The Self-Recording Band
Weekly no-bs episodes for self-recording musicians. Brought to you by full-time engineers and producers, working on hundreds of songs every year. No hype, no fluff. Not trying to make brands happy, not being paid for an opinion. Simply sharing what has worked for us and the artists we've worked with. Listen now and approach your next DIY recording project like you're a seasoned pro!
The Self-Recording Band
315: Why Most Bands Never Finish Their Album - Fabian Valentini (Max im Parkhaus)
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Why do so many bands never finish their album?
For German indie rock band Max im Parkhaus, it wasn’t a lack of ideas or inspiration.
It wasn’t a lack of talent.
It wasn’t even a lack of opportunities or budget.
After two failed attempts with professional #1 producers, years of frustration, and almost giving up completely, guitarist and songwriter Fabian Valentini decided to take control of the process himself. The result was the band’s first album they were genuinely proud of.
In this episode, Fabian shares what finally made the difference, why trusting yourself as a producer matters, and what he learned from spending years chasing the wrong version of success.
We also talk about perfectionism, finishing creative work, balancing music with a full-time career, and what happened just one week after the album’s release.
Along the way, we discuss:
- Why most bands never finish their album
- The biggest lessons from producing an album three times
- How to build confidence as a self-recording artist
- How Fabi built the skills to do it himself - and what he needed help with
- What helped them rebuild trust in themselves and the process
- The danger of perfectionism
- Learning to trust your creative instincts
- Self-producing while running a full-time business
- Why sounding like yourself matters more than sounding commercial
This is an episode about the hardest part of recording music: Finishing it.
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For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
Max im Parkhaus:
Fabian's video agency:
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…followed by a clear plan to build your confidence and turn your demos into finished releases...
...plus the professional guidance to implement it all:
👉 Apply for coaching:
theselfrecordingband.com/coaching
We’ll listen to your music, create a custom plan for you, and help you execute it step by step.
And if you want to try what Fabi did and let us mix your self-recorded songs, we can do that, as well! Let's talk!
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If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com
We are here today with Fabian Valentini. He is or used to be in a band called Max in Packhaus. We're going to get into that and the current state of this project in this band. Max in Packhaus is a band from Germany. It's kind of hard to describe the genre, really. That's also something that I'm going to ask Fabian about. For me, it's like indie pop with some rock influences, like kind of different from song to song, very, very interesting style that they have there. They released a record last year, 2025. That was. The record is called Kein Alpha Tier. And they it's been quite the journey to get to this record, which we're going to talk about as well. They completely self-recorded, self-produced it. Very exciting sounds on this one. Every song's kind of different. There's different drum tones, different. There's always like a common thread, sort of, but every song is still unique. And I had the pleasure of mixing and mastering this record. So it's like a hybrid approach where they self-produced, self-recorded, and then I got to mix and master this. Um, and yeah, it I have a ton of questions about this. Is it's a very, very exciting self-recorded record that doesn't sound like a DIY production at all to me. And um, so Fabi did a great job doing that. Um, he's also a creative in other ways because Fabian is running his own creative business. It's a video production agency. Correct me if that's the wrong description, but that's how I uh uh perceived it. And so he's doing creative work for other people as well in other ways, not just music. So one of the challenges was also how to you know to get an album done and to record and write and produce music on the side while running a business and having you know personal life and stuff. So that's all also a challenge that a lot of people face. We're gonna talk about that too. Um, speaking of time, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us, Fabian, and do this interview. Uh, very, very exciting to have you. And uh yeah, welcome to the Self-Recording Band Podcast. Thank you so much for this intro, Benedict. Thank you. You're welcome. And uh as always, I'm not doing this by myself, I'm doing it with my friend and co-host, Manel Espinosa Berenguer, music producer from Spain. Hello, my friend, how are you?
SPEAKER_00Hello, I'm great. And I'm I'm as as I'm always saying in the last episodes, really happy to be back here with you guys and ready for a really nice conversation.
SPEAKER_01Cool. For how long are you gonna say that we're back? Like, I mean, at some point, you know, like 20 episodes in or so, we're we're like, we're back on back every week. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah, that's very true. Uh, if you're new to the show, uh, we are at episode 315, I think. We've been doing this for quite a while. We have been doing a lot of like, you know, episodes talking about specific audio concepts and helping you make better records from your GM spaces. Now we've we've switched this to an interview-only format. The goal is still the same: helping you make better records from your home studios. But now we're bringing in different perspectives, different artists, uh, different, you know, creative visions, backstories, and all of that. So we can all learn from this. Uh, my name is Benedict Hein. I'm a mixing engineer. I run a mixed studio and I host this podcast. And I also run this whole platform, theselfrecordingband.com, where we help self-recording artists through our coaching and this podcast. So, yeah, let's get into this. Fabian, tell us about is it like should I call you Fabi like I usually do or Fabian? Yeah, actually.
SPEAKER_02Fabi. Yeah, okay. Fabi.
SPEAKER_01All right. Yeah, perfect. Okay, that's good. Thanks. Um, so yeah, I had a blast working on this record with you, and we also met in person uh two times now, which has also been been great. I don't get to do this with all the artists I work with. Um tell us a little bit about Max and Pacos and the kind of music you make so that people get an understanding of how you you know perceive it, or like what what's your vision or how you would describe your style there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh absolutely. Um Max and Pachaus is a band founded already in 2009. Uh, we had a switch um in the singer position in 2011, and from uh from then our singer Kim um went along us uh um to do um yeah almost 200 shows or something. So we were always a local regional band playing a lot of live shows, but we were absolutely lacking with our um studio recordings. Um we um often um trusted people um consulting us, doing it more the pop way, bring it into the radio, doing the uh three minute 24 thing, and um we were all always um so stoked bringing in the demos uh to the studio and hoping for the best. And then yeah, most of the time we were very disappointed, and we we lost the driver a bit in 2019, uh right before um COVID started. In 2019, we um yeah, we already produced uh our first album, uh you could say, but it was never released because we were so unhappy with the results, we put so much effort into it, so much trust. Um, yeah, it it was um some producers, uh I I mean number one producers from Germany worked on this record, but obviously um it wasn't only um the producer's fault, also ours' fault, because we were quite naive going into the studio and hoping, okay, here are our demos, and let's you are doing the rest for us. So um, and today I would say our style is uh doing indie pop, sometimes more rock music. Um, and our singer has a very characteristic um style, very characteristic. Uh, some would say in the first moment it's a female singer, and would say this is um the most um special about our band. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I agree. Very unique voice, stands out in in a good way and um also hard to replace. We're gonna get to that maybe too. Um, but yeah, so this backstory is interesting because again, I and I you already said it, but I want to repeat that again. Like it's not that the people you've worked with previously didn't know what they were doing. It's it's a mis it's sometimes it's a mismatch between you know different parties involved, or it's uh, you know, just not ideal like less than ideal communication. Maybe someone you know would have to take the lead and like communicate the vision more clearly. It's more like that. Um at the end of the day, what happened is that it's not maybe object objectively bad, but it wasn't how you envisioned the band to sound like, or it it was it didn't sound like like you, basically, in your opinion. And that can happen a lot. I've seen that play out, unfortunately, a lot of times, where you know, if you let someone else make a lot of the creative decisions, it might end up being their record and not yours. Yeah. So so yeah. Um it there was kind of two attempts there, right, with this record, sort of.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, absolutely, with two different producers. Um, and the first attempt, it was also um so today I can say it was it just was uh the wrong workflow because it was an analog workflow and uh with like uh fixed uh days in the studio rates. So we had like I f five or six uh studio days, and um when we did the recording, I'm I mean we are not um I mean very professional guitarist and drummer, so we we need some text, we need some time to really nail it, but sometimes we don't have the time. So there was a lot of editing involved, and then I remember I sat in university, or my colleagues uh said at work, and then we got a WhatsApp uh message, and they write, Okay, we are we are just uh here doing the mix for this and that song. Uh you have 30 minutes uh to give us your revisions, and then we are go going the final master because it was uh an analog workflow. And yeah, of course, uh most of the time we didn't uh do a proper revision and then it was done. And they say we cannot change anything anymore. Yeah, and this was also frustrating, of course.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sometimes it takes a little while to until you nail it because it's like just you know, personal preferences, different perspectives, um, matter of taste, more than like a right or wrong kind of thing. Um, and if you then don't get to do like a proper revision process, it can be tough. That's yeah. Um cool. I didn't even know about the analog part of it, but that's obviously like a limiting factor. It it has this like pros and cons, like everything. But one of the cons is that there is like you cannot just open up an old session quickly, you have to recall a bunch of stuff. And and some people, you know, of course, limit the amount of revisions you can do or the time you have for revisions because they need to move on to the next project. Yeah. Um, okay, very interesting. Um, what how would you describe the sound that you were going for? Like how if you went would go back now, like how would you describe to someone what you wanted the songs to sound like?
SPEAKER_02I would say we definitely wanted like to keep um a kind of a band spirit in in the production, like not to have it uh polished to the to the maximum. Um definitely um we also wanted some roughness in the sound, so some rumble here and there, um, and to have um the flexibility to do a variety of songs uh on one record. Um this is something I would say uh we we had a management um and the producer in its role, and they said, Oh, it's too it's too different. We don't uh want the songs to be so different because we don't see the commercial success then, and so they guided us in a different direction. Um, and today when you listen to the record we just uh did uh last year, I would say it's it's definitely like I uh just described, uh, it's very different from song to song. Um but uh you did a great job like uh keeping it together, um, although it's so different.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I it's a very interesting topic that I wanted to actually get into as well, because a lot of people are afraid that if you change things from song to song, it might not sound like a cohesive record anymore. And so they go like the safe route, sort of, they choose the same drum samples, the same guitar tones, uh, and they even ask me as a mixer sometimes, you know, to make sure it all sounds consistent and kind of the same. And I'm like, that I I get it, but it also like every song is is different. It's a different story, a different vibe, it tells a different story. And I'm not sure if that is really a good idea to not serve the songs. And I believe that if you it's a funny thing where if you mix each song on its own, fully serving the song, if the same people are working on a record, it's still gonna sound like a record. It's still a lot of you in there, especially self-produced stuff. It's still your taste, your personal filter that everything goes through, and the same mixer in this case. And in and as long as you do um a mastering process where you adjust the loudness and like broad, you know, decisions to make sure that the the song, the transitions work, and that there's not one song with like crazy low end and the next one's really thin or whatever, like as long as you do that, I think you can serve each song and it still sounds like a record just because of the people involved. And there's this one quote that when we had uh Dan Kornev on the podcast, who did records for Paramour and other like really big um bands, and obviously also does the Kornev audio plugins. He said that if you are the one writing the songs, playing the songs, producing the songs, recording the songs, maybe even mixing, mastering the songs, you're gonna have a lot of one thing in those songs, and that is you. And so and I think the challenge is often for me, oftentimes more to like avoid that and like make sure you don't you're not repeating yourself all the time. And so, yeah, long story short, in your case, it was so much fun to mix this record because you chose different tones for the songs. The drums were different. You chose, you know, um different samples, you different sounds in general. It still sounded like you, but you tried to serve every single song, which I really appreciated. And and it's not something that too many people do. So I don't know, maybe maybe get into this process a little bit. What did you actually use, for example, to get those drum sounds?
SPEAKER_02So um I can pretty good remember that when we first uh talked about a possible collaboration, and I told you that we are going to do the MIDI drum uh thing uh together with the um how do you call the drum plug-in? Addicted drums too. Yeah. You were said, OMG, are you sure to do his addicted drums too? But yeah, it was it was the thing I had on my uh on my computer, so we started working with it, and you were actually a bit surprised that it sounded quite good, I would say. Um so we had the uh Roland TD19 uh MIDI drum set, and our drummer was like drumming uh the MIDI notes, and I of course was editing uh the hell of it, and um of course was also very happy that you have Thomas uh in your team, uh, which did like uh a pretty good revision on the drums as well. Um, and and just uh put the drums uh on the next level. Um so yeah, thank you, Thomas, if you uh if you are hearing that uh editing, very much appreciated.
SPEAKER_01I like that. Yeah, he's he's really great uh choosing samples and improving drum performances and all that. So yeah, thanks, Thomas, for me as well. Yeah, the addictive drums thing is funny. I didn't even remember that, but I have to say some that that has actually changed a little bit, and that was partly also because of your record and others. So I had in the past mixed a couple of records, worked on a couple of records that have used addictive drums, and I was never really happy with the drum sounds, and I knew that a lot of people were using it and all that, but I there was something where I was always like, there's so many alternatives that I prefer that I didn't really recommend it. But now your record and a couple others I have to say, um, I've heard and received and worked on where I have to kind of rethink that and and and like it's it's all as always, it's how you use the tools. And it was based on personal experiences. It's not necessarily that the plugin is bad. So I probably wouldn't react like that now if someone told me about addictive drums. Uh, but yeah, um it it absolutely works if you use it right, and it's just a sampler at the end of the day. It's like recorded drums played through a sampler, and yeah. And you did you did a great job that uh choosing those samples, creating those drum sounds. And did you do all of that, like you personally, or your drummer, or someone else in the band?
SPEAKER_02So I I would say I prepared everything and um invited uh the band to listening sessions um because I said like we need to nail the drums to do the rest of the recordings. So this was uh very important to me. Um and my um my partner in also partner in the video agency we do. Uh his name is also Fabian. Very easy to remember. Um, he's very good like in uh describing drum sound and like what is uh still missing. So we tweak together on the drum sound. Um, but yeah, then um I also have uh my co-worker Lars, um, which just started um um uh a drum studio on its own, like uh a private drum studio. Um he's not a session drummer yet or something, but he's a really good drummer. He also really helped me like uh tweaking on some of the sounds, uh yeah, till we all were happy um to then progress, uh do some progress with the rest of the recording.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. So it's kind of a team effort on the drums there. Yeah. Definitely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But you are the main, but it's safe to say that like you are the main kind of songwriter and producer of the band, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would consider myself more as a songwriter than a guitarist, I would say. And maybe for for you guys out there listening to us right now, it's may maybe also uh good to know how how we just came to the idea of doing the record on our own. Because um like to just to say, uh in 2000 2019, when we just um did the first uh or the second attempt doing this album, we are so there was so much uncertainty and doubt uh if we could ever do an album uh which sounds like us, like us like sounding on the live shows already. So everyone in the band was uh not uh yeah, not very motivated to to go on with with recordings, and also other people like um externally genuinely started wondering if you'd ever finish an album. So uh yeah, it was quite a difficult situation, but me as a songwriter, I it was so uh important for me to bring these songs uh to life. So I don't I don't want to be 60 or 70, 80 years old looking bad and say, oh, we we never uh we never finished this album. I knew I needed to uh to keep the group together. And um, in the former days, I never was a guy uh doing the DAW, um like pushing faders or something. I was always the songwriter, bringing the ideas, and there was someone else um just doing the engineering the recording. But yeah, over the years everyone got uh very busy with uh private life, with um professional lives, and there was not much um time and space anymore, like really nerding into the recording engineering thing. And also obviously um doing it with professionals didn't bring the results we really wanted. So I was at a point where I just knew if I don't do it, no one else will save this album. So um, and this was the point where I uh randomly went on Spotify and just typed in on the podcast thing list uh recording podcast, and I it was the first uh the first podcast on the list, the self-recording bed, and just the name was so um interesting for me. I just um yeah gave it a tr gave it a try. And uh from from then on I heard almost every episode and was like you were just mentoring me through uh the preparation of the album, and after some I don't know, 100 episodes, I was pretty sure okay, if I if we ever manage to do this album, uh these guys need to mix it.
SPEAKER_01I appreciate this. Yeah, uh content works if it's helpful content. No, uh, but yeah, I appreciate that. And uh the it's yeah, thank you for listening. That's really all I can say, and also I'm glad I'm glad it helped. Um and also there's it's one thing to consume content and be entertained by it, and but and then you know taking the information and actually implement it. So it I I can I and I I'm just as guilty of this as everyone else is like I listen to a lot of stuff without ever taking action on it. And then there's a few things that I do implement, and then every time I do, I get results. So it it didn't happen just because of us talking into your ears, it happened because you took that and then applied it. And and uh so yeah, you've done the work and you were very well prepared. And when we had the initial conversation and we did the first song as a test, sort of uh it just yeah, it just worked out pretty well.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, good, good. You mentioned like the first the first song we produced or we yeah collaborated uh together because the hardest part wasn't learning how to record it, it was uh rebuilding everyone's confidence that we could do it as a band. So um I asked everyone to trust the process before we had any proof that it will work out. So yeah. So I went like for the first song and um engineered it. And uh I can remember when we sat in the rehearsal room and we listened to the first mix of a song called King Kong. Everyone was stoked. And from that on, everyone was so much more um motivated and and and pushing um to finally make that album um happening. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I really, I really appreciate that. And honestly, it's also quite uh yeah, there was a little bit of pressure on me as well because I'm I mean, we did a test first, which was a very good idea. If you if you're in a situation like that where it's mostly about rebuilding trust in yourself and in others and in the process, I think it's a good idea to keep the the commitments low at first and and and have proof of concept before you do a bigger project. Um and we did that. But, you know, in so we kept the risk pretty low, but still knowing. That you know this band has tried to make something that sounds like them and were not really happy before. Like, what if this also doesn't work? And then it's the third attempt, sort of, and like I really wanted to make sure that it sounds sounds like you. Um, and yeah, I like the challenge, but also there's a little bit of pressure, of course. But you made it really easy for me because in this, I think you learned a lot as well since those past experiences, because you did a great job of explaining what you wanted and also the way you produced it, and this is so big, like the songs themselves and the way you produced it, it just also told me what it wanted to sound like. If that makes sense. Like you made decisions, you had creative guitar tones, and like you made you didn't send me blank stuff and then said, like, do whatever you want with it. Like you made production decisions, and there was only so much room to move, you know, anyways. Like there was already kind of a frame for the entire thing, and and it just lit just listening to it already told me what it wanted to be, which was all which is really helpful. And this is a big learning, I hope, for people listening to this, that you gotta put your producer head on and make decisions and be bold and like not put it off for someone else to make these decisions, because especially when you work with mixers, that the job is to mix and not to retroactively produce, unless that's explicitly what you want, but then be prepared to get something that the mixer wants. Um, you know, and so yeah, you you communicated you communicated it well, you sent me uh recordings that were pretty clear to me, and you made production decisions. And um you were not afraid to also, you know, uh keep some of the effects in there, keep some tones in there, make decisions with the drums that were creative, and that was why it was a lot of fun to mix this and not too hard to do, actually.
SPEAKER_02And for for me, like um looking back, it was uh the best thing we could do, like instead of trying to produce a whole album, like doing song by song by song, just focusing on this one song and just bringing this one song like so yeah, so far as it could get.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. We're gonna get back to the album, but while we're at the backstory and like the how it all started, I know that there are not there have not just been learnings when it comes to the production of things, but also when it comes to the promotion side of things. And I know from talking to you personally that there were kind of like some interesting, you know, strategies and things you tried also to promote the band or to promote, you know, uh your music. And I'd love to talk a little bit about that too, because you know, knowing what the band sounds like, knowing you and all of that, I was kind of surprised to hear the things you you did back then. So maybe you can share a couple of things and like how it how it came to this because it's cool, it's like really great experiences, but also like how did you get those connections? What did you do? What were some like maybe fun uh anecdotes from that time uh of you trying to figure out who you are as a band and that included the promotion as well? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I I think I know uh what you are going or you want to what you want to hear from me now, but uh yeah, let's uh let's give you some context. Um Singer in 2017 or something uh was part of The Voice of Germany, and he he got very far. And um didn't even know that. Did we ever talk about this? No, I I think we didn't talk about it. That's new to me.
SPEAKER_01Kim was at the West of Germany, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I I think um he he went to the semi-finals or something, and uh it was like uh a German artist called Mark Forster, um, which in the TV um recording he asked him, like, Oh, you're what are you doing? Do you have a band or something? And he said, Yeah, uh of course I have a band. It's called Max and Parkers. Oh, do you want to play something? And so he he was able to play a Maxim Parkos song in the Voice of Germany uh tele uh TV thing. So and uh that helps. That's uh why this song uh went viral overnight. We just um um because it was a recording, we could manage like to do a music video in with the piano version he did in the TV. So it it got yeah, uh amazing um engagement. And from this uh point uh we wanted to keep the momentum, and we met um we met a guy, uh a local from the local area. He was very well connected in the local, regional music thing, um booking shows and all this stuff. But I would say he wasn't like he hadn't the right contacts for us, but he had contacts, and we we were able to get shows to get paid for our shows. And one anecdote I want to share is like um there's uh also German TV um uh for kids, uh, which is called Super RTL. And there's a tour call it's called the Toko Tour, and it's a tour through Germany. So we were booked as a band touring with the with the for these these kids events, and yeah, did a tour through Germany, and we said, okay, if we are yet not able to do a live tour through Germany because it's it costs a lot of money, it's much effort to get into the clubs to get people seeing us. We said, okay, it's a paid job. We we uh go on tour, um why not? Let's do it. And yeah, it was a pretty amazing experience. Um, and I definitely don't want to miss it.
SPEAKER_01So you play in front of kids pretty much every every time at this tour in front of the kids' audience for the kid TV show.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but what they haven't told us before, they haven't told us. We were all booked, and what they haven't told us is we just uh went to the first tour stop and uh bringing brought all our instruments and back line and and thing. Um and then they told us, oh no, no, you are going to play playback. All of it, really? No, no, just the singing was live. Singing was live. The rest was playback, yeah, and it was uh yeah, it was weird, and I don't want to ever do it again. But yeah, from from that perspective, it was it was a funny time. Good friends touring through Germany.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, did it do anything for the band? Like, did you notice like uh you know, you know, more streams or record sales or merch or whatever? Like, did it do anything for the band other than being a good time?
SPEAKER_02Definitely. We sold plenty of merch uh on the on these uh tour stops and the the streams also went went went good. And we still have some fans um coming to to shows like uh we met uh in Munich or in Berlin or somewhere, and they uh it's it's crazy. They are doing all the travel, like sometimes 800 kilometers, uh coming to see us. And um this is coming from from this tour, and yeah, um, it's amazing. Wow.
SPEAKER_01That's really cool. Wasn't that there was another TV uh appearance as well, I think we talked about it, or wasn't it? I I mean at least we talked about it. I don't I don't remember correctly if did you play the fancy garden thing as well?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, yeah, um as um yeah we just uh we are asked to play there. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, we were asked to play in the in the in ZDF. Fancy Garden is um also This is not kids, this is like old people's TV in this case.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's the opposite side of the spectrum.
SPEAKER_02But it's also like a playback show. Um but it's yeah, you you need to, as an artist, you need to to see like the advantages and disadvantages, and it's a it's it's a lot of um yeah, people uh watching this thing, yes. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. You can you can hurt your brand, if you will, as well, like as a band. Like you have to um what what what is interesting to me is like let's say someone saw you at the Togo tour and they saw you play, you know, playback with live vocals, and then you said they some of those people were coming to you know your real kind of quote unquote real shows, or they were coming to see you live um and and traveling pretty far to get there and stuff. If someone saw you first on this Togo tour and then they saw your real fully live show, kind of were they excited about that or disappointed because of the you know difference between live and playback? That they like I just wonder. I never I never played a full playback show with any of my bands, so I don't I don't know, but I can only imagine like how did people react to the full life experience? Was it even better for them? Did they even mention it? Did they even notice? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I hope so. No, like the feedback we get, like, yeah, they were excited about it, uh, because of course the sound is so much different. And uh when I said like we we played the playback show, it was a four-song show. Like not the it was not a 90-minute playback show. Uh sure.
SPEAKER_01Thanks. Yeah, yeah. So it worked out. Yeah, I was just I was just curious, you know. If I I mean maybe people don't know and then they just notice the imperfections, you know, the imperfections of a live show that are cool in my opinion. But I I don't know if maybe it's a different type of audience.
SPEAKER_00We have a very important question here. Yeah. Did you ex exchange instruments at any show?
SPEAKER_02For the playback shows.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02We uh like the the drums, definitely we needed to mute it to mute the drums. Like we put a very big um um, how do you say, like these rubber things onto the onto the drum shells uh to avoid like uh being hurt, yeah. But uh we we didn't have cables, or we had cables, we had like the the um virulet thing, virus thing and the guitar. Um but what do you mean exactly by changing instruments?
SPEAKER_00I mean like if you, for example, you one day you can play drums, for example. Oh, you mean swap instruments between one members? That would be funny.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02No, uh no, we didn't, no, we didn't, unfortunately, because uh because we wanted it to look very, very real. Um and we did our very best, like to do uh especially like the the best part of playing playback, playing playback is uh okay. Um is that you can just perform like you want, you can jump, you can move around um like you want. And uh yeah, this was uh actually yeah, very very fun about it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. That I can honestly, like I that sounds a lot like a lot of fun to me. And I'm I'm not even like we make fun of this kind of, but I'm not even like against it. There are situations where it just makes sense, and it's like it's a performance still, your job is still to entertain the audience, and then you have the live vocal. So it's not like people might think it's like super easy to perform a playback show, but you're still there to entertain people, you still gotta do your job, and you want to make it convincing in a way too. So I don't know, like yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I looking back, I would say there were several occasions like the Togo Tour, but also other shows where there was a clear mismatch of like what the band was um looking for and what paid um shows we were uh we were getting. Um yeah, but we needed the money, I would say. We all invested it in in good backline, in in-ear monitoring, and also of course in the socks. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01Now that's a really, really funny uh backstory there. And yeah, it just you just try, you know, you just try different things and you you you were serious about you know making it work with the band and all that, and so why not jump on these opportunities?
SPEAKER_02Within this, we we we get we got our onlyest uh four or six months uh radio rotation in Germany. Like this was actually a pretty uh nice achievement. It was unfortunately uh with a song the band never liked, but yeah, we we went on the radio.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's all part of the journey, you know. And what's so beautiful about it is it's the great memories, of course, and and like looking back, it's funny, but also you learned a lot during that time, and eventually, after this long period of time, you landed at a spot where you finally have a record and songs that you are actually happy with. And so, you know, you've experienced it all. It's just a fun journey. Now, the sad thing about it from my perspective is that now that you've arrived at a record and songs that you are proud of and that sound like you, it kind of you know, you had this release show that in your opinion went really well and all that, but then you had to have a pretty hard conversation, and now kind of the future of the band is kind of up in the air, right? Which is sad for me. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Just yeah, just uh one week after releasing the album and playing, in my opinion, the best show we ever played with our new drummer uh Lucas, uh, which did an amazing job um substituting my brother Manuel. And yeah, our singer just uh gave me a call and said, Okay, um I'm sorry, but I need I need to leave the band. And I was very heartbroken, and I would say the first time after 15 or 20 years, uh I really was crying uh because uh I put so much uh passion and um time into this project, making this album happen, and not only uh writing it, producing it, engineering it, also doing all the stuff with with come what comes along with the release, like doing the social thing, the video thing, um talking with labels, uh trying to raise money, um bringing it to a vinyl, um booking a show, bringing people to the show, um also uh booking shows for next year, uh festivals for next year or something, looking where we can yeah, see ourselves with the first time ever in our career having a product in our hand we are really proud of. And this hits so hard. Um, and I needed some some time to get yeah, to get a new perspective onto it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, fully understand. I it's still I think the future is still kind of undecided, though, right? I mean, as we talked about, it's it's it it's very tough because replacing Kim is kind of difficult and tough. It's it's always hard to replace a vocalist, anyways. But then if it's somebody with like a really remarkable voice that stands out, like it there's obviously not easy, but it's also not impossible. And there have been other bands that have done it. We talked about the Lincoln Park example when we were on the camping site uh not too long ago, where you know, um maybe you can do you can do a completely different direction, not even trying to recreate it, but like find someone else with an interesting voice to not even be able to compare it. That could be an option. Different ways there. So are you is there any have you talked to the others about this, or do you have any conclusion yet what the future of Maxim Parkas will look like if there is a future?
SPEAKER_02I think we are still in the process. And we are at the moment, um, at the moment we are all in at a moment in our lives where we are very busy uh with our professional careers. Uh for me as a video producer or running a video agency, um, and for the others' other topics like children and all this stuff. Um but for me, we are we were 15 years a group, like uh five friends doing this thing together. And it's it feels like okay, replacing one of them uh just doesn't feel right. And I think we need to decide um if it's maybe it's just time to start something new, as frustrating as it is. Um but I would agree that we are still in the process like where we definitely need to make a decision if like if we if we find a point like okay to move on. Because I know how hard it is to find a good vocalist which fits into an existing group of people which already worked far by 15 years together. Um, yeah. And I need to say, like, I'm located in Berlin. My band is located in Dortmund, it's like 500 kilometers away. And I went to every rehearsal. I this there was so much organization involved to it and and travel uh expenses involved to it. Um and I did it um yeah uh with joy um uh going to Dortmund and and and playing uh with the guys and the rehearsal room. But I kind of like uh would also um be open to find new buddies, maybe in Berlin, um, to just check out. Um I recently started to writing again, uh writing and producing my own stuff, uh where I at the moment in the demos, um I'm also the vocalist. Uh pretty exciting for me because um I just used to be the background vocalist thing. But uh yeah, thanks to autotune, it sounds, I think, not too bad. And um you can do it. Maybe like someone out there is listening to that, um, located in Berlin, listening to our previous album and say, okay, this sounds not too bad. Maybe we meet for a coffee and and see if we have any synergies, um, talking about music, producing together, writing together, and maybe starting a new band together. Um this would be great if this would be the outcome of today's podcast. Uh, but yeah, let's see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it could it could very well be. Um, have you and again, like yeah, yeah, it might be and you don't you haven't made the decision, and it might it might just be time, like you said, for something new. And sometimes, you know, the cliche thing of like when a door closes, another one opens up, and you have to do, you know, these kind of things. So it might be that, but also have you thought about not replacing Kim at all and just one of you are doing the vocals instead, so you don't have to bring a new person in?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, actually, everyone is telling me like to be the new vocalist, but um I see Kim as uh he has just an incredible high uh level as a vocalist. He has uh the only only Sky in our band uh who's doing like um music full-time. Like he um he is in a core uh choral um he does musicals, uh he is as uh a gala vocalist or doing other um cover projects. Um so he he's doing plenty of music and he's just just so good that I I don't really c want to compare myself with him.
SPEAKER_01Maybe you don't have to. Yeah, maybe you know, maybe it's not even about the comparison. Maybe you can do your own unique thing. I don't know, like it I'm just putting it out there. I don't know. Um I've heard your voice, it's definitely not bad. It's I I wouldn't compare it, it's just different.
SPEAKER_00And so I think I think I have a good take in this topic, because this exactly the same situation that Fabi has mentioned happened to me like maybe it's like 10 years ago already. Oh my god. Um but yeah, I was playing guitar in a band, and the thing is that the band got sort of big, and we had a really good album that was getting traction, we were playing festivals and all that, and suddenly one day the singer left. And you know, if I were able to go back and do it again, I would still do it because then I bec I became the singer in the band. Um, but I would do it, you know, I would take way more time because the problem we had is that we thought it was our moment, you know, because the album was doing great and stuff. So we went we wanted to continue making music as soon as possible. Uh but this guy, he was one of the main songwriters in the band. So what happened immediately after that is that we were very insecure about every single song we were making because we didn't have the guy who was making half of the songs. Uh and this led us to a very painful process of you know making another EP as fast as possible and not thinking about it as long as I think we should have done it. So my you know, my take on this is that even it's fine if you decide if you decide to be the singer, that's great. But do what you're doing, which is take your time and really think about it and don't try to do things as fast as possible as we did, because it did not end up well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02It's a good take. It's a good take. Thank you so much. Like I think like the most the biggest problem I see is like I have a completely different vocal range. Than him. And the band, like we did the last show, we have we just we are doing also like it all with playbacks, like the uh synthesizers or something come from the playbacks and backing tracks, yeah. Yeah, backing tracks, yeah. Um, and it's so much work like creating a show, like a 20-song show with a proper intro and and yeah, rehearsing it, and now going like to create a new show with the same songs. Maybe we need to do uh to change the keys of of all of the songs. That's another good point. Yeah, it's it just feels like uh um an plenty big amount of of work uh where I don't I usually don't want to put too much work into things which already happened in the past. Do you know what I what I mean? Like I I I want to move forward, I want to create something new and don't want to invest another year like recreating something we already did. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. And also maybe, you know, it could also just be the perfect circle kind of thing where you know the you came full circle to making these this album, it's there, you got this done at least. You can now know that these songs will be out there forever, they will potentially outlive you. And maybe it's just the universe telling you, you know, this is what you needed to do, and now it's time for something else. It can also just be a perfect story arc, basically, that now is closed. At least there's no open loop, you know, where it would be way worse if the songs were still not finished and stuff, but you have the record, so you know.
SPEAKER_02In 2014 or 13, something like this, our singer um have left the band um for the first time, and then he he came back. So, Kim, if you're listening to this, uh we are still friends, come back. Come back whenever you want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, and it also, I mean, you know, the other thing is if you are not, it's not your job, right? Nobody's gonna lose their job, or there's not a lot of money on the line or whatever now anymore with this band, so there's no pressure. You don't also have to make a definite like you know decision and officially break up and tell everyone. You can just keep it at that. And if what if for whatever reason, a year from now you have fun again playing music, and then the band exists again, fine. And if not, also fine. We kind of did the same with my band. We never fully broke up. We didn't do we didn't do shit for many years, but then again, all of a sudden we played a pretty big festival and it was a like a really, really good time. Then we played another show, it was also a good time. Now we're not doing anything again, but we don't know. Maybe we will play again. I don't like you don't, you know, you could just keep it like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, my younger self, my younger self really wanted to to have commercial success success uh with the band and to do it full-time, like um uh doing a living out of it. And yeah, we did we did pretty good. Like we we played um shows in front of seven, eight thousand people, like with support as a supporting act. So um we definitely had like uh we have so much nice memories. Um we just created together, but there was then then one um moment or a period of time in my life where I needed to decide in which direction I want to develop my creative career. And I chose the video thing to do it as as a commercial professional career. And today I'm very happy about it because like the video thing is like doing the money. Also, it's it's also I'm also very very passionate about it, but um, of course, I'm also doing it for the money, yeah. And the music thing is something I exclusively leave for the art, I just do it for the art. And this is something very satisfying. Like I don't care about if there's someone out there listening to it, and if great. If not, I really like what we do, and yeah, if then commercial success comes along the way, it's cool, but if not, I just love doing it and and and keeping this for myself, yeah, it's it's also very valuable. And maybe it's also something for the self-producing guys out there. Like it's absolutely okay that we are not all doing it full-time and and getting um and getting our bills paid uh with this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. In fact, if you make a lot of people who make the jump from going uh like and they go from uh hobby to full-time professional musician, a lot of them find, not everyone, but a lot of them actually find that it's kind of difficult to also keep the joy and the fun in it because all of a sudden now you have to do things. You don't get to choose as much as you did before. And like uh, you know, when and I can totally see that. Like, if as long as it's a hobby, you can do pretty much whatever you want. But if it's the thing that pays your bills, you have to make some decisions that might take the fun out of it a little bit, or it just, you know, part of it just becomes a job. And that that's not a bad thing. It's better to have a job that you love than one that you hate, but you still gotta be aware of it, of the fact that parts of it will be a job. And so maybe for some people, it's actually better to keep that a hobby and have all the freedom and do whatever we want with it, and then have something else that pays the bills.
SPEAKER_02So for me, be before COVID, it just felt more like a job than uh than a thing. I I was passionate about it because I five percent was doing music, like playing or writing or something, I uh which I really love. Uh, and 95% were like talking to venues, doing social media, uh creating uh a merchandise shop, um doing all this stuff, accounting, and it was so much around it um that the music thing got lost in the noise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I totally believe it. Yeah, totally. I've seen it many times. And the irony is also often that, and I think it's true in this case as well, part of the reason why some records sound as good as they do is because the band decided to not give a shit about like what made might make it successful or whatever, they just do their thing. And in your case, this record to me sounds so good because it sounds like you. And whenever people try to and yes, the the thing around the music, like you just described, you always have to do that. There's not like somebody's gotta do it, that's clear. But like what when it gets difficult is when when people also try to create something like the music itself, in an effort to appeal to many people or grow their audience or do something that that people might end up enjoying, it it almost never works because nobody has a crystal ball. And you like, yeah, as long as the more you lean into who you are as an artist, and the more you make your music about your stories, your life experiences, your emotions, and all of that, the more I think it will resonate with with some people, not all people, but the ones that it resonates with, it will do so very well. And and in your case, I think part of why the record sounds so good is because it's you. And you, you know, there was no one else telling you what you might have to do in order to reach that this or that audience.
SPEAKER_02So yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And I also sorry, go ahead, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I still have like 200 copies of the vinyl, like you see in the background, and I'm so proud of it. Like uh in 30, 40 years going and like uh listening to this track, uh, even if we never will sell uh these copies to anyone.
SPEAKER_01I mean, can they be so can they be bought? Like, is there a link where people can go to now and still order it?
SPEAKER_02They can be bought, yeah. They can be bought like on uh on the shop side of our label, uh which is called Time Zone. Right, so they still exist. Yeah, there you can find it. Uh still can find it, like also the SD if you want, but uh yeah, I prefer the vinyl. It's it's a very good vinyl, yeah. Perfect, perfect. I'm gonna put all the things. I still need you to send a copy, Benny. I still need to send a copy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I might just order one right now. So no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02I will send it to you.
SPEAKER_01I appreciate that, man. Yeah, I usually do it when I work with people. I I tend to order the records just because, you know, why not? I mean, I want to have one. And so I never I never saw, I don't think I ever saw the link though to that to the label shop. Maybe I just missed it online.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, at the first place, we had to we had some um our own Shopify shop for for the release show where like people could pre-order and um get the vinyl uh at the show. But yeah, you know, at some point uh you just pay uh the monthly fee for the shop and there's two less orders, so you close it and yeah, it's good that the label uh still have like the opportunity to buy the record if anyone is interested.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. Yeah, I'm gonna put all of that in the show notes, of course. Also, I just looked it up um because of the Berlin thing. Berlin is our is is fourth on the list here of our most popular cities. Like when I listen, when I check out like all our listeners where they're from and where we get most of the listens from, uh you know, um across all the platforms. Berlin is fourth on the list with more than 2,000 listeners. So maybe somebody hears it that wants to collaborate in some way, shape, or form. Yeah, would be appreciated.
SPEAKER_02Just reach out, guys.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Cool. Also funny, I never like I haven't looked at this in a while. Like I see that our top city is Melbourne in Australia, although Australia is only fifth on the list when it comes to countries. But for whatever reason, Melbourne is the most popular city, or we are most popular in Melbourne. I don't know. Interesting. We should change their accent. I cannot do an Australian accent. There's no way. Yeah. And we need to stop saying buddy or dude or whatever we need to say mate. That's what they say, mate. Anyway, um, so one thing I haven't asked about, Fabi, is going back to the live thing, and I don't know what the future will look like for any future projects for you, but knowing that you obviously programmed the drums for those songs on the record, and knowing also that they're very different from one song to another. And you know, some of them were sounding like uh like an acoustic rock kit, and others were sounding more like a like a pop song, um, where you use more electronic sounds, not trying to make it sound like a real kit. How did you how did you do that on on stage? Did you just, you know, did you have like pads there to use like some of the electronic sounds, or did you just play everything with a real kit and it sounded like just a little different from the record? Like that's that's something that I would be interested in hearing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, actually it was it was all uh the real drum set. Um we tend to use um the a pad thing, like having it uh on the side of the drums, but um as we changed uh drummers uh recently, like before before the Joe uh the the release show, because uh my brother just got uh a father and he um didn't have time uh to practice, so uh he decided to leave the band as well. But um his brother-in-law, Lucas, joined, and he's um actually he's a metal drummer, um, but he did a pretty good job playing our any pop songs, and uh I did um on the live shows, I really uh didn't miss um the electronic stuff, yeah. And this is what we wanted to keep like it should be like the energy should be there, and it yeah, it was it was there, it was a very good energy on stage, so didn't miss it.
SPEAKER_01Cool, yeah, very interesting. That's what I was wondering about because some of the songs, I mean, part of the sonic signature of them are the more electronic beats, but yeah, I can totally see it also work with a real kid. It would just be interesting to hear that. Um, yeah. Cool. Um you write all of the did you write all of the lyrics for the songs, or was it Kim or someone else in the band?
SPEAKER_02I would say like it's difficult like to give a few numbers, but I would say like 70% is uh are lyrics for me, and uh then we have some songs we just collaborated where one of us brought the idea and then we worked it out together. And some of them were um written by Kim as well, so he's also a very good songwriter, but I see his point leaving the band, but because he was always the piano guy, like singing ballads, and this was always his thing, and our band's life is just like yeah, being very loud, um high keeping high energy momentum and like having maybe one or two or three ballads in the set, but uh his um ability like um singing ballads is uh yeah just mind blowing. Yeah, and this maybe also led to his decision to move into another direction for now because um as a front vocalist, he kind of needs to identify like with the lyrics with the music, and he needs to sell it to the people. And he if he constantly needs to act like that, he loves all the songs and the lyrics, and he didn't feel so well with it, I would say.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I need to look up the I already found it after this. I need to look up his performance at um The Voice of Germany because he said the piano thing, and I already see him there playing with the piano and and singing. I need to check that out.
SPEAKER_02I I can recommend like checking out uh the uh Voice of Germany, um, Harry Styles Sign of the Times uh cover from him. This is mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_01Interesting, yeah. I bet it is. I'm gonna check that out. Very cool. Yeah, now like you said before, uh let's talk about the future, not so much only the past. What is your there's a couple of questions that I have about this, but let's start by saying, what is the vibe of your new material? Is it very similar to the Max and Parkhaus stuff, or is it completely different? Is there like let's start there. What is what does your music currently sound like?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it would say it depends. I have I've written some thought songs uh uh first time, um also in English, because uh mainly um or exclusively, we just did like German songs, um, but I also have like new material like which is a similar direction to what we just uh recently did. Um, and of course, there are some influences from Germany like Kraft Club or from the Englishbad or um some other artists from from this uh genre, which pretty much influenced me over the past years. And I just discovered like writing songs and producing them at the same time gives me so much joy. Like recording it and having something like a result at the end of the session, hitting the spacebar and magic happens is oh okay. This is just something I created for joy. And um now I really need to check all the material I I created over the past month um to see if there is potential to go in one direction or in another direction, and then really finishing these songs and maybe collect some demos um which could fit into one genre, um, or um maybe go into a completely different direction. But uh I'm not sure yet, as you probably hear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. No, that it makes sense. Um just I'm just uh obviously curious to hear uh you know what you what you're working on. The other thing is, and maybe yeah, that's part of the same question, kind of what are some of the biggest takeaways and learnings from your past recording experience? Like now that you've gone through, you've worked with professional producers, you've done it yourself as well, you've had different perspectives, different approaches. Um, like we said, you've learned a lot through the process. What are you taking away from this and maybe doing differently on future recordings of yours? I'm sure you won't do exactly the same thing that you've done in the past. Like, what are the biggest takeaways and learnings and how do you apply them to your next um things you're working on?
SPEAKER_02Good question. I was I would say like the biggest lessons like finishing one song is one thing, but finishing a complete album is a completely different story, and you need to have a completely different mindset because finishing an album is not done within a month or something when you are like uh working full-time in an in another career. So I really needed to manage my my free time, like um building my calendar around it, like having two or three hours in the evening. And um what I did is I had a Google spreadsheet where I listed all the songs with all the recording and editing and sound steps I needed to I needed to do within um yeah, within the next months and years. And it was a hell of a work. It was a mountain. I was standing in front of, I would say I I I could never do this like for nine songs. So it was so much work doing it for one, but experiencing like that you're getting quicker and better and um yeah, moving moving on faster, doing your decisions, but also sharing this spreadsheet regularly to the band was also keeping the momentum for them, but because um seeing like the all the steps slowly were ticked uh is so satisfying for everyone of us. And um yeah, I shared this probably weekly to my to my band colleagues, yeah. What I would change. Seeing progress made, yeah. Yeah, seeing progress made. What I would change about it, I would say like deciding faster and being I mean, we would also say like we want we want to do the 100% best uh best solution or best song we could produce. Um but I would say um at the moment I would say like 90% is okay. Be okay with 90% because you will never be at the 100. So okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that that's that's good. But not letting perfectionism get in the way of finishing. Yeah. Okay. Did your setup change at all from like previous productions to the stuff you're working on right now? Like what does your setup look like? You mentioned uh um when we I think this was before we started recording, but you mentioned the Fender Studio Pro, whatever it's called. Uh it used to be Studio One Personas. Yeah. Uh so that's the door. But then uh anything else that has changed about your setup based on previous experiences?
SPEAKER_02I I bought uh a bass guitar because uh I want to do I I want to play the bass on myself and not doing it on the guitar or doing it on the on the synthesizer. Um and uh for now I'm happy like programming drums and not playing it uh because I know it's a demo phase, and if what if I want to really um release uh a part of of my demos, I will ask um maybe my colleague Lars to to play the drums uh on a live set, or maybe ask Lucas uh to play it uh on the MIDI set. Um but for now I'm I'm I'm a splice guy, like working very very fast with the splice samples, and um I'm still figuring it out, bringing like the best you can do about the splice uh workflow, like putting uh single snare hits and single kick drum hits um into into the song. It's I mean it's a it brings uh its own character, like if you do it like this. I see many people doing it, but of course I would prefer like having real drums uh in the songs. Yeah. But this is something I'm just changed because I'm I'm I'm free and I'm faster um doing it like this.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah, those are pretty much the questions. So it's a lot of like undecided. stuff is but like also um you don't have to you know you don't you don't have to know already what it's gonna sound like in the future and you you have a setup that's working you have ideas obviously you don't run out of ideas that's important too so you don't have you're not struggling with the writer's block thing and um and yeah and you've applied and what I liked about the the learnings part was like really the more it was more mindset stuff than like technical stuff so you mentioned the you know maybe like just living with the fact that it's rarely going to be 100% and that at some point it needs to be good enough and just finished so that's important. Yeah um so it was less of the it sounded like there's less technical challenge than it is like finding time for it organizing it having the right mindset and like all that kind of stuff. I think you got the tech part figured out pretty much um yeah.
SPEAKER_02Maybe now like the desire comes up like okay um developing the ability like bringing um the idea to life like from writing producing engineering the song and maybe also mixing it in the future not because I think I will be the best mixer in the world but I just um lacking um with the with the mixing I would say and I I'm not very satisfied and if I want if I'm going to release something I'm pretty sure I want to have someone else uh mix this thing but having the ability just also to to and to be in in a demo phase and it and it um already sounds um like a finished product is something I I really desire.
SPEAKER_01Very good point. Very good point. I think I just had a call today with someone interested in our coaching where um it was one of those situations where it was not clear if he wants to learn how to mix or just do the recording and then send it out for mixing. And I always say that that pretty much what you just said that even if you end up hiring someone for the mix um I I think it's very it's a very good skill set to have and very valuable for most artists these days to know to know at least um a little bit about mixing and to be able to at least do decent like demo mixes just because you can communicate much differently with mixers. You have you understand the process a lot better. It makes you a better recording engineer as well and who knows maybe you enjoy it so much and you actually are happy with the results that you want to keep doing it. But even if not, I think it makes you a better producer and a better recording engineer and it makes you collaborate better with other mixes the more you understand about the process the better it is. So I think there's value in doing that. And what you said is also important get having something that sounds close to a finished product right from the beginning is a super super cool thing to have as well. And obviously that is part part of that is writing good songs, playing them well, having good source tones, that alone should be pretty close to like a finished product. But if you can do quick intuitive but also confident um mixing decisions as you are recording things it's not it shouldn't be the final mix but like just making things sound closer to how you envision it. It just makes the process more fun. It gives you a better idea of what it's going to sound like in the end. And yeah I'm I'm all for that. So I I totally I totally understand this. Yeah and who knows maybe you you know maybe you want to mix yourself that and there's no right or wrong there and no recommendation I can give because I've seen people do it successfully themselves completely start to finish and I've seen people not do it. And there are people who are telling me I could never mix my own songs and then there are people who do it all the time. So you got to figure it out for yourself and if you like it or not.
SPEAKER_02What I surprisingly experienced like over the two years where I produced the album and worked a lot with audio is that at the same time I was constantly getting better in the video um post production like um working on the sound designs of our um video products and this was like okay I like there's a there's a bridge between between those uh two worlds and yeah it's so much fun working with audio.
SPEAKER_01Yeah oh that's actually I didn't even think about that but yeah there's a big advantage for you there as well like big benefit and this is like I don't know how you feel about this but unfortunately so many video people that I've worked with in the past or that have done videos for the bands that I worked with and like especially then if they're not like especially outside of the music world but even inside of the music world where it's the task is to make a music video so many video people have no idea no fucking clue about anything audio and the number of times I got you know I saw a music video posted by the band and they didn't even realize it unfortunately often the number of times I saw a video where the audio was just mono and nobody realized is like insane to me. Or also if I see like some of the content I see out there, some of the video stuff that people are doing, I just wish more video people knew more about audio. That's all I'm saying. And even like the software that exists for anything video is like they often like it seems like audio is is overlooked so often and you have to find workarounds and other tools and have to combine things like it's getting a little better but it's like it's really really frustrating. And then if you talk to the support at some of the companies as well they don't they don't know what what you're even talking about.
SPEAKER_02It's like yeah so audio is 50% 50% yeah maybe maybe more maybe more and today um I delivered uh our first uh surround sound uh cinema commercial so I did the sound design and our friend Hendrik uh did the surround sound mix and yeah is it an atmos mix or a five to one five point one five point one not no atmos uh this is the next next uh step I would say uh but yeah I'm looking forward like um visiting the cinema and seeing like the results and uh yeah amazing yeah yeah you that's I wish more video people would would would pay attention more to audio but also you can't blame them because how would you know if you don't know you don't know right and like yeah and so but it's definitely I can see that being um you know an advantage for you if you know audio really well and uh yeah so that's cool.
SPEAKER_01And even on social media like a lot of times or or like when you do content and I mean there's both. Some people consume content with the phones muted so visuals are obviously important. But then the other way around happens as well where they have their e bots on and they are they're only listening. And also there's this thing where when the human voice is involved people like we as humans are very sensitive to how a human voice is supposed to sound like and as soon and if that's not right we can we just know we don't know what is wrong but something is wrong and it just doesn't connect as well. So it's really important to get that part right heck yeah yeah cool. Awesome so what is I'm still I I know I'm not gonna get a real answer to this probably but I still want to hear a little like what do you think the next couple you know next year or two is going to bring for you either with the band or you personally is there any goal that you have still this despite all the unknowns and like it sounds like you're just you know experimenting and letting it happen and seeing what happens but like maybe in the back of your mind there is like a little bit of a a goal or something you haven't because you have achieved already a lot of things as an artist but maybe there's something you haven't done yet that you're like I wish like that that's that's a milestone that I would try to I would love to reach.
SPEAKER_02Yeah I would say like this good bridge to um what I already said to the first chapter of the album process um I want to very much focus on one song where where I'm the vocalist to make it release ready and then just release it. And maybe also without any big promotional background just um being satisfied by having a finished product releasing it and I know okay I brought my vision to life I make I made it release ready um maybe not like the full process all of myself maybe with your help Benny maybe you are going to mix it I don't know let's see um yeah this is like um doing baby steps and then um going further from this and my um networking um how you say my network networking antenna is at the moment very open to everyone uh who maybe could um be a good fit like working with um but I I you know when you start a band when you're very young you're just basically doing it with your best buddies your best friends like I can remember like my my my partner in crime Fabian which is also like um my business partner when I asked him um uh 20 years ago like oh do you uh want to be in my band uh we we just need a bass player he said I I'm not playing the bass I I'm playing guitar and and drums but okay then I learn the bass guitar yeah so you're doing it like just with your friends but when I would start a new project I really would like to have complementary skills in the in the group because I ended up doing all the organizational stuff and being always the guy holding up holding the group together and I don't want to be that guy anymore I want to have people around me like move with the same vision or to have a vision and everyone um brings something to move forward and not only come to for rehearsing or playing the show. Yeah so being more intentional with the people I work with I guess.
SPEAKER_01Interesting take interesting and absolutely understandable but it's like it's something I never really thought about that much. But yeah we choose pretty much everyone at least with our first bands we don't choose the people based on their skills and what they can bring to the band we choose them because they were our friends. And then even if they're not available if they're available yeah and even if they can play the instrument we just make them play the instrument or learn the instrument you know and like it was the same for me. Like they were saying you can play the guitar and I wasn't really good at it anyways but like they were like you can play the guitar you can probably also play bass and I you you're gonna be the bass player and you know that's a typical story. And it's interesting and now yeah you get you are at a point now where you get to choose um you can do you can try a different approach and you can you can choose people based on what they can do for the project and and combine all the different skills. Yeah it's a different way of build of building a band. Yeah interesting it yeah it picking people intentionally in general is it's a different thing when we grow older like if you can even go back further than this like because who are who are our friends really when we grow up it's like the people that sat next to us in school or lived in the same street or whatever we didn't even choose them really you know like life just brings those people into our worlds and that's that's awesome and some of those friendships will last others don't but if you think about it there was not much intention behind any of this so yeah yeah it's interesting yeah cool. Yeah uh Manel I saw you take some notes along the way and whatever but like you are quietly observing I don't know if you have anything to ask or add to the conversation there I mean you didn't raise a hand or something but I maybe yeah I think I have another question because I think there's a missing piece to this puzzle.
SPEAKER_00Because well first of all I'd like to say congrats to Fabi because recording an album three times it's kind of crazy. But then I'd like to know because like we've been talking about this you know the first two attempts with two different producers and then you did it yourself and that's when it worked but that's what I want to know because I think the audience would be pretty interested in knowing more about that like what made it happen because we we said like of course part of it is is that you did it yourself so I guess you had the opportunity to produce it yourself and that gives you the opportunity to uh um you know to make your own sound right but I like to know what exactly happened like is it for example that you could use the guitar tones that you were really thinking of or is it that the producers before were influencing your sound too much like what is exactly what made it work yeah very interesting and good question like I would say the first time like the first attempt and it was never like the same album we uh tried to produce but there was definitely like um a few songs within the first attempt uh and uh within the second attempt and at the third attempt there were maybe like two or three or five more or different kind of thongs but like um the the four or five thongs were in the all of the three attempts the first time I would say there was too less time in the studio like with the analog workflow we very we we weren't very um prepared for that maybe a bit naive and the second time I would say like because the second producer was uh very hip-hop producer with with his own style he had us he he was also an artist basically it was a friend basically he it was a friend uh which constantly released music and we were lagging with this and we thought okay he can do this maybe we should do it with him because he is managing to release constantly good sounding pieces of art so we thought okay maybe let's do it with him let's give it a try because last time we failed so much yeah and from the second attempt we released I would say two or three um songs but it was still like okay there was this big difference between the live shows and the uh songs um online yeah yeah and I was always ashamed like when people were asking oh yeah what are you doing for music uh what what what does it sound like I would say yeah we do you have something on Spotify or something you said yeah we have but on the live shows uh it sounds different and and I I I started to describe like um or to apologize for what's online and this was a weird feeling like not being proud of what we created and I wanted to be proud of uh the songs because uh yeah life they they were so full of energy and the band uh was locking in but I thought we I could never do or produce record the album by ourselves I would say like I don't have the ability I don't have the knowledge and then discovering like this podcast like was um first first of all it was um helping me to do a mindset shift yeah like okay uh Benedict and uh Malcolm and then you were like talking about like yeah you can absolutely can do it by yourself. There's no doubt you can you just need to have a framework you need to you need to do it like with uh intention and yeah then I I started to believing and okay okay maybe we we can do it because yeah and then we did it finally it's really about the about the believing not just believing in the the process and us and the the whole concept but believing in yourself and your own abilities more than anything actually yeah yeah was it the right what was it the answer for your question I hope so well no I don't know like I I'd like to know exactly like whenever you did it yourself then what happened what made it click what happened when you know your bandmates uh listened to the songs and really uh got like convinced that it was going to happen like what was the difference the difference was that it was an edited edited uh performance but it sounded natural um and then having also like the proof with the first mix many did um and then the band started believing like me that we can do it and it was just sounding more unique not so polished not so pop um all what we wanted to leave behind so um yeah it was just like absolutely clear that we are not doing this record uh to get commercial success I would say like we are not doing it for for radio uh for airplays or something and this was something uh yeah which made click like having the roughness bringing the band sound into the studio production back yeah so it like from what I from what you've said I I guess that this basically means that between the two first attempts uh the process and also the you know the producer or the people you were working with were trying to bring you to a different place where you didn't want to go and with this third attempt yeah when you did it yourself you could really be the band you wanted to be basically yeah this is uh yeah this sums up sums it up very well thank you Manel and it's the to me to this day like and it it's not the first time that someone said it but also every but still it is the best thing that anyone could say about working with me honestly is like when someone says and you've you you said it differently than a lot of other people but when yes when someone says like this finally sounds like us this is I mean it doesn't get much better than that for in my opinion and and and I know that there are producers and mixers out there who have their own you know um sonic kind of signature whatever or their own fingerprint that they put on every record and and that's a thing but I I prefer I I I just I just like unique exciting and authentic records that sound like the artists more than anything and if I get to do that and still you know of course make it professional and like I have my taste and all of that but like that's just the biggest compliment I can get and that's the the I think I think every artist is just the happiest when they feel like they have been heard and they have the thing that they wanted to create.
SPEAKER_01I think even if and and sometimes maybe the record that the producer would have made or the mixer maybe it would have been quote unquote better or more successful or whatever. But I it's still I think less satisfying than having something that is exactly what you wanted to make. I don't know that's so so for me this is this is really great to hear.
SPEAKER_02And I wouldn't say I would never ever work with a producer again.
SPEAKER_01No no no no I I hate that yeah but we just need you just need to pick the producer intentionally like really intentionally and there must be an absolutely fit and because we yeah we had two times the this big mismatch there was like too high risk like to fail again uh picking the wrong guy or the wrong woman again yeah yeah so and then the communication as well because even if it is a fit you still you have to communicate what you actually want that's another part and you have to take the lead and you have to you know make certain decisions and maybe maybe you also put too much trust in someone else in the past and you know that's it's it's just a big learning experience overall.
SPEAKER_02We gave we gave away too much responsibility. So taking the ownership uh feels so great because you can blame you can't blame anyone afterwards.
SPEAKER_01Yeah yeah yeah that's one of the nice things about the whole self-recording thing is like you have control over the creative process and that leads to unique stuff. And uh and then when you also collaborate with others and there's synergy there that's that's a beautiful thing. Yeah. Very very interesting story and very unique too in the way that and and also yeah I can just repeat what Manil says like also congrats for following through a lot of times and actually finding the and the the confidence and the the trust in yourself the belief in yourself and and and not losing interest in making music that's also important um you see more more excited about it than ever so that's great yeah definitely the momentum uh was uh so nice like to experience um you finish an album it's incredible like all of you guys out there do it just do it yeah yeah do it finish finish something yeah cool love it where can people find Maxim Pacos uh where can people check out the music and I don't know if there's any place where we can already you know stay in the loop or like get updates on what you're doing next maybe not but like just let us know where we should uh send people to and where they can figure out more about everything we just talked about.
SPEAKER_02If you want to listen to um to the album you can absolutely go to your the streaming platform of your choice. I think it's more or less on every streaming platform. Like nowadays is very easy to publish um but go to Spotify or Apple Music um and if you want to follow along uh on Instagram it's Max imparkhouse like uh in English it's Max in the parkhouse basically um and yeah I would be happy like uh give it a try give it a listen and if there things are changing from the status quo we have now you probably probably will uh get infos on Instagram then cool perfect and uh you know your own personal work with the video stuff is mainly like in a beat business to business kind of context right you or is or is or do you also work with I don't know I have no idea if you also work on like music videos or do any collaborations there.
SPEAKER_01I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Let me say like the uh business to business stuff pays the bills and the art uh is like of course we charge money for our music videos or something um we did color grading uh for uh big names in Germany like Silbermond or Provinz or I don't know uh like just no Germans will know the names I already mentioned but yeah we we do music videos we do the the color grading for music videos um and if you're interested uh into this uh yeah just reach out at look median on Instagram or um yeah you can absolutely write uh to the Maxim Park site or something if you want to hang out in Berlin to have a coffee to listening to some demos or uh doing a session or something.
SPEAKER_01Awesome I'm I'm gonna put all of that in the show notes and I can uh confirm that Fabian is a really good hang we had the I had the pleasure two times I met him in Berlin and the when the super booth event happened and I was there and then another time where you were close to where I live in the Bavarian forest and we were hanging out at the camping at the campsite there. So that was that was nice. So yeah I'm gonna put that in the show notes don't be a stranger read don't hesitate to reach out and uh and it's yeah who knows maybe there will be collaborations with video or audio band whatever I would love for that to happen and I I can't wait to hear updates on what's next for you with your own music and maybe with the band who knows who knows yeah yeah so any closing thoughts anything we missed here we left out here Manel or Fabi I just want to to uh wrap it up like it's crazy how I developed the podcast syndrome on you guys because if I if if I'm walking the dog and I'm constantly hearing the new episodes like I am hanging around with you guys like for hours and hours and hours and today we have like this nice conversation.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much for having me today.
SPEAKER_01Cool uh absolutely thank you for taking the time another full circle moment here. Um yeah and I know very much what that feels like I have some podcasters who I've never talked to they don't know who I am and I still and I feel like we're best friends just because I I hang out with them in my UBATs all the time. Yeah no but we actually met and worked together and like it was it's more than just a podcast at this point. So that's that's really cool. And I'm very glad you would took the time to go to to to be our guest today. So thanks so much um for all the kind words and everything you said. Awesome and also thank you for watching and listening of course like if you are discovering this on YouTube know that this is also a podcast primarily actually where you can listen on the go like just like Fabi said right now where you can take us on your walks or while you're doing the dishes or whatever. We can be your e be in your earbuds if you want to do that. And then if you prefer to see us while we talk about all these things you can go to YouTube and watch the video version of this. So either way thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for being um a subscriber to this podcast. Thanks Fabi for taking the time thank you Manel as always um for being here with me and thanks Thomas for editing the show and I'll see you next week if you're listening and watching bye bye goodbye ciao