Frank Lorber Interview: Nummer One

Image: Frank Lorber

A musical career that spans over twenty years is one worth boasting about. For Frank Lorber, he's been a part of one of the most prolific techno brands in the world since its infancy, and remains as relevant to Cocoon now as he did at the start. 

He founded the label Nummer Schallplatten in 2004, pushing out releases from the likes of &ME, Gregor Tresher and Ryan Elliott whilst showcasing his own productions. 

The Frankfurt native has been a pivotal player in the European techno circuit for longer than some DJs have been alive, and his creativity and drive shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. We caught up with him ahead of his Mint Festival Warm-Up gig this bank holiday.

The last time you played at Mint was for System's 3rd B-Day in 2011 with Martin Buttrich & Sis on the bill, are you excited to return for the Mint Fest Warm Up? 

Yes totally, it's been a while already since my last gig in Leeds, but the one in 2011 is still in my mind, it was a blast!

You're playing alongside the likes of Nicole Moudaber and Butch this time round for the Warm-Up, are you a fan of their music?

Yes I really like some of the productions from Butch and I know him well so it's gonna be fun to play alongside him and Nicole.

You've been a key part of the Cocoon family since the early days (listen to one of his sets above), how have you seen the brand develop over the years? 

I still remember the day when Sven asked me if I want to be a part of his Sven Väth agency in the late 90s and then years later the name Cocoon came up. We did parties in Frankfurt and then we started the big thing in Ibiza years later.

We were really proud when we had around 1,500 people on the main floor in Amnesia in the year 2000 I think. Now 15 years later we have around 8,000 people in the peak month and there's parties and Cocoon stages at big festivals all over the world. I think Cocoon have done a great job so far!

Can you recall your all-time favourite Cocoon party? 

One of my all-time favourite Cocoon parties was the millennium New Year's Eve party in Thailand. We rented a pirate boat with a huge group of friends and DJs. We were celebrating the year 2000 for almost two and a half days on that boat, we were just cruising around the ocean from island to island. That was something else to be honest, one of the best parties I've ever been to.

You also held a residency at Omen in Frankfurt in the nineties, how important do you think the role of the resident is at a club?

Totally important! The resident DJ is the one who is responsible for the atmosphere in the club. He is the one who should create the best warm up for international guest DJs, taking care of the technical equipment in the DJ booth, visuals, drinks, sound system, customers, fans and so on. He should keep an eye on those things. 

What record is without fail making it into your sets at the moment?

The new Cocoon compilation! 

Could you tell us a bit more about your label Nummer Schallplatten (check out one of Frank's productions above), is there a specific ethos behind the label that influences the music released?

To be honest I decide all the releases on Nummer in a really simple way. If they fit into my DJ set then I will release the stuff, that's it! It's funny that you're asking me questions about Nummer because I did a break with the label for almost 4 years because I was focused on other projects, but in September 2015 the first release after all these years comes out. I am going to keep working on it.

Do you have any upcoming productions lined up you could tell us about?

The next releases from myself will be on Nummer. There is a Frank Lorber 12" coming out in September and then in November there's a new 12" from another project I do called TRES.

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