DJ Hell: Disowning Electroclash
Author: Jonty Adderley
Monday, October 14, 2002
"We never called our music electroclash, it was people from New York who called it that. Electroclash is electro combined with pop music and we don't feature it much on Gigolo. It was hyped in the wrong direction and I don't feel a part of the electroclash movement at all."
Currently riding high as the owner of the world's most fashionable dance label Gigolo Records, Hell (short for Helmut Geier) provides an object lesson in living your life through music. Launching his music career in late 70s West Berlin when the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop were reaching their creative peaks, the teenage DJ started paying his dues, never travelling and spurning restaurants to save up to buy punk records.
"I was the only real punk amongst the people I knew then," Hell chuckles.
"The others always said they were punks but I was for real because I had no money. I also loved the music and played it as a DJ and fought for punk. When you played punk music in clubs back then nobody liked it, here in Germany, anyway. It was hard as a DJ to make the music popular." Hell was chatting to Skrufff's Jonty Adderley, to promote his new React compilation Electronicbody-Housemusic which comes out shortly on React.
Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): Your media profile has never been so high, do you feel more pressure making this CD-
DJ Hell: "No, because I'm an easy guy and I don't care what people say; I'm my own harshest critic. I don't want to repeat myself or imitate myself or even believe what's written in the press about me. I deliberately try to avoid doing the same thing again and again and by following this strategy I think it's the only way to keep interesting and be able to stay in the business for two decades. I've been DJing, producing and doing compilations for over 20 years now and I see it from that perspective. There's never been pressure; doing compilations is just about collecting your favourite tracks together and mixing them, and it's great fun."
Skrufff: You started DJing when you were 16, back in 1978, did you DJ full time back then-
DJ Hell: "I did everything necessary to survive because at that time I was always running out of money so the main issue was always how to find money to buy new records. The question for me then was 'Should I go to restaurants or buy new records-' and my decision was always to buy some new records for playing out on the weekend. These are my roots; I'm from a working class family, with a totally normal life. Music-wise then I was playing a lot of punk because it was popular."
Skrufff: Were you living as a punk-
DJ Hell: "I was thinking about this the other day, I was the only real punk amongst the people I was around back then (laughing). The others always said they were punks but I was for real because I had no money. I always had to think about how to get food and how to maintain my life for things like rent. I also loved the music and played it as a DJ and fought for the music. When you played punk in the clubs back then nobody liked it, at least here in Germany. It was a hard as a DJ then to make the music popular."
Skrufff: You've included the seminal Goth anthem Bela Lugosi's Dead on the album, though a cover rather than Bauhaus's original, were you a Goth too-
DJ Hell: "Not really, though I did used to play in a club with lots of people dressed in that kind of style. I wasn't even a Goth DJ though, I always played lots of different styles, including hip hop. I'd play Bauhaus and follow it with KRS-1, then a German punk band and that's what I thought DJing was about. To tell you the truth, I was really into New Romantic music. I used to wear makeup on the face like Boy George and I liked the music of Duran Duran and Ultravox and early electro pop< Tags