“I’m sitting in Buenos Aires and am just about to dig into some breakfast – it’s been a long flight from Germany all the way down here. I’m here for two weekends – all DJs think in weekends by the way – and so I will be playing five gigs in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. This is a pretty good example of how my life is or has been lately. But after over 20 years of music, I am still on the road and not stopping – my love of the music is still huge.”
Not to be outdone however, the lad recounts how things have changed since we spoke some years ago. “Lots of things have happened,” he proclaims. “I became a father, I built a house and I planted trees. All are things a man should do in his life. Country wise, I haven’t been in Europe much lately and the reason for this is my daughter. She was born in Argentina and her mum and me try to escape from the ugly European winter so I spend from November to April in South America.”
He also recounts how he headed back to Europe three weeks ago to check on the company books, play a gig or two and do some work in the studio. “Europe hasn’t changed much,” he professes. “It’s all about Berlin, Barcelona and maybe London. The same artists – the big names – are ruling the scene and it’s all about hipster fashion, beardy men and black cloth. For now, I am still based in Berlin but I can’t deny that I love being in South America every time more and more.”
Otherwise, Christian is still spending time in the studio with his long time partner in crime Frank Beckers. “We are still working together in the studio all the time,” he explains. “Even with the distance between us, we have still done a couple of EPs. Our plan was to collect enough tracks so we could release a bunch of them. And now that we are celebrating 10 years of D-Nox and Beckers, you will find an EP coming out from us out every month now and on different labels like Great Stuff, Heinz Music, Tronic and also my label Sprout.”
His label too, is a project he describes as being born of a desire to share good music amongst friends. “I never made it to run as a proper label,” he says. “It was never meant to grow and grow and control the market. I release the music of my friends and I try to give them an opportunity for exposure. We release around six to ten EPs every year to see if we can support the artist and give them a chance to be recognised. And with my own music, the label is like an inspiration. It helps that I like to play a lot of different styles of music much like I always have; I still like twisted tech-house with many progressive and psychedelic influences. Not too fast, not too heavy and not too noisy. I like it groovy, sexy and trippy.”
Finally, Christian recounts his first trip to Australia in 2004, which he correctly suggests was ten years ago. In that time, he has visited no less than 15 times. And this trip should be no different. “This time around at Earthcore we are going to present you a live DJ and video show. We will be celebrating ten years of D-Nox & Beckers.” Onwards and upwards, Australia.
BY RK
