To most electronic music fans, Dutch producer Lodewijk Fluttert AKA Bakermat needs no introduction. His 2012 EP, Vandaag, sky-rocketed to the top of the charts across Europe and eventually went Platinum, consisting of an integrated sample of the I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr. As for his 2020 single, Bainia, it currently holds a staggering half a billion streams on Spotify.
Combining his love of gospel, jazz, house and pop, Fluttert often collaborates with adept instrumentalists to bring an organic touch to electronic music and elevate his DJ sets. In 2014 he introduced the Bakermat live band, which included saxophonists and guitarists, and toured across Europe in partnership with Live Nation. He then went on to launch the Bakermat’s Circus in 2015, a live event which took Bakermat and artists from the likes of Robin Schulz to Don Diablo all over the world.
In this Studio Files interview, MusicTech sits down with this DJ juggernaut to discuss everything from his latest studio set up in the Holland countryside, to the plugins that were essential to the making of his new album, Grace Note.
Congratulations on the releaseGrace Note! It celebrates the two genres close to your heart, house and gospel – how do you feel like the two genres compliment each other as a producer?
Both are about achieving euphoria through music. It’s a lot of major chords, pianos, strings, choirs and it’s all about build ups. So there’s lots to play with as a producer to try to achieve this feeling. I guess house music is almost the electronic equivalent of gospel in a way.
How did going viral with the song Baiana make you shift your approach to releases? Did you find yourself wanting to follow the same formula?
Definitely not. I think the good thing about ‘going viral’ is that you can never really control it or prepare for it. It just happens to stuff. All you can do is make the best music you possibly can and if you’re lucky someone will pick it up and put it in a video that will speak to more people. If that doesn’t happen, it’s not a disaster because you still made music to the best of your ability, and you can be proud of that.
Tell us a bit about your studio.
I’ve just moved my studio from the centre of Amsterdam to the countryside. I noticed that I was getting distracted quickly in an urban environment with a lot of noise and people walking in and out. When I work on music, I need to be able to focus completely on that and get into ‘my zone’. Now that I have a studio in the middle of a field I can really get there and my productivity is way higher. I use it mainly to come up with new ideas, sounds, loops and projects that can spark something in a later stage when I start writing and producing full songs.
What’s your latest gear or plugin purchase?
I’m all about virtual gear, so I barely have any outboard equipment. My latest buy is KClip because I discovered the advantages of clipping before limiting. Right now, I’m also really into Omnisphere, a synthesizer that I’ve owned for ages but never really did a deep dive into. The possibilities are endless with this thing. You can basically do anything with it, so I’m currently obsessed.
What’s the best free plugin you own?
I just upgraded Serum to Serum 2 for free and I’m very happy with it. The new presets are amazing and the possibilities are also pretty huge just like Omnisphere. I think this synth really comes close to Omnisphere with this new upgrade. I also like the stock plugins that you get for free when you buy Ableton. I use them for like 90% of the jobs.
What’s been the biggest investment in your career/studio?
My MacBook for sure. As it is the main hub now that drives everything, it’s worth going for the absolute best and latest one. I also don’t like working with external drives so I ordered the Pro with an 8TB internal hard drive. Not worrying about space and power is a luxury when making music and it won’t hold you back from using very awesome but extensive libraries like the spitfire ones. It’s worth every penny, and I think modern producers should never hold back on buying the most advanced and spacious computers to do their thing.
I also have a fiberglass internet connection in my studio, even though it’s in a field. It’s a big investment but internet speed is a really big thing that you should never have to worry about when you’re in the zone.
Sampling tracks has become a big part of your work – is there a process in choosing which songs you’d like to emulate? Where do you source many of these tracks?
I have massive Spotify playlists that I play on shuffle. They are filled with old catalogues from legendary labels. It’s a mix of all world music, old soul and funk, gospel recordings and acapellas. I’m always searching for new samples. It’s like an automatic thing for me. Also YouTube is a great source of unreleased stuff — and Discogs.
You’ve said that your music isn’t something built by machines. As a producer how have you struck the balance of the record coming from an organic, human-made place, but still using the technology needed to produce an album?
Making music on a computer doesn’t mean it has to sound like it was made on a computer. I love keeping imperfections in or even adding them on purpose. In the end music is communication from human to human. So it’s nice for someone to hear that the music is made by another human, and humans are imperfect, not like computers.
How do you see your sound and studio evolving in the next two years?
I would love to work more out of the box (my laptop) and record more instruments with microphones; just to get that natural sound and imperfection in there a bit more. I always work hard to make my laptop-made stuff sound human but it could save me a lot of work if I just recorded a human, [laughs].
I’d love to sample more from vinyl, also. I feel like there’s a massive collection of unused samples still in the vinyl world. You just gotta find some, order them on Discogs and sample them from the player into your laptop. With everyone using Splice right now and sounding the same, this could be a huge winner.
Do you have a dream piece of gear?
I’d like to one day have an entire orchestra play parts that I can use it in my music. Obviously it’s a very big investment because a lot of people are needed to achieve something like that. Also a big choir would be really cool to work with, and a studio and engineers that know how to deal with recording such a thing. Apart from that, I have everything that makes me happy in my studio right now.
What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?
Just in general that there are certain ‘ways’ and ‘rules’ in making music. If I see a video with the title “This is not how to use a compressor” I’m like: ‘Who are you to decide?’. I can use the compressor however I like if it creates an outcome that I like the sound of. There are no rules in music.
Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career? Can you tell us about how it impacted you?
My mother. I always show her my new music and her biggest lesson is that your music should always be surprising and remain interesting throughout. So don’t just repeat verse, chorus, verse, chorus but try to build in a bridge, prechorus or do something surprising to keep the listener entertained and interested. I love this because it just challenges you to not make a lazy record.
Read more Studio Files interviews on MusicTech
The post Bakermat: “I love keeping imperfections in a track — it’s nice for people to hear that the music is made by another human” appeared first on MusicTech.
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