Patrick and Philip, quite simply – a fabulous career. Philip, on the back of superb productions, remixes and signing some brilliant producers for your label Get Physical Music. Which area of
your music world are you proudest of?
“It’s hard to say and maybe is the wrong term for this. You never
really have time to sit down and say “wow, look at what we have done,
let’s have a break and enjoy it.” In this business you always have a
break and THEN enjoy it. The label, the music, the whole scene. So
everything is a constant flux which makes it hard to really enjoy it
to the max, but of course they are moments where you are the happiest
man on earth. You have a label night, you’re with some of the closest
buddies, the house is packed and also the travelling.”
Most producers who join forces together meet in a club, your story is
slightly different… tell the DMC world how you first met…
“We met together through sport. We played tennis together together
when we were about 15. Hard matches, we did all kinds of sport –
that’s the reason why we have good rave endurance! At the same time we
taped our first music cassettes, not Techno which we’re spinning now
but back in the day…”
You are from Saarbruken in Germany, moved to DJing in clubs in
Frankfurt where you began own night’s at Monza – legendary
parties…what are your memories from there?
“Of course, very good one’s! Fantastic actually, you know how it is
when you first do something… music was our first love and we put all
our free time into our parties in the early 90’s. We invited all our
friends, had some weird performances and handed out little gifts to
everyone. Unmissable.”
Which fellow DJs/music artists from Germany were an inflence for you
and also, who do you think from the German scene today are an
inspiration?
“Patrick and I luckily lived in Frankfurt at a time when it was one of
the most major cities for early every Techno lover here. We were
obviously influenced by The Omen Club and The Dorian Gray at the
airport with DJs like Laurent Garnier, DJ T, Sven Vath, ATA, Kid Paul.
Nowadays, I get my inspiration from musicians outside the Techno
world, nevertheless every once in the while there are good DJs coming
up, like Reboot.”
You have produced remixes as diverse as The Knife, Sugababes and
Royksopp – what has been your best piece of work in the studio for
another artist?
“We only do remixes if we really like the original. And we normally
choose REAL songs. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense for us. We are
proud of all our work Dan…”
Tell us about the new material collaborating with Lopazz…
“It’s a shame, it’s more than a year ago that we were in Iceland in
complete isolation working on it. The layouts and demos sound really
good, but they are unfinished to this day. Being in Iceland for four
weeks in the Winter was special and we want to finish this project
this year 100%.
Tell us about the team behind Get Physical…
“We have a great team at the label. They work really hard and are a
real family. Everyone has their own special talent that they bring to
the table. Everyone works brilliantly together.”
2008, DJing at The Love Parade infront of 500,000 people in the
pouring rain who refused to run for cover…what was that like?
“It’s obviously a totally different vibe from playing for ten hours in
a nice little club with direct contact to the dancefloor to such an
immense crowd. To feel the energy of all the crowd is very special. The whole set felt, like, it was over in one minute – it flashed by.”
Philip, you have worked for dance labels… Logic and Jive for
instance, who was the best artist you signed?
“That’s a difficult question to answer. Maybe, when I was working for
V@ Germany I would say Sebastian Tellier, Bebel Gilberto and quite a
crew of German Hip Hop DJs.”
Your release ‘Body Language’ – an important moment of your life?
“From a commercial point of view, for sure. Yes, it opened the doors
in some territories and a lot of people who were not into Electronic
music got into it because of that song. Which is nice. The main thing
about something like this is that you can’t plan it. The BPM is 130
which is crazy as it is a 100% House record, but the speed is nearly
Techno and we started the record completely different. When the
bassline came up we were looking at each other and thought, “wow –
that’s something very special, we had better keep that.”
You are renowned for your partying, erm, like of the ladies and
generally having fun. What has been the craziest party you have been
to over the years?
“As you must have many underaged readers, I’ll tell you the answer to
that the next time I see you Dan. There have been obviously many crazy
nights all over the world which we are still enjoying. Not only for
the partying, but it is so inspirational to meet people with a totally
different cultural background. You donna wanna miss it!”
Over in the UK, Mixmag and DJ Magazine have crowned your CDs ‘Best Mix CD Of The Year’ and Best Label of the year – quite an accomplishment
hey?
“As we were one of the first German labels getting so much support in
the British press, it was something very special for us. Pete Tong
really pushed our sound from the very early days and helped make it
happen. To break through in the UK was an amazing feeling, I can
remember our first gig in London… Mark Meyer and Stephanie Aitken who
are behind ‘Foreign Muck’ at The Key Club in Kings Cross put us on. We
were shitting our pants. But we went down really well. Judy from
Fabric was there too, and she took us on board. The UK has always been
very good to us and we love our friends and fans there.
What’s next from you two in 2009…?
“Patrick and myself spent two months to prepare the live show. It’s a
total new challenge and there’s still loads to do. We are camped in
the studio at the moment, a little bit less partying is helping…but
as you know Dan, we are still enjoying ourselves out there!”
‘M.A.N.D.Y’s remix of Ben Watt’s latest track ‘Guinea Pig’ will be
released on Buzzin’ Fly on April 20th’
