We’re less than one week out from Alex’s first appearance in Australia and it’s most certainly overdue given his past works and schedule – Chris Liebing’s “Es ist Freitagaaabend”, Munich`s “Electric Delicate”, Würzburg`s “Airport”, and Berlin’s Tresor. We could keep going but we’ll refrain. The same could be said for collaborations and works alongside the likes of Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, The Advent & Gaetano Parisio.
It’s all coming to a head this weekend. Sydney’s Swarm crew will host the Friday, Brisbane’s Let’s Get Minimal the Saturday and Melbourne closes proceedings on Sunday with Forklift/PWD. It should be a storming event irrespective of where on the East Coast you’re situated.
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Kn: Alex it’s been a long and driving path for quite some time now. Can you shed some light on the undertone of your own impetus that got things moving?
Ab: It sounds boring, but it was simply just the music. I was always collecting vinyls even in teenage-years, but this music with those repetetive beats, all produced electronically, was just amazing and especially so powerful. I couldn`t resist to dig in deeper!
Kn: …your home in the South East Bavarian corner would of played host to your direction a little, as it did with DJ Hell. Can you tell us a little about that?
Ab: No, that has nothing to do with my evolving career back then. The only common thing wilh DJ Hell is that I started my first residency at the same club where he started, but this place (LiBella, placed in Altenmarkt, the hometown of Hell) was not an electronic music club, it was known for it´s sophisticated programming and playing different music to the common discotheque shit. LiBella for sure had an impact on my personal musical development, but it could have been anywhere.
Kn: On the label front your own imprint [Credo] has attracted the likes of Adam Beyer, Charles Siegling and The Advent. Can you tell us how to operate the label as far as working with the artists is concerned? Could you provide a quick snapshot of a flowchart from when you receive a piece of music to when it’s released.
Ab: On the one hand it is of course a label, but though I would not even call it a proper label. There are no other artists on the label, except remixers from time to time, so it`s more like my own small platform for my music as I experienced that the tracks I love most are kind of in between the chairs in terms of other labels. Credo actually is the perfect name for this platform as the music on Credo really reflects the sound I believe to be the perfect definition of what I call techno. I am just lucky that some releases caught attention by the mentioned names and others. It`s also very easy then of course to handle the process of releasing music as all the arguing and discussions about “thumbs up or down” for a track on the label take place in my head only and not between artist and label in the common sense.
Kn: The label itself – what’s the ideology? What construct did you envisage when you commenced releases and how has progressed since?
Ab: The ideology is very simple: Colors, not shades! Means, even though it`s proper techno and the main goal is make people moving on peaktime hours I always try to not to forget that it`s music. There will always be some significant sound on the tracks on Credo. I am trying to sneak around, I take the position and try to bring out stuff with some recognition. I know that this is too much for many, and some might don`t like this oldschool rave-aspect, but this is the nice thing about it! I like full colors in music, not only weak shades that only point out the direction, I like to go the direction!
Kn: You’ve seen the techno scene evolve and mutate from those days in the late 90’s to where we are now. How do you approach changing technology and is there anything that’s caught your attention?
Ab: Though it`s quite some years now it does not appear to me that it`s around 20 years meanwhile that techno or electronic music in general determines the nightlife, but it looks like, hm? Most recently I find it very interesting to see these cycles waving up and down: not only the nightlife generations seem to change every two to four years, also the musical preferences if you strip it down. For a period of let`s say three years people are up for more harder sounds, then they get tired, draw back to warmer, housier stuff, and finally need more energy again and scream for techno again. Of course lot`s of genres and styles are created constantly, but it`s funny that you can strip it down really easy to the energy level. Technically I think there were two milestones in the techno-biz, first one around the end of the 90ies / beginning of the 2000`s when producing became more and more digitally, getting aways from huge parks of analogue equipment and the second then similar to this when djing became digitally and opened a broad range of possibilites to re-invent yourself performance-wise – though I have to admit I still love vinyl, even that I don´t play it anymore in clubs…
Kn: Now the main reason we’re having this chat is because of your Australian tour. Where to after you leave us? What’s in the pipeline and where are you headed with not just music but life in general?
Ab: The Australian tour, actually only four days in the country for me, it’s definitely one highlight for me personally as it´s simply my premiere down under. I am so much looking forward to explore another continent on my mission for the holy bassdrum. After the tour I will take a weekend off and the continue with the “normal” touring which will lead me to spots like Berlin`s Tresor, Amsterdam`s annual Dance Event but also to Mexico again later this year as well as maybe even Argentina if we manage to squeeze it in in 2012. actually almost all dates are kind of booked for the rest of the year, so I am just happy if it continues this way…
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Alex plays –
Sep 07 Swarm – Gladstone Hotel, Sydney
Sep 08 LGM – Coniston Lane, Brisbane
Sep 09 Forklift/PWD – Lounge, Melbourne
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