Interview: Misc.inc

It's been more than 2 years since we crossed paths with the music of German producer misc.inc and I've always been fascinated with the diversity of his sound.

Easily one of the most highly motivated and goal-driven people I've met, Marc, is a self-taught artist, sound designer, and producer who crafts chillhop, downtempo electronica, and lofi house (as of recently, I think). A while ago we started talking about working closely together and helping him build a community and share more of his story and personality, as I believe there's a lot to unveil. That's how we ended up working together on his upcoming (and first) Stereofox Records release Seclusion, the first single of which is coming out next Monday the 14th (stream / save here).

Hi Marc, where do we catch you today?

Hey Ivo, I’m in Dresden right now trying to cool myself down. My studio is right under the roof and it’s getting quite hot here in summer.

Your roots before starting misc.inc are actually in EDM and house music. Did that shape the sound of the project somehow?

I did quite a lot I guess. I think about the tension between the drop and build up sections a lot in my music and how to take the listeners by their hands and guide them through the whole experience. Also, I learned a lot about mixing and sound design during that time and I feel like that’s useful as well.

You often blend various genres and try to incorporate a lot of downtempo / electronic elements into your beats. How did you build your sound so far?

It’s just experimenting and trying out things. I like to use simple waveforms and module them slightly and I love playing around with samples. Chopping them, pitching them, and completely transforming loops is always super inspiring to me. Working as a sound designer myself, I can take advantage of previously created synth presets and loop ideas.

Do you play any instruments and if so, do you use any live elements in your recordings?

Barely. I play a little bit of guitar and even less piano. It’s enough to goof around, but then I almost always have to edit the recordings.

What I do very often though is recording simple ‚oooh’s and ‚ahhh’s or simple English phrases and create some interesting vocal chops with autotune, pitching, EQing and reverb. Sometimes to the dismay of my fiancée or my neighbors.

Whats the hardest thing you had to sacrifice in the name of music?

Tough question. I think everything of value needs some sort of sacrifices. Especially if you think about those short term gratifications like weed, alcohol, video games. Like everything that makes you think „I could do something useful right now“. Also, you need to decide what you want to do with your life, seriously. After all, we’re going to die and it’s absolutely terrifying for me to think about spending a lifetime of not giving 100%. I’d regret it in the end.

It is unpleasant to do the work and going the extra mile, but then again absolutely worth it. It may seem like you didn’t do too much that day, when you’ve been working on music and all you did was essentially garbage, but this is an essential part of getting better and better and giving 100%.

How does an average Marc day look like?

I’m pretty straight with my working days. Getting up at 7am, having an ice cold shower followed by 10 minutes of meditation and 30 minutes of reading a book about life, music, marketing what so ever.

Then I’ll try to get 3-4 hours of producing music under my belt. This is followed by 1.5 hours of lunch break and then have another 1-2 hours of music production. In the afternoon I answer emails and do stuff necessary for social media and stuff.

The evenings are free for relaxation, sport and spending time with my loved ones. I’ll have another ice cold shower before I go to bed between 10pm and 11pm.

What’s your studio setup right now? Do you mind taking a picture / walking us though your gear.

Nothing fancy really. I work with a pair of Genelec 8330. My interface is an UAD apollo x6. All this is connected to Mac mini with almost full specs. Midi Keyboard an Ableton Push to pretend I’m doing live recordings. I stocked my gear since last year. I worked with a pair of KRK Rokits and a cheap Steinberg interface for years before that.

I like to have less rather than more. Also with plug-ins and soft synths, I’m rather picky. My essentials are Kontakt, Serum, Fabfilter, and Ableton Stock Plugins

Who are the people that inspire you when it comes to creating music. People you would love to work with.


Medasin, Sorrow, Alex Lustig, Tycho.

How would you describe your upcoming release with us Seclusion in a sentence?

A reflection of my musical path to now.

The happiest moment of your life so far?

The engagement with my girlfriend.

To this day, "Lotus" is my favourite track. What was the story behind it?

I had released "Vibes" and it got quite a lot of attention. I was into these Asia types of beats back then and contacted Elijah Nang if we wanted to work together. Then we started working on it by sending it back and forth and that’s it.

What are your plans post the EP release? What’s next for misc.inc?

I have a huge backlog of tracks I want to release. Also, I want to focus more on building a community around my music and getting into working with rappers and artists as a producer.

Any famous last words?

Something I read in a book recently and would like to say to everyone including myself - "Stop doing the shit you know is wrong for you and start doing the shit that is right for you. Simple as that."