{"id":20502,"date":"2015-07-02T17:22:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T15:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/?p=20502"},"modified":"2015-07-03T23:57:54","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T21:57:54","slug":"interview-mendo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/interview-mendo\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Mendo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switzerland has never been short on electronic talent through the ages, from Ripperton to Luciano. Another of the names that should be included in that group is Mendo<\/span>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

He is a classy DJ and producer whose output is emotive and carefully crafted. It comes on labels like 8Bit, 100% Pure<\/strong> and Circus<\/strong> and he also runs his own well esteemed label Clarisse Records<\/strong>. He recently mixed the Toolroom Live 03<\/strong> compilation, and also put a special mix together for Deeperfect<\/strong>. At the same time, his \u2018Magic<\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018Melody\u2019<\/strong> tracks have been remixed on Material Series<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here we speak about all that and more….<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m a workaholic. I devote all my time to music, whether travelling to play or in the studio, so I don\u2019t really have time for a big social life”<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

As you will be performing in Ibiza on multiple occasions this summer, how do you prepare yourself, mentally and physically, for the rigours of the island?<\/b>
\nIbiza is obviously one of the best destinations in the world for parties \u2013 it\u2019s a global showcase to demonstrate your talent to the public and promoters who will ultimately get you bookings for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

This year I will play residencies at Blue Marlin, Reverse at Sankeys, the Ibiza Global Radio Beat Boat parties, and for the second time this year Space back to back with my buddy Dosem…so for all of these, you must come out with new ideas and surprise a connoisseur audience who will judge your Ibiza importance, good or bad, for the rest of the year. I think it’s important to have a healthy lifestyle in order to be mentally and physically 100%…and not to go too late to the after parties \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

What was your approach to your part of the upcoming \u2018Toolroom Live 03\u201d compilation? How did your part fit in with the other 2 mixes on the compilation?<\/b>
\nEach mix has its own colour that reflects the influence and musical style of the artist, as well as his way of mixing. I simply chose tracks that I am feeling at the moment, and included two original productions and some I have produced with my partner Yvan Genkins.<\/p>\n

As you hail from Geneva, can you give us a brief history of nightlife in that city? What was your first introduction to electronic music? How has Geneva changed over the years regarding nightlife?<\/b>
\nMy interest in electronic music began in the late 80s when acid house was on the rise. I was the only guy at school listening to it because everyone else was into rap, hard rock or new wave. I started DJing in local clubs when I was 15 after buying two Technics SL1200 MK2s, a mixer and a soundsystem from a friend. At this time there were no underground clubs, but now we are lucky to have many very good ones such as Weetamix, Silencio, Motel Campo or la Gravi\u00e8re, plus a few very good festivals too, such as Electron.<\/p>\n

You are regarded as one of the scene\u2019s \u201cfrequent flyers\u201d What are some of your favourite destinations to play? What are some of your favourite destinations to chill? Is there one particular place you haven\u2019t played yet that would be a dream to do so?<\/b>
\nAt the moment Budapest and Bucharest are my favourite cities. Since I started DJing, the public there have always treated me with a lot of love, gratitude and loyalty. There is a real culture of electronic music there and it\u2019s always a pleasure to have a public that pushes you to do your best in the booth. And there\u2019s Ibiza of course. I am lucky to play there regularly at almost all the major clubs, and I like to stay a couple of extra days afterwards to enjoy the island. The same goes for Hvar in Croatia, where we have one of our residencies with Clarisse every summer.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ve played most of the best clubs in the world \u2013 I\u2019ve done Womb twice for example – and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve missed out on too many others. For me, maybe playing more festivals would help me discover new things, so a huge one such as Burning Man, Tomorrowland, Ultra or Coachella would be fun.<\/p>\n

How do you pass the time while on the plane?<\/b>
\nActually I am addicted to a game on my mobile phone called “Plants vs. Zombies 2″. My friends Los Surubas showed it to me last year and since then I play it whenever I catch a plane. I also watch a lot of movies on my iPad which prepares for me for hundreds of hours waiting in airports every year.<\/p>\n

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Over the past couple of years your studio output as been quite prolific, how do you balance your time in the studio with your time touring and also relaxing (if there is such a thing)?<\/b>
\nI\u2019m a workaholic. I devote all my time to music, whether travelling to play or in the studio, so I don\u2019t really have time for a big social life. The only moments of relaxation I have are eating at nice restaurants with friends. It’s a choice – a bit drastic I confess – I made a few years ago: no love life and no kids! Only music, good restaurants and crossfit every day to keep healthy.<\/p>\n

What is an essential piece of gear for you on the road? In the studio?<\/b>
\nThe most important thing in this business is to sleep enough! Over the years, with all the long trips, sleepless nights, and junk food in airports, fatigue sets in increasingly. It’s therefore essential to have a healthy life and enough hours of sleep in a day to be 100% operational, whether playing, in the studio or on the road. For this, I try to take a maximum number of micro naps, whether at home or before I go on live. As it’s not always easy to sleep on demand, I\u2019ve helped myself in recent years with 100% natural melatonin pills that you can buy in any pharmacy.<\/p>\n

What are some of your artistic goals for 2015 and beyond?<\/b>
\nI hope my club mix version of Porno\u2019s \u2018Music Power\u2019 will be as successful as the remix I did of \u2018Sheeta\u2019 by Hunzed & Harvey last summer. I haven’t stopped playing Porno\u2019s 2004 vinyl version, and when I saw it in the catalogue of Deeperfect when choosing the tracks for the Barcelona Off Week 2015 compilation that I\u2019ve just mixed, I immediately asked them to do a completely revamped version because it is one of my all-time favourites.
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\n<\/span>Also we are working more and more with my buddy Hot Since 82 – playing together and releasing on his Knee Deep In Sound label – and it’s amazing to see that my podcast on his label’s Soundcloud has already got more than 30,000 listens after just a few days!<\/p>\n

Soundcloud <\/a><\/span> Artist Page <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Switzerland has never been short on electronic talent through the ages, from Ripperton to Luciano. Another of the names that should be included in that group is Mendo. He is a classy DJ and producer whose output is emotive and carefully crafted. It comes on labels like 8Bit, 100% Pure and Circus and he also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6002],"tags":[6258,4766,6259,4532,6260,4534,4060],"class_list":["post-20502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews-ibiza","tag-100-pure","tag-8bit-london","tag-clarisse-records","tag-hot-since-82-london","tag-material-series","tag-mendo-london","tag-toolroom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}