Rico Puestel: "The power of diversity shapes my creative process"

Dec 5, 2024

Rico Puestel is a versatile artist, self-taught pianist, guitarist, and drummer, musicologist, and a Zappa enthusiast who has developed a unique and original artistic vision from a young age. Growing up as a social observer, he began mixing records at 11, creating surreal musical stories. At 13, he started performing as a DJ. With various pseudonyms and collaborations with labels such as Cocoon Recordings, Harthouse, and Break New Soil, he has released over 80 vinyl records, singles, and EPs. His career is marked by a constant pursuit of innovation and a legacy of uncompromising electronic music.

How do you balance your classical training as a pianist, your love for Frank Zappa, and your identity as an electronic music producer? Which of these elements has the greatest influence on your creative process?

Actually, all of my creative work is in balance as it’s all about the musical expression in the end, going hand in hand - whether recording Dance, Pop, Jazz or Metal music (which I already did). I always felt near to Zappa’s way of creating as he has been a creative avant-garde, constantly driven workaholic with the right touch of absurdity - that’s kind of the way, I seemingly was programmed before even knowing of Zappa. Basically, my diversity in genres and styles of music has the strongest influence on my creative process as everything becomes possible and everything blends together as one fluid amalgam finally. Besides, the theoretical know-how about composing since the Renaissance, different worldly tonal systems aso. might not substitute the feeling in music itself, but enormously helps if you can think and express musical vocabulary, notes, rhythms, how to modulate harmonies, organize polyphony and more - it also helps with improvisation (besides the regular practice). Knowing about where we came from (musically) happens to be the most important part of it all.

"Afar" and the Joyhauser remix mark another significant step in your career. What does this track represent for you, and what do you hope listeners will take away from the remix compared to the original version?

"Afar" started with a reversed snippet of a vocal sample going through a weird phasing technique and distortion - this pretty short element became my main synth and it somehow reminded me of something nostalgic. It represents some sort of a timeless attitude and gives a personal nod to the path behind me. Joyhauser raised this underlying idea to a more contemporary zeitgeist and strengthened its accessibility these days - like understanding the past a bit more in the guise of something more fashionable in its approach.

Your collaboration with Rico Friebe on "Fall" for the Exhibition label brings together multiple sonic worlds. How did this collaboration come about, and what challenges or surprises did you encounter during the creative process?

This collaboration, eventually happening in one single mind, came by absolutely natural. After having written and recorded about 300 songs in about two years, there happened to be a routine that went into a more exciting and varied state while combining it with my usual state of electronic music production as Rico Puestel. In the end, “Fall” happened to be a further song in a series of one story to tell that just happened to become a House tune in the end.

With over 80 vinyl releases and a career that started so early, how do you see the evolution of the electronic music scene from when you began to today? How has your style adapted or evolved over time?

When I began, electronic music was a stronghold, a pervasive and sustaining feeling, an expressive force, a home. Today, it mostly comes along as an expedient as if there’s nothing more to tell or explore in the foreground. As we all know nowadays, it’s scene-defining to be some kind of Instagram or TikTok star while the music itself just happens to be the "props". There still is some challenging and interesting material out there, but it somehow gets crushed by something too generic and too less forward-thinking in my opinion. As I have always been exploring and acting out most different styles, only my abilities to design and tell my stories more distinctively has evolved - personality is evolving (if you have one). No matter the direction from which you’re observing the situation, I never ever really adapted - that’s my benefit and curse at the same time.

The phrase "Give me stick and stone and I'll build you a home" perfectly encapsulates your dedication and creativity. Could you share an episode or project that best represents this philosophy?

I’m still using a most minimized and somehow antique setup to record and produce including a DAW being over 20 years old. Before using high quality plugins (that wouldn’t even work within my setup), I try to think of possibilities to create specific sounds or effects differently. Reducing yourself in that way challenges and nourishes creativity in undreamt ways. Don’t show what you have, but show what you are able to do! I always come back to limited special projects that extrapolate this basic idea like working with only two machines on four tracks as "Modern Minimal Sound Research". If you break down life itself, most of the “things” in our possession are volatile and tell nothing true about ourselves. If you have nothing left, there still remains yourself or the chance to meet yourself - this mechanism fuels a real creative process, method of expression and evolvement.