Interview - Oskar Meltzer does it all Weekend!
Author: Phil Watkins
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
What music influenced you to take the path into the electronic scene-
Hip hop music influenced me a lot. I grew up with bands like Public Enemy and Beastie Boys. In the late 80s I started to buy almost every hip hop record I could get and went to a lot of hip hop concerts. After a while I started to realize that this music didn't really develop and the parties were really boring, moody boys waiting forever for the girls...
in the early 90s I visited a friend in NYC and he took me to the Sound Factory Bar were Tony Humphries and Frankie knuckles were playing. The music and the Vibe was so sexy and the energy was fantastic. From that time on I started to get interested in electronic music.
Leaving the Babulu Bar in Munich in 1998, you headed to Berlin, founding the Pogo Club which later gave rise to the F.U.N parties. How did all of this unfold for you-
In 1998 I moved to Berlin were I was staying in an apartment of the "Kunstwerke", which is a museum of contemporary art, curated by Klaus Biesenbach. At that time Klaus was very interested to connect young people with art. So he offered me to do a club night in a very small and dirty cellar of the museum. I started to DJ in front of 12 people and after a few weeks we had more that 200 guests in the club and 400 in front of the door trying to get in...that was the Pogo Club. Unfortunately the neighbours weren't too happy with the 400 people in front of the door and after 1 year we had to move location.
When I was asked to do the Karl Lagerfeld / Visionaire Magazine Party, I found an old DDR Discotheke to do it in. That was the birth of the F.U.N. parties. We changed locations many times for a while until we found our perfect location for the F.U.N. night at the "Weekend Club".
Not many DJs have been able to release compilations, and successful ones at that, but you are already up to the second installment of the F.U.N series. How do you find the difference between creating some thing for the dance floor as opposed to creating something for people's stereos at home-
The idea of the F.U.N. compilation is that some of the DJs who play at the Club and who are also dear friends of mine, produce an exclusive track for the compilation.
I see the compilation as a business card of the club. The second F.U.N. compilation will be out in March with tracks by M.A.N.D.Y., Trevor Jackson, Ewan Pearson, Wahoo and many more. Both of the compilations have a good mix of different electronic tracks...perfect to listen at home or on the dance floor.
The F.U.N parties have now moved on from the Pogo Club to probably one of the most famous clubs in Berlin "Weekend" set on the 12th floor of a building looking over Berlin you must have thanked your lucky stars for such a gift of a venue-
After moving with the F.U.N. night from location to location for such a long time, I decided to open my own club and realize my ideas. so me and my partner Marcus Trojan founded the "Weekend Club" on the 12th Floor of an office building at the Alexander Platz 5. ( www.week-end-berlin.de)
F.U.N. is now a regular Friday night in my "Weekend Club".
Your night has played host to the like of Tiefschwarz and DJ Hell to name just a few. Is Berlin is finally getting the international credit it deserves-
I totally agree with you. Berlin is very special and unique. The music scene is amazing. I love it.
You have played everywhere around the world and now in Melbourne is this your first visit to play to us-
Yes it's my first visit to Australia. I am very excited. I heard the nicest things about Melbourne! I am very much looking forward to play there.
What do you have in store for us-
...a big record b Tags