Ralph K. Freund aka Braincell has a long and illustrious psytrance career that dates back to his days as one half of the duo, RASTALIENS, which he formed with friend, Jay, back in 1994.
He launched his solo project as BRAINCELL in 2003 and boasts an impressive discography of releases on various compilations and major labels.
To date Ralph has played on every major continent and continues to smash out quality psychedelic music on a regular basis.
He has now teamed up with long-time friend, Angus Young aka Mandala, to form a new and truly exciting project. Their first EP, called Mission Possible, is fresh off the press and the result is a trippy combination of two seasoned NANO artists.
We sat Ralph down for a 5-minute chat…
Growing up in Germany was interesting because…
Braincell: In that area where I grew up there was no electronic scene at all, and it still sucked me in.
My favourite movies/book of all time is
Braincell: Into the wild
If I was a cartoon character I’d be…
Braincell: Snufkin from the Moomins 🙂
My weirdest gig experience ever was when…
Braincell: vvDavid Tingsgard (Battle of the Future Buddhas) and I woke up in a caravan with holes shot into it and we realised we had been put into an illegal hunting place to sleep.
So, we escaped from there by foot (dogs and hunters behind us), and managed to get a ride to the airport before it got worse 😉
Best gig I’ve ever played was…
Braincell: Ozora 2016 closing set (I still get goose bumps).
The first time I heard psytrance was…
Braincell: At a castle party in south Germany. I was expecting a rock show, but then they played that Bum Bum music (Monkey music as my friend called it) and I couldn’t escape it and haven’t been able to ever since.
Best way to keep occupied on flights and in airports is to…
Braincell: Produce [music].
Favourite psytrance track and/or artist of all time is…
Braincell: Technossomy – Pyramid
Completing a full album was…
Braincell: A big challenge as I had to transform all the ideas, inputs and recordings from a year of traveling into music, but also big fun and it opened up new ways of creativity [for me].
One other genre besides psytrance I would consider making…
Braincell: Rock music.
Being part of the NANO artist roster is…
Braincell: Fabulous (heaven on earth) and an extended family experience.
You’ve just released ‘Mission Possible’, the first track from your brand-new collaboration with Mandala. Tell us a bit about the new release and, of course, about your new production duo, with Angus.
Braincell: We aimed to create something different in the genre, combining natural and synthetic/modular sounds and then tweaking them into new territories.
I met Angus several years ago in Goa in his Mandala paradise and ever since then we’ve become very close friends… and I helped him a bit to push his own music career.
Also, every studio session we’ve had has been pure inspiration and we have a timeless flow together, so it was clear that we would do some music together somewhere in the future, and here we are. 🙂