What is the story behind the choice of your stage name? Does “Avantgarde” stand for the innovation that you feel you have brought (and continue to bring) to the world of electronic music?

My last name in German is ‚Vornweg’ which loosely translates to Avantgarde in French, so thats the true origin of the artist name. I never intended for it to be or mean anything more than that, however over time I did feel like the meaning became a bit more appropriate as I often found myself seeking things that seemed a little ahead of their time both in my own output and in projects that I draw inspiration from.

Having a background as a jazz pianist, who have been your idols and your influences?

I would obviously have to name the classics like Thelonius Monk, Dave Brubeck, Keith Jarrett who I was exposed to quite a bit as a kid and tried to emulate early on but I also love contemporary musicians like Cory Henry or Jacob Collier (Both their NPR Tiny Desk concerts are amazing). Its not just Jazz though, I also really like what Ólafur Arnalds or Nils Frahm are doing when it comes to piano-based music.

It is well-known that when you establish your own label, in your case “VNTGRD”, you no longer have to compromise with anyone except yourself in terms of producing new music. However, throughout your career, you have also ventured into producing tracks for audiovisual products such as blockbusters, video games and trailers. We’re talking about clients of the caliber of Netflix, HBO, Sony, Warner Bros. and many others. How was it working with these giants? Did you have to compromise here or did you have creative control over the entire process?

There’s certainly a lot of compromise when working with big commercial clients, especially when it comes to final delivery of projects. In reality the client is king in these scenarios so you usually work to a very specific brief and towards an often predetermined direction. That being said, there is obviously and element of creative control in the sense that I have a specific sound that I cater to and are asked to do so for projects like that. Not just by clients but also by my agency who would put me forward for things they know will be more in my lane. As for the label, I have actually put it on hold for quite a while now, purely to focus on my own output and career with absolute priority. Running a label, especially VNTGRD, which was never run for-profit, takes a lot of time and resources out of your day so I needed to focus on my own work more when I realised that there was just too much of an imbalance between my own output and supporting and working that of others. We’re approaching a point in time however in which I am once again getting the itch of running an own imprint, mostly because I see and hear a lot of things I would love to support more.

All-time favorite movie? All-time favorite video game?

Movie: Mr. Nobody. Video Game: I spent quite a lot of time on Destiny and Destiny 2, unfortunately they ended up kind of ruining the game but there was a time where I was grinding those pretty extensively.

You have composed official remixes for Billie Eilish, The Prodigy and Nina Simone. Three different artists, three different genres. Do you believe that electronic music can be applied to any genre? Have you ever received feedbacks from the first two?

I strongly believe in the freedom to express yourself in any and all genres. The term genre alone frustrates me slightly as its a first step towards something we call „Schubladendenken“ in German which means a sort of stereotyped or pigeonholed approach to thinking. I always disliked the restrictions and have actively chosen to put as few restrictions on myself as possible when making and releasing music. Its a creative outlet after all. As for the feedback part, yeah we have had positive communications and the blessing from Billie’s team on my remix and her label ended up buying my version of the song which was first featured in a Call of Duty trailer. Same goes for The Prodigy, I remember getting email from Liam Howlett saying how much he loved the remix and as a long time fan of the group it certainly felt surreal.

Both in 2022 and this year, you and Anyma, one of the DJ from the Italian duo Tale of Us, have released two worldwide hits, respectively “Consciousness” and “Eternity”. However, it seems that the album covers are paradoxical and opposite each other. In the first one (“Consciousness”), there is an android floating freely downwards, while in the second one (“Eternity”) the same android is tied to strings with no escape. Could you explain this further? And where does this interest in science fiction come from?