Session Victim interview – “Revealing samples is pretty lame… You need to go out there and find the records yourself”

We hang with the dusty fingered German groovemeisters

“We each have had our share of good games, but I have to admit Hauke might have the overall edge,” says Session Victim’s Matthias Reiling when discussing the pair’s combined pinball prowess. As well as their venerated status as refined production maestros, kinetically-charged live performers, and party-rocking selectors, the German deep house mavericks also share a profound love of pinball tables – so much so that this summer’s ‘Listen To Your Heart’ LP even featured cover art inspired by the game. “Each table is different, with certain obstacles, loops and targets to hit – so although they are similar to each other in many ways, you still have to figure out each game for itself,” says Matthias. “Oh, and they are obviously total pieces of art in their own right.”

Both Matthias and bandmate Hauke Freer hail from the small German town of Lüneburg, and it was here in around 1997 that the duo first connected. Shortly after their auspicious introduction, they began assembling a crew and throwing parties together, steadily honing their studio craft before their debut release arrived in 2008. Their music quickly struck an underground chord, and over time their evolving sound signature has helped cement their status as one of house music’s most forward-thinking production outfits. Regular contributors to the delightfully eclectic Delusions Of Grandeur roster, the pair have featured on labels including Permanent Vacation, Wolf Music, Night Time Stories, their own Pen & Paper imprint, as well as Retreat Records – which Hauke runs alongside Yanneck ‘Quarion’ Salvo.

Always ready to embrace the delights of artistic communion, Session Victim recently called upon previous collaborators Jamie Lloyd and Erobique to cover UK group Mark Almond’s 1971 jazz-pop treasure, ‘The City’. The pair had made a habit of closing their DJ sets with the song ever since Hauke unearthed a copy of Mark Almond’s final studio album ‘Other People’s Rooms’ while hunting at Montreal record store Death Of Vinyl a few years ago. The idea of covering the piece began gaining momentum, but, such is their reverence for the original, Hauke shares that they didn’t take the task lightly. “It was clear to us that our version would need to take a different approach as there is nothing to be added to the masterful original,” he says. “It was a real challenge to work on something we look up to so much and we were certain only to release anything that we both are into 100%.”

Sydney-based songwriter Lloyd comes close to stealing the show with his gently psychedelic vocal rendition, while Carsten ‘Erobique’ Meyer laces the track with his exquisite Rhodes/clavinet interplay. Completing the assembled quintet on the record is Linnart Ebel – whose subtle rhythm guitar beautifully embellishes the richly atmospheric cover version. It’s intriguing to understand how a project involving such an abundance of talented – not to mention far-flung – protagonists unfolds, and Matthias shares some fascinating insight into the production process. “What we did is program the drums, put the basic bassline on top of it, arrange it into its structure and then send it out to the guys along with a link to the original,” he says. “We did not tell them anything specific about what they should do, which turned out to be the exact right approach.” From here, the track manifested a life of its own, which, as it turns out, is often the desired outcome when Session Victim embark on a new composition. “We rarely have clear ideas when we start out, and if we do, they usually change into something unexpected along the way. Which is a great thing, we would not want it any other way,” says Matthias.

It seems there are “heaps” of songs and tracks in contention for the Session Victim cover treatment, but the pair are reluctant to divulge information about any potential interpretations until they exist as fully formed recordings. “What I will admit is that – after eight years and about five serious attempts – I finally gave up on my version on Whitney’s ‘How will I Know’,” Matthias confesses. “My 1.5-octave tone range just doesn’t cut it.” Though admittedly a little disappointing, news of this revelation needn’t leave Session Victim fans too distraught. Having previously collaborated with the likes of Beth Hirsch and Iron Curtis as well as those featured on ‘The City’, there’s every reason to believe that there will be ever more leftfield gems emanating from the pair’s studio. “We love to collaborate with people, our friends, and it is pretty safe to say that we will do more with Carsten, Jamie and Linnart,” says Matthias. Considering the premium results the duo achieve when combining their production expertise with the free-flowing musicality of virtuoso players and vocalists, the possibility of untethering from studio restraints to unleash a star-studded live act may seem like a satisfying progression. However – though open to the theoretical idea of forming a supergroup – there appear to be one or two insurmountable hurdles preventing the latent band from ever taking shape. “A supergroup? Yes Please! As soon as Beth Gibbons and Redman answer any of our fan mail and Al Jackson Jr. rises from his grave.”

With or without guest performers, the Session Victim sound is endowed with a vibrantly live feel and is routinely celebrated for its organic quality. Though the pair regularly include original instrumentation in their work, the foundation of their music “has always been sampling.” Naturally, digging for lesser-known sonic morsels is a time-consuming endeavour, but fortunately, both parties thoroughly enjoy the pursuit. “Making music starts with us looking for inspiration in the record store, so there is no way around putting the hours into that. Glad we just love doing that,” says Hauke. “We go through a lot of records, so always in search for more. But sometimes limitation helps too. When we made the first song for ‘Needledrop’, all we had were the two handful of records that our friends had at their place.” Turning to the delicate subject of revealing source material, it quickly becomes apparent that Session Victim abide by the hip hop community’s fiercely clandestine approach to guarding one’s samples. “We hold it more like DJ Premier does, that revealing samples is pretty lame,” says Hauke. “You need to go out there and find the records yourself – [it’s] always such a fun moment when you come across a sample of a song you are into.”

This joint love of the humble wax record extends beyond the search for sample gold, with the pair deeply entrenched in all aspects of vinyl culture. The record labels they run between the two of them – Retreat, Pen & Paper, and Save The Books – all operate as vinyl-only imprints, and when it comes to their DJ sets, it’s vinyl all the way. For Matthias, multiple factors contribute to vinyl’s unique appeal. He feels that browsing the internet for tunes can never replicate the fun of hanging out in record stores, and the joy of owning a physical copy of a treasured track will always best possessing its digital counterpart. “I could never have a relationship with a file the way I have it with records,” he says. “When I listen to DJs playing out, it’s usually more apparent what the DJ is actually doing, what is happening with and between two songs and that definitely seems to translate to the crowd to some degree. And come on, can preparing a USB stick ever be as fun as packing a record bag? I don’t think so. But hey, to each their own. I’m just glad I don’t have to look at another screen when I play music to an audience.”

Thanks to their energetic, vinyl-only DJ sets and live shows, Hauke and Matthias have garnered plenty of global fans while working the platters. Thankfully, the forced event closures which brought widespread misery to the dance community and beyond are slowly abating, as parts of the world reawaken after their extended slumber. Session Victim have been back in real-world performance action, and the opportunity to once again play their music out loud and in context has brought the pair boundless joy. “We DJ’d a couple of times and did have a few live shows,” says Matthias. “The appreciation we witness on both sides – artists, and crowd – is mind-blowing and left us with goosebumps several times now. Sometimes you just don’t fully realize the beauty of what you have until it gets taken away, do you?”

Patrizio Cavaliere

See what tunes Session Victim rate this month in their October chart