Robert Babicz on the making of his cinematic new single “Herz”

“Herz” (or “heart” in German) is Polish producer Robert Babicz‘s latest single – a “cinematic, disco-fueled new addition” to one of electronic music’s most eclectic back catalogs.

“Herz” was originally created (in a different version) in 2016 – the product of “an experiment I was doing with a movie scoring library. When I played this for the first time live, I knew it was something different,” Babicz says. “People really seemed to love it – so I panicked and put it away for quite some time.”

5 Mag spoke to Robert Babicz about the making of “Herz” (out now on his own Babiczstyle imprint) and experiments in artificial synesthesia.

Robert Babicz: Herz

How do you decide which of your tracks goes on Babiczstyle & which get sent to other labels? Is it any different now post-lockdown than it was before?

This is a difficult question. To be quite honest, I usually don’t think much about this at all. Sometimes labels will come to me and ask if I have something new and unreleased, so I give them what I have done in the last weeks. If they find any to be a good fit, I’ll reserve them for the labels. I will say that my Babiczstyle releases tend to have more sentimental value to me. I don’t believe my method has particularly changed post-lockdown; I’ve just sorting through my new music and placing it where I feel it would work best.

It only took 4 years and a global lockdown for me to dig the project back up and make the track final. It’s strange, but I was afraid of people not liking it very much.

What can you tell us about the creation of ‘HERZ’?

This track is very special – I think I made the first version in 2016. It was originally an experiment I was doing with a movie scoring library. When I played this for the first time live, I knew it was something different. I was also somewhat afraid at the reaction it received on the dancefloor because it was very intense. People really seemed to love it – so I panicked and put it away for quite some time. I didn’t give the track to anyone and I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to release it. It only took 4 years and a global lockdown for me to dig the project back up and make the track final. It’s strange, but I was afraid of people not liking it very much.

What did you use to make it?

There are two main elements. The drums are real drums coming from a disco drummer. And the string elements are out of a film scoring library. Then I added a sub-bass that is a unit sinus from my Logic Pro DAW and a sample from my Roland SH101. The main melodic theme is also a lead sound sampled from my Roland SH101. Everything was then recorded on a real Tapemachine Studer A80 and imported back to the computer.

Do you have a routine or discipline for creating music? Do you start with melodies, percussion…?

Most of the time I start with playing around with a sound, or chords or a sequence. Then I add a kick as a metronome, but I already tune the kick to the scale of the melodic elements. As soon as I have all the main loop together, I will start to arrange. 95% of all my tracks that I have done are finished in 1 day. I love to work fast.

I recently did a lot of research about the ANS synthesizer, which was in some ways an attempt to induce “artificial synesthesia” in composition. A lot of people ask you about synesthesia – have you ever attempted to use something like Alexander Scriabin’s “keyboard with lights” or developed your own system for using synesthesia in composing music?

I actually had to search this up on the net. It seems to be a nice way of working on sounds, but my form of synesthesia is a bit different. I see music as a geometric sculpture in time, which gives me a feeling of balance when I work on sounds and structure of a song. It’s quite difficult to describe, but I guess the best way to describe it is that when I produce a track, I can visualize my emotions through geometric structures. This helps me pluck out imperfections in productions and fix them quite easily. It would be nearly impossible to channel this into an organized system, as I am more of a storyteller through emotional sculptures in sound.

Robert Babicz’s HERZ is out now.