“The City Is The Optimum Base For Being A Party Capital”: Catching Up With Fiedel

When you’re presented with an artist that evokes such a definitive sound, it can be hard to pin point exactly where these particular persuasions emerge from. When it comes to Fiedel, we think that maybe it was somewhere between the Hard Wax record store in Berlin and the superlative influences of Ice T and Phuture. Either way, the Berghain cohort is continuing to express his tripped out take on our native techno and fluorescent electro, receiving a plethora of critical acclaim from tastemakers such as the team over at Osgut Ton and our most illustrious musical collective Hessle Audio. Joining forces with Hessle, when the label outfit, replete with performances from the likes of Frak, Blawan and Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, venture to  take over the full club for the first time on December 6th, Fiedel kindly gave us a few minutes of his time ahead of this eagerly awaited occasion. Hey Fiedel, what you’ve been up to the past few months? In the past weeks I was in the studio quite a lot, working on new releases for MMM and Fiedel, as well as some remixes and sketching tons of ideas. Plus I started preparing a live set to be ready at the beginning of next year. You started DJing in the mid-nineties, an era that has been recognized as being notorious for its dance music and club culture. How do you think the state of UK clubbing culture has changed over the past fifteen years or so? There must be both good and bad points? I haven't been to the UK in the nineties that much, but I think the club culture in general went from special to common over the years - more and more people are attracted and the music is widely known and accepted. What makes the UK music scene so special is that it is constantly inventing new styles. In the early to mid-nineties I bought a lot of breakbeat white labels and then came drum & bass, garage, 2 Step, dubstep, UK funky and all kind of stuff that is related to broken beats. Berlin is renowned for its thriving techno scene. As a Berghain-resident, what do you think is it about the Berlin that really puts it at the forefront of the dance movement? Due to its history, Berlin is in motion and has evolved massively over the past two decades. This attracted all kinds of artists and gave inspiration to them. Techno is the perfect motor for a process like that and empty industrial buildings are the perfect scenery. Combined with no curfew and the relaxed mood in the city it is the optimum base for being a party capital. MMM is the production partnership between you and Errorsmith as well as your label which, since 1996 you’ve used to release your own music on. How did that project come about? Do you see yourself developing the label and releasing works by other artists? We decided to make music together and bring out a record. We set up our own label because of maximum artistic and financial freedom. Hard Wax supported our stuff from the beginning and works now as our distributor. Concerning the label, we will only release our own music as self-releasing artists. You’re playing at FABRICLIVE as part of the Hessle Audio camp, a collective that are known for facilitating a cross-pollination of genres. I also read that you like to push electro, techno and H-NRG. What can we expect from your set come December 6th? Exactly that. Within certain boundaries, I will put together a set that combines various styles and works for the crowd. And finally, I read somewhere that you’ve been influenced by Hip Hop and Acid House. Would you mind giving us a quick playlist of your top 5 Acid House and Hip Hop tracks? Hip hop wasn't that interesting for me in the nineties. I was completely into techno and house. Also the acid house influence was earlier. So all tracks listed are from mid to late eighties. In no particular order: Hip Hop: Acid House: