Sound Advice: Jan Blomqvist

Join Jan Blomqvist on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss music production, live performance and more.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile. 

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On this episode of Sound Advice, we talk to German producer Jan Blomqvist, who makes intricate tech house and modern deep house with a melancholy pop sensibility. Jan will be a familiar name to fans of Ben Böhmer and Oliver Koletzki, and anyone checking out labels like Armada Music, Cercle or Jan’s own Disconnected imprint. 

In this exclusive interview, he shares the story of how he journeyed from rock to electronic music, and recalls the influence of the early 2000s Berlin club scene on his sound. He also talks about finding his style, blending original vocals and field recordings in a genre where samples and machine sounds dominate. 

Jan also delves into the themes of his latest album ‘Mute,’ which marks the third installment in a trilogy series. He talks about his music production process, and explains how SoundCloud features like track comments, timestamps and replace audio help him collaborate with artists like RY X, Rodriguez Jr. and Booka Shade. Elsewhere throughout this in-depth conversation, we learn more about his overall creative journey, how he is reinventing his live set for his 2025 tour and his advice for fellow artists who are navigating the music industry in today’s social media-dominated landscape.

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING JAN BLOMQVIST

LISTEN TO 'MUTE' BY JAN BLOMQVIST

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

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How Berlin’s Underground Club Scene Encouraged Jan Blomqvist to Evolve from Rock to Electronic Music

• We begin the conversation with Jan Blomqvist’s early journey into electronic music. When Jan moved to Berlin in 2002, he was a punk rock musician and singer, with little knowledge of club culture. But after a moving night at a Berlin club, where he danced for 12 hours to an emotive minimal house sound, he had a revelation. After that night, he decided to devote his musicianship to exploring electronic music. 
• However, in an honest appraisal of this moment, Jan explains that despite his confidence as a rock musician, he was taken aback by how different and at times daunting the making of electronic music was. This humbling realization led him on a path of musical discovery, trial and error in the studio and artistic reflection. The lesson he learned from the early- to mid-00s was that in order to become the best producer he could be, he had to take it step by step.
• During those formative years, the Berlin club scene was evolving around him. Electronic music styles such as minimal house and techno, progressive house and IDM were flourishing — and with so much to explore, Jan spent countless hours on the dancefloor. 
• Reflecting on some of the formative experiences of those years, he fondly remembers Bar 25: a riverside club where dancers moved to the beat from night to day. A hero of Jan’s, the techno producer and DJ Richie Hawtin, was a particular fixture of this time. Through Hawtin’s minimalistic but impactful sound, Jan saw how he could progress his own music.

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How Jan Blomqvist Discovered His Sound By Combining Melancholic Indie Songwriting With Electronic Beats

• When it came to finding his sound, Jan explains how he wanted to merge his rock instrumentation and songwriting background with the minimalistic deep house sound of the Berlin club scene. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Björk, Radiohead and Damon Albarn — who he loves for their ability to blend melancholy into rock and pop sensibilities — he spent several years working on original music. The slow and steady journey Jan took was also influenced, somewhat ironically, by the Berlin club scene’s early reception to his work. Realizing that Berlin may not be the ideal audience for what he was trying to achieve, he sought out other cities and venues to perform his live show in. 
• On this, Jan offers sage advice to up-and-coming artists: when you’re new, and focused on making it big in your hometown first, don’t be discouraged if your hometown — across clubs, labels and audiences — doesn’t appreciate your craft. Through platforms like SoundCloud and the globalizing nature of the music industry, you can seek out audiences who understand you from all around the world. When Jan came to accept this himself, his career began to blossom. 

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Advice on Crafting a Live Electronic Tour and Building Confidence Through Studio Work 

• Jan is well known as a touring artist, and writes his music with live performance in mind. Here, he goes into detail about how he likes to craft a performance, and how he uses his time on stage to test out new musical ideas. By constantly adding new material to his repertoire, even if it’s technically unfinished, there’s a tandem payoff: Jan can perfect his sound in real-time, and his fans always hear a different set every time. 
• When it comes to music production, Jan talks us through the development of his studio in Berlin. Over the last decade, it’s been a work in progress: blending his use of digital software like Ableton with analog instruments such as Moog and Prophet synthesizers.
• Giving advice to fellow artists who are looking to expand their workspace, he’s warm and direct: communicate with other artists about how they’re working, and practice and play live as much as you can; from there, you’ll understand that security in your art comes from building up confidence.

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Using SoundCloud Features to Collaborate With Other Artists, Book Tours and Finalize Album Tracklistings

• Today, Jan is an experienced producer, live performer and label owner, with his Disconnected imprint. Looking back on his early days and how he operates now, there’s a common factor in everything he does: SoundCloud. Before he had a team around him and a label to release his own music, Jan uploaded his first tracks to SoundCloud so he could share them with friends, send them to label A&Rs and find an audience outside of the Berlin club scene. 
• Today, he’s evolved his use of the platform to become a better musical collaborator. In the making of tracks with artists like Rodriguez Jr., Jan sends demos and track ideas back and forth through direct messaging, and both sides would leave comments on track timestamps with ideas for edits and changes. These features have been particularly useful for Jan in the collaborative process, and he continues to use them in his productions. 
• When it comes to planning his releases, such as his album trilogy, Jan uses the replace audio feature to hone in on the final tracklist and easily share its progress with his collaborators. He also talks about how he uses the insights feature to see where his fans live around the world, and his team uses this information to book shows in cities where he’ll have the greatest reception. All together, SoundCloud is a vital tool for Jan in how he creates and promotes his music.

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How Jan Blomqvist’s Album Trilogy Explores Themes of Anxiety, Social Media and Togetherness

• Jan’s latest album, ‘Mute,’ completes a trilogy that centers around a series of interconnected themes. Starting with ‘Remote Control,’ followed up by ‘Disconnected’ and rounded off with ‘Mute,’ the trilogy explores what it means for a generation to grow up online, navigate the anxieties and shocks of social media, and the feelings of loneliness and fear that come from being constantly connected to the world.
• Here, Jan goes into detail about these themes and what they mean for him, and how ‘Mute’ works as a hopeful conclusion to these woes. To the younger generations who may feel overwhelmed by their online lives, Jan offers gentle advice: focus on your inner peace by “muting yourself” from this digital world, and reflect on what truly makes you happy and fulfilled.
• Musically, Jan sees ‘Mute’ as a culmination of years of hard work; not only in the studio as a producer, but as one part of a larger team that he’s built around him. He talks about the making of ‘Mute’, his collaborators — including Natascha Polké, RY X, BONDI and JOPLYN, among others — how they worked together to craft the final version of the album and why tracks like “Muted Mind” and “Underwater” are favorites of his to play live. 

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Advice on Sampling, Field Recordings and How To Focus on Your Craft

• Going back to his studio, Jan talks through the techniques and machines that he’s been using most recently. When it comes to building his sound, Jan likes to avoid using pre-made digital samples, instead focusing on making field recordings from nature, manipulating his own voice and using unorthodox instruments to make his music as original as possible. Through subtle layering, he builds tracks that feel true to his mission statement. While it's a more time-consuming and intricate way of working, he offers simple yet effective advice: make music in a way that feels fun and engaging for you, and you’ll enjoy the results that much more. 
• When he hit on his concept in the 2000s, Jan realized that electronic music is like physics — the more you learn, the more you realize that you know nothing, and need to keep learning. Although this once was an overwhelming feeling for him, through years of studio and live practice, he’s come to appreciate how fruitful this process can be.  
• Giving advice to other artists, he finishes our conversation on a wise note: keep everything about your life private except the music, so that the music can speak for you.  As Jan notes, it’s vital to believe in yourself more than what happens on social media, trust in your path and always work on improving your craft. As long as you love to create, your career will be a valuable one.

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Links and Extras

Follow Jan Blomqvist’s journey on SoundCloud.

Press play on Jan Blomqvist’s new album, ‘Mute.’

Check out the rest of the album trilogy, with ‘Remote Control’ and ‘Disconnected.’

Hit play on Jan Blomqvist’s collaboration with Rodriguez Jr., titled “Destination Lost.”

Go back to where it all began with Jan Blomqvist’s first-ever track, “Ink.”

Check out more Jan Blomqvist label, music and tour updates here.

Listen to Sound Advice with Ben Böhmer, another artist Jan Blomqvist first met through SoundCloud.

Explore some of Jan Blomqvist’s wide-ranging influences, including Richie Hawtin, Thom Yorke, Björk and Oliver Koletzki, to name a few. 

Listen to the Chill House playlist on SoundCloud.

Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

• Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
• Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
• Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
• Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
• Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

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_{CREDITS: Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}