Adam Beyer talks to Jon Terry from Encompass Festival
Adams' Drumcode label celebrated its 10th birthday here, as part of Encompass Festival.
The Encompass festival's London clubbing extravaganza came to a head on Saturday 13th May 2006, as Adam Beyer's Drumcode label celebrated its tenth birthday at The End. Encompass' main man Jon Terry got together with Adam to talk techno, football and some shocking afterparty stories!
Jon Terry: We're celebrating your label Drumcode's 10th birthday as part of the Encompass festival, can you tell us a bit about starting the label - you must have been quite young to take such a big step?
Adam Beyer: Yeah, I was 19 when I came up with the idea and Drumcode 1 came out same month I turned 20, exactly ten years ago. I had a little bit of money that I had saved up from DJing, so I invested it in cut and press, there was no such thing as a P&D deal back then!
You've released more experimental tracks through Truesoul, and house tracks through Madeye, plus your latest release on Richie Hawtin's Minus imprint; clearly you've got a lot to talk about musically. What kind of set can we expect, bearing in mind you've got four hours to play with...
When I have four hours to play with, I like to go through all the different types of techno I'm in to, everything from more minimal things right up to some bangin' Drumcode techno. I love having time to build in different directions.
I heard a rumour that it's not only your label's birthday, but also your own birthday - congratulations - while we're getting sentimental, what do your folks make of what you do for a living?
My mother was always really supportive. My father passed away when I was young and I went through a "trouble" phase. My mum was more then happy when I focused that energy on music and DJing rather than doing stupid things! Now she is obviously proud as I'e done well for myself and she gets a bit of the cake too.
Sweden has a got quite a few musical heroes, especially in electronic music at the moment, and you're bringing your label mate Joel Mull to play alongside you. Is there a Swedish sound?
I would say there are several Swedish sounds these days, you've got the classic techno sound, you've got the Swedish house mafia (Angello, Axwell, Ingrosso, Prydz) and several other really talented people with unique sounds. I think what we all have in common is that our stuff is technical and always extremely well produced.
Sweden are in the same World Cup Group as England, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, tell us a bit about the Swedish team/manager (we have Sven of course) and what you reckon your chances are.
I think we can go quite far, we have a few really good players like Larsson, Ibrahimovich and Ljungberg, but overall it's one of the strongest Swedish teams ever. I don't know much about the manager to be honest. We won't win but we might be able to stir things up a bit.
When you're away on tour for weeks on end, what one thing to you miss about Stockholm?
The fact that Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (and I'm not saying that just because I live here), the fresh air, long summer nights, the food, the mentality of the people and my flat! But honestly, I've learned not to spend energy on missing things when I'm away. If you travel as much as I do and keep missing things and people you lose a lot of energy, so I prefer to focus on where I am and try to make the best out of that. It would be very difficult to be a DJ otherwise!
I heard a story about a DJ turning up at an airport where he met his driver. The driver then asked the DJ if the DJ had his car with him, to drive to the gig, even though the DJ had just walked through customs with his bag! A funny story: what's the funniest DJ/travelling incident you've seen?
I've seen some quite rough things, like people taking dumps on the dance floor! I reckon that was quite funny, but maybe that's just me....I remember once at an after party in Ibiza with Rich, Riccardo and Tobi Neumann playing, there was around 200 people in the house and there were these two older, Spanish, hippie type people that had found each other that night. They where quite liberated, so everywhere me and the people I was hanging out with went during a 24 hour period we found them somewhere in the house, pool, garden, bed, dance floor etc
having sex, it was quite surreal.
The End has also just turned ten years old, so it's a 3 way celebration. If you could invite any musicians (dead or alive) to your birthday meal, who would you invite?
There are several people that could be a good laugh but honestly I rather enjoy my birthday with my friends and not some ego-fuelled crazy rock star from the 80´s.
Where do you see yourself and your record labels 10 years from now?
If I can maintain what I'm doing and progress in a good way, I reckon I can still be in the scene. Hopefully I'll find a lot of new Swedish talent to release and hopefully I'll have some more projects going on. A dream would be that the club Climat in Stockholm would be interesting enough to start something here as well.
Finally, I think I own a record of yours called "Tall Guy", how tall are you?
1.97cm which I think is 6'6', and it's true what they say, tall people have more fun.
Published: 12/05/2006
