0123456789 Born in East 0123456789 Berlin, this uncompromising DJ/producer’s outsider graft and visions of dystopia have made him one of the leading techno stars on the planet

Words Mark Rowlands

Photography Rødhåd Matthias Wehofsky Grooming Katrin Boelke rødhåd

Not for dancing Rødhåd recommends some of his favourite ambient and drone artists

The macho pyrotechnics accompanying edge, is one that Rødhåd carefully nurtures. And or an affiliation to any of Berlin’s globally renowned his earliest club inspirations. Slowing down from the For many years I played in a small club called tonight’s show only really begin to flex their muscles it is one that his audience has grown to expect. As label or club brands. If, sitting in his hotel room 145bpm sets he first publicly played as a teen, the Zementgarten, playing mostly weird and non- towards the end of Rødhåd’s set. An expensive- comfortable as he is setting the scene in tonight’s before tonight’s big event, he shows no sign of dub he refers to is not the Jamaican sub-genre but danceable music and a lot of ambient and drone. looking bank of dry ice cannons, fired in sharp unison, warm-up show, these days he’s more regularly to nerves, that’s because tonight’s undertaking is a music by the likes of Maurizio and Basic Channel. He It’s a key part of my roots as a DJ, so here are startle the 5,000-strong audience. As Rødhåd be found playing extensive sessions, such as the responsibility he knows only too well. Somewhat kept the residency for about two years before the some of my favourite producers in those styles: closes his set to a wild release of cheers, the following night’s six hour stint at Concrete in Paris, surprisingly, considering the dark aesthetic his club closed and he was left without a home. spectacular lighting rig that illuminates tonight’s or as the closing act at a major festival. At a time music and his Dystopian label and parties are We would visit Berghain quite a lot,” he says of Awakenings show in Manchester’s Victoria when techno music’s stock is at its highest, Rødhåd steeped in, he laughs and jokes his way through an that time. “After Berlin lost the Ostgut and the old Warehouse is just beginning to reveal its impressive, has emerged to become one of the leading DJs of interview which reveals his journey to becoming an Tresor it was like the city was waiting for something Ben Frost 0123456789 0123456789 showy capabilities. It momentarily lifts the mass its renaissance. He crosses time zones most internationally recognised talent as the refreshingly new, and when Berghain arrived there was a room Melbourne-born Ben Frost of energetic bodies from the dark and brooding weekends, taking his meticulously constructed old-school tale of an outsider who broke through the where techno felt right again. But there was the is amazing in every format, live or as a producer. soundscape Rødhåd has been building during his collages to an international audience that wholly ranks by means of talent, determination and vision, rumour that you couldn’t play Berghain unless you I don’t know how many relatively short and early slot tonight. But the timing appreciates the attention to detail displayed in and with a little help from his friends. had a release. That wasn’t 100 per cent correct, but his live shows I’ve seen, suits Rødhåd, aka Mike Bierbach. Later, when the the curation of his Dystopian sound. “Around 2005 I had my first residency in Berlin,” I needed to work on my DJ skills ’til 2010 to get my but I never get tired. An visuals explode into the epic, Bierbach will have Although Rødhåd has only emerged onto the says Bierbach, sipping bottled water, relaxed in the first chance. The long sets there helped me a lot, energetic performance, faded from view, leaving many with their favourite international stage in the last half-decade, Mike company of two old friends who now operate as his and I am really grateful to the club.” mixed with brutal bass and musical moments of the night: a superbly crafted Bierbach’s success as a DJ didn’t happen overnight. tour manager and label manager. They all speak Bierbach’s solution had been to build his own night. the style of a conceptual build-up, expressed best within the simplicity of It has not been prompted, as so many others have, pretty good English, albeit with heavy German Despite having made a name for himself as a DJ mastermind – that’s him! the plain walls of this industrial venue. by studio productions (he was already well accents, and are casually dressed – though Bierbach rather than a producer (still, he believes, the central This energetic but often sparse sound, one that established as a DJ in his native Berlin by the is distinctly well groomed, particularly the red hair tenet of his identity), it took the best part of a year for Deaf Center leaves space for freedom of physical movement but time he released his first EP in 2012). Nor has it and beard from whence he takes his DJ name. “It was plans for his own party to come together – largely The Norwegian duo Svarte regularly rattles the brain with an innate psychedelic been propelled by an active social media presence a small club called Zementgarten. I was playing dub because he couldn’t think of the right name. Greiner and Otto A Totland and techno, once every few weeks. Often I would play “I knew that once we started I’d need the design to are my favorites in the area the opening set and I really liked that. I still like to do be right as I wanted to keep this identity for a long time, of ambient contemporary classical and drone. Even an opening set, to set a nice vibe for the night. But it to develop it as a record label and eventually release though it’s not made for was difficult in Berlin because there were always a music,” he says, displaying a ruthless amount of fore- the club, I try from time couple of groups, crews, doing events and I never sight. “It took maybe six or seven months to come up to time to play it in my really felt like I belonged in any of them.” with one. There were a lot of meetings where we would sets – but listening to it Bierbach had grown into playing a slower, spacier, sit down and plan what we were going to do, but we at home is so satisfying. more atmospheric sound by the time of this residency couldn’t start because we didn’t have the right name.” in his early 20s, having grown bored of the relentlessly Luckily Bierbach already had in place the close- accelerating, hard techno associated with Berlin – knit crew that still surrounds him. Their shared Recondite particularly at places like Tresor, which was among experience would help them find the right identity Many people know Recondite only for his club hits. CONTINUED ON PAGE 58 But check out the album he released on Ghostly Int’l or his two acid LPs on Absurd Records/Acid Test ... he’s the master when it comes to melancholy, melodic sounds; I love his more laidback releases.

Demdike Stare A little bit more abstract than Andy Stott, Demdike Stare (Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker) have also a very clear concept of presenting their music. There’s a lot of spiritual energy involved, but an amazing sound design as well.

Andy Stott I was lucky enough to be able to invite Andy to some of our Dystopian parties. He seems to get better and better with every album. His style is a mix of ambient and experimental with a UK touch which extends to garage in his live sets. LUKE DYSON LUKE rødhåd

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SCENE FROM THE MOVIE HIGH-RISE Dystopia

Rødhåd: We have always tried with the Dystopian label and A Clockwork Orange (1971), in which a the design from the start so that our parties to create more aspects than just music. On the wide-angle lens accentuated the the buildings would be monuments alienation between the characters and to the greatness of the Third Reich, visual level, we wanted to show architecture and pictures their harsh, concrete environments. as they were with the Roman empire. which convey the idea of dystopia, and the EP titles and (Aphex Twin’s disturbing ‘Come To Thankfully, nearly all his designs track titles are mostly inspired by literature, films and Daddy’ video with its feral Aphex-clone were unbuilt. Of course, there are comics with an dystopian vibe. But what is a dystopia? kids running amok in an abandoned tower some very real modern dystopias block was also filmed here.) right now: the pyramidical The planned modernist city of Ryugyong Hotel – which towers over Brasilia is another example of a Pyongyang in North Korea – is known failed utopian vision, built in the as the Tower of Doom. of the 20th century are Kafka’s nightmarish shape of a plane from the air. The elegant As for dystopian films, Mad Max 2 (1981), The Trial (1925), in which Josef K is arrested geometries of Oscar Niemeyer are essentially in which Mel Gibson defends a community of by two unidentified agents but never informed a collection of individual buildings rather survivors living in a gasoline refinery from of the charges against him; Aldous Huxley’s than a city as such. It’s also built for cars, barbarian warriors, was described by Ballard Brave New World (1932), where natural not people, so there is little street life. as “punk’s Sistine Chapel”. The nightclub in reproduction has been abolished and the “i knew I To compound things, the poor live almost The Terminator (1984) is called Tech Noir – a population is controlled by the exclusively on the outskirts – a situation pretty apt description of the film itself with hallucinogenic drug soma; and George wanted to that is fast happening in London and Paris. its nightmarish future where Cybernet has Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), whose A notable feature of totalitarian taken over the earth. It’s usually industrial vision of a future totalitarian state is of architecture is its abandonment of the human electronic music that scores these bleak keep this “a boot stamping on a human face – forever”. scale. Hitler’s plans for Germania, his futures: there’s nothing more sinister, all- A lot of late 20th century dystopian world capital city, are terrifying in their pervading and melancholic than a synth, as fiction – and especially post-apocalyptic identity for monumentalism – his Great Hall would have Vangelis proved to great effect on the fiction – reflects the fears and anxieties of created its own weather system. The Nazi soundtrack to Blade Runner (1982). The dark, Sir Thomas More coined the word ‘utopia’ in nuclear armageddon and climate change. The a long time, to architect Albert Speer advanced the rather haunting techno of Rødhåd’s Dystopian record the 16th century to mean an imagined place or Road by Cormac McCarthy is an especially chilling notion of the “theory of ruin value” label and parties fit in perfectly with the state of things in which everything is perfect, harrowing account of a father and son trying (recalling Piranesi) which was built into idea of a future to be feared. CHRIS HALL develop it as from the Greek ou (“not”) and topos (“place”) to survive in an almost impossibly bleak post- – literally “nowhere”. But it wasn’t until nuclear world. Suzanne Collins’s wildly 1868 that the philosopher John Stuart Mill successful Hunger Games trilogy reflects a a record label used the word ‘dystopia’ in a speech to the deep unease about – and is a satire on – House of Commons to mean the opposite: a capitalism, competition and celebrity and release future that’s more nightmare than paradise. culture, taken to their logical conclusion. The distorted realities of Hieronymus Dystopian novels gain their power from music” Bosch and William Blake in the 17th and 18th their inherent critique of the present day – centuries informed one of the earliest they are essentially warnings rather than examples of dystopian art, by the 18th predictions. JG Ballard’s High-Rise (1975), century Italian printmaker Piranesi. His which has just been released as a film, Carceri d’Invenzione (imaginary prisons, implies that the most dangerous people are pictured above) were vast subterranean the self-contained types who adapt to these labyrinths which were enormously influential harsh environments, arguing that they have in helping to shape the Romantic and – later willingly chosen to live in such places. – Surrealistic imagination. Ballard’s dystopias are brought about by The first dystopia in literature is individual psychology rather than some mad probably that of the future societies of the totalitarian state, and the building itself Eloi and Morlocks in HG Wells’s The Time facilitates this kind of tribalistic chaos. Machine (1895). But dystopias really In terms of architecture, the story of flourished in the 20th century, no doubt modernism as a utopian idea that sought social influenced by two World Wars, Communism, revolution, especially through housing, has Fascism, Capitalism, mass production, the all too readily turned into a nightmare. The Holocaust and the nuclear age. Thamesmead council estate in London is one Dystopias are inherently political such example, becoming instead a notorious Ryugyong Hotel, n korea: built in 1987, ...2008 when it was clad. however, it still constructions. The most haunting dystopias sink estate. It was used in Stanley Kubrick’s its exterior remained unfinished until ... remains empty and unfinished inside to this day rødhåd

horning of his artistic sensibilities into a career path. “When I was younger I was really into graffiti, so it came from my love of painting and writing,” he says; although he recalls, with a smile, that “it soon turned out that I didn’t actually have to paint or write anything, because by this time everybody was already working with computers.” Dystopian’s label manager (who, like his tour To live and manager, firmly shies away from telling us his name, 0123456789 0123456789 despite his integral part in Rødhåd’s story), recounts die in LA being impressed by his dedication to his day job at the time. Drawn together through music, he recalls interface la that many others he met at the same time, through Rødhåd: Last summer I visited LA for the first time, and even art or music, would solely inhabit those worlds, eking in the limited time I spent there, I could see why it’s so out existences on social benefits. inspiring and important for the worldwide music scene. The “But as an artist it’s not really easy,” says weather, the atmosphere but also the possibilities to be an Bierbach. “You don’t have a regular income, and artist there were exciting to see. LA has also a really huge small clubs or lofts as you are Berghain. cities, LA’s percolating scene was as much an The underground parties in those early days attitude as it was a sound before eventually I actually wanted to make money so I could buy techno scene at the moment. Friends like Silent Servant, records and have my own apartment. Also I liked were small, with just a few hundred people. catching on with fans in other locations. Truncate and Drumcell live there and have been fighting to That didn’t stop Drumcell and co from grinding Drumcell, Truncate and Silent Servant have the job, because I’m really into technical stuff.” build and nurture the scene for years. I asked Mixmag to and utilising grassroots methods like mailing caught on with audiences outside of Los Bierbach would keep this parallel pursuit that paid find out how things are done in the city of fallen angels… lists and newsletters to network around the Angeles due to an authenticity that wouldn’t for records right up to 2013. Unlike the foresight city to find like-minded individuals. have worked so well without the foundation shown in the founding of Dystopian, he had never Drumcell says. “There was no scene, so we built in their home city. had a grand plan of becoming an international DJ had to help curate it with the help of other The DIY approach that allowed Droid to and devoting all his time to techno. That only became people and build a community. It was a perfect flourish also allowed Silent Servant to have an option with his increasing popularity. silent By the end of the 1990s, as dance music was storm where a lot of people were moving out of success on his own tightly defined terms. servant blossoming Stateside, California instituted “The first real parties we’d done were ones we put the mid-west to the city and there weren’t With the emergence of bigger new promoters, a massive blow to the movement. The state a lot of techno parties happening.” and more at the college level, the LA scene on ourselves,” says Bierbach of his first forays while cracked down on raves at the onset of the Droid proved to be fertile ground not only has a lot more variety on offer today than it still a teenager. “We had another friend who was 2000s, and the burgeoning scene crashed. for Drumcell and techno junkies, but also for did 15 or so years ago. working at a company which rented out sound- Few if any local promoters, DJs and fans had young talent sprouting up across the city. “I’m proud to be born and raised in Los systems. At the weekend he’d just get transport, put drumcell places to congregate besides major festivals One such DJ was Truncate. Though he started Angeles,” Truncate says. “We built a scene a soundsystem in the back and we’d go to a field not or mega rave parties. Everything small and as a teenager in the decade leading up to the and whoever can be a part of it, and build far from where we lived and set up for maybe fifty to in-between nearly ceased to exist. first party, Truncate was one of the local DJs on it, is great.” and their long-standing association would help usher eighty people. We had a little tent and a small desk, But this destruction heralded the new dawn to emerge from the Droid events. Since those “I don’t think any of us had in our minds of a brighter new era, even if it didn’t seem lean early years, the local scene has started that we wanted to be professional promoters,” “everything the Dystopian night and label into being. turntables, the soundsystem and that’s it. We weren’t so at the time. Founded by Drumcell and the to thrive. Droid steadily built up enough Drumcell adds. “We wanted to throw a party thinking about doing crazy stuff with lights; it was truncate Raiz brothers, Droid Behavior was started 15 cache locally and online where it became one once in a while, but also to be producers and dark, the Mike grew up in the new housing estates of just about the music.” years ago in Los Angeles as an underground of the places to go for techno. But they found release records. We weren’t looking for Hohenschönhausen in the far East of Berlin with his Although their parties these days are a lot warehouse party that brought techno-heads difficulty in finding places outside the local global acclaim; we wanted to have fun and sound of father, a metalarbeiter (metal worker), his mother, less basic, that same emphasis on music above from across the city together. support network to take the scene seriously. throw cool parties. If you’re going to do it, who works in the financial system and older sister, everything else is still evident. It now comes with “The scene back then was pretty desolate,” While Droid and company were thriving you might as well do it yourself.” and, despite not fully recognising its significance at an industrial, bleak and futuristic aesthetic that’s Drumcell recalls. “Los Angeles always has underground, their sound, which reflected a Meanwhile, Drumcell, Truncate and Silent machines... had a massive rave and electronic music rawer, unapologetic, industrial brand of servant have gone on to reap the rewards for the time, he remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall evident across all Dystopian activities, from their culture, but I don’t think there was any techno, connects with fans beyond city limits. keeping the techno flame alive with gigs when he was six years old. “We moved there when choice of venue to the artwork that adorns the label’s maybe we particular focus on techno specifically. Intimate and more accessible than other all over the world. DANIEL KOHN I was one. My parents were living in Prenzlauer Berg releases and the night’s promotional posters and It was mostly house, trance, drum ’n’ bass identify with before. At that time it was right next to the Wall, flyers (which they still insist on producing, despite and all forms of dance music. We started to although now it’s quite a hip area, very expensive. But admitting social media makes them unnecessary). see the revival of the early 90s warehouse it because in the time we lived there it was kind of fucked up. “I was always a fan of a certain sort of movie – parties, and the scene went back underground.” The toilet was outside and the heating was the oven.” Blade Runner, The Matrix, Running Man,” says One or two other crews were trying to give the warehouse scene a go, and a few techno DJs It would be in these housing estates that he would Bierbach, who knew that they had found the right rØdhÄd we’re from would appear now and then at those parties, at prime la develop a love for dance music, firstly gabba. “It was name after his label manager called him from an but Droid provided the underground outlet july 2015 the east of hard, radical,” he says unashamedly; “a lot of East all-night session at a beach-based festival. The techno fans in the City of Angels needed. Germans identified with it. It sounded like East inspiration had come as he dreamed of being able to Droid began to flourish – but they weren’t Germany. Brutal, destroying.” It was on these estates replace the bright sun with the dark confines of the the only show in town. Also emerging was germany” where he would first try out his friend’s turntables more familiar raving space of Berghain. “When you Silent Servant, who started DJing as a teen and was encouraged by his older brother to (he bought his own when he was 15) and forge show people who are observed by a bigger authority, outside enduring friendships. “In the area where I grew up we like in those movies when society is divided, I’d prime la take on the craft. Initially playing at backyard parties, the DJ born as John Juan didn’t have any people from West Berlin, so I was always identify with those people who would be Mendez soon graduated to playing raves. surrounded only by people from the East. The guys living hidden in the underground. When you went to Silent Servant quickly established where I grew up were really rough, working-class Tresor or Berghain it was like entering a new, unseen himself as a DJ who wasn’t afraid to tinker

people, you know? Maybe after school, when I started society,” he says. “Everything dark, the sound of and experiment with different sounds on top leon my ausbildung [apprenticeship], that was my first machines. It was a perfect aesthetic: visually and in of his trademark dark techno, including de ul acid, goth and minimal synth elements. real contact with people from the West.” sound. And maybe we identify with it, because we’re pa Bierbach’s ausbildung took place in an office from the East of Germany. There was always this Silent Servant has spoken about the early

2000s and how it’s shaped him, and you’re de a n where he learned how to do construction drawings feeling that we were the outsiders, from the corner s just as likely, even today, to see him play oto

for architects. It was a typically practical shoe- of society; that we were being watched.” h p

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“We weren’t actually that subversive,” he adds, 1. Rødhåd 4. Stone Edge ‘Edge DREI’ 9. Armitage ‘Reproduce’ 12. Drumcell laughing. “I mean, we had good parents, I had a job. ‘Verhängnisvolle Nebel’ “Amazing masterpiece by “When we got these tracks, ‘Terminus Effect’ “The second EP of my little Stone Edge. One of the best we were really surprised as “So happy to have these Interview: It’s not like I was one a revolutionary desperate for a series in 2015. I followed a producers at the moment” normally they produce a more EPs on Dystopian. All the struggle with authority. It was just what we could see.” sound concept with ‘Dystopian house style. But for us they tracks are just killer” Giegling 017’ and ‘Dystopian 014’: brought a straight techno 5. Rødhåd The first DystopiaN party was held in 2009 and listen to both EPs together ‘Maschinenvolk’ and an exclusive moniker 13. Alex.Do ‘Partial Rødhåd: I really admire the after a fitting line-up of guests (including Ben Klock, to get the full story” “This track is also part of for Dystopian” Application Of An Giegling collective from Germany Shed and Sandwell District), Rødhåd (who had my last EP on Dystopian” Abstract Ideal’ 2. Distant Echoes 10. Recondite ‘Cleric’ “We’ll be putting out this Like Dystopian, they have a strong changed his name from Redhead, or locally Der Rote, for the party after discovering a DJ from Belgium was Your CD ‘Love Is Such A Strong 6. Daribow “One of our biggest tunes and record soon. Alex.Do has visual and musical vision for their Word, Too’ “A more ‘Immortal Soul’ one of the hits of 2013. grown a lot production-wise using the same name) took to the stage to play the artists and releases. Some are close industrial-sounding track “The mysterious Daribow Recondite redefined a whole and this EP will underline kind of epic closing set he’s since become famed for. explained friends and I’m so happy they’re from Distant Echoes. The provides a sci-fi sounding techno genre with this track” his skills” They had shown the futuristic 1927 black-and-white track name is an homage to track: the UFO has landed” finding success. I asked them some Rødhåd talks you through Fritz Lang movie Metropolis as part of the backdrop, our beloved friend Regis” 11. Rødhåd 14. Rødhåd your exclusive mix things I’ve always wanted to know bolstering the aesthetic, and Rødhåd set the tone for 7. Gotzkowsky ‘Kinder der Ringwelt’ ‘Venusianische Hölle’ future parties and more far-flung excursions that 3. Recondite ‘People ‘Shoulder of Orion’ “Really intense and groovy, “Perfect closer for the mix. night with his trademark shifts through space, Wouldn’t Believe’ “Another moniker from a this shows perfectly the Ambient meets drone” 0123456789 essence of electronic music” 0123456789 percussion, dub and psychedelic techno sounds. “This track was used as the famous producer. This one intro to our ‘Dystopian 010’ is a really great track for The Dystopian label followed in 2012, debuting compilation in 2014. the clubs” with Rødhåd’s own Orwell-inspired ‘1984’ EP. Since Electro style!” those first steps it has grown, in direct correlation 8. Distant Echoes to the confidence of Rødhåd’s own productions, and ‘A Last Shimmer’ undoubtedly had its most musically diverse and “A really trippy track by our accomplished year in 2015 with releases from Italian producer friend” Daribow, Stone Edge, Armitage, Distant Echoes and two EPs from Rødhåd himself. Alongside his haunting 2015 remix of Howling’s ‘Signs’ these EPs mark a distinct high point in terms of Rødhåd’s production career and a distillation of the dark and melancholy mood that characterise Dystopia. “For me, sad feelings are stronger than happy Konstantin ATEQ Vril feelings,” says Bierbach. “That doesn’t mean I’m a sad 1) As head of the swarm 1) What was the first CD 1)Can you introduce person. Everyone who knows me can attest that I’m a called Giegling, how did you ever bought? your concept and your happy person. But for me, when I search for music, you decide on the name ? ‘Oxygene 7-13’ by Jean interpretation of techno to even on the radio, if I hear that kind of uplifting sound, “the way i work in the studio As Giegling is a crew, it Michel Jarre.My first techno me and the readers of Mixmag? [he mimics inane, cheerful radio music], it doesn’t doesn’t really have a head: vinyl came a bit later: Blake Breathing out a musical transmit any real emotion for me. I’m more touched is like jamming... i can imagine as you said it is more like a Baxter ‘La La Song’.My first statement that I breathed when I hear sad songs, a melancholy vibe. swarm that floats together equipment to produce music in in the 90s, mixed with It’s more real than this... instant happiness.” and that looks after each was bought in 2008, a Jomox my own aesthetic. it working in a live set” other… trying to figure out a 888. But I had to sell it as His increased output and marked evolution as a way together. Giegling was I needed money for rent. 2) I’ve heard that your producer suggest that a debut album could be on the name of the owner of the studio sessions go really the cards, and he admits this is something he’d like shop where we did parties 2) If your music was a colour, long and really late. Why to complete, time permitting, before the end of 2016. back in the days in Weimar. which would it be and why? are you are such a night Although as a thoughtful and careful planner, his For me it is more of a colour working machine? current stage of deciding just what makes a great 2) I always wonder what it’s palette from which I choose I always need to find the techno album could – like the fact that he’s currently like to listen to my own sets. and the mixing, combination right mind setting to do what moving and building a new studio – hinder any Do you remember when and and arrangement equal a I want in the studio. If it where you first heard me play? whole. Red, yellow and happens, I stay long. I deadlines. Self-taught in the studio, his fondness I remember it very clearly. I blue gives black. associate electronic music for the technical lending itself well to hours spent was walking up the stairs at totally with the night time. reading hardware and software manuals, he cites Berghain and wondering what 3) What is your favourite Efdemin’s last album and Ben Klock’s 2010 release the fuck was going on because airport? 3) You’re touring more and as benchmarks. the atmosphere was so sweet Tbilisi in Georgia – you can more now. Which do you prefer He’s also excited by the prospect of playing live. and kind and I really liked smoke there! after a long weekend, whisky “The way I work in the studio is more like jamming, it. I got carried away for or black tea? hours with the best ups and One whisky on a Sunday, and that way of working is more how I can imagine downs totally corresponding maybe. But during the week working in a live set, perhaps in collaboration. It to my body conditions... I prefer tea. doesn’t have to be a proper peak-time live set for it was mind-blowing and clubs, it could maybe be something more very emotional. That was experimental, for a festival.” your first unannounced set Juggling the future studio work he is relishing with at Berghain. the amount of commitments he currently undertakes

3) Do you think Prince in a ceaseless DJ schedule (he only takes time off for Of Denmark [Giegling’s a break in September) is not going to be an easy task Traumprinz] will ever for Mike Bierbach. But he’s clearly not a man who play live someday? will acquiesce easily when his vision is challenged. Yes, when the world is The future looks to be more promising and full of ready... possibilities than ever: hardly dystopian at all... Rødhåd plays Belfast’s AVA Festival on June 4 and London’s Found festival on June 11 LUKE DYSON LUKE

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