Producer, DJ, & Entrepreneur: Rampa – Berlin, Building in the Background, & Loving the Process More Than the Product

0:01This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

0:26The Gstaad Guy:This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook. What was the vision you guys had for Kani Music? My dream was that I can make a living out of it. Blessed to have been to a few of your shows and I always have the best time.

1:03The phone kills the vibe, 100%. It's super awkward. One day you wake up and be like, okay, wait.

1:09The Gstaad Guy:You, Andre and Adam also followed me on Instagram because you started agreeing with my criticisms of some of your fans. Yeah, it feels like you create something and then one day this thing is kind of like bigger than yourself. I'd love to go back in time. Me too. To be honest, we didn't make really money. And I know that's something that you've actively struggled with. Some people will love it. Some people will hate it, no matter what you do. Around the world with your host, the Stad Guy. We welcome you back to the Stad Guy podcast, sharing stories of excellence with those in the know for those who just know.

1:46The Gstaad Guy:A lot of the listeners today are audio only, maybe commuting, maybe on a walk. I urge them to go video to see the room that we're in. Yeah. It's very cool. It's really cool to be here with you in Berlin in the studio. And to also see this side of you. I know this side of you very well. Yeah, we went skiing a few times. We had some good time in the sauna. We've had some great times in saunas and ski resorts around the world. And I knew you as Rampa first, as a fan, and attending your shows. First time we met properly, I think, was at a friend's wedding, where you were actually playing. when I first realized how tall you are make me look so short always I remember you said to me you're so different from your characters I didn't say the same thing to you but I thought the same thing as well because Rampa and Greg I would say is nearly as much of a stark difference in character to Constance the Stade guy and me off camera and even one of your friends next door has the same thing with his online character and at home persona and i'm realizing more and more that it's a thing many artists share and feel like a lot of artists have a public facing version of themselves could be branded as a rampa as a start guy as anything public or there's a real name and then they have a very different side that the fans and the people rarely see yeah facts switch the character up on stage i love it though but in a decent amount i feel like i'm shifting slowly but surely more towards like getting a little bit out of the spotlight funny saying this in a podcast you know what i mean like focusing really more on like the the engineering parts of of that whole world and um yeah getting a little bit out of the spotlight I'm gravitating a lot to developing, engineering, being in the background, having a rhythm, like, you know, when we're on vacation, like getting up, having a healthy life, a little sauna, a little sport, yada, yada, which is almost impossible during the tour life.

4:08There are some DJs and people that can do it. I never could. like i switch into that character and then i'm in that for the summer and then i feel like for me now it's time to slowly turn towards uh yeah what i how i picture my my future more in like the the office and the studio and less on airplanes and stages and stuff i love that today you have

4:37The Gstaad Guy:the network resources and excitement to work on all these different projects. And I know that a few years ago one of your big missions and big focuses was building up Rampa, but also building up kind of music with just your friends having a good time with the boys. I'd love to go back in time. Me too. Sometimes me too. I'd love to understand because basically you're working to get back a lot of those old feelings you had, of course, with new wisdom, new life experience, new resources to work on these new projects. But a reoccurring story I hear with people that achieve incredible success like you is work so hard to get into the game only to work even harder to get out again.

5:29The Gstaad Guy:Yeah, we started 2009. So it's been like 16, 17 years now. Time flies. And the name for me started to become a household name like six years ago, five years ago. Is that accurate? For us, it felt probably more linear because, you know, it was like step by step by step. And then I would say outside of like a more close scene, it started maybe like six, six years ago, five, six years ago with like GTA and like these type of projects that opened And obviously doors into a whole different, like outside of our little world. And then in general, like this type of music and scene became much bigger and more seen.

6:18So I would say we had a pretty linear process, but then also the world around us had a process. and it met somewhere six years ago where it became more visible and more commercial in a way, of course. How did you start hanging with the guys

6:42The Gstaad Guy:and start kind of music? It was always the same. We all met in Berlin. We all met in Berlin. I met Andre in a studio, Tricks studio, a cool basement studio in Berlin back in the days as interns. and we used to spend because we had the key to the studio so we spent the nights there playing with all the fancy gear we couldn't afford and then slept two hours and then went back to intern the day

7:17and Adam, I met him on parties we had mutual friends and actually the whole team was formed by going out, making music. So the first time I met Adam, our first date, let's say, was he brought his mixer and we were scratching for, I don't know, a few hours, two, three hours at my old place back then. It was funny. And yeah, and then it slowly formed.

7:51The Gstaad Guy:Why did it slowly form? like why did you decide to be like a trio and actually we we haven't been a trio kind of music was much bigger in the beginning um so there were a lot more people involved uh clemens ignand he has also a nice um design uh blog and production company it was maybe been like 10 people or some like this and then slowly slowly you know some of us wanted to do something something different it was just like more like a hobby and this and that and this was kind of like at the end the leftovers from the ones that didn't want to do anything else you know um one of our first members became a painter also quite successful now too and um yeah so it i don't know it happened pretty naturally there was no real plan or anything to it and then with the label it came because i don't know we didn't know where to release who to send it to the other so okay let's you know do our own label and yeah in the beginning i think andre was more in charge of the of the of the vinyl i was doing the digital distributions because we didn't have distribution or whatever, nothing.

9:16And yeah, step by step, slow progress, formed that thing, a few people left, a few new people came. So there was a lot of movement, but also consistency in the growth or in the development or however you want to call it.

9:34The Gstaad Guy:And when you guys were starting, what was the dream? Like what was the vision you guys had for Kana Music? my dream was that i can make a living out of it and don't have to go back in a car wash or whatever i was doing before is that what you were doing before you were working uh yeah partly yeah some holidays there was a car wash involved in selling the the cars so that was my my fun summer job like yeah the guy called uve strehl legend um yeah uve strehl shout outs um yeah stuff like this so always i mean engineering music um like this electronics like all this stuff always was my my happy place and my my interest is there my passion so yeah there was no other options i was i was i wanted always wanted to do space tech engineering oh yeah and yeah but then i to be honest i was really bad in school like i can't focus and stuff like this and so i got kicked off multiple schools and i don't know i was never good in in this stuff so i had to make it you know find a different form of living that passion I remember you told me a lot about your love for skateboarding yeah and the culture that exists and existed in a different way around that like pre crazy social media hype and I see a lot of that DNA in you and even in kind of music of like that belonging that coolness of like embracing what is i'd like to understand more about like how skate culture influenced you and what it means to you i would say i spent probably 90 percent of my uh youth in yeah skateboarding and turntablishment so these were the two the two main things and especially like in the 90s obviously it was a very different situation there was no youtube or you know to get like a skate video like a 411 when the new skate video came out on a vhs i'm old um then you know we spent like the whole afternoon like rewinding and watching those skate videos because it was such a holy grail it also applies on on music there was no spotify or like easy accessible stuff so if you want to um wanted to dig deeper you really had to you know do the do the work like go in there go to the record stores go to the skate shop get that access and especially for me because i grew up kind of like in a farm situation in a house in a in a forest next to a little village next to a tiny town i mean and Freiburg is 200 ,000 citizens, so there's not a cool skate shop and a cool crazy record store and stuff, so the hunt for it was much more intense and more strong.

13:03You really had to commit to this.

13:04The Gstaad Guy:I remember you told me that when you'd go to a new city. Oh, yeah, of course. Back in the days, I felt like it was a very, like um way smaller obviously community or circle so when you know go on vacation and you see someone wearing like at that time i don't know dc shoes or uh you know and then it was like okay cool you know we're in the same uh team and you bonded super super naturally because there was no social media or things like this so you bonded over belonging be it whatever got punk rock skateboarding that's the important thing to me different different things so i mean it's i think that this is the same still the same you know people gravitate towards scenes music style fashion style or whatever to to form i think skateboarding is quite unique though as a sport because it's like i think the culture is stronger than the sport itself whereas like if two guys Probably still, yeah.

14:09Probably still. I mean, still, especially here in Berlin, most of my close friends, they're all like, you know, from the skate scene. Shout out to Civilist, Brunnestraße 13.

14:21The Gstaad Guy:I'm trying to, like, I personally see similarities between skate culture and even like your office culture. Rampa, Teile, kind of music. I'm trying to dissect what that culture is for people who come from a different world. because it's not a bonding over a sport like i like tennis if i see a guy with a tennis racket in the street i'm not like oh my god we're so i don't care about the guy you know but with with skateboarding it's different i see this like i get you we understand each other so much deeper than a love for skateboarding yeah true i mean especially i feel like back in the days it was uh let's say less of an industry yeah so it was not about like making money of it you know it was just like getting high and hanging with you know your friends and have like a purpose and and something that's just you know fun and do you like consciously try to when you build up kind of music and you build up your personal brand of like rampa are you trying to still build the same connection with your younger self like would you want skater rampa skater greg as a kid to be a fan of you today of course of course of course i mean especially in the beginning it was always like this and then to be fair on a certain level you realize okay wait what's happening here you know it's like if it's planned or not planned you wake up in a situation where you sell a certain amount of tickets and you have a certain visibility in the in the public and and then yeah whoa what's you know what's going on i have to adjust to this i have to be that character now even more it's funny also when i speak to other people um that are very much in the spotlight even way more than me about this about how they receive themselves in being that person that you know everybody sees from outside because there are certain people who i would be like yeah but you should know what's going on because you are person x you know and then they're like no bro i was playing guitar in a punk band and now i'm person you know this and that you know because most of the people think you know what you're doing and you're comfortable in every situation, but it was like, no, I have no idea, you know, how to handle this spotlight or this, you know, pressure on these scales.

17:05And yeah, that's for sure a thing that I didn't calculate back in the days because it was just about, you know, excitement, growing, experimenting, trying, following, whatever feels right and stuff. and then like, yeah, one day you wake up and be like, okay, wait, what if this just happened, you know? I remember you were talking about how you service

17:32The Gstaad Guy:and make the early fans and early listeners happy, but also give access and give new people the chance to join the party. and I've spoken about this with a few other guests on the show. It's like the coolness rule. Oh yeah. It's like the rule of coolness is when the happy few are no longer few, they're no longer happy. It's such a big part of loving something is that my neighbors don't know about that thing yet. And once the neighbor knows, the early guy, no matter how much they love it, they're like, oh, the neighbor knows now. And it's a tough balance across all industries. and I know that's something that you've actively struggled with because you love your early fans, but you love your new fans.

18:21The Gstaad Guy:How do you work with that? I mean, we're working on a new pretty actively now because like I said before, one day you wake up and you're in a situation and that might have taken two years, you know, but you're touring constantly, like it's so much going on that there's not much time to really process and reflect and this and that. and then you wake up and be like okay wait do i want to be this guy do i want to play this and that shows and you know so it feels like you create something and then one day this thing is kind of like bigger than yourself and you work for it and you'll be like okay i have to deliver now to keep this thing alive or you know and also a lot of people are pending on us being in the spotlight like the team is big production yeah like so many people uh living living off the us being you know that thing yeah and um do you feel like you are that thing or that you're at service to that thing mixed actually mixed in some parts i still feel like i can do it especially when i do the engineering part like the the preparing for the shows the setup like these things and preparing the music making the music then i feel like this but then when it comes to like it being public and out there and being judged and all that stuff then i'm like okay i work for this now i have to swallow whatever the feedback is now you know and then the bigger it gets at some point you can't make it right for for everyone so ideally you just make it right for yourself and for your team and then some people will love it some people will hate it no matter what you do and but like i said before you wake up and i was like okay oh we all you know like wake up do we love this like is this still like the sound and like the i the thing we we aimed for in the beginning or did we you know because of no time no energy to process to review and then everything is so fast so we took time to step back we talk a lot about these things musically and the show, should we go smaller because then the demand gets high they're like okay you can sell this and that amount of tickets, now you can sell twice, triple whatever time, okay then we do it and if you don't do the big shows then people are complaining because there's not enough tickets if you do the big shows it's a problem that it's a big show and it feels obviously different to a small show.

21:04And the goal was always to keep a certain intimate feeling with like a low stage, this and that. But then there's this idea in your head and then there's the regulation. So then there's a fire marshal that takes your idea and throws it in the trash because you have to have five meter barriers. You have to have to stage whatever in a certain height or lower um so all these um parameters that come on top of your vision which you know just it's not possible to to fulfill everything you you wish for this podcast is brought to you by kubel

21:48The Gstaad Guy:bringing you interchangeable charm jewelry hand painted with enamel on sterling silver allowing you to celebrate all the things you love and all the things you might question through interchangeable styling silver bracelets bangles whoop charms mini charm bracelets rings cufflings and much more and all customizable through our 3d builder on poubelle.com that is poubelle p-o-u-b-e-l dot com thank you so much for watching and now back to the podcast i remember you told me that you enjoy the preparation of the show even more than the show itself yeah much because in the preparation i'm let's say more me and then on stage obviously i'm ramp i'm more the character which it's not that i don't enjoy it at all but it's different i gravitate much more to this like freedom because then it's out of judgment that's out of it's just pure like you know creating and building and like and this is um i come from such a different world but i really get what you're saying like when i'm preparing a stadgei skit or this podcast or whatever it is so much of the prep work is so exciting and great because also it's not open to scrutiny it's like so deeply personal and so siloed into my own universe but then stadgei that's public facing there's thousands of people involved who can criticize that and maybe sometimes i'm with them maybe i'm with the audience yeah criticizing my my online persona same i feel that now like i get like some whatever thing on instagram like yeah man i agree i totally agree but now bro be in my shoes what are we supposed to do you know like sometimes you can't handle this out of your control it's you know there's so many factors to it and i can't even hate on it you know if something i get hit i'm like yo i would be the first one i wouldn't do it publicly because i feel this is a little i don't know i would never go to something that i don't like i don't like it i'd rather go to things i like and be like okay this is this is cool because yeah if i don't like it i look somewhere else whatever but to be fair it's also sometimes nice we got um yeah we got our critics and it's also good because yeah we sit together and we're like yeah actually that's right some of that stuff sucks it's not it's not where we want to go it's not hasn't been our attention and if you follow us for like if you really do look deeper what we did the past 20 years is not what you see on Instagram in the past two years you know you know what's funny about your shows I'm blessed to have been to a few of your shows and I always have the best time first of all I just want to say like it's always just this really happy feeling if it's just you solo you with one of the boys or full kind of music I feel I feel good feels like a sunny day even if it's raining you know what I mean I'm happy peace and love good vibes yeah but I must say it's probably one of the shows or one of the moments I've been to with the most contrasting audiences in the same room yeah like the people in the crowd they seem so happy to be there for like shared love shared fun they love the music and the people behind the DJ booth are like on tables, there's a lot of status involved.

25:19The Gstaad Guy:Of course. It's so high status to be at a kind of music show and post a story of you. Of course, of course. It became very much, yeah, this became a big, big part of it. And this is a long, deep conversation and a complicated topic. We talk a lot about it. I think a lot about it. because yeah it's two sides of a metal you know sometimes obviously a certain level of production is costs a lot of money so it is there needs to be money made to deliver a certain thing the first time i realized that was actually in tulum i don't know 10 years ago where there were tables sold for a crazy amount of money i wasn't playing even though but i you know was always interested in how is it possible to finance such a production.

26:12And it's not financed with a$20 ticket from the GA. And that's the thing. The GA benefits from it because the tables pay for that level of production. So you can have a crazy party in the jungle. But therefore, you know, so that's the two sides of the metal. So you have tables, yes. But also on the other hand, you have crazy speakers and yada, yada, and toilets and like all these productions and toilets no i mean it's true you need them like proper ones and stuff and and people if if you if you look closer into into that whole production uh topic it's very very complex you know with uh local laws and and transportation and safety and all these things and it's it's it's way more expensive than you than you might think like even if there's um the ticket prices are high or this or that it's not that the promoter the artist at the end makes crazy money you know um especially with like off locations and and cool cool places we had that show in paris on that hill it took seven years to get the permission and it was very difficult to get you know all the permissions in for a stage and you know where we could put put the stage and all these things and um yeah obviously it could have been nicer if we could have done whatever we wanted but you have to stick to regulations this and that and we always try to aim also to come up with new venues and you know make it exciting instead of being in the same venue every time and it takes a lot of effort and also a lot of money to do these things you know and at the end to be honest we didn't make real money or much money with that with that show at the end and yeah but it was nice i mean for me it's nice to look at it now and be like okay we did it on that you know unique place with that view on the eiffel tower and had a simple production and and that was also something like people were like oh the production was so cheap you know and that was totally on purpose because i felt like that venue itself and that view on the Eiffel Tower, why would I, you know?

28:57It's like making a crazy production in front of the Mona Lisa. For what? You know? You don't want to block that. It's almost offensive to...

29:06The Gstaad Guy:Like when you did the pyramids in Egypt. The pyramids in Egypt, yeah, exactly. We had stuff, you know, all these lights. I thought it's nicer to keep it low and keep the view open and also with the lights, keep it very decent and just, yeah, like the drone show. which was a crazy story to make that happen. I remember before we became friends, I was, of course, a Kind of Music fan, and you, Andre, and Adam also followed me on Instagram because you started agreeing with my criticisms of some of your fans. Yeah, totally. Attending Kind of Music shows became such an absurd status element to some people, and I, of course, was criticizing doing things like that for status versus for enjoying the moment and my particular focus was people who would go post the stories and not care about anything else just get the story it's totally fine i think it's funny and it's true and that's why it's funny at the same time obviously i you know i can take that easy because if you you with us and you attend to shows you know like there's certain moments that's the moments that are viral and that's that's the irony because let's say we play a seven-hour set yeah there's a lot of new music there's a lot of just partying you know and then of course when we play the four or five hits it turns from a party into a concert moment all the phones go up which whatever i like it don't like it it is how it is you know

30:46and that's obviously a lot of phones up that's a lot of content and this is what's viral so this is what you see because the other thing when there's no phone up is what you don't see so obviously it technically doesn't exist in the web and this is a funny thing and then the discussion about phone, no phone obviously I see old footage from back in the days and yeah the phone kills the vibe 100 it's super awkward also for us uh it helped us also a lot so it's it's hard to take a position and also it's like do i want to tell someone what to do you know the dance floor for me is like a it's freedom you know you can do whatever you want i

31:31The Gstaad Guy:will not tell you what to do adam might i know he takes adam yeah i know and i and me also sometimes because it's frustrating you know it's like yo come on let's have a good time and when did you come up with the the rampa signature sound the oh am i doing it right yeah um i think the first time we used it was in uh in that moderate uh remix more love with and me yeah yeah actually yeah actually and me came up with that oh really with that sound yeah i did the whole thing and he hopped on and we um shout out to microtonic best plugin ever uh yeah and then we were like okay it's too we sit down and was like okay it's a little bit too pop how can we balance it into like add something more disturbing to it almost you know uh to to kind of balance the yeah like the the poppiness you know um and then that sound sound came up and then yeah i did the the arrangement and i like the little effects on it and stuff and then yeah and then we used it but it's it's so hard to come up with something something new at some point like a new signature or a new sound and then I feel also things get boring so fast like you know like the sound I really try to to keep myself entertained but it's not so easy it's not so easy because even though you have a lot of funky tools and it's not so easy to find that that new thing anymore I think every creative listening will agree with the creative block first and foremost but i think more importantly i forgot who it was someone in the comments will know better but a very iconic creative from generations long before us said the second the artist starts loving their own work yeah the end of the artist's yeah i can i can relate to that it's usually most of the the the nice songs are done super fast so this process easy and then there is like a month or two of critical trying to solve the puzzle uh 52 versions whatever and then like okay we have to you know go to the release and then you go back to version one or two be like actually that was the you know that was the best but sometimes maybe it needs all those other versions to prove it was actually already good you know earlier in the episode when we were talking about being at service to the greater thing being at service to rampa and even kind of music as greg and sometimes loving that sometimes resenting that something i completely see eye to eye with it's like do i work for stad guy am i stad guy what is what is stad guy yeah you know and as i look back i realized that the thing that has always made me feel a lot more confident about whatever it is i'm working on is collaboration and the beauty of collaboration yeah i love that people come in the best you redefine what it is it's the best you know it's the best it was always yeah that's i could never do something really like on my own oh i could maybe but it feels so much nicer to yeah to collaborate to share to especially in different different fields like now working on that boat for example it's so exciting because i went to mammy to to visit the factory and there's stuff that really gets me excited and like okay how do they you know do it and it's so cool that you see whatever that raw material and then in the next um hall you see a polished crazy speed boat and stuff so cool and also with yeah furniture benjamin and yeah fashion or whatever it is or um even like the the more speakers stuff behind the scenes you're always collaborating and yeah picking people's brains i think something i realized about your character actually when we were in undermount a few weeks ago with one of our dear friends who lives there and you guys both have this in common which i really like it's this value of abundance of treating every resource like it's for everyone versus scarce and protective which some creatives feel some creatives feel like okay this is my idea no one can have it i need to protect this idea and it's just for me before anyone gets there before me whereas you actually have this completely inverse stance of like hey this is for anyone anyone can hop on this idea with me anyone can add value and you have this view of abundance and like shared growth yeah with your teams with your friends i'd love to understand more about that mindset that like abundance first creative have you always been abundance first were you ever more scarcity first at different phases of your career?

37:08Probably, you know, I'm the full scale.

37:12The Gstaad Guy:Yeah. Full scared, full open, and everything between, it depends on the... But overall, now also, for example, I talk to Teenage Engineering for some things, some other brands I really look up to, and I love this, what they do, and I think it's so cool. Like I don't see it as a competition at all and I don't want to, you know, like, I think it's just so cool to kind of ping pong and you know what I mean? Like if you have the best soccer team, it's completely boring if there's not another team that it can, you know, create a game with or whatever. so I think it's so important to always appreciate what other people invent, be it in music or fashion or technology or whatever.

38:13And then play with it, collaborate, spin ideas.

38:21It feels much nicer. Also the same with kind of music. I could never have a solo career.

38:26The Gstaad Guy:people kind of go from niche to more commercial and that's their dream to grow and expand and build only to basically desire to go back to niche again i think with you it's actually quite different where you don't want to go back to anything you actually want to go to something new and that's this founder creative that i see you really light up about like when you talk about your shows and your productions you're excited but when you and when you talk about your music you're excited but when you talk about Tele and your behind the scenes businesses and projects, like the boats and the furniture that you're working on, you like light up.

39:02The Gstaad Guy:It's a whole different thing. I'd love to know more about these projects and how Tele was born. So, yeah, I'm happy you asked that. Because it's a cute little passive love story. So I had a roommate maybe 12 years ago. My roommate had a Tinder date. and his tinder date didn't want to show up alone for the date so he asked me like yo i'm it's a little awkward because she's bringing a friend and i don't know can you come with me so i don't want to sit with you know two strangers at the table and it's weird i was like okay i'm off i come i come having having a beer so we walk in obviously kind of awkward situation um and then And Benjamin, my partner in Tyler, was the guy, like the friend of his date.

39:59And then we were like, okay, what are you doing? And he was like, oh, I'm in analog amplifiers and stuff like that. And I was like, hmm, interesting. So we had a little, like a nerdy, geeky, four-hour, beautiful date.

40:15The Gstaad Guy:Last week, a friend of mine invited me to something called a taco night at their home. And as they walked me into their dining room, I noticed a bag of chips on their dining room table. I braced myself because we all know what's in the usual chip. Seed oils, preservatives, and a long list of ingredients that belong à la pabelle. But as I got closer, I realized these were no ordinary chips. They were Masa chips, the sponsor of today's podcast episode. My favorite flavor is Cabanero, but I urge you to try them all and figure out which one is yours. Ready to give Masa a try? go to masachips.com forward slash kshtad and use code kshtad, that is G-S-T-A-A-D, for 25 % off your order.

40:50The Gstaad Guy:Because Masa uses real ingredients made in small batches, flavors sell out regularly. In February, the Cabanero flavor was sold out for weeks. Yes, weeks. And not even my own plane could help me deliver my own stash to shtad. I do not wish to speak of it. So again, that's masachips.com forward slash kshtad. Use code shtad for 25 % off or the link in the description or even the QR code on screen if it is not beneath you thank you so much and now back to the podcast the tyler the factory so that's the the second part now is um is the speaker factory the carpentry we just got this new place um and got a lot of cool new machines which is you know it's so it's so it's so fun it's so exciting to see and uh yeah my friend philip who i've been building speakers with uh already like 30 years ago as his dad had the carpentry and we were able to use the the leftover wood um you know to build stuff and obviously at that time there was no calculations or it was just like fantasy speakers and whatever cool or not cool shapes and um and yeah and then maybe five years ago or six years ago when we moved to studio i wanted to change the the monitors i wasn't a big fan of the monitors we had at that time and i was like hmm should i spend uh now whatever 15k or like if you want to buy some proper proper monitors 15 20k on new speakers or i use that money to develop my own speaker i have to say it was very naive to think that the development of the speaker costs only 20k that was a little like more at the end uh but it was it was worth it it was super fun and yeah my friend philip one of my best uh friends childhood friend i'm so happy that we at the end ended up doing that that company together and that that path that project and he's insanely good at what he does i feel really um confident now about this uh path of tyler and it's so fun to do these projects a lot of these the new projects are based on on speakers and head like headphones and stuff like this so it's super super um satisfying to to do that especially with with philip who we built when we built the first peak like 30 years ago whatever and now we have this our own factory and like i think it's now 20 maybe 22 people working there um i love when founders build products for themselves first like products they want they want to use they need and then you just realize oh other people want this too yeah i think it's very rare for such a technical product and technical business to be strong on brand and on culture like usually things that are very technical they don't really have a strong desirability and brand around that belonging like if like i don't even know what this machine does i don't i know nothing about sound engineering but i know that having a tele logo on a piece of clothing or on your on your decks like it's cool it's like it's it's pro you get it but also it has this culture around it did you always want that to have this music culture with it i wanted to have a possibility to create things you know so for me i was already happy when benjamin had the the the bathroom desk and we could could work on things and obviously now it's more fun because we have more a bigger team we can do more things we have uh it's it's growing it's it's it's super fun um i didn't really think about that before obviously i put some thought in the name um and like a certain look and feel when we started it but overall it's it's more really product uh focus so like really what do i need or how should it feel you know how should it look and then solve some some riddles some puzzles in the engineering part is super fun and some things are new with some things we didn't invent a new thing or something just maybe gave it a different look and um yeah and i really like the idea of doing these crossovers between you know furniture and sound or uh whatever design and sound or boats and sound and how all these um worlds can can collab i know that over the next 12 months you want to do less performing and more building i think this year i still will perform quite a good amount of shows and i don't have set like a date or something you know just i feel i'm gravitating towards the engineering and like building these things uh products and and platforms and more than me being in the spotlight and on stage.

46:31Let's see, you know, it comes how it comes. But for now I feel I have a certain amount of time and energy and this is growing strongly inside of me to focus more on this and I feel it's like a new chapter where I'm gravitating to. doesn't mean that i that i stop or some something with dj not at all but maybe shifting a little bit you know a little less here a little more there see how it feels adapt to whatever comes maybe next year i don't want to do this anymore i just dj or whatever you know it comes how it

47:15The Gstaad Guy:comes maybe i start a podcast maybe who knows i know that the creative process is chaotic in so many ways for many people for most and uh you spoke about creative block briefly how like sometimes you you go through it yeah i'd love to know about the inverse about your creative flow state when do you feel like or what do weeks look like where you're just full of ideas and just churning out creatives could be in music could be in collaborations could be in engineering versus weeks where you feel flat because i can relate i'm just curious to know how how it looks to you it's hard to say because i feel like everything is somehow blurry like i couldn't really tell what i did last month to be 100 honest um so i really don't would categorize it in a week or a day maybe in a minute or in two hours or you know sometimes it's i wake up like i don't want to do anything and then i get some news or you know it shifts so fast the the vibe and the motivation and but overall uh i love to have multiple things going on at the same time and kind of like jump from from one project to the other i don't know if it's a skill or the opposite uh i can't really focus long on one thing but i can focus on multiple of things and then jump and then okay now i want to you know go here again so it makes it a little messy for my team sorry but this is how i function the best like um being like super focused on only one thing gets me i don't know maybe i can't and um and what's yeah a little bit not a little bit of a challenge now is back in the days i was very limited within opportunities and and financially also i could think oh let's build this but it was impossible because you know i couldn't afford it and now the i was in this little uh you know protect like protected me somehow and now it's so many opportunities so many possibilities things to do and yeah sometimes i have to i'm scared i get a little lost and like too many things then so finding a good middle way of doing enough but not too much is my personal challenge at the moment if your younger self was listening to this podcast yeah early days rampa yeah early days greg and if you think about all the emotions you felt back then which probably were like hunger you just wanted it all so bad you know what would you tell your younger self i would hope i wouldn't listen to this because i feel then the the excitement would be kind of gone you know because you know the the end of the or not the end but like you know you know the result already so i feel like the uncertain and like being and curious and like whatever trying things is the is the best part of it um i mean it's a little bit like playing a video game if you you know if you start the game and there's no weapons and no whatever whatever like all these riddles are still there that's that's the best part now i mean once you solved it as a little oh i hope there's more riddles to solve i wouldn't like myself to my younger self to listen to this i would like to stay a little also like you know uh how you say like in like curious and like oh my god is it working out is it not you know a little like the challenge or the the in the in certain sounds like you like the process a lot more than the product 100 percent have you always been that always i feel like also like releasing a song like the best part is the you know creating that stuff is the where it's all possible where it's all free there's no judgment there's no nothing it's just fun and then with the release date i mean at least for me it's always a little like it goes from private to public and and then the varying starts with the product i mean i love the products but then you're very like okay is it good does it sell the numbers can i play can i pay the the the stuff is this you know is it working oh god oh god oh god and before it's just like okay cool and we do this and we do that and um so the feeling of creating something and the feeling of having created something i feel can be sometimes almost the opposite depends on on what it is but also if it's successful then what's next oh god i have to you know you have a big a big hit then what it's maybe satisfying for a second and then the you know the fear comes like oh no i have to keep up with this like the expectation so high and how can i do this again or can i do it better or like i don't know how you how you program but in me it's for sure always a little yeah feel much safer in the process than in the product yeah i think one of my favorite feelings is the feeling of like introspection and like self-reflection like i love challenging hypocrisy and realizing like wait i'm saying something that I'm not practicing.