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Cold Blue alias Tobias Schuh is a German trance producer from the small town of Mainz near Frankfurt. In the last few years, where trance has been undergoing little progress in Germany, he has quietly made a name for himself in the underground trance scene. i:Vibes decided it was time to catch up with him and find out some more about him...
Cold Blue – The future of German trance?
Cold Blue alias Tobias Schuh is a German trance producer from the small town of Mainz near Frankfurt. In the last few years, where trance has been undergoing little progress in Germany, he has quietly made a name for himself in the underground trance scene. There is no other young German producer who could say that he had released a track on the famous Dutch label In Trance We Trust by the age of 21. His interest in music was born in his early childhood and he had also wanted to create his own music for a long time before getting in touch with music producing software. After years of playing around with his own sounds and melodies he made one of the first steps up the trance ladder getting the honour to release on Shah-Music digital with tracks ’Hard Shell’ and ’In Balance’. At this point, he was making a name in the trance scene. One could say he got his breakthrough in 2007, when he was able to release ’Seven ways’ / ’11 days’ on the legendary trance label In Trance We Trust. (These two tracks were produced with DJ Shah’s brother Pedro del Mar). He also produced ’Overjoyed with his other project Solarsun which was released on Afterglow Recordings this summer as well as ’Uxorious’ on Monster Tunes in collaboration with Moonforce. In the last months, he has been busy finishing remixes like ’Closer’ for Skye Shapard Feat. Mque and ’Try Walking In My World’ for Plastic Angel, which has recieved exceptionally positive feedback from the trance community. He has also received friendly help from colleagues like Sebastian Brandt, who has done a stellar remix of ’11 Days’.
His next Cold Blue single ’Oasis’ on Shah-Music is already being promoted and it seems that Cold Blue has a huge future and so i:Vibes had a chat with Tobias...
i:Vibes: Hi Tobi, how are you? Thanks for taking some time out. What are you up to these days? I’m sure there is never a day where you don’t have music ideas going through your head?
Cold Blue: Hey Miles, thank you for doing this interview with me! I am really fine, but also very busy with my studies these days. And yes you are right, there is no day in my life without music and thoughts about making music. And I always try to catch every free minute to create some stuff.
i:Vibes: What was your childhood like?
Cold Blue: My childhood was nice and relaxed. I grew up in a small village far away from big cities. I had a lot of nature around me and I liked that very much!
i:Vibes: Who were your early musical inspirations and why?
Cold Blue: I always had some kind of "instinct" that said to me "make music, make music, make music!!!!". We had a piano at home, guitars and other instruments... and I had always wanted to play the drums so I got a drum set at the age of 9. There has always been music in my life.
Then one day when I got a computer, I started to make music.
i:Vibes: When did you know that music would play a huge role in your life?
Cold Blue: Music Is my life. I don't know when I realized that, but it was a long time ago! As a young boy I wanted to play in a rock band like Metallica. Now I play in bands and maybe it is better that they are not popular like Metallica, haha. I like my life the way it is. I like to enjoy the music whenever I want to and also to take a break from it whenever I want to (there haven't been any breaks so far!!!).
i:Vibes: Was there a musical moment that inspired you to go ahead with experimenting with music?
Cold Blue: No, I don't really think so. I didn't need any inspiration to start all that, it's always been deep inside of me. But of course there are lots inspirational moments to make a new track, for example big trance events, great holidays or something like that.
i:Vibes: You are very young. Are you currently at University or do you have a job?
Cold Blue: I study mathematics at university in Mainz and there is no time for any job beside that.
i:Vibes: You are from Mainz. A small beautiful town on the Rhine River about 40 kilometers from Frankfurt. Not too many known DJ/producers have come from Mainz, other than Ian Pooley and DJ Tonka. Did Mainz play a big role for you or were you inspired from another city like maybe Frankfurt?
Cold Blue: I grew up about 60 kilometres from Mainz and have lived here in Mainz since last year so this town plays a role for me now but it did not in the past. I also can't say that I was inspired by any city or scene. The ’Nature One’ festival is something that inspired me in a way because it was the first big trance event I was at and for me still the best one. It really has its own spirit and emotions and it is always very inspirational to visit ’Nature One’ and "live" the music at this great location.
i:Vibes: Frankfurt and the whole Taunus valley is a huge place filled not only with trance legends like Talla 2XLC, Tillmann Uhrmacher or Martin Roth, but also other huge Techno legends like Sven Väth, Tom Wax, Oliver Lieb, Chris Liebing or Pascal FEOS, to just name a few. I am sure you are aware of this and just how has the history influenced your music?
Cold Blue: Yes I am aware of that, but it didn't have any direct influence to my music as mentioned above. Nowadays I visit the Technoclub in Frankfurt and I am really happy to have such great trance parties near me. Of course these parties do also influence my music in a way now.
i:Vibes: How would you describe your sound? I would describe it as "Noble Dutch sound".
Cold Blue: For me it's hard to describe my own sound and I also don't really like to categorise music, especially these days when more and more kinds of styles are growing together. One of the most important things to me is atmosphere so I try to create a lot of that in my music. I would also call my music very melodic and emotional, sometimes happy and even euphoric, sometimes deeper and calm.
It's not my intention to give each track of mine the same sound so I think sometimes you don't know what you can expect of my productions. (Even I don't know sometimes what to expect from myself.)
i:Vibes: I think when listening to your sound, there is a huge difference to the German trance sound. You don’t only have your own distinct sound, but it seems like it isn’t German at all? Is that a compliment or would you rather like to be known as someone having a German sound?
Cold Blue: It was around 2002/2003 when I got in touch with real and good trance music, guys like Ferry Corsten, Airbase and others caught my attention at that time. I was sitting at home in front of my computer and listened to music from all over the world like almost everybody does in our culture nowadays.
So I think that is the reason why my sound is different to the "German trance sound" as you call it.
It is a compliment for me when you say that I have my own distinct sound! Thank you!
i:Vibes: You produce as Cold Blue. How did you come up with this name? Does it have a particular meaning why you call yourself Cold Blue?
Cold Blue: A friend of mine came up with "Cold Blue". She looked at me and said "Cold Blue" when I was asking her for a name. I really liked the suggestion and now I produce as Cold Blue. At least I like the colour a lot, haha.
i:Vibes: Your big breakthrough came in 2007 with “Seven Ways’ / ’11 Days’ released on In Trance We Trust. Were you overwhelmed by being able to release on In Trance We Trust? This doesn’t happen every day! How did you feel?
Cold Blue: I felt great of course, haha!!! I don't know if I have realized yet that my music is played all around the world by Tiesto, Armin van Buuren and others, it is really hard for me to become aware of that. Maybe not the fact that they like and play it, but the fact that thousands of people dance to it and feel good when they hear it. That is an amazing feeling and very hard to realize.
About ITWT: I tried very hard to get on any label with my music for a really long time. And then in between few months there came Shah Music, ITWT/Blackhole, Afterglow... That is really crazy!
i:Vibes: ’11 Days’ is a very beautiful track. Why did you call it ’11 Days? ’
Cold Blue: Thank you very much!!! I made this track after a trip with my best friends which lasted for 11 days. We had a great time together and this was a big influence for me to produce ’11 Days’!.
i:Vibes: What are your strengths in the studio and how do you get your sound so clean?
Cold Blue: I can't really say what my strengths are. I think I am a little bit stronger in composing music than in getting the best sound/mixdown and mastering. My focus is set on the musical parts of producing. But you can improve your music with a great sound and trance music lives from good sounds and atmosphere. So I also always try to improve my sound, I always try to get better.
I think it is a mixture of learning/practising and musical talent to get a clean sound. It is not enough to have the best technical knowledge if you don't have the right feel for getting the right sounds in the right places. But it also doesn't work without the technical aspect.
i:Vibes: What kind of studio equipment do you have? And besides your PC, what piece of equipment could you not live without?
Cold Blue: I use Propellerhead Reason, "Klein + Hummel OY" studio speakers and Sennheiser headphones.
I think I could not live without my speakers, they are just amazing!
i:Vibes: Your remix for Plastic Angel ’Try Walking In My World’ is incredible. How do you go about making a remix. Is this more difficult or easier than starting a new track as Cold Blue?
Cold Blue: Thanks again!!! Of course there are differences between producing original tracks and remixing. But I try to be as creative as I can when I remix a track. Often there is some special thing in a track that inspires me to remix it. A certain part, a melody, some chords or whatever. Then I create my remix out of that part playing around with it, trying to give my own feeling to it. It always depends on how inspirational the original track is to me.
But compared to starting one of my own tracks, there is no big difference in the difficulty.
i:Vibes: When you're in the studio, do you have a particular way how you go about producing a track? Some producers seek a melody or bassline, while other producers like Paul van Dyk like to find an atmosphere. How do you do it?
Cold Blue: There are a lot of ways to start with new tracks, sometimes the beat, sometimes a melody. But in general I also need to get this atmosphere before I can start to build up a track, so I think it is quite similar to PVD. Sometimes I spend weeks finding the right sound and atmosphere, sometimes only 1-2 days to create a whole track.
i:Vibes: With what producer would you like to be locked in the studio?
Cold Blue: I have never really thought about that, to be honest. But maybe with Stoneface & Terminal for example, that would be cool!
But there are so many guys who I could learn from a lot!
i:Vibes: What can we await from you in 2008 with new releases?
Cold Blue: First of all there will be the new Cold Blue single ’Oasis ’ including great Sequentia and Volt remixes out on Shah Music, followed by an EP in the summer.
Then there will be a single together with Dennis Shepperd named ’Prime Of Life’ coming out on High Contrast Recordings, a real big room track with great male vocals!
Apart from that, I am working on a follow up for Afterglow Recordings and also on remixes for Sebastian Brandt and Ferrin & Low.
So that's it for now, but let us see what the new year is going to bring us.
i:Vibes: At MySpace you have 3,594 friends as of November 23, 2007. How important has this portal been for your music?
Cold Blue: MySpace is great and really important for any upcoming producer in my opinion! There is no better way to get in contact with other producers, DJs and of course listeners! Through Myspace I reach lots of people all over the world who like trance music and many of them are really happy to find new artists and new music.
i:Vibes: Where do you see yourself in five years?
Cold Blue: Oh well, I don't have any big plans. I hope I will be able to finish my studies in a satisfactory way and I hope that there is always enough time to be creative and produce music. But I am sure that I will continue my way as a musician. So there will be a lot of music in five years, hehe!
i:Vibes: Do you have ambitions to DJ?
Cold Blue: Not yet, I don't have enough time for that at the moment and I definitely want to concentrate on my music productions. But perhaps someday I will find the will to go out and play my music all around the world, who knows!
i:Vibes: What are your five current favourite tracks?
Cold Blue: Stoneface & Terminal - Super Nature
Tranquility Base - Oceanic
Duderstadt - Beatitude
Timo Pralle - Midnight Strings
Breakfast - The Horizon
i:Vibes: What are your five all time favourite tracks?
Cold Blue: Adagio For Strings (Ferry Corsten Remix)
Stoneface & Terminal - Super Nature
Airbase - Genie
Airbase - Escape
Arksun - Arisen
i:Vibes: What are your hobbies?
Cold Blue: Apart from music I also like to go biking, go to trance parties, rock concerts, hang out with friends and all that stuff if there is time.
i:Vibes: Tobi, we live very close together, about 30 kilometers away, a pity we couldn't do this interview in a café. But I am sure we can meet in the Technoclub someday? Thanks for doing the interview and good luck in the future!!!!
Cold Blue: Thank you very much Miles for giving me the opportunity to do this interview! I am sure we will meet soon in the Technoclub! Cheers! Tobi.
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