If you had to name the 3 CDs/albums that were the most influential in shaping your musical tastes now, what would they be? What is it about each album that is important to you?

Coming from a family with more of a business than an artistic background, the very psychedelic and the abstract had the biggest impact on me, as they were the most unusual to me at the time. 'Fred Frith: Step Across The Border' was one album that definitely kept me thinking for a long while because of its refreshingly abstract approach and sound; I really thought 'Flying High' from 'The Irresistible Force' was something amazingly elegant and sophisticated which I couldn't stop listening to; and I loved 'The Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole' for its intensity, loudness and also because it was so temptingly rebellious.


Does your family understand what you do now? Did you get much support from them when you were starting out?

Yes, they know that I'm involved in some kind of a music related thing? But seriously, they are really cool; my twin sister, my younger and older brother often come to my gigs in Budapest, and even my parents have turned up every once in a while. They were very helpful throughout the period when I couldn't make a living out of music, they let me focus entirely on my career. It would've been a lot more complicated without their support.


20 years from now, do you still see yourself writing music and/or DJing? Do you think you will still be into breaks then, or do you see yourself getting into other styles of music?

I like breaks, but that's only one tiny slice of what I'm into. I started off with downtempo and I'll make any type of music that moves me. Sometimes I feel that those slower and mellow tunes of mine (a lot of which is unreleased) represent the real AMB sound, so whenever there's an AMB album on the way, I'll put some of them on it for sure. Anyway, I'd like to expand my knowledge base too; I've been considering a course in classical music composing and/or teaching music production for a while now. Who knows, I might even end up being a bald 50-year-old music teacher in 20 years.


Funny, but I think the same thing about my downtempo tunes. Sometimes I feel that making dance music can be almost too constraining, where as with downtempo anything goes. Same for you, or are there other reasons you feel this way?

Yes, I often felt that downtempo gives me a lot more independence to express myself, which I really need sometimes, but on the other hand, making dance music is a bigger challenge, therefore it feels a bigger success too.


What part of the music making process is the most fun for you, what do you really look forward to doing?

I guess everyone enjoys doing the things that require less effort, which in my case would be making drums/drumfills and chopping sounds. People often ask me what program I use for my chopping, but I always do them manually, because that gives me the greatest freedom to do exactly what I imagined. I also like mixing and mastering other people's stuff because I like to hear the improvement.


Same for me, writing drums and doing all the fills is enjoyable to me, even though I do it manually as well. Mixdowns would have to be my favorite though, I find it amazing how many different ways you can interpret a song during this process. Even something as simple as adjusting the volume of a few parts can take a track in such an entirely different direction.

That's why I was so scared of mixdowns and mastering in the first place, I just felt it too confusing to have like endless ways of mixing a song. I really thought I would never learn it, yet it has become one main aspect of what I do.


Ever wished you could play a certain instrument? Any reason you haven't tried to learn it?

I always wanted to be better at playing the piano. Actually, for a start, just to have a piano would be great. I was learning it when I studied music theory, still I'm not really good at it. I'm hoping to have the chance to carry on and also to get back to drumming, which I did for seven years but haven't played for another seven.


Are you taking any piano lessons now, or teaching yourself? I guess that leads to my next question, have you had any formal music training, and if so do you think was helpful overall in making you a better musician?

No, I'm not taking piano lessons at the moment, nor teaching myself. I've had a good musical training though; I took weekly lessons in drumming from Hungary 's premier jazz drummer, Imre Koszegi for 4 years, and I studied music theory for 2 years from jazz-pianist and university lecturer, Gyorgy Regaly. It helped me a lot in my production and that's actually the main reason why I'd like to carry on with my training.


As a musician, what do you do to get through creative ruts like writers block?  Are there any tricks you use to spark creativity?

That's probably one of the most difficult things in being a freelance producer. Sometimes it's just impossible to tell whether getting on with work or going for a beer in the pub would be more helpful. Occasionally forcing work might do more damage than good and vica versa. I always thought of the word ‘professionalism' as a term in which such things as writers block and lack of inspiration do not exist. Later on I realised that they do exist, only you may learn to deal with them. There's a thing that turned out to be a great help in many situations for me though: when I'm stuck in a project, I just go and take a break for too long. The deadline is getting closer, the pressure grows, and I soon find myself in a stress, that usually glues my arse to the studio and tosses me over the block.

What are some things you've learned about writing music that you wished you would have learned sooner? What about DJing or playing live, any tips that you wished you had known earlier?

I wish I'd known earlier that in this business you'll benefit from everything you put effort into. I would've done a lot more if I had known that. I think it also takes a while to accept the positive reactions but to listen to the negative ones.


Could you explain a bit more what you mean by “everything you put effort into”?

Let me give you an example. I was once asked to make a soundtrack for a theatre play, Romeo and Juliet (directed by Bozsik Yvette). Finally, they weren't too enthusiastic about one track I'd made, so it never appeared in the show. I had put quite an effort into it so I obviously didn't feel very happy at the time, however we decided to put it out on Chi. I named this track 'Romeo', which has brought me probably the greatest exposure in my career so far - even came second on Breakspoll in 2003.


What's your favorite piece of gear in your studio?

I guess my laptop, although I'm not connected to objects so much in general. I'm quite happy with my monitors (BX-8, M-Audio) because of their nice frequency response and detailed sound; the Virus-b, my only outboard unit has been with me for over five years now; and my UC-33 midi controller comes to each gig I play. Still, my laptop is the heart of the entire system. A computer is so multi-functional, and that's what I like about it. Often, while working on a track, I'm mixing another one, doing my emails, chatting – all at the same time. I know many people who banned internet from their studio but I couldn't work like that.


You don't find all of that to be a distraction when you're working? I know that I'm one of those who need to turn off my internet connection when writing, otherwise I find that I end up constantly checking emails and forums instead of focusing on writing music. My wife had to fight tooth and nail to get me to even get internet at home for this very reason (we both have free internet access at work).

I can just put my status to 'busy' or if I'm starting to get annoyed by the flashing windows, I remove the wireless card from my laptop. Which doesn't occur very often though, I suppose I like to be in range, in case something comes up. That's why I never switch off my mobile phone either. And some interruption can also help production sometimes; it distracts you from the track so you might have a better overview when you get back to it.


I see that you do mastering as well as writing music, something I can relate to, as this is what I do as well. What is it about mastering that you like, why focus on that versus other aspects of music making?

Mastering is great because there's usually quite a difference between the mastered and the unmastered material and it's nice to hear the improvement. Sound engineering and writing music are really close in technology based production. Some people don't put too much effort in the sound, because there's engineers for that, but I've always wanted to be involved in my production as much as possible. However, I strongly believe that there's too much attention drawn to irrelevant technical parameters these days. People always talk about 24bit 96Khz, but for example I remember some producer guys asking me about the kick and snare in one of my tunes, like what sample CD I used and stuff. I won't forget their face when I told them it was a vinyl rip in 192kbps mp3. And there's loads of these stories. I'm not saying that the things people tend to consider crucial in production are not important at all, I just know there's many aspects of it which are far more critical.


A good song idea is far more important than a well polished song you're saying?

Definitely not. A polished sound is as important as a good idea, although many parameters (such as 24bit and 96Khz for example), are not as crucial as the way you treat your sounds. By the way, I work in 24bit, but this has almost nothing to do with a good sound; the way you put your song together has. Let's say you have a reference track, which you consider to have a genius sound and let's also say it happens to be a 256kbps mp3. Now, you can use the highest sound quality with the best equipment in the best studio, and you still may not be able to match that level of your 256kbps mp3. And I'm not trying to refer to one's ears or brain now, I'm simply saying there's no big difference between an acceptable and a superpro sound system from this vewpoint. Music is a relative system where the overall sound is entirely determined by the relation of its elements, therefore it's all down to the process of putting your sounds next to each other, a.k.a. the production process.


Do you have any other artistic outlets, or is music your only passion?

I always like to think that if I'd put the same energy into say, painting or writing that I've put into music, I would be right where I am now in music. Of course the theory is safe forever, because I'll never know. Yet if I have any talent, it is definitely not musical but some ability to extract feelings or certain elements from a situation and recreate them in another form. In my life, this form happened to be the music. But I think music is much more abstract then writing for example, and it requires a lot more attention from the listener. You can listen to music while chatting to your friends, and you might not remember the song 5 minutes later, whereas you can't do this with a book; it engages you the moment you open it. ….Although, I'm rubbish at writing so don't worry, there's no fear of any AMB books coming up!


One final question, where did you get the name AMB, any meaning behind it?

No particular meaning, it just refers to my first name 'Ambrus' and to the word 'ambient', because of my passion about ambient music in general.

Be sure to check out AMB's new website and all the goodies it has to offer when it goes live on April 16th!
www.amb-music.com