Patrick Lindsey
There was a beginning to this story, of course. "My first inspiration was a dream, really - and that was to see at least once in my life a record with my name on it. It became my goal and so about ten or eleven years ago I got a computer, an Amiga, and started to make electronic music, mostly for video games. At the time I was a bit of a computer fiend and we had a lot of competitions going on; that's where I first began to make some money which enabled me to buy a professional sampler, then a sequencer and Cubase. Things then really got underway about seven years ago and I finally released my first record two years later on a label called Kanzleramt. That was played on a radio show here in Germany called Club Vibe, which made we very proud, and within three months I was signed to Harthouse and released my first ten inch."
Things followed in quick progression from there, as he explains. "About a year later I started to concentrate on a type of house music that was the basis of my new project called Mel o'Ween, then after awhile I began to mix the Mel o'Ween and Patrick Lindsey sounds together and the result was 'Prepare To Jam' on Harthouse #88; not long afterwards came 'Male Phonk' on Harthouse #100 and an EP called 'The Phat Jive'." In addition he's done work for Le Petit Prince under the alias of No Soul and for Planet Rhythm as Voodoo Amt, and he's remixed the likes of Maurizio, Hardfloor, Adam Beyer and Terence Parker.
After all this recent work one wonders if he's as excited four years later to hear his music on the airwaves and see his music cut onto vinyl- "Oh yeah!" enthuses the artist himself. "Definitely! It's still a very big buzz for me."
And with all this prehistory it's hard to accept that Patrick is still just 24 years of age. "I terrorized the world with a big scream on the 2nd February 1973," he quips. "And I've never looked back."
What sounds define the Patrick Lindsey soundsystem as 1997 draws to its finale- "Oh god!" he mutters in mock dismay. "These days I guess my music is like progressive house music with hip hop influences. When I play it most people say that they've never heard anything like it before. It's got hip hop in there but you cannot compare it with hip hop because my style is too mixed up in my European roots. I cannot compare it with anything else."
Patrick has trouble picking out any particular contemporary influences that help to shape his mindset. "I really like the new Busta Rhymes LP, and there's a lot of other stuff that just doesn't come to me right now - a lot of it! I'm really open-minded when it comes to music and I'd prefer not to be stuck in a rut just listening to techno all the time," he laughs.
With the demise of Sven Vath's Harthouse imprint earlier this year, Patrick suddenly found himself without a home base for the first time in four years. Not one to hang his head in dismay, the situation encouraged him to set up and promote his own label called Skool in conjunction with Coby Johnson. "I've already had four releases to date and they've done very well - better than I even expected."
Germany's known these days for its proliferation of producers, and Patrick has his own theory regarding this electronic renaissance in his homeland. "Music equipment is quite affordable in this country now, so you don't have to be rich or even talented to afford to buy this stuff. You're right that a lot of music is being produced here, but there's also a lot of crap that comes out of Germany - out of each hundred you can say that about five are great. A lot of these guys just see it as a way to make money rather than to compose mus
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