Don Buchla

If you’ve ever had any contact with Red Bull Music Academy, you likely know Torsten Schmidt. One of the founding members of the crew, Tor’s been around since before day one. A longtime music scribe and editor for leading German club/pop culture gazettes Spex and Groove, as well as for selected national newspapers, he’s chewed the fat with Trevor Horn, Melvin Van Peebles, Dr. Bob Moog, Derrick May, Just Blaze, and Moritz von Oswald on the Academy couch over the years, among many others. (He’s still waiting, however, for someone to tell him why Miroslav Klose thought he could run around the pitch for Bayern after being nurtured by his beloved 1. FC Kaiserslautern.) Ask him about Iyengar yoga, his vintage synth collection, white wine, red wine, contemporary novelists, or Scottie Pippen, and you’ll want to buckle up for a long conversation. You’ll be glad you did.