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“If you still want a playground in the future, you should play tomorrow’s music today, but don’t completely disregard the past and the present, as few will be unable to keep up with you – and a party is no fun on your own.”
Short and to the point
Pierre, 29, often-booked DJ, producer, label owner, legend of “Aufschwung Ost”, “Stammheim” and “Hotel Reiss”, began to organise parties at the tender age of 16,... Read more
“If you still want a playground in the future, you should play tomorrow’s music today, but don’t completely disregard the past and the present, as few will be unable to keep up with you – and a party is no fun on your own.”
Short and to the point
Pierre, 29, often-booked DJ, producer, label owner, legend of “Aufschwung Ost”, “Stammheim” and “Hotel Reiss”, began to organise parties at the tender age of 16, originally in a quiet village. Since he became twenty, he lost interest in public educational institutions and preferred to teach himself. Pierre has founded several companies, plagued his employees, earned and lost money, so he knows all about paying for experience.
Pierre’s perfect party takes place in an atmosphere free of rules yet cultivated, uses a good sound system, a stage set at head height with the crowd, delicious drinks and healthy, unrestrained people in a balanced mix of gender and social standing.
Pierre love(d) Stammheim, the Omen, the FUSE in Brussels, the Alive Festival at St. Vith and . The club culture of straightforward beats would benefit from an overhaul, he said. Asked whether he could imagine still playing in clubs at 40 or 50, he thought it would be “good”, although he refrained to answer. It doesn’t matter.
By the way: Even the old pro DJ Pierre sometimes has stage fright, particularly when the gig means a lot to him.
How it all started ...
DJ-ing: a product of the endeavour to achieve completeness and aesthetic control. Together with friends, Pierre firstly developed numerous party concepts, including sophisticated decorations, a stage show, special drinks etc. Although the staff was happily willing to work in pretty costumes, this unfortunately couldn’t hide the fact that the musical notions of the local DJs did not correspond to Pierre’s own ideas. Far from accepting the inevitable, he decided to learn disk jockeying himself. Established guest DJs did the rest. And the corks popped in the quiet village streets.
Eventually, Pierre was too restricted in the country. He moved to Kassel, playing in the fastidious Lolita Bar, and soon (1994) took his place in the team of the newly started club project “Aufschwung Ost” as a DJ and programme organiser. He also undertook organisatorial assignments because, as he says, he “didn’t like to leave his future in the hands of others”. The “Aufschwung Ost” was discontinued and transformed into “Stammheim” from 1997. Pierre was a co-owner and the resident DJ. He travelled from Kassel throughout Germany and the world.
He played – a modest excerpt – at Tresor, Omen, Ultraschall, at the Love Parade, in radio, in Australia, Canada, England, Spain and more. Pierre has been the resident of the Kassel Hotel Reiss since 2002, of the Frankfurt based club U60311 and the German radiomixshow XXL Clubnight.
The bad one, the good one
To become a proper DJ, the first thing that you need is an audience. Absolutely. An empty house is dead and completely unable to inspire.
An entertaining DJ, says Pierre, also needs an “experienced eye to differentiate between his guests, a natural instinct for drama and tactfulness, a feeling for coming hits when buying records, and a sound memory to avoid sounding the same every week”. If the DJ aspires to more than pure entertainment, “he needs a more creative instinct for drama and musical taste”. He is then able to induce the audience to adjust to his ideas, but without ignoring their wishes.
What kind of DJ do you think Pierre is? According to Pierre, the frequent faults of DJs include “arrogance, a taste for drink, egotism and tactlessness” and the virtues “directness, skill, technical knowledge, a taste for drink, sensibility, congeniality, imagination and team spirit”.
Significance and calling
The fact that much has changed in the last ten years in the reception of DJs by the media is unarguable. The DJ has long become a figure of the gossip columns. Entire phenomenologies have been written about mixing, and despite the many times that the so-called raving society has been declared dead, the profession of DJ now seems to be more than ever a part of normal society, although still with mythical connotations. Pierre himself is pleased about the acknowledgement of his work because this, at least in the established club scene, helps him increasingly to “realise himself better, because the experienced audience follows the musical lead more trustfully”.
Disk jockeying still appeals to Pierre after over 12 years, particularly when fusion processes take place, the special moments at which the DJ and the audience have the feeling that “they are riding the same wave”.
Sounds like ...
A DJ defines himself by his style of mixing and by what he plays and, hopefully, likes. The latter is indisputable with Pierre. With respect to the sound, Pierre prefers: natural complexity, skilful minimalism, functional purism, resonant grooves, individual sounds and old-school fidelity.
Regarding his style, he currently likes sets with an improvised character, although he stresses that an “audience in a very uncontrolled, turbulent state prefers short, sharp and transparent mixes”. But in a state of more calm “more epic rhythm patterns, careful blends and a higher proportion of melodiousness are possible and desirable”. Pierre values both equally.
Productions and label work
Of course you can demur: at some time or another, all DJs begin to produce their own records and, if that alone isn’t enough, they just make themselves a label to match. On the other hand, experience shows that it is a benefit particularly to club audiences when DJs become musicians; they usually know how to get legs moving and bodies shaking.
Pierre’s and Marky’s joint label “Hörspielmusik” was begun at the end of 1998. Since then, about eight releases have appeared each year. Pierre regards “Hörspielmusik” as a playground for different styles, as a platform for his own and other releases, linked by the idea of a large variety of arrangements and therefore more or less widely different from conventional, run-of-the-mill techno numbers.
In contrast, “Utils”, another label of the two, is dedicated to a harder style. Pierre describes it as a technotool label with soul. It amuses him than many people think that it is an American label.
Anything else? Much more, definitely.
To be brief: “Heimfidelity Vol. 6” is anticipated in autumn 2003. To be more precise, this is the result of collaboration between himself and the resident DJ Pierre of the legendary FUSE in Belgium. Pierre’s debut album is to appear at the beginning of 2004. We’re looking forward to it.
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