Electronic producer Ulrich Schnauss made his name as the man who effortlessly merged British shoegaze with German electronic music.

He predated the noughties fad for bands to shoehorn in synthesziers and avoided the 1980s fashion for pastiche that sunk so many of them.

He grew up in the northern German city of Kiel, where he intercepted British culture through the Forces’ radio. He’d listen to John Peel, to rave shows – anything to catch up with what was happening far from the remote maritime location north of Hamburg.

“The scene in Germany was not good at the time and it is still poor,” he says. “English people always misunderstand because they have heard of some big names.”

The problem is geography. Berlin is the biggest city but it only has three million people.

“There is not the urban cultural landscape in Germany. It is structured differently. The good stuff comes from nerds all over the country who make stuff in isolation.”

The description sounds like Schnauss, though he cites Tangerine Dream as the example. Those 1970s purveyors of Krautrock (a term still unfamiliar in Germany) had to come to London to get a record deal.

Schnauss moved to Berlin and later London, where he now lives, for work.

Bands such as Ride, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse all remain on his radar because he loves how shoegaze combines emotions.

“Even when I’m writing something in a melancholic state, I try to keep hopeful elements in there. That is what fascinates me about my favourite records by other artists – they have this dichotomy between melancholy and hopefulness. Life is full of those contradictions.”

He reckons the shoegaze wall-of-sound guitars are positive and make for joyous, dreamy sentiments. The grungy escapism is about leaving the melancholic boredom of the everyday.

“I spoke to Andy [Sherriff] from Chapterhouse recently and he said he grew up in Reading and that they all thought it was such a s*** place they tried to make beautiful music to escape that.

“I can relate to that. I thought everything was really s*** where I grew up. I wanted to counter reality.

“Shoegaze has turned into a cliché now but I always thought that combination and contradicting elements colliding in a song was interesting.”

His latest record, A Long Way To Fall, marks a new chapter.

It is six years since his last solo record and he has drifted out into more ambient electronic sounds.

He has removed the vocals and refuses to use traditional drum sounds because he wanted to avoid sounds that detracted from a “synthesizer’s colour”. So the synthesizers will no longer attempt to recreate shoegaze guitars.

“I wanted to make an album that displays a wider range of synthetic or synthesizer sounds. I didn’t want any guitars or vocals on the record, and for rhythms I tried to avoid using too many typical bass drum/snare drum patterns so a lot of the tracks have rhythms which are made up out of synth sounds or found sounds.”

His long-term aim is to create electronic-style symphony music.

“Right from the start it’s always been a journey to getting closer to a music I have already imagined in my head as a child. It’s an electronic style of music which is symphonic with few repetitions.”

He wants to compose music in a different way where elements interact with each other rather than having a choral foundation and melody on top.

“Melodies wear out very quickly. I enjoy a pop song with a great melody but I find it more rewarding listening to music again and again.”

Health scare

Not only have his musical tastes changed, he is also healthier. In the time since his last record he discovered he had been living with diabetes for eight years. It could have killed him.

“A relationship ended four years ago and around the same time I nearly collapsed because of diabetes. I didn’t know what was going on. My health was deteriorating and I had weight problems, but it wasn’t until I had a diabetic shock that I realised something was seriously wrong.”

Despite the sluggishness caused by the diabetes, he made three well-received left-field solo records which merged indie songwriting with electronic instrumentation before A Long Way To Fall.

He built a reputation as something of a go-to remixer – working with Death Cab For Cutie, Howling Bells, Depeche Mode and Locust – and got a gig as the keyboard player in underrated former British indie band Longview. He worked with American post-rock group, A Shoreline Dream, and is now working with Engineers.

“I feel like in a much better place now. I’m really enjoying making music again, and all of a sudden electronic music sounds really fresh again.

“Dance music is reappearing which is non- formulaic and genuine, and guitar music has become a place for manufactured stereotypes.”