zap! bang! Magazine

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• SW4 interviews: Adam Beyer

• Adam Beyer

• 2011-07-21

• Techno mastermind Adam Beyer brings his label to Clapham Common’s South West Four festival this summer, taking over a tent on Sunday, August 28th. He’ll be joined by acts including three-deck expert Ben Sims, duo Slam and Cirez D – aka Eric Prydz in a world exclusive appearance as his tough alter ego. For the latest installment in our SW4 interview series, we caught up with Adam Beyer himself to find out what he’s been up to and how hosting an arena at this year’s weekender is shaping up.

  First and foremost, how are you?
  Very good thank you. First weekend on the road again after having a little break for six weeks, so nice to be back, new year.

  And what have your highlights been recently away from music?
  Well the biggest highlight right now is I’ve actually had a daughter a few weeks ago, so that’s probably well worth a mention. Apart from that I’m not away from music that much actually. It’s quite never-ending.

  Your Drumcode label is going from strength to strength, why do you think it’s so popular?
  I think I always had quite a strong vision with it and had a lot of live fans who’ve been following it for years. I always try to get really high quality releases and trying to make techno interesting all the time. There’s so many labels copying others and I always try to be ahead of it a little bit, which I think my fans acknowledge.

  So 15 years of Drumcode, that’s a hell of an achievement. What are you doing to celebrate the milestone?
  We’re doing a bunch of shows all over the place. Most of it’s going to be after the summer but also through the summer we have a couple of dates in Ibiza, doing SW4 and just loads all over Europe. Australia later on in the year and a big compilation as well with exclusive tracks from a lot of different people.

  What talent do you currently have signed to Drumcode and what should we keep an eye out for?
  Well right now I think our main artists are people like Alan Fitzpatrick, Joseph Capriati from Italy, Slam has been doing quite a few records last year, Kaiserdisco, myself obviously. We have a new Jesper Dahlback record coming, who was actually producing under ‘Link’ back in the days and now he’s using his own name, and that’s a very exciting record I’m really happy with that one. There’s just tonnes of stuff… a couple of news things, there’s a collaboration between me and Alan coming up in the spring as well.

  Last year you took over the Ewer Street car park in London for a massive Drumcode showcase, how was the party?
  Over expectations I have to say, really happy with that one. It sold out and we had loads of good feedback so it seems like there’s a demand for Drumcode parties in London, which is good.

  And what do you like in particular about playing in London?
  I have a quite close relationship with England in general, I mean I came here quite early in my career, not so much to London it was more up north, but I’ve always liked it here. There’s such a vibrant cultural music scene and obviously dance music and techno have quite strong roots here. Playing at Fabric and clubs like that has always been very good for me. I’ve always had a good following and a lot of people coming down so I just enjoy coming here.

  To have Eric Prydz to play for us and do a bit more of a techno set is going to be really interesting.

  Last year you played South West Four in the Carl Cox & Friends arena, what were your memories from the event last year?
  It’s always hard to remember parties because we do so many but I remember Carl playing very well and he did quite a big set, playing a lot of old English rave classics dressed up with new beats, stuff like Bizarre Inc – “Playing With Knives” and things like that. So I found it a little bit hard to come on after him to be honest, you’ve got to be honest sometimes! But it went well, it seems like a well organized festival, right in the middle of the city.

  What excites you with regards to playing a festival that is in a city like SW4 and like Ultra compared to a festival that is in the middle of nowhere in a field?
  People come out and they go out for the day then they go back home to sleep then they go the next day rather than staying in some tent somewhere so, it’s just a little bit more fresh-out look really.

  

  You’re no stranger to playing on the global festival circuit, what do you, in particular, like about playing during the summer on the festival circuit?
  I think one of my favorites has to be Awakenings in Holland, mainly because it’s a pure techno festival. I’ve been there since the first one and last year it was the 10 year anniversary and now they’ve grown to around 45,000 people which is quite amazing if you think about the fact that it’s only techno, six stages with only techno. Apart from that, places like Nature One, Exit festival in Serbia is always good. Global Gathering in England is pretty good, so many actually. But those are the ones that I keep coming back to.

  This year you’re hosting your very own Drumcode arena at SW4, how significant is this for you and the label?
  Well I think it’s quite a good year for us because we’re starting to get those slots now where we can take over a whole tent. We do it at a couple of other festivals as well, it’s what we’ve been working towards, being able to program the whole day or night ourselves, musically, with all our artists. It means a lot to us and I hope we can keep growing and keep re-investing in it and keep the audience getting the full Drumcode experience.

  What vibe can we expect from your arena at South West Four?
  Well I think the best word to describe it is probably techno. It might be a bit obvious but I think that’s our main focus. But not just hard, banging stuff for the sake of it but a nice, well planned journey throughout the day, with all the different acts contributing to make it interesting and also an experience, a journey.

  Ben Sims is another one of the old heroes and has managed to cross into the new era of techno but he still keeps that old flavor of his.

  What are your thoughts on the artists playing the arena…Slam?
  I remember buying Positive Education in what was it ’92, ’93? I mean they’re legendary and they’ve done so much good stuff, I’ve always been a big fan so having them signed to the label is pretty amazing to me. They’re really nice guys as well, very down to earth, always cool, so yeah I’m super-happy to have them on.

  Paul Ritch?
  Paul is, I think, one of the best live acts out there at the moment, every time I see him he’s always blowing my mind playing live because he’s not really a DJ, I mean he does DJ a little bit but he’s been focusing on his live act for years, so you can really tell that he knows what he’s doing and how to work the live.

  Ben Sims?
  Ben is another one of the old heroes and has managed to cross into the new era of techno but he still keeps that old flavor of his, but still doing something new with it. I think he’s one of the most technically skilled DJs on the planet today. He’s got that old-skool, slightly more hip-hop type when you’re mixing techno, which is not too common these days so I’m looking forward to seeing him actually.

  Alan Fitzpatrick?
  Well Alan is one of the new breeds, he’s done quite a few records for us now on Drumcode and yeah I’m interested to see him grow with the label. He’s one of the best people coming out of England doing techno right now so happy to have him on as well.

  Ida Engberg?
  Well Ida has a huge following in Germany and Belgium of her own. For us she’s the perfect one to start the parties up because she plays a bit more of the tech-house type thing and also it’s nice to have some female presence within this male-dominated group of artists so, yeah, she’s amazing, she’s one of my favorite techno DJs out there.

  And finally… Cirez D? Playing his first ever set for you guys.
  Yeah I’ve known Eric for a long time and one of, or I think even his first Cirez D record ever, came out on my label Truesoul, so we have a long relationship going and to have Eric to play for us and do a bit more of a techno set is going to be really interesting – I’ve never heard him do that before so, looking forward to that as well.

  What do you enjoy in particular about working with Eric?
  He’s got such a high profile and we kind of do quite different stuff if you look at it, but then our paths keep crossing at some points over the years and he’s just a good friend to have and he’s from Sweden as well. We’ve always been very supportive of each other, all the Swedes always backing each other up and if we can do some stuff together then cool, why not?

  

  Personally, what can we expect from your performance at South West Four?
  I think that’s a bit far too into the future to know but I will probably try to rock the dance floor pretty much!

  What have you got in the pipeline for 2011?
  Like I said before it’s Drumcode 15 years so we have a lot of parties going on and then I’m also building a stage show for myself right now, like an installation type thing, which we started touring in June, first at the Glade festival here in England. So that’s interesting, bit of a different thing for me to do. Apart from that it’s just loads of gigs and loads of new records and just keep doing what we’re doing.

  What festival tip would you give to all South West F our followers hitting Clapham Common this summer?
  Bring a smile and come and have fun, simple as that.

  For all the latest news about South West Four, and to book tickets, go to www.southwestfour.com.

by Mike Barnard