Page 16 - Zone Magazine Issue 013

peeking into the mind of
chris liebing @ electri_city
conference
feature
After last year's conference where I had the chance to talk to Michael Rother from Kraftwerk it was no question that I would be there again this year. So, I gave my photographer Marc Herzog a call and we took off to Düsseldorf. When we arrived the first thing was to get any information about the program and to find the locations of everything because it was so different than last year’s conference. Staff there was very helpful and we managed to find everything quite well.
One of the most interesting pieces on the schedule was an interview with Chris Liebing, Daniel Miller and Heiko Hoffmann. Before we get into that we are going to introduce the participants.
Daniel Miller will always be connected to the history of Depeche Mode. For most he is a man who needs no introduction.
He studied Film and television at Guildford School of Art. This is where he began discovering the sounds of the German bands like Can, Faust, Neu! And Kraftwerk. He was amazed by that new sound they created and it eventually drove him to become a DJ. Having started in Switzerland before returning to England at the high times of Punk Rock. Later becoming inspired by bands like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire.
His musical projects besides Depeche Mode include “The Normal”, “Silicon Teens”, “Duet Emmo” and “Sunroof.”
Second is Chris Liebing. German Techno DJ, Producer, Label owner, and Radio Host.
Once again another person who needs no introduction, but for our international readers I'll go through a short summary.
Born in December 1968 in Giessen Chris became active in the Frankfurt music scene in the 90s. Opening the Spin club in 1994 and working together with EyeQ Records in Frankfurt. Later Chris founded his first label Audio, followed by CLR Records in 1999. Collaborations with Speedy J, Umek, Tommy Four Seven and Green Velvet were soon to follow. Chris has also toured extensively through the biggest and most influential clubs in the world.
Daniel and Chris were on stage together with Heiko Hoffmann, Chief Editor of Groove Magazine Germany who was leading the discussion.
Heiko Hoffmann:
This was a meeting of 2 generations of very special musicians that cannot be compared. The only things they have in common is they are both techno Djs. The first time they met was when Chris got turned down by Novamute records about 13 years ago.
Chris Liebing:
13 years ago, I just finished my first album and had gone to London to meet Seth Hodder. At the time, he was the A&R of Novamute that time. I went to his office and as we sat together and hit play the door suddenly opened and Daniel came in to talk to Seth. Afterwards he turned to me and asked who I was before he left. Three years later I did a collaboration album called “Metalism” that was released in 2006 on Novamute.
Heiko Hoffmann:
Did having a release on Novamute at the time have any special meaning for you?
Chris Liebing:
Absolutely. I am kid of the 80s. I was born on the countryside of Germany in a very small town and grew up listening to everything that came from England those days. In that little town, this was like my window into a whole new big world. I was never a courageous guy running around with grey or green hair or ever one to dress up differently. Seeing people like Gary Newman or Dave Galahan on TV at the time had all different kinds of styles and weird clothes. Not only that but of course the music, it became the soundtrack of my Life and I think a lot of people in this audience can relate. It’s interesting to see that most of the people who make this music are still not aware of how many lives they influence with it.
Heiko Hoffmann:
I came from the same generation as Chris. I grew up in West Berlin as a teenager and had thought Berlin was the last interesting place on earth. I had no idea about all the cool things happening in Berlin in the 1980s so for the most part my musical inspirations came mostly from the UK.
Daniel Miller:
Yeah well, you are both kids of the 80s. I grew up and had my teenage years in the 60s. The 60s were an incredible time for music if you think about it. I grew up with that feeling of progress in music because of certain changes that were happening. It was simply unbelievable. For a lot of reasons the music was moving fast. During a certain point around 1967/68 things seemed to stop for me. Music was not moving forward in any way. I started hearing about these bands from San Francisco and so on and I was excited about that. When I heard that I thought it was kind of boring. I mean the Grateful Dead obviously had a certain state of mind to appreciate. The Grateful Dead and they popularity had to come from a certain Place. There were some classic tracks that came before that period.
Later, that evening we caught up with Chris at a gig for a chance to sit him down one on one for an interview.
Let's begin with a topic that was not covered on the panel earlier today. CLR Records is one of the major labels in techno here in Germany. How did this all come together?
Chris Liebing:
I put the label on ice a year ago. It begun a lot earlier with my first label Fine Audio Recordings. I founded it in 1996 in cooperation with another company. I was a still a young artist at the time and they held the rights to it. When I wanted to continue the label, I had to choose another name for it and the distributor. At that that time distributors were really important because of the hardcopy market. I decided to call it CLR. It did really great until about one and a half years ago. I wanted to make more music for myself and not for others. It was a lot of fun caring about all those artists and putting together the releases but I knew I had to decide. I wanted to concentrate more on DJ’ing and my personal career. I also wanted to make another album and that’s when I knew I had to put CLR on ice. It has been an amazing journey and I don't know what will come out of it only time can tell.
16 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE