s very first demo received a favourable reaction by Paul Hazendonk,
who runs the Manual Music label from his Rotterdam apartment. The Untitled
Addict EP, a digital release on Manual, was Terstappen’s first release as
Applescal; he had just turned twenty. In March 2009, he had his second platter
out via Traum: Paul For President. That label released Applescal’s debut album
in early August to rave reviews. It was hailed as an invigorating breeze in the
somewhat stagnant minimal techno scene. “When I went through my files, I
noticed I had enough material for an album”, Terstappen explains. “I added
two new productions and offered it to Traum. They said yes right away. Their
reasoning: an album shows better what I’m capable of than an EP does.”
Performing live
That reasoning proved to be sound. German magazine Debug called Applescal
“one of the brightest hopes for 2010”. Moreover, since the release of A
Slave’s Commitment, the Amsterdam-based producer has been performing
extensively, and in the upcoming months gigs are slated for Germany, Scotland
and Japan; he’s a popular fixture at outdoor festivals as well. Mind you, not
deejaying; playing live is Applescal’s forte.
Applescal live means Terstappen and his laptop, doing remixes of his tracks
on the fly in front of an audience. “I use Ableton, I run some 12 tracks: the kick,
three layers of hi-hats, the bassline in four different parts, melodies and leads,
all MIDI-connected to the original synthesizer sounds. The fun part is you can
fiddle with the arrangement; expand the break or delay the climax. You create
arcs of tension and release, that’s fun. It’s more fun than deejaying, you’re ‘in
the moment’. I seriously doubt I will ever deejay.”
Now the pressure’s on, Applescal doesn’t flinch. He regards all the praise for
his album an endorsement to continue his chosen path. Currently, he’s on a roll:
the follow-up album will be out on Traum this Spring, just eight months after his
debut. “This time around, it will be a proper album, not a collection of tracks.”
He has put his media and information management studies on hold to concentrate
on producing and performing. “Frankly speaking, I’m only interested in making
music. My mood detoriates rapidly when I don’t. So I do music. Performing live,
doing soundtrack music, producing other acts, I don’t care. As long as I can hear
music.”
Saturday 16 January @ Kelder, 00:45 - 01:30
www.applescal.net
www.myspace.com/applescal