alex niggemann ~ interview

hit play on that video and let me introduce you to someone who's been pricking my ears... at 25 years old, düsseldorf born alex niggemann is a pretty young man in the generally mature world of electronic music. unlike pop or indie, where you have teenage upstarts like arctic monkeys [literally] topping the cool list, dance culture seems to prefer its artists to really earn their stripes. there's none more canonized than old masters like the belleville three, whereas the same certainly isn't true in other genres: would anyone really protest if i said that no one gives a fuck about paul mccartney or u2 nowadays? i doubt it.

so, for alex to have fans like thomas schumacher (who he'll remix next year) ralph lawson (on whose label he'll release next year) and get physical/supernature/8bit (for whom he has already produced) he's done pretty well. his early productions - like assign me - exuded a confidence to belie a man of his age - there was no big hook or catchy riff to steal floors, just subtle, mature grooves. it's now 18 months on, and the 8bit release embeded atop this post has been everywhere this summer - its warm, spare keys add depth to a pure house track with groove to spare - so i thought it time to chat...

how are you?

thanks, i'm fine...

how was sonar for you?

pretty nice...but was really experience. i got to know so many new people and met all those i just know from emails or skype as ‘the guys from 8bit and supernature’ or ‘the oslo guys... federico, christian or nekes’ who you had in your last interview...but it was also very exhausting...running from one gig or party to the other and all that in three days...next year i'll take a few more days to relax and chill on the beach.

you're soon to release on 2020 - have you finished the track? what's it like?

well...no i haven't... i will start with it after finishing the remix for freerange i'm working on at the moment....but the release will be next year...ralph from 2020 just asked me for a release and i told him i'll do it for next year because there's a lot coming up at the moment.

how did you come to link up with nick and 8bit?

puhh...more or less it was a coincidence... gorge charted the ‘burka’ remix i did for supernature recently, and i just had finished the makayuni song..and i was trying to find a label for it...so i sent it to 8bit and they first signed it for their va [8bit reasons part one – a label comp mixed by boss nick curly]...but he told me, if i got 2 more songs they like, they were up to do a ep...a month later i had them and nick and gorge liked them!

what kit do you use when djing and in the studio?

i just changed from vinyl to traktor scratch because i get so many digital promos at the moment, and i really want to play them but i'm not a cd-dj...and i never was...i still like playing vinyl.

in the studio i use logic 8, a lot of plugins and some hardware such as a midi controllers and a korg synthie to produce my tracks...nothing very special...

tell me about the artist/party/album/drug which got you into electronic music

haha...well...it was from all a young age...i've always been listening to electronic music, but the time i got really into it was when i listened to nas, talib kwali or dr. dre...i was a real hip-hop teen...my brother was a techno dj at the time...once he brought me to a club and i was just flashed...since that day, i had my first pill and i listened to ken ishii set in a club called ‘tor 3’ in düsseldorf and after i started my dj career.

how does your music reflect you?

a lot...it's just the mood you are in....it manipulates you even though you don’t really recognize...

does living in berlin help or hinder you? there's a lot of famed competition...

no.. it helped me a lot...all that i am now was influenced by the city and its people...i got to know all the contacts i have now...and which are still really important for me...see, if i didnt move to berlin, i wouldn’t have done a remix for booka shade, without their label get physical, i wouldn’t know audiofly, without audiofly i wouldn’t know the 8bit guys and so on! but yes, there's a lot of competition, but competition stimulates the business...the only thing i real hate is enviousness and there's a lot..this is not good for berlin..when did the last electronic wave really came from berlin....long time ago...just frankfurt, mannheim, hamburg, cologne...because they have less competitors and supporting each other...berlin should do the same...

you're a relatively young man in the generally aged world of house and techno. how does that help or hinder you?

well..ask the new pop artists if the beatles hinder them in getting famous...i grew up with the techno and house of the late 90ies...it just influenced me in the same way as artist like dj-t were influenced by frankie knuckes or dj pierre. i'm just a new era.

if i gave you ten euros, which album would you buy and why?

tell me where do you get a album for ten euros today...lol...well, i would buy an album from an artist like martin buttrich if he had done one... he's one of the best producers..maybe the best in the scene!

does a good quality release or an equally good quality headline slot interest you more and why?

a quality release...man, there's so much bullshit out these days since the digital era...labels should more focus on quality than on quantity or artist name.

where would you like to be in 5 years time?

well...i hope i can live from doin what i love...electronic music!

[question from nekes] how do you feel about the electronic scene and about its evolution in the last years?

i feel a bit upset and sad about what happens...as i said...there's more quantity then quality in music at the moment...digital era won’t be stopped..music pirates won’t leave...but we have to take it as it's...life changes every day and we need to handle and deal with it!

please leave me with a question for the next person i interview...

the scene’s running through a crisis at the moment..what do you think what are the reasons and how could we handle the problem?