Germany is perhaps better known for techno than it is for broken beats, but Marten Horger has set about changing all that. The chap is not only a highly regarded producer, remixer and collaborator, but he is also the brains behind Stamina Club – one of Europe’s longest running breakbeat club nights. 100% talks to him about his more recent work – as well as his keenness to get back to Australia and be a proper tourist.
“I grew up in the countryside of Germany in the south, where the girls are beautiful, the weather is nice and where the sausages come in about a million different shapes,” chimes the affable German, his smile beaming. And perhaps his drive to do something different in his native Germany is what has seen him become so successful. Seemingly, when you have the least to lose, you take the biggest risks. And that was Horger’s very raison d’être.
“I just really like all kinds of music so I simply played whatever I like – I think it’s way more fun for everyone on the dance floor as well. Breakbeat is not a very natural sound for Germans, so I had to find a way to keep it interesting in my early years and that concept still sticks with me.” And it was that attitude that led Horger into the DJ booth at the precarious age of 15. “I’ve been a DJ long before I started writing music, so by the time I started producing I had spent so much time in clubs that I knew exactly what I wanted.” Likewise for Horger, that vision kept slowly evolving over the years. “I loved music and being a DJ so much that even before I was allowed to go to a club legally, I got smuggled in to play! So I spent my teenage years playing alongside the big techno and house DJs, trying to figure out how I could become one of them!”
Now, all of that seems a distant memory, for he is a number of years into his career and has a number of successful projects under his belt including Smash Hi Fi and Boogie Army. “Boogie Army was a temporary thing that I did, and shortly before Boogie Army went separate ways, Leeroy Thornhill left his old band The Prodigy,” explains Horger. “We had been good friends for a long time so we started playing lots of gigs together. And approximately one and a half years ago we decided to start working on an album. As we both travel a lot all of the time its pretty hard to get music done, so he moved over to Germany a little while ago to make it all more efficient,” he laughs.
Right now though, he admits that almost all the original music he is doing goes towards the Smash Hi Fi project and as such, this has seen him release mostly remixes over the last two years. Indeed, leveraging off Thornhill’s contacts has been a boon for theduo, given his previous life in the music business.
“He really knows some amazing people – and we’re working with a few of them at the moment; I just don’t think I’m allowed to drop any names just yet!” He has also completed the odd collaboration with Plump DJs and Stanton Warriors, which he claims was a dream come true.
In closing, he adds that even though he has been to Australia a few times before, he has never actually seen all the amazing scenery and culture our country has to offer. So he finishes with these upbeat words: “this time I’m bringing my girlfriend and we’re doing the proper tourist experience – I can’t wait!”
BY RK
Marten Horger [GER] plays the Good Friday Boat Party afterparty (afterparty, you got that?) at La Di Da on Friday April 6.
