Sep 2

Thiago Kruse: "The journey from heavy metal to techno fusion"

Passionate about music since his early years, Thiago was a metalhead during his adolescence. Nowadays, with more experience and evolved tastes, his productions focuses on melodic Techno vibes, ranging from haunting to beautiful, for the dancefloor.

Can you tell us what led you to transition from the world of heavy metal to techno? What fascinated you about this genre, and how have you integrated your musical roots into your current work?

I started playing electric guitar in 2003 and shortly after I started studying guitar at a music school. During high school, I formed a few metal bands with friends and played a few shows with a couple of these bands - and the experience was amazing! Afterwards, I stopped taking lessons, played less guitar, but slowly expanded my repertoire, listening to several different genres of music over the years. When I first started dating my now wife in 2018, we started hanging out together with friends and some of them, including her, would put on some house and techno music, which, quite honestly, was kind of indifferent to me at first. I did consume some electronic music at the time, but I was a complete newbie in that world, and I listened to genres other than house and techno. Slowly but surely, I started to get invested into that kind of sound, mainly for its simplicity and its groove, but also for its sound design. Once I discovered the subgenre of melodic techno through Stephan Bodzin, Township Rebellion, Hidden Empire, etc, I found my home in terms of aesthetics and sound. Not unlike the kind of metal that I hold dear, it contains a somewhat heavy atmosphere, brings a ton of melodies, beautiful harmonies, breaks and drops. When I started producing back in 2019, I experimented with several different genres and sounds, from tech house to noisy techno, but my heart was true, so melodic techno tracks began to come out of my head into the DAW. Even at the time, I thought mixing heavy guitars and electronic music could work, but I did not have the expertise and experience to bring that to the surface just yet. Nowadays, when I’m playing my guitar, I’ll stumble upon a melody or rhythm idea that would work on techno, then I record it and try to create something from that. On my last productions I even added metal-oriented heavy guitar riffs as one of the lead elements of the track.

You recently released "Human Construct", a track that combines distorted electric guitars with techno. What was the creative process behind this project, and how did you manage to blend these two seemingly different musical worlds?

I started Human Construct unpretentiously by myself, creating the beat and most basic elements and adding some fill guitars into it, not having a strong belief it would fly. I then sent the draft to my good friend Unseen. from Lelantus Records, who immediately gave me some feedback and told me that track was fire, and that we should definitely work together on that one. He then started figuring out arrangement for the song and asked me to do a guitar solo for the break. At that point I knew I had to do something from the bottom of my heart since it would be the first time I would blend in two of my passions together, so I did my best to transmit the kind of feelings that I like to feel when I’m listening to music. The beginning of the track is your usual melodic techno with a few guitar fills. Then the break starts, calmly, and goes into a crescendo of metal drum parts and heavy guitar riffs until the guitar solo comes in bursting the mix, which later turned out to be a perfect reflection of what’s being said by the song lyrics. The main drop is dry, bassy and contemplative, exactly the way I like them. Once we had the song structure finished, we started seeking for vocalists to bring even more distinctiveness to this work. Unseen. immediately thought of Victoria Ray, who agreed to lend us her amazing, powerful voice for this work. The lyrics were written in a collaboration between me and Victoria, and it talks about how we’re born in the dark and that we shed light when we unite as one. Going to metaphysics, I believe we’re all one and the same and this track talks about that. Only in unity may we find peace. And for me, this blend between metal and techno is a form of unity.

Your musical career took a significant turn when you moved to Spain. How has the change in environment and connection with European artists influenced your artistic evolution?

The city where I used to live in Brazil did not have a thriving electronic music scene and creating bonds only via the internet was not that easy for me. Moving to Madrid allowed me to connect more easily with other DJs, producers and like-minded people, since the scene here is very active.

When I left Brazil, I was still on my first steps as a producer and had not released anything publicly through labels yet. I sold everything I had to go to Spain and arrived with just a suitcase of clothes and a very old laptop. The first year in Spain was quite challenging, due to the language barrier and cultural differences, but fortunately it allowed me to afford some basic studio equipment to get back to producing. Once I got back to music production, it was not long until I had a few upcoming releases on Brazilian labels Prototype Music and Mind Connector Records. I then started networking with fellow producers and DJs from all over and kept producing. Before even coming to Spain, I was already following INARE (who previously signed as Joseph Carlo), who makes amazing music. One day when I was already here, he posted a story about his residency at a local club, and I sent him a DM asking if I could go watch him play. His reception for me and my wife was off the charts, he even played a track of mine I sent him earlier, and there we began a very fruitful friendship and partnership. My track Asynchronous Communication was part of the VA on his label Deteil Musika, and I got invited to play several DJ sets for his label parties. At those parties I was introduced to and got to know and befriend several local producers and DJs, which expanded my network even further. Getting to know and coexist with people from different cultures and using languages other than your native tongue to communicate is something I recommend everyone to try to do – it’s not comfortable in the beginning, but it allows you to evolve, be patient, throw away old assumptions and develop new and fresh ideas inside your head.

You're a guitarist, producer, and DJ. How do you balance these three roles, and how does each contribute to your overall musical expression?

It’s tough to juggle everything on top of a full-time day job, so I try not to hurry to do anything and allow myself to do whatever makes most sense and gives me more enjoyment at the time, so I usually direct my focus on one thing - maybe one day I’ll play guitar for hours, on another I might practice some DJing and in between I squeeze in some music production sessions. Playing the guitar early in life has definitely helped me have a strong sense of rhythm and developed my improvisation skills, which is usually a big part of my guitar playing. I often load up backing tracks and start fiddling around just to get things out of my head. Another important thing that came from my guitar playing is performing and composing with other musicians. I always recorded guitars and did minimal mixing work, but I did not have a strong sense of what I was doing as I do now. Music production most definitely helps me train my ears, understand audio properties and effects on a deeper level and allows me to fully express what’s on my mind musically. One thing that I developed by playing guitar that I also consider a key aspect of DJing is improvisation. When a track is playing and you need to find the next one which will match the vibe you’re trying to convey, it’s really not that different from when you need to find the perfect next note on a guitar fretboard – it’s the ability to create musical order out of the chaos in a timely manner.

Looking ahead, what are your main goals as an artist? Can you give us any hints about upcoming projects or collaborations you have in the works?

My main goal as an artist was, is and always will be to create and play music that I personally love. Since the beginning of my musical journey as a rock/metal guitarist, I would never get involved in something if I did not hold it dear in my heart, and this is still true to this day. Another goal I have is to be able to perform live sets, bringing a laptop, some controllers, my guitar and playing it raw at the heat of the moment. I don’t know when that’s happening, but it’s happening. I feel my sound is slowly evolving to be a blend between melodic techno and peak time techno, and I’ve been adding distorted guitars to all my latest projects, so that fusion between metal and techno is something to be expected from my work in the foreseeable future. I know this combination is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think this might create a niche for people who love both types of sound. Although I don’t have any scheduled releases for now, new music can always be expected from me. I also have a few upcoming gigs where I intend to show some of my latest work.