Boris Brejcha Interview

Purveyor of High-Tech Minimal, a collision between minimal techno, melodic house and rough electro, Germany's Boris Brejcha is a prolific producer and globe-trotting DJ. 

Having released four albums with the Sven Väth founded Harthouse, his fifth – '22' – arrived last year on own label, the emphatically named (and very tongue in cheek) Fckng Serious. Released on a USB and vinyl sampler, it underlined the depth and strength of his studio output, which will be back on display at Egg on Saturday 1st of July after a label showcase back in February.

He kindly spoke to us about his recent exploits.

We last spoke to you in July 2016, which is near enough a year. What have been the personal and professional highlights of the last twelve months? 

My personal highlight was moving into my own house in a really nice quiet place. Business wise, of course, I had the focus on my Boris Brejcha Showcase we did this year in Brazil, Sao Paulo. It's a combination of my music, synced to special visuals we created for every single track, and a nice light show. This is like the next big thing I'd really like to bring to Europe. 

What's Frankenthal like as a town for electronic music? Were you born there? 

I was actually born in the city right next to Frankenthal. In Frankenthal there is no electronic music scene. And as I mentioned, I just moved to another city. I guess village is a better name for it. There are only 300 people living here. It's completely in the countryside, super quiet. I live at the end of the road and you only hear birds. This is perfect for me, for doing music and relaxing after the crazy weekends.

Recently you played five Brazilian gigs in 40 hours. How did you manage it in such a big country? Did you get any sleep at all? 

It was a huge marathon to get five shows done and we were sure that something would go wrong, but in the end everything worked out really well. We had a private Jet, otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible. We didn’t drink much alcohol and tried to sleep every second in the free time. After 40 hours we were out for two days sleeping, but it was worth it. It was such great fun. 

You actually played your first ever gig in Brazil. Why did it end up being there, rather than in your native Germany? 

Actually, I don’t really know. I mean I couldn’t ever imagine that after releasing my first EP just one month later I'd be playing on the other side of the planet. It's crazy. The promoter from Brazil told me, Boris you need to come, a lot of DJs are playing your tracks in the clubs. I'd just released two tracks! It's impressive how far music can go without any merchandise. In general, Germany was really late to my music. I've been DJing for ten years now and Germany started getting into me about two years ago. I'm also quite big there now. 

Another gig you played recently was in the grand ground of Château de Fontainebleau for Cercle. What are the other craziest, most memorable places that you've played around the world? 

This was definitely the craziest place I’ve ever played. I mean, playing in front of a castle! You do things like that one time in your life. For sure, this will be one of the best memories ever in my career. Another one I remember is that we played for 20 minutes inside a little plane museum in Germany. This was also really cool. There was no audience, just Ann Clue and myself B2B. 

You do a party called One Day With Boris. Tell us about it.

I'm doing this to give my fans something back for all their support. It is good to meet up with some fans for one day and to spend the day together, talking about anything and everything, having a good dinner all together and then having this small private party just for them. But I don't play all the night. There is no strict line for that. In Brazil, for example, we had one DJ and Ann Clue and myself playing B2B till the end. In Germany we were almost five DJs who were playing. 

Where is the European bus tour that you're doing going? It sounds very rock and roll. 

Oh yeah, we are so excited about this. We are still closing the last shows with the promoters, but we are good to go for eight shows in 10 days. In these 10 days we will spend all the time on the bus, the whole crew and camera team. We're gonna have shows in Prague, Budapest, Austria and a lot in Germany. All this will happen in September this year and I am sure it will be rock ’n roll. We're gonna have a big tour bus like rock bands usually have - with sleeping places, a kitchen and a living room. I am sure we are going to take some fans with us, as we have enough sleeping places. This will be so much fun! 

Name three tracks that sum up what you're likely to play at Egg. 

'Gravity', 'The Troublemakerz' and 'Nothing Seems To Be'. All of them are still unreleased, but you can find them in the set I did for Cercle in France. 

Tell us something interesting about yourself that isn't currently public knowledge... 

Well, actually I'm a little shy... It takes time for me to get warm to other people. I am also addicted to coffee.