Demo: Alex Niggemann Introduces Himself and Gives Away Free Download

Since the inception of Terry Francis and Eddie Richard’s talent showcase, Demo, last year, the banner has hosted emerging talents Lula Circus and Klartraum, both acts who have continued to move up in the electronic music world since their formative dates here. Next up to join the fledgling ranks of the Demo alumni is Alex Niggemann, a producer whose debut album release, which is imminent on Steve Bug’s Poker Flat label, promises to further embellish his dark edged technoid house. The Dusseldorf born producer has taken the time to speak to us alongside an exclusive download of album track, ‘I Don’t Care’. DOWNLOAD: Alex Niggemann - ‘I Don’t Care’ (Aggresive Tale Mix) Hey Alex nice to meet you, what've you been up to recently? Hello guys. Nice to meet you too. Just coming back from Ingolstadt (Germany) where I played a crazy afterhours party – people just didn’t want to go home, that was amazing! I also had some nice gigs in Kiev, Bucharest, Thessaloniki, Barcelona, Istanbul and many more beautiful cities the last few weeks. Now I just can’t wait to play my first fabric gig! Can you introduce yourselves to our readers that may not have seen you play before? I grew up in Düsseldorf, where electronic music first got really big in early 90s How did you first get into music? What artists first inspired you to start DJing and making your own tracks? I think the first music I danced to at a kids party in my elementary school was even some kind of Euro-Dance stuff. So I got in touch and love with that music pretty early. My brother, who I always looked up to, was one of the early ravers, so EDM got part of the daily routine very fast and impressed me a lot. That was also how I got to know about the first record I ever bought: Armand van Helden – The Funk Phenomena! From the day of my first rave, where Ken Ishii was playing, my interest and passion for this music and the whole culture was born. So I started DJing at the age of 15. As there were only one circle of people, which behaved like a mafia, it was nearly impossible for me to get someone to book me during the following years. I realised very fast that being DJing alone was not the key to becoming part of the scene. So I started to produce music, which I figured out by myself. In the end it was mainly myself and the strong will to make music that lead me to become what I am right now. Where did you grow up? Did that play a big role in your story or has Berlin given more to you musically? I grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany. And yes this definitely played a big role because this was where everything began. Of course Berlin also gave a lot to me musically and definitely influenced me as well. Nowhere else in the world you have the possibility to meet so many people working in the same industry. Berlin has got a huge network of artists, not only music-wise. It’s a creative and young city. People from all the different genres are coming together and sharing their music and experiences, which they bring from all over the world. That always leads to something new! And the city never sleeps, there are always more interesting DJs and artists from all over the world still moving to Berlin. That’s what I like and it inspires me as well. But I think wherever you live and throughout your whole life, you’ll always develop yourself further and get new impressions and ideas. You worked at Get Physical for a while - what did you gain from that expe rience? I worked for DJ-T. and others randomly. I was digitalising records, putting mixes together or driving him to festivals etc. I definitely got a closer look at the scene. When you only have the chance to see it from outside, you might not get the right impressions. I really wanted to know more about the entire DJ life and what it’s about. It helped me to get a clear view about the positive and negative aspects and gave me the chance to not stumble into it, with too high expectations. For sure, I also wanted to gain some money besides my studies, which I immediately spent on records or studio equipment. When did you first set your label up? Can you tell us a bit about the music you release on there? My label Soulfooled is turning exactly 2 years this month, which means we’re celebrating our birthday! Soulfooled stands for an exceptional musical passion and love. For me it was always a dream to be independent regarding release schedules and music. But I also wanted to create a platform that gives me the possibility to release music that I really think should be announced to a bigger audience. See, there are so many good producers that don’t get the chance, as they are on their own same as I was. They don’t have a crew, a big management or a hype they can profit from. Music has become too much of a product, which sells more due to adverts and promo than due to its quality. I know, I’m also one in a million, but I believe in quality and I want to show that it’s not about names and brands. I try to use my name to present this concept to a brighter audience. You recently released your first full length - what can we expect from that? Did you find the process of making it different compared to single and EP releases? My intention from the very beginning was to produce an album that you can listen to at home as well as enjoying it on dancefloors all over the world. I tried to combine modern elements with the roughness and coolness of dark old-school stuff. These things might not fit together at first sight, but in the end exactly this is what turns out to be the perfect combination and is also the reason for my album's name Paranoid Funk. Two totally different words, which do not really have an association with each other; but fitting well together when you hear them and the album. Paranoid stands for the dark and clubby part of the album. Funk for the laid-back, more groovy and musically orientated part.
 The big challenge for me was that it’s pretty hard to create an album sounding homogenous, but without tracks being too similar to each other so that it might become boring in the end. It took me a while to get into the right work-flow. I started about 80 songs. 20 got finished. 11 made it to the album. I got so much positive feedback from in- and outside the dance music scene, which really makes me happy, because exactly this was my main intention for my album, to not only reach people who are familiar with EDM. And yes, the process of making an album is quite different to ‘only’ producing an EP. One thing turned out to be extra difficult for me when putting my plan into practice was to produce something, which you know will be released one year later. So I tried to keep it as timeless as possible. What else do you have in the pipeline that we can look forward to? Currently there’s a lot of new and exciting stuff coming up production-wise. Really, don’t know where to start. My album is getting remixed now. I choose some great artists for this project, Andre Lodemann, Alex Flatner & LOPAZZ, and James, who are only some of them. The whole package will come out as ‘The Paranoid Funk Remixes’ end of this or early next year. I also made some remixes myself for artists like Alex Flatner & LOPAZZ, Steve Bug, Chelonis R. Jones or Francys. A real highlight for me is of course our label-birthday. For this reason we’re releasing a compilation called ‘Soulfooled 2nd Anniversary – The Remixes’ which comes in 2 parts. Part one will be released in 3 weeks featuring Martin Landsky, Matthias Meyer, Jona and many more. The second part is scheduled for January next year including tracks/remixes by Rodriguez Jr, Smash TV, Betoko, Re.You and more – I’m pretty excited about this release and can’t wait to test the freshly mastered tracks this weekend at fabric!