Maddes _{Songwriter & Producer}

New Album “Cascades” Out 07/07/2022

Saarbrücken, 03/20/2022

“Music, which is shimmering charmingly between classic songwriting and melancholic indie dream pop.” says journalist Gérard Otremba about Maddes’ music. Behind the name stands the recording project of Matthias Roos from Saarbrücken (Germany), who is an active singer-songwriter, drummer and producer since the late 90s. On July 7th 2022 he releases his second album “Cascades”, which has been announced already by a digital re-release of his entire song catalog.

The sound of the record is characterized by indie, synth/dream pop with elements of alternative hip-hop or trip-hop. With multilayered arrangements, dynamic changes and rhythmical details, every song stands for itself but is grounded by connecting elements like soft vocals, open guitar harmonies, 80s synths, vintage sounds and an overall melancholic touch. As recent influential references, Maddes names artists Bombay Bicycle Club, Still Parade, Now Now, Caribou und Beirut. In addition to drums and guitars, he also played bass on some tracks for the first time. For the emotional song “So Close”, bass is played by Marco Divic (Soft Plastic), who can be heard on former releases as well and is among one of Maddes’ constant musical companions.

Just like on all former productions, Maddes works independently in his home studio and only got support for mastering from engineer/producer Filippo Gaetani (Don Grusin, The 1975, Andy Bell/Phil Larsen and many more). With a digital/analog workflow between Saarbrücken and Vienna, a retro sound was created, which finally leaves the limitations of the own four walls almost unnoticeable. “Home recording has never sounded so good!” said mastering engineer Julian Lowe (Björk, dEUS, Amy Winehouse and many more) about the previous EP “Tools of No Use”. With “Cascades” Maddes tries to live up to this and makes progress as a creative audio engineer: besides recording and producing the record, he also mixed it and took care of final mastering. The abstract artwork of the LP was contributed by Berlin-based artist Stephane Leonard. Currently it can also be seen on Maddes’ website in the form of background graphics.

Maddes is involved in different bands and projects, where he takes on varying roles. Single songs and remixes resulted in radio rotations (DLF Kultur, FM4 et al.) as well as collaborations with international engineers/producers (e.g. Alex Wharton - Abbey Road Studios, Radiohead, The Beatles, The Pixies and many more) as well as players of the music industry (Universal Music Austria, Buddemusic, Cargo Records et al.).