Interview and mix from nosed

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Dirk / nosed.

Yes.

Tell us a little bit about the mix?

It´s basically an example of how I sound. Ranging from Electronic Boogie to Chicago and Garage House.

How long have you been in the DJ business?

I think I took it seriously like three years ago, we started a party around january 2009.

You're all vinyl?

Yes, that's how it all started, I was a record collector and once a friend of mine introduces me to Stefan. He said "you need to know this guy he is into the same music like you", which was then old electronic boogie and electronic funk records, early/mid 80s stuff like Prelude and Westend. Then we three plus one more started a party playing that sound.

Where was that?

It was in a small club in Mitte called Flo.

Is it still there?

I think it is. But after the third party he told us he doesn't have a liquor license, so he was very anxious about us being too loud, which just made us move on, cause what's the point. It was a good club though.

You play mostly old stuff? Disco and Proto House?

I think we are moving on, we started from the mid 80s and now we're more into early 90s house/garage. And of course we play some new stuff but it has to have the certain kind of sound and feel.

Is it a 50 50 split between House and Disco or which way are you leaning more?

We never been in to the 70s really packed "real" Disco.

Violin Disco from 79…

No that was never out type of music. We always liked records with synthesizers and drum machines, Proto House, Break Dance records, Electronic Boogie stuff, electronic funk… Which all has this kind of a similar sound to it. But yeah, we've lately got more housier.

Can you mention any new stuff you play right now, labels or artist?

I'm really into Tanner Ross, Soul Clap, There are some new records that sound old, when I find them I just play it, I don't really care is it new or old or who put it out. I like this Steffi record...

The long player (Yours & Mine, Ostguton)?

No no, it's a white label 12", Yours if I remember right, it just has Yours stamped onto it. It has that old Detroit/Chicago sound, like Big Fun or some Inner City.

You play any acid?

Stefan was into acid at some point, but I'm not a big acid guy, I'm more into groovy stuff, more into Tony Humphrey New Jersey sound, like Quark and Nu Groove, etc. The stuff that came from New York and New Jersey.

Have you had regular monthly or weekly nights?

We moved from the cellar club to a bar, where we had a monthly night, but that ended due to loudness, too. Then we already had more bookings from other places.

You got more to deejaying in 2009, the year that has been titled as the year of disco, and given attributes like: "the glitter-ball hasn’t shone as brightly over a scene since its infamous ‘demolition’ in 1979 as it has over the last two years". Was that and influential time for you?

Basically I got to collecting House records few years earlier. Cause I'm from a Funk and Hip Hop background, I started digging for the originals, where the samples and breaks are from. One day, I think around 2005, I found out about Lindström and Prins Thomas, some of their music had a slab bass and was funky, that gave me a kind of spark for the newer disco music.

Then I walked into a record store and basically dropped my pants and said, I know few names but I'm not really into House music maybe you can show me some stuff. He did, and through that, I found a record from Belgian artist called Spirit Catcher. This was an eye opener to me, I realized that somebody is still doing Electronic Funk/Boogie music but on a todays level. At the point I was just collecting all sorts of records from different genres. And one day, maybe late 2008, I had an epiphany, I found my old Break Dance and Boogie records and I realized that they go well together and I can even play a house records into that, so it all suddenly made sense to me...

It all clicked to a one package.

Yeah, you've been collecting records for ages…

And then you find stuff from you collection.

Yeah it's crazy. It all just fit. But it was not like I had a big Nu Disco revival, I was still into playing 90% old stuff and listening old mixes from Tony Humphries and WBLS stuff from Timmy Regisford, Boyd Jarvis, really studying the mixes.

You have an extremely vast record collection?

Around 5000. It was build around Rap, I was really into West coast gangsta stuff + loads of Soul and Funk, so, old stuff mainly.

Where do you shop usually?

Not in Berlin anymore, cause I'm into original pressings. If I found something I really, really like I try to get two or three copies of it. I get them usually from Discogs, Ebay and few online shops.

American music does it for you?

Yeah, but music is music, I have nothing against say, good italian groovy Disco music. I don't care for the origins, it can come from Sweden or Holland. Holland has some good stuff as well as UK.

You ever find yourself buying really expensive records?

Not really. The most expensive record I've bought was Arabian Prince - Gonna Take You Home Girl 12", got that for 90€. I heard a story that when it originally came out it was 90DM in West Germany, it was rare and expensive already then. But I'm trying to stay away from the expensive records. Good thing about the music that I'm playing is that you can get a lot of records from two to ten euros.

Originals?

Yeah.

Berlin is the hot spot for Techno right now, but is this a good city for a disco DJ?

I don't really know... I think in Berlin a lot of people are not so interested in who's playing... People here are so used to the fact that somebody is playing records. The competition is really tough. Good thing for us is that we're versatile with styles, we can play a house set or a Boogie set. Sometimes you have good nights and sometimes you have bad nights.

How do you play with stefan? Back to back or 5&5 or such?

We used to play B to B a lot, but we stopped that cause I had a feeling that we're playing always the same tunes. I knew what record would fit after his and got this feeling that our sets are always the same. Now we play half an hour at the time or something like that, or whatever we feel like.

You like to play more in a club or in a pub? I mean that in a pub you usually play the whole night and in club just a few hours.

I like playing a whole night, but I prefer clubs cause people are dancing, usually pubs everybody is just sitting down and you get the feeling that people don't care what you play cause they're there anyway.

Where do you play nowadays? Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain?

Mostly in Kreuzberg, cause a lot of the stuff moved to Kreuzberg. Farbfernseher, Soju Bar, Kleine Reise, Paloma Bar, also Cookies….

Have you played Loftus Hall?

Actually no. But would love to.

It's really nice.

Yeah it's superb.

It's good to have a big club in Neukölln.

I don't know so much about the Neukölln stuff, so much happening there now.

I've been living there about 1.5 years and it's getting better all the time.

Of course.

Rents are sky rocketing though. But I think it's in a nice position right now, not spoiled yet.

No but, it'll change, it's a normal thing, that's how Mitte started.

What about playing digital music?

If we would play more outside of Berlin maybe then but I don't know… First of all I'm too lazy to digitalize all my records, but yeah, If we would travel more maybe CD's then. I've witnessed twice a computer crash in a club, it's the worst when you hear the startup sound. Nothing against that, though. I just never did it.

Digitalization is kind of the law of nature, things change.

I have no idea how these CD player work, I would have to find that out. In the world of edits and home production it's good, you can do an edit or whatever and try it out the same night instead of finding somebody to cut a dub plate for you .

Have you played outside berlin?

Yes, we played last December in Madeira at a festival.

How did that happened?

I knew the promotor. He just booked us, it was great! It's a crazy feeling to go to the hot Madeiran island in middle of the December. This year we also played twice in Hamburg in Zentrale and Golden Pudel which were both really good! Maybe I'm wrong but I think the people appreciated the music more… Or maybe it was cause we were playing out of town and it just had different feeling to it.

Do you have a favorite club?

To play or go?

To go.

I like Farb Fernseher cause it's so intimate, also like playing there cause people are into the music. I liked Kleine Reise and of course Panorama Bar and Berghain, even if I´m not there very often, but it's another level.

And for playing?

Farb Fernseher also. I like small places and to play the whole night.

You have a regular night now?

No, not at the moment.

Any plans for the future?

Hopefully we're playing outside Berlin more.

Thanks for the interview!

Thanks for having me.