Exclusive Interview with Axel Bartsch at No Dough

Exclusive Interview with Axel Bartsch at No Dough

25 August, 2009 | 6.51AM

• Written by: antonio
• Filed under: Music News : axel bartsch, caraka

Over the summer we met up with Axel Bartsch, for some Barcelona inspired summer antics. After spending some time with him we realised what a great guy this man is, always working and trying to push his sound in Berlin and around the world this man is a true talent, he pulled off a stunning remix of “Caraka” on our recent ep. We had a few questions for the guy, so we sat him down for a quick interview..

We really enjoyed your recent remix on No Dough and want some more!! Whens your next EP out and who’s got the pleasure of releasing it?

Thank you very much! I´m collecting some tracks at the moment and I´m unsure where to release them. Maybe I will send some to other labels, maybe do a release on my baby Sportclub or even collect more to do an album again. All a little bit up in the air but I wanna have some stuff coming out soon.

Tell us a little about your label sport club and your future plans for this?

I founded Sportclub at the end of 2005 with my friend Asem Shama to have a platform for our music, to get it out the fastest way, without waiting for answers of a&rs, waiting for a release date etc.
I had a strong output at that time on Kompakt, Spielzeug etc. so it was a good moment to establish my own label.
We were also open for other artists but there was not too much good stuff flying in so we mostly released our music beside some friends like Brian Cares or Alex Niggeman and some remixers like Sweet&Candy, Ruede Hagelstein, Gabriel Ananda and Sarah Goldfarb.
As the market is getting more difficult almost every day and selling vinyl is a tough job with high risk, we try to push more the digital side at the moment and will release a digital only e.p. of our friend Oddvar soon.
But we will still do vinyl if we thinlk that we have a very strong release that needs to be cut on black gold.

You have been in the scene for a while now, having seen its past evolve...where do you see the Berlin scene going ...next?

Oh, I don´t know. Theres sooo much going on, I love it! we have the established Clubs like Berghain/Panorama Bar, Watergate, Weekend, Bar 25 which will stay and will work. But there are also new Clubs like Horst or Dice which need a long breath and hard work to reach that level. I also like very much the scene beside the usual suspects. Party collectives like Bachstelzen or Patentblau have a very good reputation and do awesom partys in very cool locations. There are a lot of people in the whole scene who want to make something happen beside the big clubs which are highly frequented by tourists. That´s why everything is in motion and it´s going on and on like we love it. Berlin rocks and will keep on rocking!

What’s your pick of the summer records? And who’s your one to watch?

When I´m thinking of summer records it goes in the open air sunrise warm outside direction and I love to play stuff that pushes this feeling with a melody or something.
Sven Tasnadi´s “Charisma “ for example or Nils Penner, Chopstick and Johnjon - “Sun Rises In The East” work excellent for me.
Watch me playing that shit!
You ran a Showcase at SONAR alongside Towie and Matt (Not an easy job...hehe) how was SONAR for you?

First, that show was dope! I was supprised that we had such a nice crowd and vibe in our little venue cause there was so much going on beside as always. You guys did a very good job, thank you!
I did not go to Sonar itself, was not very interested in that. I played like 4 times in different venues and was running around a lot. So it was always this forth and back running to a show or dinner and back and rooftop party and afterhour etc. The weather was nice so I could catch some relaxing on the beach. Barcelona is an awesom city, I like it very much but Sonar is more like you have to put your name there to show you are still out there. gigs are bad paid and you play sometimes just an hour, that sucks. But I wouldn´t want to miss it at the end…

With everyone moving to Berlin, do you think this is a general move for the better or do you think its diluting the original scene?

Wether the one or the other. Berlin is the best city in the world for me but you can´t exspect that everything is getting better there. You still have to do your homework. What´s the original scene? The scene is always in motion. Of course you have the Berlin guys and there crowd but our scene is inernational in general. DJ fly and play around the world wether they live in Berlin or Bremen. And to be honest, you can count the people in our scene who are born and raised in Berlin, on one hand.

One of your biggest success was your record under the name Vanguard – how did that come about?

Asem had the ideaone day when we were chillin in our studio and i liked it. We were joking around, weed influenced, and thought that it would be very intense for the not really sober dancing crowd to listen to this rising sound and then FLASH! AHAAAAAA!!!! if you know what I mean. So we sampled almost the whole Flash Gordon song of Queen and it became a massive success. Billboard charts (Germany 17, UK 15), Video on high rotation, TV Shows, all that major busines shit. Was big fun and brought some cash in for some new equipment.

Where can people come and see you perform this summer?

Hm, next is Vienna, then Bar 25 closing. It´s a must if you like it crazy. I think they started already and do a one week closing party without a break till whenever...I guess it will be wednesday though line up ends at monday morning…

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