Before I ask you why you're in Chicago, tell us what happened just a few weeks ago in Sofia?
A few weeks ago, the second party in the "Metropolis 20" series took place, as this year "Metropolis" celebrates 20 years since its founding. The whole year will pass under this name, with each of the parties having an idea to present a certain sound of electronic music in our country. On March 5th, the first of them was held, and in order to have some order, we called it "Metropolis 20 version 1.0 Heroes Total" with Sam Paganini and Alan Fitzpatrick. The second was "Metropolis 20 version 2.0 Sonic Voyager" with Ben Klock and KiNK (Strahil Velchev) and now in the summer of August 6th, our big party will be held. One of the confirmed artists for it is Monika Kruse, and around her we will gather other current artists for the audience in Bulgaria. In reality, the project has been going on for several years. It is called "Future Heroes", it presents new names, younger DJs and artists from all over the world, who, so to speak, are or will be the "future heroes". Some of them, such as Sam Paganini, Alan Fitzpatrick, Nicole Moudaber, participated for the first time in Bulgaria (at the invitation of "Metropolis"). People like to have profiling, so we focused on the complex aspect of the project. We called the second party "Sonic Voyager", because that's how we show or predispose a special attitude towards this type of party. Under the same name, some of the most avant-garde tracks of today can be heard on "Coda Radio" from 12:00 to 14:00. But "Future Heroes" and "Sonic Voyager" are exactly for this. We want people to perceive music more easily, and we, as organizers, to present new and young artists from the "crest of the wave".
Ben Klock has never been to Bulgaria before and is one of the hard-to-reach DJs and producers. KiNK (Strahil Velchev) is one of the few Bulgarian electronic music artists who uses and makes his own instruments, which makes him distinctive and extremely original. What was the message of “Metropolis” with the choice of these two titans of electronic sound and did you achieve it?
We wanted to present on the one hand the historical roots of electronic music, because these parties were born in warehouses, workshops, industrial buildings, underground spaces. We also wanted to provoke the people who come to see the other side of electronic music, which is not so easily digestible and carries much more content and meaning. For example, KiNK started with jazz, a few songs with the vocals of Rachel Roy (his girlfriend) and ended with techno. Ben Klock, who plays 10-12 hours at Berghain and has a lot of experience, also made many different and interesting transitions, which definitely brought visible results to the audience. So our message is that electronic music is very diverse and you can find in it everything that, in our opinion, acquires a deeper meaning.
For "Sonic Voyager" we will continue to look for interesting places, like old, abandoned factories or empty warehouses. The first one went really well and we wanted it to remain iconic, so we invited KiNK and Ben Klock. So the first "Sonic Voyager" went great and served its purpose.
What kind of DJs are they? What impression did they leave on the dancing crowd?
Ben Klock is a resident of Berghain in Berlin and is currently one of the most popular DJs in the world. He himself is a very good DJ. His mix for Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 was the mix of the year for 2015. And the other artist is KiNK (Strahil Velchev), who is the number 1 "live act" - live performance, for last year on Resident Advisor. In addition, we are in touch with Strahil and maintain very close contacts and, so to speak, we provoked him a little more. He brought his entire studio to Sofia, which is the first time he has done this in the world. Unfortunately, he rarely plays in Bulgaria, he mainly performs abroad and one such appearance of his was an event in itself. And Ben Klock was supposed to play for 3, but ended up playing for 5 hours.
photo: Ivan Vandov
photo: Ivan Vandov
More recently, another project of yours has appeared in the public sound space – Coda Radio. What prompted you to realize this idea?
It all started as a joke, but the main reason is actually that in Bulgaria, especially, and around the world, most electronic music radio stations are anonymous, i.e. you have a set software and a set program or radio - software that arranges the tracks the way people like to listen to them. Maybe there is also some music editor who does not advertise himself that much. That is why we want to show that behind each song there is a certain person, and for now there are three of us with Yasen Petrov and DJ Smurf, two younger guys DJ Zimone and DJ Ziggy, and we also broadcast the weekly podcast of Dave Clarke ("White noise") and Mark Romboy ("Systematic"). All these activities give the appearance of the radio, namely that this model is the opposite of the formula that radio is not a personal responsibility, but the exact opposite - behind the radio there are many people, each with a certain activity. And it is not just a business, as many people think. And the other thing that can be mentioned is that more or less, most radio stations are entering a state of inertia and the idea that radio is going to work anyway, so we don't need to renew or improve it anymore. Our idea is for the radio to have a slight flavor of the "pirate" radios in London - for example, from the 90s. The idea is that even though the radio has a program announced in the stream, at any time someone can appear and "take over" the studio, with everything happening exclusively live. I will recreate the idea with an example: Ben Klock comes a few hours early and starts playing live without advertising, without prior posting. The surprise and the real sound of electronic music is embedded in this project, with which we want to give people something new, something different, with easy access, since there is nowhere else to get it. Another idea is to broadcast live from the parties we throw, because it is already making sense. On Friday and Saturday nights, when "Metropolis Live" is broadcast, mixes recorded from our parties are played, and in the future we will start broadcasting live from the party itself. On the one hand, this provides interesting material for listening, and on the other hand, it will provoke DJs who know that their music will be broadcast live. With this, we hope that they will approach their music and their performance differently, since the scale of the party itself will be multiplied. This is a responsibility that will predispose them to approach the stage even more seriously.
You have been offering the best of the global DJ scene for 20 years. How do you think young DJs in our country are doing? Do you feel the same energy and thirst for electronic music as you did 20 years ago?
Yes, it feels like it! But for this question, we need to pay attention to two things. First: the time we live in today, overwhelms you with music, both high-quality and very poor-quality. When we used to collect music back then, out of ten records we bought, 1 or 2 were worth playing, and that was an event and an incredible success. The good thing was that the tracks themselves had a longer life and we could play them for a whole year. Now the "life" of the tracks is 2-3 months and then they are replaced with new ones. But even having all the music in the world doesn't save you. In this regard, the most important thing in my opinion is that the one who has talent somehow manages to find his own style of performance. Because, on the one hand, there are guys who definitely have their own sound and their own style, which aren't many, but they do exist. On the other hand, it's really hard to choose from this whole sea of music, which is full of so much foam, what you like, what you could present in the best way. In an interview, Ben Klock said: "The biggest compliment for me is when people come up to me and tell me that whatever tracks I play, they always sound great!" The point is to find your own style, and when you put them in your mix, they will make sense. The second important thing, in my opinion, is to find the musical story you want to tell and the technical side of things. Because nowadays everyone wants to take the place of Richie Hawtin, but when the combination of all the modern possibilities of "sampling", "looping" and "mixing" is not combined well, there is no way to do it. Demonstration for its own sake and the use of technical means do not necessarily lead to quality afterwards.
6th question, and we still can't separate ourselves from Sofia and all the projects you've started with the Metropolis team. But you're definitely interested in Chicago? How do you feel here? What brings you so often to the yard of the Chicago House?
The first few times I came, I was really excited and prepared for a long time. I often played classics like "Jack your body" for example. Now at the "after" I played "Jack your body" again, but a new version by Chicago producer Doorly and there were about 10-15 people who immediately recognized it and congratulated me. Another thing I remember happened again at an afterparty, which was in an artist's studio - a girl came and talked to me. She was very surprised when she found out that I was from the other side of the world and knew about Chicago house music. It's just that the excitement in such moments is valuable to me. The only "disadvantage" here is that I play short, since the clubs are usually open until 3-4 in the morning.
Let's tell the people who read this interview that the music we heard "moved" (to put it mildly) both Bulgarians and Americans and people from all other nationalities and cultures who were in this new and otherwise interesting club. How did you feel about the party and the audience?
Sometimes people ask me what the optimal playing time is? My answer specifically for this club would be at least 5 hours, which I would use to the fullest. Usually the structure of my sets is such that by about the 2nd hour I understand the audience and where I am in the set. And here after the second hour I had to finish my performance a little hastily. But these are the rules in the city that the clubs comply with. I am happy that both Bulgarians and Americans, etc. accepted the music and had fun. It's just that after all the parties here I see people dancing.
Chicago is cosmopolitan – a city with a very rich cultural and progressive life? Is there anything that motivates and inspires you? What do you bring back with you to Bulgaria?
Different things every time, but one of them is the total contradiction between the pastoral picture of the suburbs and what is happening in the center of Chicago. You see how the city never sleeps and on the contrary, life is constantly boiling on all levels. In addition, all new initiatives are constantly developing and small things become big. These things charge me and we actually do this in Bulgaria too. We start with something small and such an example is "Future Heroes", with young DJs starting as something small and after 2 years they are already professional DJs. The other thing you see here is the mixing of so many different cultures, which gives its result and you witness, for example, how an African American explains to a Ukrainian about Chicago house.
photo: Bulgarian woman
Now I'm going to ask you a question from a mutual friend. His question is when and do you even plan to start composing electronic music? Will we hear your own music soon?
Yes! I made my own studio, which I would define as world-class. Unlike here, in Bulgaria there is no division of activities, so we are often both promoters and DJs and managers and all other closely related activities. Production takes time, but we have plans to create a “label” that will release about six times a year and will be, in addition to digital, recorded on vinyl. We hope that after the first few releases, people will start to expect our new tracks.
Under what name will you publish? Will you reveal the secret?
It was originally “Clockwork Orange”, then it was just “Clockwork”, but unfortunately Ben Klock’s “label” is called “Klockworks”. So we took a slightly different approach and renamed it in Spanish: “Mechanica Records” with the intention of developing the project.
What's coming up? What can fans expect from you and what should they keep an eye on on the official Metropolis website?
We have a big summer party on August 6th with Monika Kruse. Also, after negotiations between us and the managers of "Cacao Beach" in Sunny Beach, we will have several performances there. And then we want to organize another big party, and for it we will strive to find a new and interesting place, the idea being not to follow the same beaten path, but on the contrary, regardless of the risk we take, we are motivated and ready to provide electronic music lovers in our country and around the world with something different, interesting and new.
