Name: Tosca
Members: Richard Dorfmeister, Rupert Huber
Interviewee: Rupert Huber
Nationality: Austrian
Current release: Tosca's MIRAGE, the OSAM Remixes is out via K7. The album features remixes of their 2022 Osam LP by, among others, Brendon Moeller, Balint Dobozi, and Cay Taylan.

[Read our Brendon Moeller interview]
[Read our Balint Dobozi interview]

If you enjoyed this Tosca interview and would like to stay up to date with the duo's music, visit their official website. They are also on Facebook. For an interview with Richard Dorfmeister's partner in Kruder & Dorfmeister, check out our Peter Kruder interview.

For even more information, we recommend our Tosca interview about their creative process.



What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?

My first musical collaboration was actually with Richard Dorfmeister and it’s still going on.

Some years and a lot of albums later, I have to admit I was very lucky that the first steps in music playing together led to this long and fruitful musical and personal friendship.

There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?

It all depends on who is working together. With Tosca, we prefer to be in one room and jam and produce right there in the studio.

I work a lot with partners from other fields, visuals, dancers, poets and even scientists. It can be different every time, but I definitely prefer at least one or two meetings in the same physical space ...

How did this particular collaboration come about?

Richard and me went to school together, and the environment we were growing up in was not at all creative; so we ended up being the only ones interested in making music, at least we had that feeling back then.

We played every gig we could find - concerts, openings, parties, and also collaborations with poets and visual artists. That was a good way to grew up musically, as it demanded openness and versatility.

What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.

Not much, as we were put in the same class in school. We had the usual childhood contact- kids don´t really measure each other-, - and very soon began to play music together.

What do you generally look for in a collaborator in general and what made you want to collaborate with each other specifically?

The live- long collaboration with Richard, is a special case as you can imagine.

Generally, I like to collaborate, because the inspirations that come from experts of different fields are very important to me.

Tell me a bit about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others?

There is the piano, the synthesizers, which, as the instruments that they are, were built to play along with other instruments. As I am also currently creating interactive instruments I learn that collaborations are essential to give birth to a new instrument.

Furthermore, music is pure communication, it is an exchange by itself ...

Before you started making music together, did you in any form exchange concrete ideas, goals, or strategies? Generally speaking, what are your preferences when it comes to planning vs spontaneity in a collaboration?

As we were kids when we started making music together, we also share our listening history, and we were talking a lot about music in these early days.

Generally speaking, I like a certain exchange about overall ideas and goals in collaborations. Only sometimes this can be happening without words, most of the times verbal exchange is very important.

Describe the process of working together, please. What was different from your expectations and what did the other add to the music?

We still do what we always used to do - meet and start jamming, playing, or making sounds, creating a mood maybe.

In the case of TOSCA there is no expectations, that is part of our identity - we just meet and be open for the other´s input, sometimes be surprised even ...

Is there a piece which shows the different aspects you each contributed to the process particularly clearly?

We live completely different artistic lifes and so when we meet we enjoy this kind of "home"-feeling that we have when we make music. The TOSCA sound is always more than just the addition of the 2 proponents, that might even be its outstanding trademark.

What tend to be the best collaborations in your opinion – those with artists you have a lot in common with or those where you have more differences? What happens when another musician take you outside of your comfort zone?

A part from TOSCA I enjoy most collaborating with artists of other fields, like dancers, poets or visual artists.

I also work a lot with scientists and programmers and I love the exchange and inspiration that is possible collaborating like this.

Decisions between creatives often work without words. How did this process work in this case?

In music, there are generally no words needed, if the collaboration is worth something.

Words are more about organising let´s say the recording channels or when to meet for lunch ...

What are your thoughts on the need for compromise vs standing by one's convictions? How did you resolve potential disagreements in this collaboration?

If all the collaborators have an open mind there are hardly situations like this.

If so, being ready to compromise and being able to explain your point of view is a good mix.

Was this collaboration fun – does it need to be?

TOSCA is fun and working and making music with Richard is a lot of fun. That is the reason why we do it!

Do you find that at the end of this collaboration, you changed certain parts of your process or your outlook on certain creative aspects?

There is actually no end in sight as far as I am concerned …

Collaborating with one's heroes can be a thrill or a cause for panic. Do you have any practical experience with this and what was it like?

I once collaborated with an Austrian composer who was a big hero for me at that time. I admired his experimental, very straight and noisy music. I thought of him as a very sharp and intelligent person. Turns out he was constantly drunk and stoned and could hardly spea k...

That taught me that music is a different field than let´s say science - and verbal intelligence is not what you need to be a good musician ....