Dixon’s Rules

Check out this interview RA’s Andrea Spranzi did with the one and only Dixon:

 

“After the wonderful chat with Henrik Schwarz we have the pleasure to show you here on Soundwall one of the two minds (they are three indeed, you know, Âme is a duo) that stay behind Innervisions, a label whom Henrik Schwarz is deeply linked. In my opinion Dixon is one of the most complete artist in the entire electronic music field. Every time he plays is like a journey where every detail takes the audience to each side of house music. Using his own words: “There is to much music out there”…and that’s so true! Dixon is a mature artist not only from the musical point of view. His career hasn’t forged ahead, each steps was reached through work, dedication and the continuos desire of improvement. You can easily understand these situations though his words, sniffy words sometimes, but behind them there is consciousness that is not common to everyone in the electronic field. A real German! An artist like him deserve to be deeply discovered and for that reason we decided to interview him.

You grown up as an artist in the Berlin of the ’90, a place probably different from the one that we know nowadays musically speaking. How was for a young artist that time?

It was an amazing time that gave us the feeling that everything is possible. The evolution in politics were soon reflected in the evolution of electronic music and in our club culture here in Berlin.

The early residency, your early success. How did you impose yourself as an artist, and than start your career?

I always tried to follow three simple rules: 1) Always stay true to the music you really wanna play. Never change something just because other people seem to like different music. 2) Never ask to play in a club. Do your best to make sure the club asks you – not you the club. 3) Don‘t push too much. Playing music as a Dj is like every other job – you have to learn what you are doing and it is a long way. There is maybe no school or university for it – but you still have to understand a lot about soundsystems, music, people, rooms, times, loudness, tempo and entertainment. This will take time.

Like everyone you certainly had inspirational figures, not only in the musical field. Who were they?

DJ Pierre – but not as a dj or a musician. Just as an artist that gave an interview in a german music magazine and what he said there changed my view on my job as a dj.

Your inspiration and your talent bring you to the definition of your sound. How can you describe your sound and how it changed during your career?

Play house music. Not more or less. But I come from a time when there was all kind of house music reflected in a great dj set. Not just Deep house or techhouse, not just vocal house or minimal house. All kind of what is good house I try to present.

All this is a part of your growing process, and in this journey i think that a very important step was the relationship with Jazzanova and Sonar Kollektiv. What can you tell us about this?

Jazzanova helped me to have a inside into the record business. They also made me discover a lot of music I wasn‘t aware of before. But after a couple of years I realised I don‘t want to make compromisses anymore. Thats why I decided to leave with my label Innervisons the Sonar Kollektiv.

Another important characters linked to Jazzanova and his Sonar Kollektiv is the duo called Âme. How was born your musical understanding and what prompted you to start Innervisions?

I introduced Ame to Jazzanova and Sonar Kollektiv cause I liked the music of Kristian and Frank and thought that I want to release it. I had to push the guys a little to really appriciate the stuff that Ame was doing and after a couple of years i realized that i don‘t want to make compromisses anymore. We wanted to make a proper house label. Thats why I decided to leave with my label Innervisons the Sonar Kollektiv. Now it is owned and guided by Âme and myself.

You, Âme, your names remind me all of yours great success that you reached in your career, but also remind me your recent exhibition as a part of a trio completed by Henrik Schwarz. How this team born? And what is the idea that stays behind this project, that also goes beyond the live act, I mean the production part of it.

The combination of us 4 always tries to test field in areas that we would not go into as solo artists. In other words – whenever we do something together it must be special for us. Not better but different. Something that is new to us and we want to test.

Till now we only talked about electronic music, but in your career you had experiences also in a “not electronic” fields. What can you tell us about?

There is way too much music out there that is interesting then one can imagine. Even after 20 years of being in the music business I always still find out about something interesting that i didnt know before. There is no way this will ever end – there is simply to much out there.

This type of experiences definitely enrich an artist, do you think that is quite fundamental to have this type of experiences to keep alive the creativity, maybe doing something different from your typical way of expression?

Producing house music is not rocket science. In other words – doing a 4/4 beat and some house stabs over and over again can be really boring at some times. So it is always good to take a step back, turn right or left and realize what else is out there. Get your head and ears clear of house music. Take a deep breathe and relax. This always helped me so far in times when i was sick of house music. After 3 month my love for it came back and i went back into the studio and was inspired again from all the things that happened to me in that 3 month break.

We talked a lot about the past, but for the future? What can you tell us about?

I do not speak about it! You have to find out yourself.

I forgot the last curiosity, do you still think about football?

All the time. Next world cup our very young german team will be finally ready for the final. Our teams is full of 20 years young players that already play for 2-3 years in the national team. And even the old players (like Lahm or Schweinsteiger) are still not old (both 28 years). So – one day we will be back on the top.”