Rico Püstel was born in 1986 and has been raised in a small rural German town in Lower-Saxony. While attending primary school, he started taking first piano lessons and sliped off his "musical hymen".
Rico grew up with different aspects of music through classical music, electronic music, the 60/70's rock music, jazz etc. - he's always been interested in every kind of audible expression, just finding it all through his different emotional moods. Concerning electronic music, he used to grew up with hardcore-techno that was going over to a "90s-techno-allround-interest", starting around records like C.J. Bolland's "Neural Paradox".
While grewing older, Rico studied djing via self-education and passed various dj-gigs when he was between 12 and 16 years old. Besides, he started creating sounds, structures and small arrangements after taking his first "producing-steps" as a young boy on an old AMIGA® step-sequencer program. His main intention was to figure out how to preserve and re-enact personal visions, experiences, situations, places, things and the connected emotions and feelings through organic tones and harmonies, electronic signals and noises. To add new possibilities to this intentional plan, satisfy his musical desires and enlarge his practical skills, he trained himself in playing the guitar and drums. Inspired by masses of fantastic music from each line of business, he constantly urged himself to manage the next step. So, there hasn't been much time for partying, drinking or to lead a wicked and disastrous way of growing up, but even more for inhaling and enjoying people and nature.
In 2005 and 2006, Rico could gain his first official releases on the German labels "Dark-Noize-Recordings" and "Minimal Sound Noise", presenting a time of strong and rebelish assimilations with stern tracks like "Senjor Soldjas", "And You All Didn't Get It" or "Something Must Happen", but also smooth and vulnerable pieces like "Winterkaelte" or "Interstate West" - just some excerpts of preserving and re-enacting thoughts.
While personally moving further, his music steadily experiences stylistic changes and refreshments, remaining unpredictable and varied for himself in its definite form - striving, restrained, overturned, uncanny or quirky, but always keeping a clear line due to his individual touch of positive tension, funkyness and soul.
May 2008
Q: I just listened to some of your latest tracks and I feel you have a
unique and individual sound - how do you feel about this?
D: I've been using the equal production-methods (self-made samples,
Fruity Loops 3.56, greasy plugins, no hardware except special
occasions, but if, then also sampled) for years now (although I tried
a lot), so there might be some kind of audible clue connecting my
tracks. But I don't think people are able to hear that - maybe it's
just the syncopal hi-hat or the clap/snare on 2 and 4 that makes them
feel this association, but hey: that's just a electronic-music-feature
(obvious in the way like Haydn used to design the musical themes in
his string quartetts) - no "Dinamoe-feature" that makes my music (as
said) "uniqe". I guess, there will be some people saying that they are
really able to discern a difference when listening to my music
compared to other one's (although until today, nobody could deliver
one useful argument after raising the big question "Why?"), but
there's one thing much more important when it comes to sense an
inner-alliance of my music - the ideological part. It can be found in
the track-/release-names, in the use of sounds, in the structure of
the arrangement. Each track emerges from a specific story or emotion
(not those blabla-ones - the vitally reflected) and moves within its
conditional boundaries. These have their consequences on the music and
all tracks are guided by their story, not by their club- or
dance-usability. I'm feeling electronic music to be aesthetic subject
and ready reckoner at a stroke, but NO dance-music (if "dancing" just
reveals a disgusting way of showmanship - and it sadly does so often).
I'm not thinking about shaking butts and boobs in the club or people
screaming (to show who's the biggest and strongest gorilla) while
creating music. I'm concentrated, focused and positively paralysed
while re-living my past and pre-living the future, transfered into the
music. So, what's "unique" and "individual"? It's me. Don't get me
wrong, everyone is - if so much of them wouldn't be so busy being
someone else, living the rip-off-life. I just love doing music (not
this blabla-love, the real one - meaning, I'm feeling so fucking
awesome with doing what I like) and I'm not feeling committed to
anybody, so I'm freely creating. Everybody conceiving my music to be
"unique" or "individual" - fine, thanks. But I'm not feeling better or
worse with this. You're loving my music? - Fine, thanks. I'm happy for
you, not for me. Don't force yourself to name it, live it. (Oh - it's
so Zen!) By the way, if anyone has some bad feelings about me
releasing these "new" house-appealish tracks or music with some kind
of muezzin singing - don't be so petty. There's much more in and
behind the tracks and the big
"Dinamoe-is-adapting-what's-'in'-now-mystery" can be solved: nobody
wanted to release these tracks back in 2005! But now it's the time for
those to appear in public and I'm pretty happy for that. Besides,
think about if there's really a muezzin singing or if it's just me
exploring new paths in the process of creating.
Q: Man, you've got a lot to tell! Is this the reason why you have a
discography-list as long as your arm?
D: Yes, you're right - I've got tons of stories to tell...
Q: But don't you think, this large amount of productions from your
side since 2005, released on over 30 different labels worldwide is way
too much?
D: My musical activity is inspired by a wide spectrum of thematic plots,
so I'm using different platforms for presenting my productions - a vital and
truly positive way of globalisation.
But if you focus this one person, releasing one single track, playing
on the whole world tomorrow and belonging to the abyssal-like
"business-elite" the day after tomorrow, you could be right. I'm not
interested in that. There're so much "newcomers" (of course, not all -
don't ascribe "extreme-judging" to me) who want exactly this: getting
famous, getting rich, being the guy everyone in the crowd is looking
up to, being the big-dick-man making the big cocaine-decisions, coming
from the glittering planet p-o-r-n, raping all the drunken college girls,
fighting for their female-independence on their knees. And I tell you
- these "newcomers" are well on the way to success, because they just
entered Beatport Minimal Top 100 with a tiny tune, sampled out of
the Beatport Minimal Top 5. Don't get me wrong, if there's some
potential demand on my music (or my person), that's lovely, because I
took this decision to release my music years ago and I will bear all
consequences. I would travel to the end of the world, if someone
honestly wants me there. But, you know, concerning the electronic
music market - hard times. Too much information running through the
modern consumers brain. I don't want to glut the barrel too, but I
think that there's some more important music from my side to show the
world before everything (probably) collapses. Conclusion: If there's
no more interest in my music and my records rotten on stock (by the
way, I love vinyl and artwork!), I'll stop releasing music - it's that
simple! No demand, no waste of aesthetic substance.
Q: Wait a minute. You can't stop making music - you are really
talented and I like your music! Why this?
D: You're mixing things up. I haven't said that I'll stop making
music. Don't you feel this to be a noticeable contradiction to what I
said about me, creating music aso. before? Of course I'll continue
producing music - I can, because I never intended to please business
purposes with making music (sorry "newcomers", for sure you'll lose
ground here). I would just stop releasing it and "maybe" there'll be one
day in the future when the time has come to restart releasing the
music I've created in the meantime.
Q: Oh, ok. Hope that you'll carry on with music. What are the odds?
D: Let's see if I'll stay bearable.
November 2009