Oscar Mulero has been pushing the boundaries of techno for years as a DJ and producer. Since his early beginnings putting on shows in the legendary club THE OMEN in Madrid to running his own labels Warm UpRecordings and Pole Recordings and working with the likes of Christian Wunsch,  Exium and Reeko, he’s always been doing something to set him apart from his contemporaries. His latest double album Grey Fades To Green is a perfect example of this with one side laying down solid techno and the other exploring I.D.M. to show the vast range of his production skills. He’s a producer we love here at Skirmish and myself and Shiv sent him some questions ahead of his two Irish dates this month (Belfast on the 17th and Limerick on the 18th) to see what he has in store for Irish fans and to pick his brain.

What is your first musical memory and what age were you when electronic music took hold?

My first musical memory comes from when I was just a kid. My father used to play records at home all the time. He was a DJ also for few  years and before that played drums in band as well, so I’ve been always close to music since I was born.My first contact with electronic music was when I started to go out in clubs in Madrid in the end of the Eighties and beginning of the Ninties when I was around 20 years old.

Your new album Grey Fades To Green sees you explore new sounds and go from techno to IDM seamlessly. Is this the beginning of you straying from techno and producing other electronic genres?

Well I always liked the idea of making other types of electronic music, so that’s why I have released music under different alias also, like Trolley Route, which is more routed in Melodic Detroit Techno.

I’m releasing a whole IDM EP on the Detroit Underground label in the next few months, this is kind of an escape of the straight techno that I’ve been doing throughout the years. This is something that also happens when I’m DJjing. It’s a kind of need for me to play different sets. So it can be electro, IDM, or rock music.., etc.

In my case to keep on doing the same things for many years makes me feel a bit bored, so making or playing other genres of music is always an extra motivation for me.

Seeing as you play so often, do you find it challenging to keep your sets fresh? 

Yes it is, but since I play digital it’s easier as I can play many unreleased tracks that I make in my studio only for my DJ sets, and also being able to play unreleased tunes from others producers really helps.

What producers are currently blowing you away? 

Surgeon, Lucy, Tommy Four Seven, Reeko, Planetary Assault Systems…are some of them.

What do you make of techno at the moment? Where do you see the scene progressing? 

I think techno is coming back again after some years of the minimal, slower stuff and not that fast in terms of Bpms being popular, but proper techno  is coming back again, so the techno scene is progressing and proper techno will always be here to stay.

What do you think of the mash-up of genres music is experiencing today? 

I’m not interested in mash up’s..,it sounds weird for me listen to a White Stripes tune with a techno kick drum… I found it interesting in the beginning. For example when people like Africa Bambatta used a Kraftwerk tune and mixed it with their own beats.

How do you approach writing a tune? Any tips for upcoming producers?

I don’t have a specific method when writing tunes. Sometimes the main riff from a synth comes first and other times I start to write the tune with some beats. Even sometimes the first ideas of a track comes from experimenting or testing new rhythm composers or synths. I don’t know if this can be a tip…but in the case of making techno tunes, I always try to imagine a track that could fit well in my DJ set and that there were nothing like in my DJ box.

If you could collaborate with anyone making a tune who would it be?

I don’t know, It’s really difficult to choose just one, there are so many. Afx, Mark Bell, Surgeon , Jeff Mills, Autechre, Brian Eno. The list is never ending.

What have you in store for the Irish shows? 

Proper Techno Music

Thanks to Oscar Mulero for the interview 🙂