The Trunkfunk label on a huge summer roll
Fredrik Nyberg is NIBC, a Swedish DJ/producer who runs and owns the Trunkfunk label. Over the years the label has represented some of the house scene’s key players, with Axel Boman, FCL, Deniz Kurtel and more all contributing to the story so far. Recently, NIBC put his hand to Sleepless in Zimbabwe, a brilliant collaboration with his fellow Swede, Andreas Saag, himself a purveyor of quality electronic music tropes. The heavyweight EP also features remixes from Casino Times and Man Power – proof if needed that NIBC remains as on the pulse as ever. We threw some questions his way recently…
Interview by Ian Fleming
How are you getting on right now? Have you had a nice summer so far and what have been the highlights?
Great summer so far! Even though the weather has been switching like crazy, from 38 degrees one week to well below 20 the next one. I just came back to Berlin after a couple of great gigs in Stockholm & Gothenburg. One of the highlights was our Trunkfunk “Glassterrass”, an open air / ice cream party. Had the pleasure of hanging out & playing with people like Man Power, Casino Times, Matt Karmil, Ishivu and Andreas Saag.
Does the German scene continue to inspire you like it always has?
Yeah! It’s constantly changing and the biggest hype we’ve experienced during the last couple of years has calmed down a bit and is more similar to the way it was when I moved here. There is of course still a lot going on. I live in Mitte now but have my studio in Lichtenberg, so I see different sides of Berlin every day and meet a lot of different kind of people that keeps on inspiring me. The music scene and subcultures also seem more thriving now than ever.
So if we had a weekend to go clubbing in Germany where would you recommend we go? Any places aside from the usual places?
One of my favourite new spots that opened this summer is Haubentaucher. They’ve got a great outside area with a massive pool and nice hang out both during the weeks and the weekends. We’re doing a Trunkfunk label night there soon, so keep your eyes open for that one. I’ve also heard great things about MMA in Munich and PAL in Hamburg, but haven’t had a chance to check them out yet.
Did you have many defining nights out when you were younger that were really influential for you? Who made you want to become a DJ?
When I was a hip hop kid back in the late 80s / early 90s and all my friends started going to raves in Sweden I wasn’t blown away immediately. After discovering Inner City and some early hip-house I started collecting techno & house records and took up DJing as a hobby, but it wasn’t until I heard Sven Väth during Love Parade in 1998 that I had a very influential moment. Back then I didn’t even know who he was. I was attending the party to check out Carl Cox & Richie Hawtin, but there was this moment during Sven’s set when I realized that this is what I want to do. When I came back to Sweden I got in to production more and started collecting equipment for my first proper studio.
And when did you decide to pursue music professionally? Was it a real leap of faith for you in a way?
After becoming more & more busy with DJ gigs towards the end of the 90s I started Trunkfunk in 2000 and was one of the lucky few Swedes to attend RBMA (the first international one) the same year. Around the same time I remember getting offered an IT job during my last year at University but I really lacked motivation to finish my masters and music had been pulling me away from the studies for a while. So I decided to just go for it. That was a real leap of faith but I never regretted it so far.
What’s been your favourite gig recently? What constitutes a great gig for you?
One of my favourite gigs is always the Trunkfunk night in my hometown. It’s great because I know the crowd and it’s such an intimate vibe. Of course big venues are great fun too, but for some reason the smaller ones always seem to leave a bigger impression on me. I think early on I realized the value of a good residency and I’ve had many in both Gothenburg and Berlin. I also appreciate when I feel that I’ve got the freedom to take people on a journey. One of those moment was during a gig recently at Griessmühle in Berlin where it felt like I could easily play for a couple of more hours without blinking, because the people were really open minded and deep in the zone during my set.
Can you talk us through your studio set-up? What’s it like and what’s it involve?
Before I moved to Berlin I got rid of a lot of equipment. I first started out producing with the classic Roland x0x machines & Korg synthesizers, and recording live on DAT through an analog desk. Now I have a much more slim set-up since I have a small room and I also like to be able to write on the road. I saved a couple of things that I still use “out-of-the-box”, like my SH-101 & Juno 106. I also have a broken 606 and a pair of dusty old 707 & 727 that I’m planning on fixing. I mainly use Logic together with a big sample library I collected over the years and a jungle of way too many plugins. I’m a bit of a tech nerd and love to mess around with new plugins and gear and constantly try to improve my workflow. I’ve experimented a lot lately with weird routings. Like effects on effects and that sort of thing. I also do a lot of mixdowns & mastering work for friends in my studio. It’s great to get a bit of variation and not only listen to my own stuff all of the time.
Have you ever held a residency? How have you residencies impacted you as a DJ?
I’ve held a residency since I started doing music full time. I think it really shaped the way I DJ and make music. Back then it wasn’t so much about the international headliners or big line-ups etc. It was more about the vibe and clubs, at least in Sweden. So when we eventually started doing international bookings a lot of our regulars were still mainly coming to hear the resident Djs play. My first residency was a weekly Sunday gay party called Baby at Gothenburgs biggest nightclub Trädgårn. It was a great vibe with trannies in wigs walking on stilts, and a brand new four-color laser, which was the latest thing from Ibiza at the time. But it all went downhill after Gothenburg got hit by the first big wave of GHB and the police raids that came with it resulted in a lot of nights getting shut down. So I moved on and became a resident at the legendary old jazz club Nefertiti with brick walls and wooden dance floor. It looked and felt a bit like Plastic People in London. And I liked it so much that I actually stayed there as a weekly resident for 10 years. I was also running a Wednesday night during half of those years and a bunch of NYE parties at the same venue so I calculated that I must have done around 600 gigs there. The size was perfect and the crowd was really open minded for new music. I’ve done my fair share of touring too, but to have a platform where I can try out my own productions, refine my skills and develop as a DJ is still very important for me. I think that is what holding down a residency means to me.
How would you say your music has changed with the years? What influenced this change more than anything else?
I guess the move from Sweden to Berlin 7 years ago was the biggest influence that changed both the way I produce and DJ. Before I relocated I felt a bit under stimulated and didn’t experiment enough. Living in Berlin gives you more opportunities and also time to figure out what you want to do, and how you want your music to sound. I guess I also spent a lot more time in the studio here compared to when I was living in Sweden.
So tell us a bit about the latest release on your own label – what’s the vibe with it and how did it come about?
Me and Andreas Saag used to share a real shady but fun studio together in Friedrichshain and we started messing around with some beats from an old italo record, running the beats through Andreas space echo. Then we didn’t touch the project for more than a year and when we came back to the project this year we went a totally different direction and it became a slow summer jam with African influences.
Is it a typical Trunkfunk release do you think?
I think in some ways it is. The melody & vibes feels like a good fit for Trunkfunk. But I think it still stands out a bit from the more housier stuff we’ve released recently. And I had no idea that my collaboration with Andreas would result in this sort of track. I was expecting it to be darker and less happy. But with that said: I’m very happy with the way things turned out.
You’ve got some really cool remixers on board too – how did you decide on those guys?
Man Power is a flat mate of Andreas and he liked the melody when he heard us working in Andreas studio. So we asked him if he wanted to do a mix. Casino Times have done a remix for me in the past, and I’m a big fan of their productions so I’ve had them in mind for doing something new for a while.
What do you reckon they bring to the original?
Casino Times of course made our slow jam even slower and dubbier, which I think fits the release perfectly. Man Power brought his signature breakbeat baleric vibe and slammed it with a more clubby approach, which I also think was perfect.
How would you describe the music you make to someone who’s yet to hear it?
Warm summer afro/tropical vibes. A soundtrack that could fit well for a sunrise at an open air I reckon!
And what does Trunkfunk stand for? Is there one policy that all your releases have to adhere to?
There have been some different policies over the years. I think that besides the sound, the first thing that comes to mind is the artwork. We’ve always had different designers for every artwork and they’ve been given free hands to express themselves with either digital artwork, vinyl sleeves, picture discs or visuals and so on.
What do you think the best thing is about the modern day house music scene? And the worst?
The best thing is that it’s more accessible for clubbers and not only to the DJs buying the vinyl, which it used to be back in the days. Trying to picture telling someone asking me for a track ID during a gig in the 90s of a vinyl I probably ordered without even hearing sound previews from London: ‘In the future you will be able to use your phone to ID the track and then listen to it directly after the gig.” That would have sounded like science fiction for most people back then. The worst is that a lot of great music drowns in the ever-growing noise of more and more music being released.
What’s next for you then? What are you really looking forward to over the next while?
Really looking forward to playing with Hunee in August. I love his new album and haven’t heard him play since Dixon’s wedding a couple of years ago. I’m also really excited about finally dropping a new collabo with my old friend Jonas Rathsman under our Stuffa alias. It’s quite different to what we’ve done in the past but I think people who like both of our latest solo releases will enjoy this. Me and Jonas are also working on a new project together with Isaac Tichauer and Lancelot. It will launch at the end of the year and I’m very excited to start something new after 15 years of Trunkfunk, even though the Trunkfunk story is far from over.
Saag vs NIBC’s Sleepless in Zimbabwe is out now on Trunkfunk Records
