We Know The Feeling: Mike Chapman (Berlin)

We Know The Feeling: Mike Chapman (Berlin)

4 October, 2010 | 7.52AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: little mike, we know the feeling

If there is one member of staff who epitomizes the Beatport dream, it’s everyone’s favourite team member, Mike Chapman.

Born and raised in sunny Colorado, Mike, or Little Mike as he his commonly (and professionally) known, has been a pivotal backbone of Denver’s DJ scene for many years. His productions have been featured on several Fabric mixes and have been spun by the likes of Digweed through to Lee Burridge, while his DJing has catapulted him onto a global field.

Now residing in not-so-sunny-at-all Berlin, Mike spends his weekdays entertaining his other teammates at Beatport while living and breathing the wide variety of music that the city has to offer. His enigmatic character drives the office, and his taste in music is one of the company’s most valued assets. (For evidence of that, check out his excellent Top 10 chart at the bottom of the post, including cuts from Swayzak, Jonas Kopp, Mike Dehnert and Marco Passarani.) Mike leaves no record unplayed, no party unattended, and no beer glass full. Ladies and gentleman, we present to you: Herr Chapman.

So where are you from?

In Thornton, Colorado born and raised, but in Denver’s where I spent most of my days. That was like a Fresh Prince rap!

What’s your musical upbringing and how did you start getting into music?

My entire family oozes with music. I was trained as a classical pianist (before I regrettably quit at 18). My father and uncle are in a bluegrass band—they’ve even released an official album. My brother received a scholarship for school through classical piano, and he was a DJ at the clubs in Denver. And my cousin was an old school rave DJ in the early ‘90s – I was somewhat just naturally exposed to all sorts of music and my parents were very sure to expose me to everything musically.

I started getting into dance music when I was about 13 years old—my father would be at my uncle’s house for band practice, and I’d hang out in the basement and play with my cousin’s records and learn to mix them. I remember stuff like Isotonik’s “Everywhere I Go,” DJ Seduction‘s “Hardcore Heaven,” Zero B’s “Lock Up,” and all these wild, old-school house and techno records, which really opened my ears.

What was your first electronic music experience?

Finding Visage’s Fade To Gray among my father’s bluegrass, country and classic rock LPs one day. I still to this day have no idea why he owned that record, it makes no sense. But that was the one record that stood out and I had to listen to it over and over and over again.

I hear you’re a local hero back in Denver?

Not sure about that, but I’ve got lots of awesome friends there, and tons of amazing memories of debauched nights of musical mayhem and everlasting days in the clubs and warehouses of yesteryear. Best days of my life.

So how have you ended up at Beatport Berlin?

We ran a record store in Denver called Sweat Records which eventually closed down, and that same week I lost a three-year DJ residency due to MTV buying the building for a season of the Real World (f*ck you MTV!). My good friend Wyatt then offered me a job as an encoder for Denver, to help me survive the slump. We all somewhat assumed I’d last a few weeks before quitting, since Beatport was my first “real”, job aside from record stores and DJing, and I had a reputation for staying out far too late every night doing naughty things with naughty people.

Somehow, I impressed the company—and myself, actually—and ended up discovering I had a professional, office-job side. Haha. About five months after working in Denver, the opportunity to come to Berlin and help develop the second office was presented to me. This was in 2006. About two minutes of thinking and a quick phone call to my parents asking for their blessing and I was ready to go. Ironically, before I started working for Beatport, I was looking into ways to move to Berlin anyhow. I suppose it’s pretty cool how life works sometimes. Fate, yo.

What do you do here at Beatport?

Make lots of jokes, drink too much coffee, pretend like I’m not hungover, morning naps, afternoon naps, distract most of the co-workers, eat massive lunches, and occasionally merchandise music for techno, tech house, minimal, and electro house. Seriously, though (in case the boss is reading, hi Matt!), my job entails finding a good balance between selling and marketing music for my assigned genres, with communications between all avenues within Beatport, from label management, marketing, editorial, and working with artists and labels themselves. I’m basically one of the guys behind the counter at the physical record store who wants to get all the good music, find out what’s hot (and not) and sell as much dance music as possible to all of the lovely customers and talk about it nonstop.

What goes through the processes of selecting content to feature?

First and foremost, we’re a music store and our goal is to sell music to DJs. I try to find a balance between the biggest blockbuster hits and the best bubbling-under treats that deserve some exposure. A bit of research into how previous releases have sold helps, and of course it’s good to see if the releases in question have been receiving any press or support from DJs. However: labels, if you’re reading this, Laurent Garnier likes every single record ever made, so putting his name in the DJ support info does not help. Fact.

What’s the best part about working at Beatport?

Realizing that while it’s an office job, it’s absolutely still amazing to spend the entire day talking with like-minded individuals about music, listening to music, learning about music, and spending the entire day surrounded by the scene I love.

And the worst part?

Having office-job weekday work hours. I like to sleep ‘til noon and stay out ‘til daylight. Having to be to work in the morning has ruined my chances of hitting total rock bottom in the streets and alleys of Berlin. I suppose I won’t be able to write my memoirs and sell them to a major motion-picture company. That kinda sucks.

Who’s your favourite employee at Beatport?

Currently, it’s a tie between both Nathan and Peter, our main IT guys who came to Berlin like Jedi Knights and fixed virtually everything that was wrong with this office. They also brought the glorious gifts of Mac computers and essentially spent a week in Berlin showing us how much better our lives can be with the power of modern technology. Plus, they like to drink and are not afraid of places like Berghain and Bar25, therefore destroying the myth of IT people 110%. However, Peter might win by a tiny fraction, because he left Berlin to go skydiving with the Crowned Prince of Dubai.

What’s been your best clubbing experience in Berlin?

I’m going to keep this one a secret, but it involves friendly transvestites, Berghain, my friends Josh and Jamie visiting Berlin, Joey Beltram’s “Energy Flash,” Laurent Garnier’s “Crispy Bacon,” Innervisions, broken sunglasses, somehow ending up at Bar25, being covered in dirt and ending with my visiting friends having to tell me how to get home to my own flat even though they were visiting and I was already living here for six months. Not sure if I just let you know the secret, seems like this is every weekend. So to answer the question – whenever I set foot into Berlin’s amazing nightlife = best clubbing experience. Or worst, depending on how I feel the next day.

What else can you recommend doing in Berlin?

Contrary to popular belief, there is life outside of clubs in Berlin. I recommend simply spending a day exploring this amazing city. From Cold War ruins in the hills of Teuffelsberg, to bizarre art galleries, eclectic flea markets, and an abundance of cool cafes and restaurants. This city is something else, and I feel a bit let down by people who refuse to see anything besides the nightlife. I also recommend walking the East Side Gallery at least once, as it’s quite an amazing experience seeing just one mile stretch of such a horrible past, which has been transformed into an incredible free-standing art gallery.

Tell us more about the music you play, how would you describe the music you produce in comparison to the music you would typically in a DJ set?

As a producer, I’ve somewhat taken a big break since moving to Berlin, so not quite sure what I have in my studio head at the moment. I am still messing around with producing at the moment, but everything comes out sounding like “boring bongo house” we were making in 2001 and I want to evolve from that. As a DJ or music collector, I like everything as long as it’s a bit left of center. Discordant house music, bizarre sounds, tripped-out techno, deep spaced-out disco, and music that makes people on drugs feel either awesome, or terrified, depending on their level of psychosis.

What’s your production setup like?

Currently tinkering around with my MacBook, Ableton, Logic Pro (even though I hardly know how to turn it on), NI Maschine, Akai APC40, Novation K-Station, Proteus 2000 (old but still love it), lots of VSTs and plugin thingies, and some kick-ass Genelec studio monitors thanks to a lovely Matthew Styles and Dinky. Once winter arrives in Berlin, I plan to put all this stuff to full use again.

I hear you have your own label, what’s the concept behind it and how did you come into fruition?

The label, Phrunky is run by myself and Ty Tek, but has been somewhat in limbo lately. Phrunky was originally a club night I started in Denver pushing tech house music, and the vinyl label started out as a spin off of the Casa Del Soul imprint which I was part of (both the label and record store) along with five other awesome friends. I actually got the name Phrunky from an old Lexicon record on Plastic City which somewhat defined the style I was playing at that club night; wonky, bizarre tech house with a funky vibe. This then translated perfectly into the music me and Ty were making at the time.

Who are your musical heroes?

Anyone new and old who push the limits of what music can be. They don’t have to be superstars or legends, just creative.

What record do you wish you had made?

Second Hand Satellites, “Orbit 1.4”

Timeless, timeless, timeless.

Who’s tracks are you spinning at the moment?

Anything DJ Koze puts out seems to be a guaranteed bomb. Also loving STL’s dubby side of things, Masomenos‘ steady and deeper techy vibes, Sandwell District when I’m feeling evil and Maetrik because the dude is just so damn consistent with every release and has some of the best production skills I’ve ever heard.

Outside of electronic music who are you into?

Whatever the coolest indie-rock band album is that no one else had heard yet. Countless weeks before Pitchfork and NME says they’re cool. Currently really into the Radiator Soundbear, they’re just starting their album and I bet it will be huge in July of 2015.

If you could give one piece of advise to Beatport customers what would it be?

Just like the days of vinyl record shops, it helps to spend some time outside of the shop doing research on music. The best part of music (in my opinion) is the sense of musical discovery. Get on Discogs, read magazines, talk to likeminded friends, do some research, and discover how amazing and deep our content actually goes. Don’t be afraid of artists you don’t recognize. I feel like some of the best music is made by unknown names just getting started. Imagine if no one paid attention to Deadmau5 simply because they didn’t recognize his name?

Lightening round

Vampires or zombies?

They’re both the walking dead and both suck.

Sasha or Digweed?

Digweed, because he replies to my instant messages.

Caribou or James Holden?

James Holden’s nose.

Interpol or Joy Division?

Wait?… They’re not the same band?!

Maria Peligro or Maria Bonita?

Any Mexican food (good Mexican food) in Berlin wins this one. Both Marias are the bomb dot com, but change the menu once in awhile, people!

Beatport Mike October Top 10

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