Over the past few weeks, Christian Bauhofer has been busy traveling the country, and he still has many miles to go. The DJ/producer, better known as Minnesota, has enlisted the aid of G Jones and JACKAL. Together they have been tearing apart venues from Washington to Michigan and beyond.
This past Halloween Friday, the tour set its sights on Chicago. We had the opportunity to sit down with Minnesota before the show to discuss everything from inspiration to soda preference.
So I have to ask…what’s up with Kendrick the Raccoon?
My mom gave him to me like 2 or 3 years ago. This is his third tour. He’s been to 3 Burning Mans, so…he’s seen some shit.
How has the tour gone so far?
Good! It’s been going great. We’re 2 weeks in now, and I think right now we have everything really dialed in. The first few days we had to get all the production worked out and Chicago tonight is probably the third day where we’ve had full production.
That’s with Video Villains?
Yeah, they’re 3D mapping, so they built this whole spaceship-looking stage. They start it partially on and they kind of build it up throughout the night. They’re doing a great job.
So G Jones is on the tour with you. I know you guys have collaborated a lot in the past. How is it having him with you?
It’s awesome having Greg on the road. We’ve done some shows before. For all the bigger shows we are doing B2B sets, so at the end of the night we will do a little versus set.
Your sounds mesh together really well. When you collab, what is that approach like?
We go back and forth. I don’t really work well with other people in the studio, so someone starts it and sends it over, and we just send it back and forth. It gets stuff done pretty fast.
Pepsi or Coke?
Coke.
Who’s an artist that you’re really into right now?
We’ve been listening to DJ Rashad’s last album a lot on tour. It’s super dope, super chill. We’re in Chicago now which is where he’s from.
What’s the last show you attended for pleasure?
I was at The Avett Brothers in Berkeley. It was like a month and a half ago. I don’t go to many shows, even when I’m home.
You were a guest at Electric Forest in 2013, right?
Yeah – 2013 I played a slot in the VIP area; 2012 I played the actual festival. Hopefully I’ll get booked this year, we’ll see.
Your last track was a remix for Bassnectar, who you’ve stated you’re a huge fan of. How was that experience?
It was awesome. It was a long process for me to just go and do many different versions of the track. When I did the remix I was listening to a lot of drum ‘n bass, so that’s what I ended up doing. Honestly when I get to the end of a track I’m really not sure about how it sounds and I kinda hate it no matter what – so it was good to put it out and get mostly good response.
You’ve spoken about your brother’s passing, and how it inspired your music. Has it changed your sound?
When I wrote my EP last year, Voyager, that was right after he passed away. I was living at my parents’ house for a month and all that inspiration came from all the feelings that came with that, so now when I play the songs out it’s really awesome because I kinda connect back to that moment when I was inspired by that.
You produce across a variety of genres. When you approach a song, do you have a specific sound in mind?
It changes so much. I go in with one idea and by the end, like after a month of working with a track it turns into something different, so it’s honestly pretty random. I get inspired by a lot of different types of electronic music.
What’s the future for Minnesota?
The last few months I’ve just been working on putting this tour together, because we don’t have a huge team. So now I’m just finishing up the tour and then go home and work on a bunch [of] music; and maybe a spring tour or something.
Click here to see if Minnesota is touring through your town any time soon!
Minnesota
facebook.com/DJMinnesota | twitter.com/minnesotaBASS | soundcloud.com/minnesota
