Tom Tainted

T@thomasbehr

DJ & Producer based in Heidelberg, Germany. Tom is the founder of Red Trail Music and also hosts the monthly Red Trail Radio shows.

Tell us about your latest release

Just like "Hope", my new track "Serenity" is a collab with Swiss DJ & Producer REYSSR. We first met in person at ADE a few years ago and always wanted to do a collab. "Hope" was an idea that I started and with "Serenity" it was the other way round, so we kind of closed the circle on that one. It's a progressive house track with some melodic techno and cinematic influences. Collabs are a great way to revive tracks that otherwise would sit on your hard drive forever, because you feel it's missing something but ran out of ideas. Someone else can bring as whole new approach and ideas to it, sparking your own creativity again as well.

What first got you into music?

My granddad played the piano in a band and as a little kid I often sat on his lap while he was playing songs for me. This probably got me hooked on music in the first place. Unfortunately I stopped learning the piano at some point because I didn't like my teacher back then. When I was hanging out with friends as a teen someone brought a mixtape from a local club and the energy just blew me away. It was all 90's rave and breakbeat stuff like The prodigy, Liquid or SL2. Back then you couldn't listen to this on the radio or buy CDs at the regular stores but there were a few proper record shops in Mannheim and Heidelberg, so I started to spend all my pocket money on Vinyl and that's how it all started.

Who is your biggest inspiration in music?

Tough question. I get inspiration from all kinds of artists and musical genres so it's really hard to just pick one. In general probably the UK scene as this was always a huge influence, as I listened to the essential mix on radio 1 a lot. Also a friend and I used to grab a cheap flight to London, stayed in a cheap hotel which only had one bathroom for the whole floor and went record shopping all day. We came home broke but happy with some amazing tunes and bootlegs no one else had.

What is your creative process like?

That really depends what just inspired me or if I already have an idea. I probably start with some chords most of the time and then bass and drums and then hopefully you get into some kind of flow and everything else just gets added naturally.

What advice would you give to someone just starting with music production?

Use reference tracks, especially in the beginning. It's not about copying but it's carefully listening how tracks are arranged, how transitions are done, what sounds are used. And that it's ok to get help. Take a course, reach out to other, more experienced artists to get feedback or use platforms like pluginsclub, you don't have to figure out everything yourself.