Get to know Bazique headliner TERR
Enter the Fantastic Planet of Bazique headliner TERR.
As you know, Bazique is all about that freaky fun, boundless creativity and music to make you move and with Bazique Festival 2020’s headliner TERR, you’re getting it all in spades.
The project of Brazil-born, Berlin-based Daniela Caldellas, TERR was destined to find electronic music.
After spending years playing guitar in punk bands, she discovered the infinite possibilities that lie within the computer.
Her electro disco sound will have you grinning from ear to ear while you dance the night away, giving you a taste of the 80’s with the refinement of modern production methods.
Recently, TERR set up a record label called Clash Lion alongside Shall Ocin and Daniel Watts, which has delivered (and will continue to do so) bangers.
This is TERR…
I think the most beautiful thing about electronic music is that you can do everything. Absolutely nothing is impossible.”
Welcome, Daniela Caldellas, better known as TERR, one of the headliners of Bazique Festival 2020, taking place on 13-15 March in Paarl, Cape Town.
Firstly-and superficially- your name. Is it really derived from the 70’s classic film Fantastic Planet? What made you choose TERR to represent not only your sound, but you as an artist?
TERR: Yes, the name Terr comes from this character. Fantastic Planet is one of my favourite movies ever, it’s really beautiful and has a very serious message.
So, the name has been around my head for some years, and when I decided to start the project it was perfect – short, direct and beautiful.
Speaking of sound, you MAKE SOUNDS!! (Which you have perfected, by the way.)
Besides a clean production technique, you really hone that ‘indie dance’ disco house that is impossible not to- as we in South Africa say- squeak some tekkie to (dance to.) What bands/artists are your biggest influences?
TERR: I like a lot of different music… Elton John, David Bowie, Radiohead, Philip Glass… I am really open to all kinds of music – punk, house, classical, indie rock, electro…
Coming from the live music scene (playing guitar in various punk bands growing up) to diving into the vast scape of electronica, explain how your experiences bringing “to life all that I could imagine.”
How do you go about transmuting what’s in your mind (imagination) into tracks? Do you have any secrets for budding producers who get caught up in that transferral?
TERR: I think the most beautiful thing about electronic music is that you can do everything.
Absolutely nothing is impossible.
If I want to make a bird choir at 1000 BPM, it’s possible.
I think the secret is just trying again and again, making your technique better and better. Experimenting with reverberation, stereo images, compression, sound envelopes…
If the possibilities are infinite, so the learning is also infinite, there’s always something new to try… And if it didn’t work on the first day, sleep and try again.
There are still more men than woman on the dance music scene, but it’s changing. I don’t feel more like ‘one in a million’, as it used to be.”
You recently started a label with Shall Ocin and Daniel Watts called Clash Lion (I love the name, by the way). Describe Clash Lion in one sentence that embodies the label’s aim?
TERR: We just want to release music free from boundaries – we care more about ideas and passion than we care about genres or hypes.
In 2018 you released ‘Dust’ on Clash Lion with remixes from Curses, Cardiopusher and fellow label founder, Daniel Watts. What is the importance of remixes to you as a producer?
TERR: I love remixing as well as being remixed.
Remixing a track is easier than making my own music, because a part of the work is already done, and I have to stick to some ideas, so it’s a bit more technical and mental than making my own music – when sometimes my mind goes too far.
And being remixed is lovely too, of course.
See how other people read and rewrite the story you wrote. It’s always a good surprise. In the end, the remix is like a child – one parent is the artist, the other is the remixer and you never know exactly how it will be.
Flash round: Answer each question with one word
TERR: My music will make you feel… awake.
My favourite time of day… the afternoons.
My favourite artist now is… Laibach.
My favourite outdoor activity is to… Hiding my bike in Berlin
I wish I could change… the human greed into chocolate ice cream.
There’s been a major lack of female DJ/producers featured on line ups across the globe. What’s your take on the matter? Is it something you feel is changing?
TERR: It’s changing slowly, but it is changing.
If you think that 50, 60 years ago women couldn’t even vote or work in a lot of places, we’re evolving. Of course, there are still more men than woman on the dance music scene, but it’s changing. I don’t feel more like “one in a million”, as it used to be. And the girls are also making labels, parties, etc…
What’s on your plate for 2020?
TERR: It’s always more or less the same. Making music, travelling, playing, making friends, running the label.
What’s the most outrageous fact have you heard about South Africa that you believed?
TERR: Well, I think that I should say the poverty and the apartheid.
I come from Brazil, a place that had similar problems and somehow I am happy that both countries managed to get a bit more civilized and human in the latest decades.
Oppression is always around, and it never sleeps, so we should always be awake and try to make the world a more fair and lovely place.
You’re playing at Bazique Festival on 13-15 March and I think your music will fit in like a colourful glove. What would you like to say to the Cape Town massive and festivalgoers?
TERR: I love South Africa-I have some very good friends there and I am really happy to be there again.
All I can promise it that I will give 200% of myself to make everyone have a good time!
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