Falko Brocksieper is founder of hot Berlin based Sub Static label, and boasts recent firm seals of approval from the likes of Craig Richards, Jay Haze and Mike Monday to name but a few. Falko, who is very rarely in London, stops off at Platinum, Shoreditch this Sat (19 July 2008) furing his worldwide tour for a special EBM (Electronic Body Movement) party, playing alongside key homegrown and now globally in demand talents JB (Retox), Darren Roach (EBM), the Lasermagnetic crew (Neil Thornton & Johnny Hiller, the Reverso 68 boys (Pete Herbert & Phil Mison), Asad Rizvi (Reverberations) and Jay Pearce (Affected Music).
Falko brings with him a deliciously playful, deep analog funk based sound which is functionally driving, with a definite melodic sensibility to keep things moving and fresh. Falko plays intellectual dance music for a sexy and on the pulse crowd who relish in the seriously in demand deep house sound of the moment. Platinum are delighted to have him in the house, testing out their new Funktion 1 Soundsystem this Saturday!!
You are now based in Berlin. Do you miss anything about life in your home town of Cologne?
It’s nice to be back in Cologne once in a while. I like the city, I simply needed a change when I moved. I miss some of my best friends, and “Koelsch”, Cologne’s own brew.
What has the reaction been like to the ‘intelligent and optimistic’ Cologne sound you have brought with you to Berlin?
Personally I never related very strongly to that whole “Cologne Sound” thing. There might have been a few years when something like a specific sound developed in Cologne, but not so much anymore in the past few years I guess. Me, I was always influenced by alot of techno- and electronic music styles from many places. I think nowadays the existing styles are quite global - everyone knows everything, and there’s good and bad sides about that.
What influences your music?
Hearing good music in a nice surrounding with great sound is the strongest influence I guess. But also travelling and seeing new places.
When is the best time of day for you to create a really nice track?
Nighttime. Yes, I’m a real night owl. Whenever I try to be straight and start my day early, I get nothing done. Especially regarding music. Usually I’m really uninspired at daytime and I end up just staring at the empty screen.
You did a Resident Advisor podcast earlier this year, and the feedback was very positive. How does that make you feel, and how much of a help to you was it doing that mix?
It’s always great to receive good feedbacks for what you love to do. It’s hard to judge though how much that specific mix helped me. Today it’s really important to be bustling and have new interesting stuff out there all the time, whether it’s mixes, features or new releases.
What is your feeling of the current electronic music scene at the moment?
In the past few years the big changes took place in the field of distribution and marketing, which also took heavy influence on the musical content itself. It’s unbelievable how quickly the digital marketing established itself. More and more people start asking themselves if the traditional structure of artists, labels and distributions makes any more sense at all. Today everyone can make music and through portals like myspace and netlabels everyone can potentially get heard. It’s a development of increasing freedom, so it should be a good thing. However, ironically this freedom so far mostly led to a growing uniformity of sound. It seems like thousands of people are doing their music only to sound like the latest hyped producers, because this appears to be the quickest route to success. It all feels like this big bubble sometimes and I think the most significant instrument we need to find in the future is a new way to filter quality music, if we don’t want our culture to look as silly and worthless as MTV one day.
What is your favourite type of cheese?
Many kinds. I love strong smelly cheese, and I like parmesan alot. I’m not so much into cheesy music though.
Where do you buy your records from?
Usually it’s Hardwax or Space Hall. Sometimes Rotation Rec. Also I order online from time to time, but mostly when I’m looking for something specific. Berlin has a bunch of really good record shops - each of them has their own style. So it depends on my actual mood which one I’m going to.
What names/up and coming talent do you think we should we be looking out for DJ/Producer wise?
That’s a tough one. There are so many new producers doing good stuff. Right now I’m really convinced by Coalition Of The Killing - which is Jason Short from San Francisco, in various collaborations. Mia and I met these guys in January, and just out out a new EP on Karloff.
Have you ever lived in London / would you like to live here? Why / why not?
I’ve never lived in London. As a kid London was the first big metropolis I had the chance to visit, and I had a real blast. Now everytime I’m going I’m really looking forward to it. However I could never live there - it’s just too insanely expensive. In that sense, the total opposite to Berlin.
Did you know that Platinum is a gentleman’s venue Monday to Friday? When did you last go to a Gentleman’s club? Where was it and how was it?
Yes I heard about that. But I can justifiably say I’ve never been to one!
You set up the Sub_Static label with Michaela Grobelny a few years back, what role do you both take on in making the label run smoothly?
To be honest we’ve never been very straight and organized. Both of us just do what needs to be done. I’d have to say most of the accounting and really boring stuff is in my hands, but also doing all the artworks is my field.
What are your top 5 tracks to play out at the moment?
Cassy - #02
Even Tuell - Workshop #04
Mia - Don’t Catch My Soul (Areal)
Coalition Of The Killing - Azizam (Karloff)
Benjamin Fehr - My Favourite Shop Is Me (Catenaccio)
Interview by Anna Wharton
