Frank Heinrich

Enjoying music…

Reboot – ‘Enjoy Music’ a record that has achieved a spectacular seven plays in seven weeks, back to back from Pete Tong, then to cap it all, he made it to the ‘Essential New Tune’. The record is already up in many DJ charts as House tune of the year. Here DMC meets Frank Heinrich, the German producer who has given us one of the most sublime retro sounding house tunes of the year. Get in son.

Groove magazine has just voted you producer of the year. Where did it all begin?

“I’ve been producing music for 18 years now, but I started releasing music about four years ago. For me, producing was just a side hobby before and I was doing a normal day job as a business consultant. I was doing that until January this year and I was there until it wasn’t possible to do both things. I have to say that I’m feeling that this year has been super-successful and it’s great because it has gone in the direction I wanted it to go.”

It must have been a mad experience for you to change from doing a normal daytime job to becoming a full-time dance producer.

“Ha! Well I’ve had a lot of experiences over the years. I started DJ-ing when I was a little kid at 14, and I was playing parties at that age. I started playing club gigs when I was 16. I’m 32 now, so I’ve had quite a long history in club and dance music, I’ve been DJing for pretty much all my life. But what’s happening now is a dream coming true – and I would never have expected that I could one day I could make a living out of my music and actually make a really good living out of my music. I never expected that.”

You are one of the few breeds of dance music stars that combine making music, playing live and DJing all across the world…

“Yes, exactly. I’m playing live as well as DJ sets, so it’s fifty-fifty. I’ve always been playing live and I love it and I’ve always been DJing. During the week I produce and now I’ve got loads of appointments and interviews to do. But seriously, as I mentioned before, I never expected all of this and all I can say about that is that it just takes time and the minute you start forcing it too much, it probably won’t happen. It’s all about having all the little things coming together at the right time. You need good productions’, but you also need a network of people who will support and help you and so on and so on.”

Your network seems to be made up with a lot of Techno and House guys.

“Well it was Luciano – a great House DJ was the first guy I worked with and basically that’s where it all started. I sent him some old skool CD demos and he signed me from that. I got in touch with Sven Vath and Ricardo – two amazing Techno and House DJs and they have supported me massively over the last two years. And now, having traveled for two years around the world you get to know most of your big name colleagues and I’ve been getting on really well with all of them, and they are now part of the network. It will be great to keep these people in my network.”


In the U.K, to get just one play from Pete Tong show is enough to make a record noticeable, but you got seven in a row and a place on the Essential New Tune. How do you feel about that!?

“I don’t know what to say about it! I couldn’t have imagined that to happen and I was really surprised about the kind of support I got from the likes of Pete Tong and also Steve Lawler who has also been massively pushing my stuff. I’m just so happy that they have supported my music in the way that they have.”


What do you think about the current state of House music?

“Well it’s kind of fashionable at the moment, but I must say that I’ve got a very long history and have had a very long relationship with House music. I grew up with House music, listening to it in the early 90s, so I have a really strong connection with that old House sound. Today we’re in a period where you can present that type of music to the people again and they will listen carefully to it and not just say that there’s a vocal in it they don’t like. I’m really happy about that. When I made the track ‘Enjoy Music’ I didn’t think too hard about it because I just wanted to make a party tune! It was designed to be just for my DJ sets because it was pretty un-typical to the rest of the stuff I do. So I just sat down and put some beats together and tried to make something that makes my DJ sets more interesting. And luckily, it was absolutely massive on the dance floor.”


So what was the reaction like when you first played it?

“I played it for the first time at ‘Sonar’ in Barcelona and the people just completely freaked out. I had goose bumps all over me. It was really amazing. I surprised myself because in the beginning I thought it might be a little bit cheesy with that vocal because it is very strong old skool house. But the people did completely freak-out and it showed me that if you play a track like that at the right moment, the people are way more open-minded than what you might think they are. It was a really positively surprise.”


There are rumors of an album. Are they true?

Yep they are. I’m spending every free moment I get on it. Again, it’s going to be a totally different sound. It’s going to be very dark and deep and it’ll be an album that will be better to listen to at home or in the car and it’s going to be out on Cadenza at the end of March.”


Are there any other productions or DJ dates coming up that you’d like to tell us about?

“Yes, definitely. I’ve got a lot of things in the pipeline. In the middle of December there will be my remix of ‘Frivalous’, which will be on the new Cadenza EP. In January I will have an EP. released on Cadenza in order to prepare for the album. I’ve just finished a remix for Samuel L Session and I’m also working on a remix for Jay Haze.”