Let’s talk Berlin. How has the Electronic music scene developed since the time that you were there?

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This is a very hard thing to sum up in just one answer. Firstly because there is not just "one scene" in Berlin. There are multiple different "scenes" within Electronic music. That is why I can only talk about my own experience and what I have noticed around me. But I woudln't call it an accurate portrayal of the scene's development, just my perception of it.
 

With that said, I think the audience grew a lot in these past years. There are more people than ever partying in clubs, but weirdly enough, a lot of clubs have been forced to recently close.  What worries me is the feeling that "underground partying" is slowly and discreetly dying.  When I moved here, there were so many places you could go where you wouldn't feel like you were in a club. It was just some trashy location with a good party going on. I think that's becoming rare now and it makes me a bit sad. To make it worse, a lot of the places that still have that underground feeling are closing in the near future to make space for more buildings. 

 

Don't get me wrong, Berlin is still (in my opinion) the best place in the world to party. 

But people should be aware that all the great clubs here started liked that: a cool trashy location with good parties running, which then developed into a club.

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So if we don't give chances for more places to develop like that, we might loose the thing that made Berlin clubs so unique: their underground origins.

 

 

Dazed State. What is the history there? What would you like to accomplish?

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Dazed State started as a party from friends to friends. Rusky, Hans B. and I found this club (which was basically a basement in an office space in Kreuzberg) and we decided to throw a party there. In that basement, Dazed State was born.

 

Leon Licht - who you guys know very well, actually came up with the name. The concept is all about partying with friends and getting lost in time (with Techno in the background). From then on, we have been running parties every year until this day.

 

Nowadays, we are a collective of 5 artists - Rusky, Memo, Grivola, Hans B. and myself. All of them are great artists, so you should definitely check them out (I will leave links at the end of the interview.)

We don't really have a goal. We are just a group of friends with a love for playing music and partying. Our only focus is to keep trying our best to make cool parties in Berlin and have fun doing it.

 

 

Tell us something about you that the audience at your performance might not ever know.

 

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Hmmm, I really don't like stages or having lights on me. I am always much more comfortable in a DJ booth that is dark. So if you ever notice, I am almost never looking up while playing - most likely because there are too many lights on me.

 

 

Give us some insight into the future. What can we expect?

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That's hard to tell. Everything I did so far, I did my own way. I always avoided rushing things. I believe everything has it's time.

I have my goals of course and I dedicated a lot of myself to where I am today, but I am not crazy ambitious. I just like playing and have fun doing it.  I don't ever want to get to the point where it feels like work. This is just my passion. 

 

So I don't know what to expect in the future. My only hope is that you will keep seeing me in Berlin clubs for years to come.

 

 

Manel Cluny, in a few sentences. Tell us about this mix you made for us. Where did you get your inspiration. Is there anything special you want the audience to know?

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I always loved Hip-Hop. I wanted to do a mixtape like this for a long time but never got the chance to. It's a genre that has had a huge influence on me so when you guys asked me for a mix - I was super excited to do it like this. I also felt that if there's someone I would like to do this for, it's you guys.

The funny thing is when I was doing this, I realized one mix was not enough for what I wanted to show. So since this is for New Years, I decided to make it a two part mix. One to celebrate 2019 and one to embrace 2020 with open arms.

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Full disclaimer: I am not a Hip-Hop DJ. In fact, I never played like this in my life so this is more of a mixtape with a lot of my favourite tracks than it is a real DJ set. Hope you guys enjoy it.

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