Boris Dlugosch is one of the busiest German remixers and DJs around. He is hard to catch and talk to, but due to the nice help of his booking agent Mona Rennalls in Hamburg, I was able to set up a date with him in Frankfurt/Main. He just dj-ed the night before at U 60311, one of Frankfurts hot-spots right now and was on his way to Mallorca a couple of hours later, but took some time off to talk to me.
It was a very nice sunny Sunday afternoon, and as I was on my way to do the interview, I was wondering what the interview would be like. Boris Dlugosch, probably sitting next to Michi Lange (often his partner), Mousse T, and, one of the leading German remix groups over the last three years, the guys better known as Tiefschwarz from Stuttgart. I just read an interview with Boris recently done by a "colleague" of mine (should I say so..?). This girl had the worst Thomas Faths, and she obviously mistook Boris as a techno DJ, which is probably why Boris' answers consequently seemed rather unmotivated and bored.
Finally, I arrived at the Hilton. After sitting for a while in the lobby Boris showed up looking very model-like in a very cool Prada-style 2 piece suit and T-shirt, which is not how most people would classify a house music DJ. We had a very relaxed and pleasant 2-hour conversation that showed how down-to-earth Mr. Dlugosch is, in spite of some major remix success with remixes for Moloko, Michael Watford, Edesio, DJaimin, DaMage, and Jasper Street Company, just to name just a few of the remix-bombs he has dropped lately. This is an excerpt of our conversation, but it is surely interesting enough to give you an idea about the music world of Boris Dlugosch.
Thomas Fath: You are definitely one of Germany's hottest and most wanted remixers. I am sure that people call you very often asking you to do a remix. Can you handle all these inquiries, and how do you select what you will do?
Boris Dlugosch: I get an extreme amount of offers for doing remixes. Actually, almost daily there is someone calling me and asking me to do a remix. In some ways I think we sell us out a bit, for example: I didn't receive any money for the mixes I did for Moloko.
Thomas: You are kidding me. How did this happen?
Boris: I was at Universal/MCA in Hamburg, Germany looking to see if Florian and Mikey (two guys at Universal Dance) had some new promos for me. Michi gave me a tape with the original version of "Sing It Back" and I listened to it on my way home in the car. All I could think was, wow; this song is the bomb. I mean, there is so much in the original version already. Moloko's excellent voice, the interesting beats, the sounds effects, all this together really caught my attention. I got goose bumps listening to it and I called Universal and said that I'd like to do a remix of this song. Michi said he'd call England, and he called me back three days later saying that I can do the remixes. We didn't talk about money or anything. I did my remixes and gave them to Universal. When I asked them about my remixes, they said that they liked them a lot, but that Moloko/Echo was not with Universal anymore. I called Echo directly and asked them what we could do about my remixes. They said, they like them a lot, and that Moloko would especially like my mixes, but they had no budget for more remixes because they spent all of their budget on Todd Terry and Booker T already. Bummer! I wanted my remixes to be released, so I asked if we could find any way to arrange this. Moloko finally offered me a deal that I really liked. She said I should give them my remixes and she would sing for my next project in return. I have been kind of "collecting favors" lately.
Thomas: In what way?
Boris: I've done a remix for Roger Sanchez and he said that in return he would remix my next project, so I didn't get money. The same story with David Morales, for whom I did remixes of Kathy Brown "Joy", and Mousse T, for whom Michi and I did the remixes of "Horny". So, it seems that my next project comes along with a HUGE remix package.
Thomas: Definitely! It seems as if some of the biggest names in the house music business will be with you then. I cannot wait for this! It would have been a shame, if your fabulous mixes of "Sing It Back" would not have been released because they couldn't pay you anymore.
Boris: Yes, I think so, too. But it wasn't about the money. I liked my remixes a lot and I really wanted them released, even if I got no money for them.
Thomas: What a good idea, since your and Mousse T's mixes are surely the most pumping. I hear them almost weekly on the Friday and Saturday on the dance music radios show on BBC1. Is there any artist who you definitely would like to work with in the future?
Boris: Sure, there are probably thousands of artists I'd like to work with. It's hard to say one name now, but probably everyone who is a talented artist. We work often with a bassist who is very good, a keyboardist and a guitar-player, who are all very talented. They really enrich our work a lot, because I play no instruments and I cannot play piano. I used to play percussion when I was younger but not anymore. All I have are my ears and my feeling for music, but these guys sit there in the studio and just play a melody. They are great. If Lauryn Hill, for example, would like to do a more up-tempo-like song, I'd be there to work with her. Someone like this would be one of my dreams.
Thomas: Tell us one of your favorite remixes that you did!
Boris: Well, you don't work directly with the artists. Usually, you just get a DAT with the vocals, and that's it. But to name one, the remixes we did for Moloko are one of my favorites. I think you can figure out which are really good remixes, which I do with a lot of enthusiasm and motivation, because they sound really good when they are finished. Kathy Brown "Joy" and Jasper Street Company "Love Changes", these are two other remixes which I really enjoyed doing.
Thomas: My local record dealer just wanted to sell me your remixes of "Love Changes" as the new PHAT mixes that Dlugosch did! And I was like, ok...but you're just a bit too late. I have had them for months. It's funny if you live in a small town like I do and try to get a new record. Sometimes it takes forever until house remixes come to my store, but at least it has changed a bit nowadays and house seem to have become more popular.
Boris: Yes, I can imagine this. It's harder to get records in small towns, but at least it becomes better as house music spreads and becomes more popular.
Thomas: There is an opinion among the house crowd that house should stay underground, and that everything that becomes popular and sells well in stores or is even played on radio is shitty and totally uncool. I personally think this is a very arrogant opinion. What do you think about this?
Boris: You are right. It's nobody's fault if somebody grew up in a small town and had no chance until a few months or maybe a year ago to listen to house or to go to house clubs, because it wasn't popular outside big cities until then. So why should some people look down on them, because they started listening to house in 1998 or 1999? That is stupid and arrogant. But then, why shouldn't we try to sell records? You can produce a record that sells well and it still it is a good record. There are examples. You don't have to produce bad quality just to make money, and what is so bad about making a living with good music?
Thomas: Cologne and Hamburg were the big cities in Germany for great house music and good clubs. I went clubbing in Cologne and Hamburg years ago and thought these were the best cities I ever have been to in Germany. Is it still the same?
Boris: It has changed extremely. I'm in Cologne maybe once a year, when they celebrate the PopKomm (the big German dance music and record company convention in the fall). I wonder where all the clubbers are who used to go out in Cologne years ago. I had clubs every month where I played in Cologne and it was always great, with clubs like Yokoto and Neuschwanstein. I played there with Hans Nieswandt and we had great times. Now I don't see any of these people anymore. It seems as if nobody really goes out anymore in Cologne.
Thomas: Isn't this the big problem in a lot of German cities lately? I saw David Morales playing at a "rave" with about 50 people being at that venue. I was like, wow - this is David Morales and nobody cared! Joe Claussel and Kerri Chandler were at a club where I usually go to and it wasn't really crowded.
Boris: My wife is from Milan, Italy and we're often in Italy together. Friday I played in Napoli and I can say that I have more bookings in Italy than anywhere else.
Thomas: Isn't it sad? I have the feeling that the German DJ's and remixers are respected everywhere in the world more than in Germany. I was in San Francisco in 1996 when I got to know David Harness and Pete Avila. When they heard that I'm from Germany, they said that they just booked you for a night with them and can't wait to have you in their town. Louie Vega played "Keep On Pushin" at the SFB when I was there and the crowd went insane. In Italy I heard so many radio stations that play house day in day out....
Boris: The booking with David and Pete was my first in San Francisco and I liked it! See, that is what I mean. We're not talking about one radio station that has one house show on Saturday nights for 2-3 hours like it is here, more or less, but about lots of radio stations that play house ever day at every time! You can't imagine what is going on in the music industry. They like my music, they read about it in international magazines that Mousse, Michi, myself and some others are respected and have a good reputation, but they don't really care too much about us here in Germany because we won't sell as much "units" as somebody like Scooter, to name just one example, sells. The more you sell, the more respect you'll get. It's not really about the quality and music, it's the money that your mixes bring. I cannot produce music this way. For me, music comes from my heart. It's a feeling. If I don't feel anything, then nothing happens. I mean, we are talking about MUSIC. Sometimes I hear a record and I actually think it is pollution and nothing else. I listen to it and I am surprised that someone will buy it and who would produce something like this. There is no soul inside.
Thomas: I have read that you did a tour with Edesio, who's song "Blem Blem" got the high quality remix treatment from you. Tells us a bit about this tour, how this happened and where you were.
Boris: Behind the "Edesio" project is the Stella Music Company in Hamburg. We flew to Cuba, where Edesio lives. You can't imagine what's going on in Cuba and how is daily life there. For us, Cuba is Havana's parties, rum and vacation because, more and more German tourists fly to Cuba and spend their holidays there. But real life in Cuba is very hard. The Cubans live under bad circumstances. I was in Santiago de Cuba and believe me, I was shocked. But OK, the Edesio story: We did the remix and gave out some copies in Miami, where it rocked massively. Back in Italy we heard it everywhere (just like Moloko and BMR). Edesio got brought to Germany for promotion and we went on tour with professional musicians to Regensburg, Munich, Munster and Hamburg. It was actually a concert of Edesio's band, and then us with a presentation of our work. We remixed as well a new song, which will be the second single, again with percussion and we added a house beat.
Thomas: What about the remixes you did for Roger Sanchez' new project. Give us the 411 on this, please!
Boris: It's called "I Never Knew" and it will be released on Sony Music. It is actually the first song from his forthcoming album. He handed out some white labels of it at the Miami Winter Music Conference. He liked the "Sing It Back" remixes we did and asked if we could do remixes of "I Never Knew". We just finished them, but it seems we will do the vocal mix again in a bit different way. Roger liked the dub much more than the vocal mix and wanted it more the way we did "Sing It Back", but that is another story. I mean, Moloko has this really great voice and you can work so differently with her voice. The original version of "Sing It Back" has these strange sounds, the beats, the voice - everything just fits together in such a special way. The entire album is full with strange effects - her voice fits the beat and it is a different thing to remix her than any other artist.
Thomas: Speaking of Miami, how was the WMC? Is it really a kind of exclusive, elitist meeting that we always read about? How was your experience with the WMC?
Boris: I was at the WMC for the first time five years ago. I hadn't seen any Germans at that time. One year later I was there with Mousse T and we sat around, thought everything was very cool and interesting. We were like: "Look, over there is Louie and Kenny, and there is Tony Humphries and Todd Terry." Nobody was interested in talking to us and nobody knew us. We were just there and hoped to get some promos - of which we got finally two or three until we went back home. We promoed "Keep pushing on" in 1996 and then everything started. I had done the mixes for "Key To Life" and Louie started his set in Miami with my mix, so I thought this was fine, but we were still unknown. When I got back from Miami, I had a fax from Moneypenny from NYC on my desk. She sent me Tony Humphries' playlist the week after the WMC and he had "Keep pushing on" in his playlist. This was a rather good feeling. I mean, he probably got hundreds of test presses and promos in Miami and "Keep pushing on" was one of the ones he liked most. Then it became #1 in Italy, but we still didn't notice it here in Germany. Nobody from Italy booked us to DJ at a club at that time. Louie licensed it for their MAW label, which was another cool story, but still, it wasn't a breakthrough for us. We came from nowhere - unlike Mousse T, who had some successful remixes already done before he hit so heavily with "Horny". Nobody really knew us before "Keep pushing on". But, yeah, in general Miami is a very special place, and the WMC is something really interesting. You'll meet friends and people there that you usually don't see anywhere else. This year, one of the hits was "Spread Love" by The Messengers, which floated around quite a while as a white label. Marc and Brian from Jazz 'n Groove did a very good edit which they presented in Miami, now we did some remixes which we just finished Friday and people at the club last night liked it.
Thomas: Talking about clubs, what is your favorite club? Do you prefer small clubs or the big ones? How was it at the FRONT, the legendary club in Hamburg, that was mentioned in magazines like the British "Face" and "ID", or the German "Tempo" at that time as the leading German and one of the hottest, kinkiest and wildest European clubs?
Boris: I think the size of a club doesn't really matter. It's all about the crowd, the DJ and the atmosphere. Sure, the smaller a club is, the more family-like it will be. The FRONT, were I actually started DJing, had on some nights a total of 1000 clubbers, which is a lot, but still it had this incredible unique atmosphere. It was fantastic! People actually thought we had mixing machines in the DJ-booth. Machines, which pitched the right speed and all this shit. Funny! Even clubbers who were regulars at the FRONT believed this for years. The thing was you couldn't see what was going on in the DJ-booth, which actually was a separate room next to the dance floor with black colored windows, where we could see the crowd, but they couldn't see what was going on inside the booth. I never saw a booth like this anywhere after the FRONT. I had a great time there. Actually, I knew five songs in advance what I would be playing. It was incredible! I was mixing in a part of a song four maybe 5 seconds, then out again, another song for maybe 10 seconds and out again. Like this, you know. I was like a guide that was leading the crowd at the FRONT to a journey. Sometimes I feel like these moments don't really return. They get rarer nowadays. Now, I like the M1 in Stuttgart a lot. The entire M1 crew around Bubi Schuster is really cool and fun to work with. Tiefschwarz worked for years to put Stuttgart in this position. Bubi Schuster, along with the M1 presented all the great international DJs at their excellent parties, except..hmm..this one party (which finally didn't happen) with MAW - what a disaster! Anyway, I love Stuttgart a lot. I think it took the position as a club city that Cologne had years ago. The crowd in Stuttgart is really relaxed and into having a good party. Bubi just has to find now a new permanent venue. Since they had to move out of the last M1 venue, they have some summer venues, but he is working hard on finding a new one for winter and I cannot wait for its opening. It's gonna be great! I can say, I love outside parties a lot. It's not very easy to have a good party outside here in Germany, and especially in rainy Hamburg, very often. One really great event that I like to remember is "Big Spender", this money collecting event against AIDS, that is around the Alster (a river through Hamburg). It was incredible. The entire atmosphere is very different to the atmosphere in a club. People are in a different mood, like people at the WMC. It is just a nicer feeling to hear good house music and feel the sunshine on your skin. In Miami you stand in the sand on the beach barefoot with a drink in your hand. It just puts you automatically in a good mood! I was even thinking about doing a New Years Eve Party in Cuba with, let me say, a bigger circle of friends.... on the beach there - this would be great....
Comment Thomas: Yes, I think this will be BLISS...and I all I can add to Boris' thoughts is to thank him a lot for taking the time off for talking to me and letting the house community on the Web share his answers....
Boris Dlugosch charts as July 10th, 1999
- Salome de Bahia "Outro lugar" (Yellow Records)
- Trevor Mood "Jim's groove" (Freezy Jam Records)
- The Messangers "Spread love" (Remixes)(Undiscovered Records)
- Earth, Wind & Fire "September" (Phatts & Smal Remixes) (INCredible Records)
- Spiller "Mighty Miami E.P." (Acetate)
- MAW feat. India "To be in love" (Remixes) (Defected Records)
- Kluster "Back to the funk" (Filtered Records)
- Roger S. "I never knew" (R-Senal Records)
- Full Intention "Hustle Espanol" (Acetate)
- Inner Shade & Maysa "Heaven" (Warlock Records)
Taken by Thomas Fath at the Hilton Hotel in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) on June 27th, 1999