Already in July we honoured your Makeovers remixcompilation as the Record of the month. Further weh ad some reviews on great dirtybird and mothership releases. Now we have the possibilitie to get an interview with you. We re really happy about that and i want to say: Thank you for that!
Thanks!
Currently you are on your big makeovers tour. Especially in the USA, UK and Ibiza you playing a lot durig that tour. Unfortnatley you play less in Germany and our neighbour countries. You have an explenation or a reason for that ?
Yes, i’m sorry i have played a lot of shows at Panorama Bar and Watergate and many other German cities – many more than even in the USA. What happened is that this year i finally decided to play a very large USA tour and I could not go everywhere in Europe. I tried to play at Melt but the booking did not happen in the end. Next year I would like to come and play Melt and Fusion and finally play in Hamburg and Stuttgart and some of the cities I have not played yet.
How would you compare the german / european techno-house scene with the USA ?
It is like comparing marathoner to a sprinter. Germans are the marathon athletes, they know how to pace themselves and party for very long sessions. Becuase of this the peaks are not as high but it can be very satisfying to play 4 or 5 hours. In America it is much more of a sprint. Shows are shorter and crowd has limited time to be partying and they put all there energy into maybe 3 hours so you can get a much bigger reaction from them becuase the time is so compressed.
For us, living on the other side of the big sea, the north american sceen seems to be very small and family like. A look on the schedules of the big names the / big djs shows that they are playing more and more in the USA. You think the USA scene is on a similar way like the european scene at their beginning ?
Right now the scene is very healthy and i can see why people are coming here to play more. I think some people in Europe forget that house music and a lot of techno was started here. The scene gets very small and then very big every few years but it never goes away. But you are right that the scene is very tight with everyone knowing each other. Our label in particular is just all close friends.
You are mostly famous for your amazing remixes. For me, i m very impressed on your musical creativity and diversity. You mixing a lot of genres to your own style. What inspires you, when you make music ? Why you are so multifaced ?
I am multifaced becuase i enjoy many styles. Sometimes i think my label dirtybird gets put into a category and people think we are only doing one ghetto bass sound but if you listen we are doing 10 sounds at least! But all with our own theme behind them, I am inspired by good music. So if it is good i like it!
What kind of music you listen private in your free time ?
i listen to a lot of hip-hop still but more underground, not like Jay z really. I also listen to alot of jazz and a lot of chillout electronic music. Every few weeks i go into my huge drum n bass collection and listen to some of that as well.
Do you prefer doin remixes or originals ?
Good question. I dont really like doing remixes. Even if you hear my remixes they sound like originals. So i always think to myself “why am i remixing this track?” it should just be a new original! Even so, there are remixes that are quite fun to do becuase i get sounds and vocals to work with that i might never think of for myself.
Sometimes i ve the feeling that your music isn t really serious. Your music shows often a lot of fun and it seems that the tracks are not so muchelaborated and systematical. Thats waht make your tracks so special and interested and it makes it totally symapthic and let the people smile. Is this purposed ? or do i have a wrong sight on your music ?
As a producer I am serious in the craft of making the music but I am not a serious person. My belief is that I am making music for parties. people goto parties to have fun, get laid, get drunk, dance, laugh, and hang out with their friends. So the music and the genres reflect both my taste in music AND the fact that i want to have fun at the party.
You are also running two own labels: Mothership and Dirtybird. On MS you present names which are a bit more famous in the european area. Artists like Maetrik, Italoboyz, Catz n Dogz, Ptoile and more. On DB you present a bit more unknown (or in europe more unknown) artists. Is that a hazard or do you have tow different label philosophies ?
It is actually interesting becuase mothership is much much harder to operate than dirtybird. On dirtybird we have a clear message and no one does our sound besides us – even if all the producers are not famous. On mothership, like you say, we are competing with all the european labels. We have more famous producers (some who we made famous!!) but not as many people pay attention to mothership becuase it is one of 100 labels. But everyone pays attention to dirtybird becuase it is unique. There is no other label like it.
To the end, can you tell us a bit about scheduled german dates ? is something planned fort he next months ?
I am working on 2012 to come FOR SURE. i am working on a few parties with my great friends Catz n Dogz and I’m sure we will do another dirtybird watergate. I want to come play in Hamburg for Solumon’s party hopefully and hopefully i can play Melt this year – and some more!!