ARTIST OF THE MOMENT: Christopher Ledger

reading time: 13min 

Our own Daniel George had the pleasure of chatting with the artist who has been on our radar for years. Berlin via Rome, Christopher Ledger is a multi-talented producer whose productions can't be pigeonholed into one genre but tend to beat the test of time and keep lingering in our playlists, folders, and algorithms for years. Christopher's creativity knows no limits, from ambient to deep house to d&b to techno, breaks and creating sample packs for producers. Daniel and Chris talk about studio time, moments behind the decks, Chris' beginnings, and more.

Christopher, great to chat with you. Having followed your sound for quite a few years, you always enjoyed chatting whether on dancefloors or going back and forth talking music online, one stereotype of musicians is they are introverted and competitive, but I feel that doesn’t resonate with your personality or style, what are your thoughts on this?
Likewise! Thanks for having me. I’m definitely an introverted person most of the time but I believe I learned to hide it quite well :) especially when talking about music. Exchange is a great part of what I do and where I get most of my inspiration from - it may be a chat, jam session, or a DJ set. It means sharing different ideas, traditions, and knowledge with someone who may be coming from a completely different musical background or context than your own and how can it not spark creativity in you?! I love keeping my mind as open as possible and getting inspired by other people's perspectives. Moreover, I wouldn’t say I’m a competitive person or artist. I like being challenged and pushed by colleagues to always do and be better in what I do but for how cliche it may sound, the main competition is always with myself.

It’s no cliche at all, sometimes we are our own harshest critic. Let’s take it back for a minute to ‘Lost with K’ released on RoundQube Musik in 2015, a track that seems to get stuck in my YouTube algorithm, the comments there share a sentiment around timelessness in your music. What do you think attributed to the track’s underground success?
Hard to say! Possibly the emotional melody of the piano on a 4/4 rhythm played a good role in that, but I believe in such cases there are some factors and circumstances that are out of the artist’s control, hence I don’t like to think about it that much, especially during the creative process. I love making and playing records and if some of the emotional states that I manage to translate into music get to resonate with as many people as possible, I can only be happy about it.

Is there something you tend to focus on to ensure your productions are timeless?
As said in the previous answer, not really. I surely try not to get too influenced by the trends of the moment, staying true to myself and doing what I love the most in the first place.

You’ve lived and worked across a handful of cities in your life. Does each place bring something to your creative side? 
Absolutely. When I was 20, I moved to Berlin for a couple of years, and that widened my horizons as I didn’t experience many things outside my own country (Italy) till that time, music-wise and not only. I enjoyed the Berlin scene of 10 years ago quite a lot - it was a great input for my inspiration and also very formative as musical and creative exchanges were happening daily with different people from different contexts and art realms. After that, I moved back to Italy, living in Berlin only in the summers for almost every year, but I would say that the first period of my German stay was the most influential - I learned a lot by that time in terms of production, digging and the importance of perspective on music and art itself. I'm currently living on the Roman seaside and the calmness and isolation mixed with the weekend travels and exchanges is the best combination for me so far - that exposes me to different realities from different parts of Europe and music capitals but also gives me time to process what I've experienced.

Chris, you have released with a collection of labels that have ties with each other, yet are seemingly pushing different sounds - what are you looking for when partnering with a label to release? 
Genuine and like-minded people with a great passion for what they do and who are true to themselves would be the ideal characteristics of a label owner and crew I would love to work with.

‘Anticipation’ on Adam’s Bite, recently dropped, a strong mini-album of muscular tech grooves and 90s flavoured breaks, again it has a certain timelessness, reminding me of the best hidden records of the rave era. Can you tell us a bit about your sound design approach? Is it standardized or do you try and change it up each time?
I do mostly approach every new track as a musical happening on its own, at least during the creative process, to worry only later about context - I don’t really have a standard process on how to start a track but I’ve spent a lot of time in learning and mastering the tools I enjoy working with. This led me to build several templates and creative chains that allow me to express what I want to say in the easiest and fastest way possible. Sometimes I just experiment a lot on single elements and specific features of a plug-in/hardware, saving the audio result in my HD vault and keeping it there till it finds its place in a track later on - it may be a week, a month, or a year. I enjoy being inspired and surprised by my own work. I think getting creative with the absence of context and worrying about that later can lead you to create really nice, spontaneous, and sometimes unexpected, musical and audio results.

A few of your releases refer to the MPC, an important sampler/sequencer from Akai in hip-hop and house history. Can you tell us a bit about your flow around this instrument? 
I used to have an MPC 2000 not too long ago, which I borrowed from a hip-hop producer who lives not too far from my place. I enjoyed working and experimenting with it. Nowadays I tend to use the Simpler/Sampler and Ableton itself as an MPC if that would make sense to you, but obviously, the most recent versions of the DAW offer a wider range of possibilities and options that the hardware can’t, even though it definitely has a more characteristic sound and flow.

For that matter, are you working mostly on analog gear or do you prefer to work on the computer more so, do you find there are challenges in each case?
At this very moment in time, I do jam sometimes with analog gear at 043.Soundlab but I’m a big fan of the digital realm and its endless possibilities too. I think both worlds complement each other very well and I've never been a purist, whether it is producing or DJing. More than challenges, I see lots of opportunities. During my creative process, I try to put myself in the position of having the easiest access to write down what I want to say musically as fast as possible. 

Post-processing and i guess effects as a whole play a role in your music, are there some that you have a connection with on a deeper level rather than just pure function?
I tend to experiment a lot and dive deeply into each plug-in and hardware without having in mind a specific result - that's how I love to master tools but also surprise myself and produce something I wouldn't have produced if I needed to think in a specific context or use a specific tool function for a specific track.

I'd love to hear what collaboration brings for you musically and spiritually?

I'm very keen on experimenting and exchanging with people I enjoy being with on a personal level. I see it as a chance for growth for both sides. 

at 043.Soundlab Studio in Rome, owned by G.Manzi

Outside of music or sound, what do you find helps contribute to inspiration in the studio?
Travels, exchanges with other people, art exhibitions, films, books, and any other form of art.

You have also produced a number of sample packs for Sample Market - what gave you the motivation to jump into that?
I’ve always produced a great variety of genres and I’ve always kept them for myself - from house to techno, from jungle/dnb to IDM. Making sample libraries gave me a purpose to bring these sounds to the service of other people and hopefully get them inspired for their productions. I find it a great workout and constant exercise to push my boundaries, challenge my comfort zone and improve my sound design. When I'll feel ready, I think all of this will come in handy for expressing my vision of what the sound of CL should be about in an album which I’m thinking of starting working on pretty soon.

Can you tell us a little about how you first started DJ’ing? Was this also in Italy?
I started learning to DJ right after I had my first contact with vinyl - this was in my hometown, a city called Anzio, situated in the province of Rome and I must have been 13/14 yo at the time. During the beginning of my teenage years, when I was hanging out with high school peers, one evening we ended up at a friend’s place where his older cousin was spinning hip-hop records. I was fascinated by the medium and the art form of vinyl immediately. The following day I went to the closest record store and got myself a pair of Stantons - which were terrible but all I could afford at the time.I picked up a few hip-hop records by the likes of Nas, Mobb Deep, and Wu-Tang – primarily the artists that I admired and often listened to during that period and started learning how to mix on my own. Subsequently, I was introduced to the nightlife in Rome - I must have been 16 by the time and that’s when I started to get familiar with the Roman nightlife and Rave scene - not long after that I started pursuing DJing and music production seriously.

When did you start playing in clubs? How was the scene in Italy back then?
I started playing frequently in clubs around the end of 2016, right after the release of my first record - I had my first residency at Goa Club on Saturdays for the NoZoo crew and I began also to get bookings abroad. It was a really exciting and formative period of my DJ career. Unfortunately, I honestly think these weren’t the most flourishing years for the Roman and Italian scene. However, I believe there were a lot of great artists, both producers and DJs, coming out of Italy during this period in House and Techno.

What are some of the key ingredients to building a good set?
I believe the ability to read the room and the context you are in, whether it can be a festival or a small club, the sound system, and the crowd, are very important. That defines the narrative of the DJ set quite much and I believe that’s a key element to a good set. That being said, I feel to mention that another important element, as a DJ, apart from having a great sound system and perfect setup, is to have fun and not forget to play for yourself first. I’m a big fan of playing what I want to hear at that exact moment when I’m about to choose the next track/record.

by Andreea Mihailescu at Form Space, Cluj

Can the crowd’s reaction to the music you play either reinforce or change your opinion?
Opinion on what exactly?

I’d say your opinion on a certain track or sequence of music you are playing?
If there’s a specific reaction happening more than once in different DJ sets and in different clubs to a certain kind of music I propose or for how I put it together, for sure I’ll keep that in consideration and think about it, especially post-DJ set, keeping also well in mind the surroundings and the context, but I believe a single crowd reaction or feedback won’t really change my opinion on anything. I’m always keen to try new things and experiment and if I get positive feedback on what I do, that’s surely encouraging.

Do you ever worry about losing dancers when you change up the vibe or throw a curveball in the mix?
As a DJ that likes to build up things and focus on the narrative of the DJ set, I would end up throwing a curveball or changing completely the vibe in case what I’m doing it’s simply not working. So to answer your question, no, I’m not worried about losing dancers in such a case, on the contrary, I’m curious to see if I’m succeeding in gaining their interest and the control of the crowd back.

Do you have a particular strategy when digging for music, like colorful artwork, labels, or do you ask for tips from someone that works in a record shop? 
Listening to the whole section. I would usually ask if there are any recently acquired second-hand records that they didn’t put on their Discogs account yet that I can check. If they have some tips and recommendations I’m def keen on listening to them, obviously.

When you are going digging, let’s say in an unfamiliar store, are you going for new releases or heading for second-hand electronic records?
Second-Hand electronic records. You can find recently released records easily on the internet too, I’d rather dig online for them, but anytime I have the chance to visit a new city and a new record shop I wouldn’t have the chance to go back to anytime soon, I want to check all the second hands as it is a unique experience. Also, I really enjoy the process of digging in shops. These moments of research are also great inspirations for my studio ideas, apart from being very nice introspective experiences to a certain extent.

by Kay Ross

Are you envisioning a specific moment to play something out when you are digging and taking home a bunch of records or is it more preparing for the next gig?
I just take what I love - I would worry about context when I have to prepare for gigs or podcasts. I want to focus more on filling my shelves with records that I resonate and feel a connection with, as I believe that is also something that defines your music taste and identity pretty well. Once back home or in the studio I would try to mix them - sometimes the result is pretty nice, sometimes it just isn’t, but it’s a learning process I want to go through to know at the best I can the music I own.

Have you produced any tracks which are specifically connected to a dance floor moment? Can you describe it for us?
If you mean if I’m producing tracks for specific moments in my DJ sets, the answer is yes - I also do edits of records I’ve ripped or digital tracks I’ve bought. A very inspiring moment, as a music enthusiast and clubber, can be while listening on the dancefloor to other DJs I respect. But I wouldn’t say that I get inspired by a very specific moment, but rather by the journey and possibly some tracks in particular that stood out to me during the night.

Thanks Chris for a great conversation and enlightening us about your process in the studio and behind the decks :)