As you are German, born and raised, and still make your home there, how have you experienced the scene develop there? It is obvious that Berlin is essentially the centre for dance music or, at least, a certain kind of dance music, but I wonder how locals see its evolution?
For me, I saw Germany and the scene really growing around 2005/06. It got huge! You saw how people from all around the world wanted to grow their careers in Berlin. They saw Germany getting bigger and bigger with the amount of parties offered. At this time, I played a lot of minimal music, which was so well-known around the world people started booking me a lot. They wanted that German minimal/tech house sound. What I see now, the last few years, many people in Germany got tired of the parties. There was too much of everything! People would rather open up small clubs like Ritter Butzke.
At this point you could see how the scene was splitting a bit. Some DJs changed their sound, wanting to play more commercial, while some wanted to go back to the underground. Step by step, I think Germany lost its place as the #1 place for underground music. I think it gave this position back to the UK. Funny thing is, I now think UK gave it away to Italy and Spain, at least in Europe.
I also think that America has grown up a lot. The last 2 years in The States has been WOW!
Back to Germany though, it seems like people aren’t celebrating on the dance floor like they used to. They seem a bit bored. Also, the young crowd doesn’t want to hear underground tracks. They want to hear what a DJ played on BBC Radio. There was a girl once who told me that my beat was nice but she couldn’t sing along.
There are just too many acts who played good music in the past but now are playing commercial. They play music for the discotheque and the young people think because they played good music in the past they are still good. In fact, it is now shit music!
When were the seeds for your latest LP “Energetic” planted?
The album was not planned. I had this project with Carousel where we made a nice album together. I then made two songs on my own and thought they would sound nice on an album. At that point it actually became a more spontaneous decision. I knew I didn’t want to release EPs.
Also, people would tell me that my music lately was energetic. I wanted to call the album “Energie,” but in English I didn’t like the sound of it. It then turned out to be “Energetic”.
The album also features a slew of vocalists. How do you go through the lyric writing process?
My plan was to work with a handful of singers. One of the first tracks I did was with Aquarius Heaven. This is the track that pushed me to think about doing an entire album.
I always produce the beats and give the singers some keywords about them. I don’t want to talk about dark things but rather about dancing, music and happiness. Also, I don’t talk about love. There are too many people speaking about that. With this in mind, Aquarius wrote a very nice text about the music having a funky bassline. Normally, all the singers can write their own lyrics. For the album, my good friend Douglas Greed also wrote on two songs as he is a great writer.
If you could choose a single track of the album that encapsulates the entirety of the LP, which one would it be?
There is not one track to listen to. One of the most important tracks on the album is “Acatalepsy of Rhythm” with Foremost Poets. This was my dream! One of my roots was the song “Moonraker” on Soundmen on Wax. A lot of DJs still play the vocals. I contacted him to collaborate, sent him the beat and he said yes.
There is another track called “Tangerine,” which shows my new way of producing and thinking about songs.
Finally, I wanted to ask a practical question about production, and how you transfer your in-home studio to the road. What is one piece of gear you cannot live without?
On tour, it’s the laptop but that is kind of boring!
I produced all the songs on the album in the studio. In the studio, the most important piece of gear was the Moog Little Fatty. The instrument I also always use is the Roland Juno 106.
Jamie Jones | Seth Troxler | Guy Gerber | Art Department | Ben Sims | Hot Since 82 | Mathias Kaden | Marek Hemmann (LIVE) | Super Flu | Andre Galluzzi | Butch | Christian Burkhardt (LIVE) | Christian Smith | De Sluwe Vos | Dinky | Drumcell | Egbert (LIVE) | M.A.N.D.Y. | and many more
6 June 2015 | Free Your Mind | Tickets | Arnhem |