“Berlin is still a really cheap place to live and for an artist it’s like heaven to be here at the moment as you find lot of freaks and like minded people and because it’s so cheap you don’t really have to make so many compromises in your art,” he explains.

“So it’s a great place to live for artists, but at the same time the overall economy is not really going well, which is a factor that makes you think about Berlin’s longer term future, and also which direction the whole country is heading in. I’ve been playing with the thought of maybe moving back to Finland. Not in the near future but I must admit with the economic situation and everyday politics, I have started having these thoughts.”

Already a star through the numerous electro-tech- trance style remixes he released, Kiki’s profile went into serious overdrive in 2004, when he released his debut album Run With Me, on Ellen Allien’s BPitch label. A superbly constructed record of melodic original electronic music, the record established him as a producer of serious merit and intent, and he appears likely to enhance is reputation still further with new compilation BoogyBytes Volume 1 (also on BPitch). Containing melodic miminal-esque anthems like Ame’s Rej and Fairmont’s Gazebo, the album is both easy to listen to and hugely timely, though is also packed with enough energy to transcend narrow bands.

“The main focus of the compilation I started with was that it’s to be listened to at home, so it’s quite different from the sets I’m playing in clubs right now,” says Kiki.

“I was looking for tracks with more melody and these special records which just break somewhere inbetween, which you can still dance to in a club, but also at a different volume you can enjoy them completely differently at home. At the same time I was trying to re-edit all my own edits and do a lot of work on the tracks, so that the customer ends up with versions of tracks that aren’t available anywhere else. So I used a lot of parts from various different tracks and layered them on top of each other, so at some moments you’ll hear four or five records simultaneously.”

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): There’s huge hype at the moment around minimal, particularly Berlin minimal, what’s your take on that style?

Kiki: “I do produce some minimal tracks also, but I was never really a conceptualist. I like a little bit of this, a little bit of that, if it’s quality music, that’s good enough for me. I personally find minimal quite refreshing compared to this last trend that was going on, the electroclash thing, which was more concentrated around image. Minimal has gone back to the real grooves again, which is what I was always about; music, dancing and the quality of the music, not so much about what you are wearing.”

Skrufff: And yet on the album cover for this compilation you’re presented with a very strange image of your face all twisted up. . .

Kiki: “It was actually a concept series which we came out for the whole series, this is the first one, but every J is going to be photographed in the same way. It’s just me headbanging, shaking my head and really letting myself loose.”

Skrufff: Your last one had you running, is there a theme developing here?

Kiki: “There’s always a movement involved, definitely. Also people keep telling me that when I’m spinning records I’m never standing still, but jumping around and dancing.”

Skrufff: The track on the cd that really stands out for me is the Guy Gerber track Stoppage Time. . .

Kiki: “That’s been quite a funny record, because it came out almost two years ago and everywhere I’m playing it everyone always asks me what the track is; even though it came out  on quite a big label, no-one seems to know it. Maybe it’s just in the scene that I’m playing in, people don’t look up to Bedrock Records so much.”

Skrufff: Do you often hear a good track and think ‘I’m going to make a track like that?’

Kiki: “I’m not so much planning in that way and I’d say I’ve never been inspired to copy something. There are always elements when you are producing when you think : Ok, I must have got this from somewhere or other’ but it’s never really like ;Oh wow, I have to make a bassline like one particular track?

Skrufff: Are you still working with Adam Pearson from The Sisters?

Kiki: “Yes. He’s just putting up his new band and I’m playing keyboards for his band at the moment. We had our first gig in December, now he’s producing the single, we’ll see what’s happens with that, but it’s all pretty much at the start of the project. The band is called Defector

Skrufff: What sort of music? Rocky? Gothy?

Kiki: “We are trying to find this sort of middle ground, between, basically I think his dream would be to play both at the rock festivals and in clubs. I think I’ll speak more about that in the future because we are really just starting a the moment.”

Skrufff: Have you met Andrew Eldridge since you released your Sisters style track End Of The World?

Kiki: “No, I’ve not met him, though ghe feedback I got from the whole band for The End Of The World was that there were definitely similarities, so they sort of approved. Everyone was comparing The End Of The World to The Sisters Of Mercy even though it was never meant to be like that from my side, because I was never really a fan or anything and I didn’t really know their music. It just happened. It’s quite interesting that just a few weeks later I actually met them and at the moment I’m making music with one of those guys.”

Skrufff: With B Pitch, I know Ellen talks about it being a community type of thing. Are you in  an artistic community in Berlin? Do you hang out with other producers?

Kiki: “Defintely. You just have to go five meters out of your home and you meet someone. There are musicians everywhere. You really can’t escape it here, I’d say. I’m always away at the weekends, but at the same time you have so many DJs that do the same, so we have time to socialise in the week, which is  also nice.”

Skrufff: Do you DJ much in Berlin?

Kiki: “Not so much lately. I used to have my residency at the WMF. They are closed at the moment, preparing a new location soon to open but at the moment it’s been a bit quiet. Last year I think I did only three gigs in Berlin.”

Skrufff: How easy is Germany as a place to live, in economic terms?

Kiki: “Berlin is a really cheap place to live. For an artist it’s like heaven to be here at the moment as you find lot of freaks or whatever and it is a cheap place where you don’t really have to make so many compromises in your art. So it’s a great place to live for artists, but at the same time the whole economy is not really going well, which is a factor that makes you think about Berlin’s longer term future: and which direction the whole country is heading in. I’ve been playing with the thought of maybe moving back to Finland. Not in the near future but I must admit with the economic situation and everyday politics, I have started having these thoughts.”

Skrufff: Do you go back to Finland very often?

Kiki: “It hasn’t been very often lately. I was just over for Christmas to see my parents but it was the first time in two years, which is quite a long time away.”

Skrufff: Are your parents supportive of your career and the path you’ve taken?

Kiki: “In the past it wasn’t quite so. They were thinking all these cliches about musicans, that they only do drugs and stuff. Then after the album came out they were asking me for copies which is quite nice. They are becoming more interested slowly but surely. It took quite a while because my mother probably still remembers the time I was living at home and putting my first techno records on and she thought I had the washing machine on or something.”

Skrufff: I’m interviewing a lot of Swedish producers lately who say they produce music there because it’s really boring and there’s nothing else to do so they are in a studio all the time, is Finland similar?

Kiki” “I definitely  relate to the thought. Finland and Sweden are countries where you don’t have so much to do and in the winter it’s too cold to go out so you just lock yourself in the studio and work. At the same time, you aren’t influenced much by the other things that are going on around, because there aren’t so many clubs so you have your space to create a unique sound which is quite good. I suppose if I would have moved to Berlin much earlier my sound might been quite different. It might have been much more influenced about what was going on around at the moment.”

Skrufff: When you go back to Sweden are you seen as a celebrity these days?

Kiki: “Not really. I used to play quite a lot in Finland but it’s been less and less because the old clubs I used to play even in the times when  I was still living there,  don’t exist anymore. Now they have new scenes and new clubs, though he electronic scene is not really big in Finland at the moment. It’s had better times.”

Skrufff: How hedonistic is the whole Berlin scene generally?

Kiki: “?? in Berlin you can go out every day to a proper quality night, so… it happens quite a lot also you get more and more tourists just coming to Berlin to party, it’s like the party town in Europe at the moment.”

Skrufff: Given that you are playing four times a week…how easy is it for you to keep a balance and keep your health?

Kiki: “A good Finnish tradition is the sauna, which is very good for your health, good for your heart and sweating out all the alcohol from the weekend. It’s a really good tip. I do also a lot of sports, or I try to at least. I’ve done quite a lot of different things. Last summer we tried to play tennis with the Dirt Crew guys/. I also ride a lot of bikes. “

Skrufff: Are you lookjing forward to the World Cup Football in Germany this summer?

Kiki: “I’m not really a really big soccer fan, but it’s gong to be a special time next summer in Berlin, definitely.”

BoogyBytes Volume 1 Mixed by Kiki, is out now on BPitch Records

http://www.djkiki.de

http://www.bpitchcontrol.de

Article by Jonty Skrufff (JontySkrufff.com)

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