MATT STAR INTERVIEW (he DJs live @ Platinum Shoreditch 5/12)

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annaselecta
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MATT STAR INTERVIEW (he DJs live @ Platinum Shoreditch 5/12)

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INTERVIEW - MATT STAR
By Anna Wharton


TAPE is back. This annual Christmas techno shin dig that happens at Platinum each year is set to shake the party season up again this December (Sat 5th) with musical mayhem of all things that are tech-house based. This year TAPE puts on a special party focused on Live DJ sets - with Live performances from 2 artists it promises to be equally as seminal as last year's bash. Ifidota Music takes full command of TAPE, and invites one specially selected guest Matt Star. Matt has released a few very impressive productions to date. Providing the original track "Kuhle Fliege", last years hit record with remixes from Hugo and Jonas Kopp, and the more minimal "Morgenstimmung" on Main Records . More recently however Matt has been honing his remixing skills and providing his own impression to tracks "Messenger" from Baby Ford (Sender Records) and "Lampetee" from Robag Wruhme (Movida Records). I caught up with Mat and chatted to him a bit about what he’s up to and what we can expect from his set this Saturday at Platinum Shoreditch www.platinumshoreditch.co.uk

1. Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself - where you are living, what you are working on and what your musical style is.

I was born in 1987 in Offenbach (near Frankfurt) and I am currently doing an apprenticeship for Audio Visual Media at DBH Distribution. I would describe my musical style as follows: all kind of electronic Music, from Dub to Minimal to House and Techno - „Microphunk“. In clubs danceable for sure but I'm also interested in experimental and ambient stuff which isn’t really suitable to play in clubs.

2. How did you first get in to music, dj-ing and producing?

I started doing Music (both Djing & Live) in 1999. I started to contribute actively and played at various parties at that time, mainly at private and illegal ones. But my musical interest starts earlier. I fell in love with electronic and Techno Music in 1995 (with 8 years) as I listened to a set from Sven Väth at the Radio from a Big Event called "Hessentag". At that point I started to collect and record cassette tapes of electronic music

3. you have recently started a new club night, tell us about this, where is it, what guests you have lined up, who are the other (if any) residents.

At the moment I stopped parties in the new location. It was a new club called “the Kitchen Club” directly in the centre of Frankfurt. There were some problems with the law, so we better stopped.
But myself and my brother (Locke aka Dermaptera) and some Friends (Frank Leicher etc) still doing a monthly event called “Monchichi” at MTW, a club directly under the famous Robert Johnson club in Offenbach. We have been running this party for 3 years. Also we recently started Label nights with our Labels Mainrecords / Mainakustik in various locations. At Monchichi we mostly give the less well known artist the chance to play. Line ups are mostly regulars and friends of our Record shop “Main records” and Residents are: Locke aka Dermaptera, Frank Leicher, Matt Star, Sascha Nagel, in a monthly change. At Mainakustik Label nights, it’s mostly the artists who released on the label and me djing...


4. Describe the music scene in Frankfurt, where you currently live.

The Frankfurt Music scene is cool but hard. We have a lot of good Clubs for example Cocoon, Robert Johnson, Monza, Mtw, U60311, Hafen 2...but that’s also the Problem.
Frankfurt or RheinMain is a small area so you have the fight between the clubs. You have to do very very good lineups and special parties to fill a club. Unknown and new artists and promoters have a problem to get respected in this scene if they don’t have good contacts. That’s why we founded parties like Monchichi to give such talented guys a platform. And that’s also were I'm playing monthly.

What I enjoyed was the hype about the Rhein.Main House scene in the last years. With that a lot of young and new talented artists got the chance to get known for example Sascha Dive, Robert Dietz, Reboot, Federico Molinari, Markus Fix but also me :)

5. What other interesting things are on offer to entertain visitors to Frankfurt? What is your favourite place there (not related to music)

In Frankfurt/Offenbach are a lot of nice places, for example all the museums, shopingmalls, restaurants etc...
Museum: Senkenberg Museum directly at the riverside in Frankfurt
Shopping: Bergerstraße, Zeil, KOMM(Offenbach)
Restaurants: UrbanKitchen, Micro @ Cocoon and
Shankrila (mongolian barbecue, really tasty :)
And some cool secret places and parks just for relaxing.

6. Your track this summer Kuehle Fliege which was remixed by Hugo really lifted your profile to a much wider scale. It was played at all of the best parties on the underground scene, always to a very strong and positive response. What (if any) differences have you noticed since the release of this track?

Since the release of this track I have for sure more gigs at different places and get more and more remix requests. But all in all not many things changed. Just that I get now attention from places like South- and North America or Asia...

7. You released your album ‘Art of M’ a couple of years ago. It has quite a minimal sound to it. How has your sound evolved since then and which artists do you feel have been influencing you along the way?

-Since my LP “Art of M” a lot of musical styles and things changed in me. First of all I finished my studio that made my output sounding a bit more professional I think. Then my style is much more housier and more experimental then in the last years. Since the beginning of my productions I've been influenced by artists like Ricardo Villalobos, Carl Craig, John Tejada, Kit Clayton but also guys like Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Dj Rush...

8. This Saturday 5 Dec you play Live at Platinum and it’s your first live set in London - how are you feeling about this? How long does it take you to prepare for a live set?

Yes it’s my first live set, so I'm a bit nervous if the people will enjoy it in UK, too. Normally I'm preparing really fast a basic live set at the beginning of the year. Therefore I use mostly unreleased tracks which are cut to single samples, loops and sounds. Afterwards I rearrange them. It takes about a month then I change or insert new tracks after almost every gig.
My Live act consists of Laptop with Ableton, Midi Controller, Soundcard. For next year I will put some more specials in my set...For the gig on Saturday I refreshed the track list a bit, and put some new remixes and Tracks inside. I'm concentrating quite a lot on my new Opener. It will be the Remix for my friends from London “NeverTrustDjs” also the first release from me for their new label Ifidota Music.

9. What’s the best after party you have ever been to? Tell us about it!

There were a lot of good after parties the last years. For example a special one in 2008 after my Gig in Amnesia/Ibiza. We were at the Cocoon Finca and it was very special for me. But I slept very early :)
Then in 2007 (at the beginning of my career) I played in Croatia and after the gig we had an after party in small bay. Just with a small amount of people. In 2009 I had some good parties in Moscow and also in London :). But the best after hours still are here in my flat :)


10. Did you manage to play at any music festivals this summer?

This year I played at Fusion Festival in northern Germany (I think one of the best gigs I had this year and one of the best festivals I ever saw) and some small more or less known Open Air Festivals. For next year I don’t have requests yet. They will come in soon :)



11. Baby Ford is often regarded as the founder of the UK acid house scene he is also responsible in part for creating the blueprint for the genre we now know as ‘Minimal’ how did it feel to be asked to remix ‘Messenger’ for the latest 10 Years Sender Part 1 EP? & what can you tell us about how you approached remixing this track?

Yes for me it was an honour that I could do a remix for him. I'm since the beginning of my musical career a big fan of his productions. Mutlu from Sender asked me if I would like doing a Track or a Remix for the 10 Years Compilation. I decided doing a remix so I looked in my collection of this Label which tracks I liked. Then I sent a list of track back to Mutlu. The Problem was that not all parts and tracks where existing any more. For that track I just had the hook line, some voices and some other Fx/spheric Stuff from the original. So I tried to do a completely new track with the mystic flavored hook of the original. And I think I did it well. Baby ford also liked it :)

12. What labels do you most like at the moment?

All stuff of CLONE (NL),Contexterrior, RemoteArea, YamYam
Still Trelik (one of the best labels ever)

13. What are your top 5 tracks of the moment?

01 Steve Summers - Jack Flash Ep (Clone Jack for Days)
02 Roger Gerresen - Hajastan (Wolfskuil ltd)
03 V.A. - 10 Years Sender part 1 (Sender Records)
04 Van Rivers - Streched Out On A Pavement (SD Records)
05 John Tejada - Concrete Safari (Palette)

14. When you were growing up, what were your first memories of music - hearing and creating?

My first memories to music were back to 1993/94 when I was 6/7. Friends of my Mother did dance parties after school specially for very young children
and I listened there as small boy to tracks like: Rhythm is a dancer or The Power (both of SNAP!). With productions I have my first memories about 1997-1998: I started doing kind of electronic music with a program on Sony's Playstation... after that I got an PC and experienced music programes like FruityLoops and made my first tracks with Reason and Ableton which were released soon after.


15. What trainers do you like to wear?

Chuks, Puma, and some no-name but stylish stuff.

16. f you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be and why?

I don’t watch too many films, but my favourite TV character is Homer Simpson. I like his easy and bearish art of living and his humour.


17. Plans for 2010?

new international Freakshow going to be released
Preparing a new LP and focusing on my own Label Mainakustik
Finishing my apprenticeship at Audio Visual Media at DBH Distribution

facebook group for event: http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid ... 826&ref=nf
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