Enrico Preuß
KMA Audio Machines
Berlin, Germany
www.kma-machines.com
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
Well, I started playing guitar with the age of 18. A friend from school was playing a red Squier Strat and a Peavey Valveking 100W 2×12 combo and he showed me some Green Day, Ulver and Anathema riffs…oh, and he was using a Marshall jackhammer pedal (the first pedal I ever heard in real life). I was so impressed by the sound and the way how you can express yourself, that I wanted to learn everything about it and how to play guitar! (Thanks Arne!)
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
That’s a pretty tough question. As I started to listen to more independent music, I was deeply in love with everything made by At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, Sparta, Brand New and Thrice. I still love all of them but as a musician you start to listen to music differently. I mean, you pay attention to so many details, trying to discover every layer of a song’s composition. Lately, I have discovered Great Lake Swimmers and love the music a lot. After living in a big urban city like Berlin for about almost 15 years, I’m lacking of nature and slow and calm surroundings (that’s why I try to be in the countryside as often as possible). So to say, folk, bluegrass, blues-style music is actually something I am really into.
What led to the start of KMA Machines? How long have you been in business? How big is your operation/how many employees do you have?
Well, it’s kind of a generic story which I am never getting tired of telling. I joined a new band called Amplified Backdoor Creatures, and the former guitarist had a really distinctive sound which was the foundation of the whole band’s vibe. He was playing an Ampeg VT-40 4×10 60W and using a Skreddy Pedals Screwdriver. He lent me the pedal but not the amp, so I had to replicate the sound somehow. After a while, he had a new project and needed the Skreddy Screwdriver. In the meantime, I started to search for more gear, since I had a particular reason for spending money on it. I figured out that pedals have been quite expensive and out of reach for my budget, so I started to search about DIY-Kits and found some at Musikding. So I ordered a silicon Fuzz Face style kit. It took ages to arrive and to overcome the waiting time I checked some tagboard-layouts and found a page with a layout for the Skreddy Screwdriver. THAT was the starting point to me building my first pedal. And now, 6 years after that initial point, we are 5 years in business, having two employees and pumping around 250 pedals a month! Quite a success!
Did you have formal schooling, or are you self-taught? Take us through that story:
I studied mechanical engineering and specified in the field of fluid dynamics and numerical simulations. I had only one lecture about really basic electronical stuff and I passed the exam quite close (I wrote the exam on a Saturday morning at 8am with a strong hangover).
All my knowledge about circuit design, hardware design, parts, business strategies, social media, marketing, controlling and all the rest was self taught and learning by doing and I am still learning every damn day new things, which is so exciting!
What drives you as far as new pedal creation is concerned? How long does it typically take for an idea to come full circle and become a demo pedal? What’s the process behind new gear, and the eventual release of it to the public?
Well, every new pedal starts with a single thought and can be triggered by different things. It can be a sound I heard in a song, it can be a personal need which can’t be served by an actual pedal on the market. It can be an interesting out of production pedal or a challenging project I wanna succeed at. As you see, different things can drive me to try new stuff.
As soon as I start with a new project I basically start on a breadboard for the analog stuff. After 5 years of building and designing pedals, I have a library of modules to combine, and also enough experience to do the major design on the pc and with simulations. After designing the first proto-PCB, I’ll mostly tinker around with the components’ values to fine tune everything. It’s mostly a cycle of 2-5 iterations till I have the first demo pedal ready. But that is just the hardware and circuit designing.
It is followed by the illustration and the artwork of the pedal. Quite often the brainstorming about the outward appearance, including illustration, control placement, LEDs etc. and the hardware design goes hand in hand and happens at the same time. That helps us to design a product which is more than just a product or a tool, rather a character or something that speaks to you and tells you a story. Our main aim is to push the musicians creativity by using our pedals and exploring new playing styles or genres they’d never expect to try out.
When it comes to the release, a lot of things happened way before, like sending demo-units out to certain YT-demo people that you can hear the pedal and know how it sounds as soon as the pedal has been released. We usually pre-build units and send them out to dealers to stock them up and having them ready to sell at the release date.
What are some of the biggest concerns facing your profession today?
To be honest, I am not having really big concerns actually. I could talk about oversaturated market situations, but that is something we all talk about every year and every year the amount of new pedals is just crazy BUT people are not bored, they are craving for new stuff, even though they just wanna give it a try to see if it is good or not.
I am also not concerned about new upcoming pedal brands in terms of market share or something. The pedal industry is one of the kindest and most supportive industries I have ever worked in. So I don’t see each other as competitors, rather a huge bunch of crazy people with crazy ideas and the lust to help each other out.
Where do you see pedal building going in the future, especially amidst the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic?
Pedal building will be steadily ongoing, I guess, even with Covid-19. Sure, many people lost their jobs and that is a really terrible thing. Everybody should have enough money for food and some extras and a roof over their head. But there are still a lot of people all around the world following their passion for music and buying gear and being creative.
One major concern for me at the very beginning of the pandemic was the supply chain, because we are ordering a lot of parts directly from factories which had to close down for a long time, but I am always careful when it comes to stockpiling parts, which helped us to overcome this period without extending lead times endlessly. Cirrus was a more or less tricky thing, because we are still behind with backorders due to a massive demand and our PCB and assembly factory had to close for a while, same with our new enclosure supplier. But we managed that time as well, and we are so thankful for every patient customer supporting us during that time.
Who are some of your favorite builders in the industry right now?
Oh my, there are a lot. From Europe, from the US, Canada, etc.
I am really happy that I met some of the Americans during W-NAMM 2019/2020, like the guys from Old Blood Noise, Meris, Death by Audio, SolidGoldFX, EarthQuaker, Chase Bliss, etc. All of them have great ideas and products which are unique.
Also here in Germany we are having a well established pedal community, and I am really happy to know many of them, like Nico from Red Sun FX°, Peter and Matze from Demon Pedals, my dear lovely Marc from Ohmless (congrats – you are a father now), one of the earliest pedals builder in Germany, Jan v. Triest aka Orion FX and also Ben from groundFX and my dear Berlin mates Ecke from Randale Pedale and Daniel Ringl, the man behind Lichtlärm Audio.
Too many great companies and great people behind them!
Name the last 5 records you listened to:
1. Great Lake Swimmers – Ongiara
2. Brutus – Nest
3. Alela Diane & Wild Divine
4. The Bronx – V
5. Sparta – Porcelain
Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
Never tried one – played the Pro Analog Devices Manticore V2, loved it. But I don’t care about hypes!
Any last comments, or anything you’d like to talk about?
Stay safe, be careful, take care of yourself and enjoy every day of living!
Thanks so much to Enrico for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.kma-machines.com to check out all the KMA Audio Machines gear they’ve got in stock! Cheers!
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