Mercedes Not Motown: Tales from Germany's Motor City

Images: Samantha Milligan Photography

Danilo Plessow introduced his Motor City Drum Ensemble alias to the world in 2008 via a collection of mysterious, self-released EPs, the 'Raw' series.

Having already had over 10 years worth of producing under his belt, plus a history playing drums, he must have been shocked at the response his new alias received.

Previous releases had earned a good critical response, his "nu jazz" fayre even having found its way into the record boxes of scene leaders like Gilles Peterson and Jazzanova. But the reception Motor City Drum Ensemble's Raw Series got, with an alternative deep house sound, was truly overwhelming.

It instantly catapulted Danilo into the top flight of European deep house producers with its referencing of Moodymann and Chicago house. He has since built on this reputation with productions like 'SP11', 'L.O.V.E.', 'Send A Prayer' (listen below) and remixes for the likes of Caribou, Steve Bug, Tiga and Midland. He, in turn, has been remixed by Mike Huckaby and Marcellus Pittman.

Originally hailing from just outside Stuttgart, the city which is home to Mercedes Benz and Porsche, Danilo used to travel into the city to collect vinyl in his formative years, a hobby he remains committed to.

An avid disco fan, his sets usually contain rare and vintage dance music alongside the more contemporary house and techno influences that are clearly audible in the MCDE sound.

Mark Dale caught up with Danilo ahead of his forthcoming festival appearances at Suncebeat in Croatia and at Festival No. 6 in Wales.

Tell us about what you did for your one year national service in Germany and tell us why you chose this option?

Military was definately no option for me, so I went to the Marienhospital in Stuttgart, an old hospital which is run by very strict nuns.

Luckily, I somehow managed to get a job in their computing section where my work was very relaxed and I could frequently miss out working days because I went to clubs the night before or worked on music till the wee hours. 

People in Germany often describe the Schwabian attitude as "arbeit, arbeit, arbeit" (work, work, work). Do you think this is a fair judgement of the people of this industrious region? How accurate does "arbeit, arbeit, arbeit" describe your own work ethic?

It's very true. This doesn’t mean they don’t know how to enjoy life, they do love their wine and food and cars, but yes, work comes first.

Together with Bavaria, it's the strongest economic part of Germany and there is just so much high quality, cutting edge products coming from here, especially mechanical stuff, cars and parts etc.

Personally, growing up there I never really felt that connected to this mentality, but in my teens I did realize that if I really like something I can also work very, very hard on it. 

Stuttgart is the major city close to where you grew up. I thought it was pretty boring for a quite large city. Imagine that instead of being a world famous DJ/producer you worked for the Stuttgart Tourist Office. Sell the city to us!

Oh well, where do we start? To me and many others, Stuttgart is the city in Germany that offers the highest quality of life, beginning with the beautiful setting, in a valley surrounded by vineyards, the natural hot springs that spread throughout the city, the gigantic park that connects the main city to the suburbs.

Then there is the food, which in my opinion is the best you can get in Germany. No simple currywursts and trashy stuff but the real deal, even its very own pasta. Because of the US soldiers who were stationed here after WW2, Stuttgart got a lot of musical influence early on, meaning that jazz, soul etc became big here and there was a very good scene dating back as far as the late fifties.

And in the nineties when I was growing up, there was also a very active hip-hop, house and techno scene. Many of the big american djs had their first German gigs not in Berlin but in Stuttgart. Of course, this changed a lot in recent years and the city has become ridiculously expensive and "flat“ in a way, but I still really enjoy visiting it! 

There have been some amazing movies made in Germany or by Germans. Tell us three great German movies you think we should see and tell us why you like them.

Metropolis by Fritz Lang. This must have blown peoples mind completely when it came out and it has aged extremely well. Minimalistic Sci Fi that was very influential and arguably the best German movie ever made.

Das Boot by Wolfgang Petersen. Maybe my all-time favourite suspense movie? When I saw this as a kid it really moved me, the ending is just crazy. 

Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog remains a strong favorite. Big fan of Klaus Kinski and this is one of his best roles. 

You first came to international attention producing what was then called "nu jazz" music as Inverse Cinematics, amongst other names. Do you ever get bored of the 4/4 disco and house beat, either as producer or a DJ and feel like making or playing some breakbeat or broken beat music?

You're a drummer, that's where part of the inspiration for your Motor City Drum Ensemble name comes from. Similarly, do you ever get bored of drum machines and feel like drumming or having live drums on some tracks?

Of course I do! But then a couple of days later I turn on the 909 again and it just feels right. In the near future I want to do a lot more stuff that isn’t traditional house or techno or breakbeat or whatever.

My big dream is to find a bigger studio space soon and get back to doing music the way I started it - recording stuff live, different measures, tempo etc. That's just one thing I've been dreaming about a lot lately.

Not that I'm bored of my MPC, but I feel like I really want to have all options to hand, you know? So one day I'll do a Latin track with live percussion, piano, upright bass etc and the next a dirty sp1200 jam. To keep things interesting for myself. 

Stuttgart is Germany's Motor City, having Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagon there, but to music fans Detroit is the best known Motor City. Being a fan of Detroit music, did you consider how people from Detroit might feel about your alias MCDE?

One thing you couldn’t escape growing up in Stuttgart was the car industry, and the local hip-hop, house and techno acts glorifying it.

So the term was just always in the air and me having been influenced so much by american music, especially the music out of Detroit from Motown to Marvin Gaye to tribe records to techno, I just though it fitted. I meant it as a respectful nod rather than causing confusion.

I've met a lot of Detroit guys over the years, some of them have become friends, and I never really got much attitude from them. It seems mostly people on the internet want to start some shit over it. But in retrospect, I would probably take another name, also because I'm tired of explaining why I am just one person in an "ensemble". 

Considering the success of your Raw Cuts series, have you been tempted to revisit it?

This has blown my mind completely. Really, I would have never imagined it becoming this big. But I want to avoid being just Mr Raw Cuts, so for now it doesn’t look likely. 

DJs who play internationally have a pretty good job, don't you think? They do a job that tens of thousands of bedroom DJs wish they were doing. But so many of you moan about the travelling, hotel rooms, late nights, lack of sleep blah blah blah. How do you feel about living that lifestyle? Really, what are the best parts of that job? Why do you keep doing it? Can you do it forever?

Of course it is like living the dream, but it can also become a bit of a nightmare if you don’t take care of yourself. I always wonder how some of the bigger names out there can manage to play 200+ shows a year, I think I would go insane and it would take out all the fun of it.

At that point, you are in danger of becoming more of a robot I hink, and I really want to avoid this, that's why I am still not doing more than 6 or 7 shows a month. This way I can properly prepare each show and feel more excited about them. 

You're playing at Suncebeat in Croatia and Festival No 6 in Wales this summer. how different is playing outside to playing inside a club? How differently is the preparation you do, (I ask this last part knowing that you like to play vinyl, so you have limited space/resources)?

I tend to play "sunnier" when its outside, meaning more vocals, more feel-good vibes. If its a dark sweaty basement somewhere I love to play some more twisted stuff as well. Part of the fun is always imagining what its going to be like and then either having a perfectly packed bag or the complete opposite. 

Festival No 6 is set in Portmeirion where the iconic British TV show The Prisoner was set. Have you seen that series? I think you'd like it.

No, but thanks for the recommendation! 

How mental was Dekmantel last year? 

Yes, this was probably in my top five ever. If I look at the Boiler Room video now (watch above) it doesn’t really come through that well, but if you were there you know what I am talking about. They even cut the last 15 minutes when things got really wild! 

The last time I saw you DJ was at Weather Festival in Paris where you played back to back with Marcellus Pittman. He's remixed you for your label, how did your relationship with him begin? This festival season there seem to be a lot of back to back sets on line ups. Are you a fan of back to back sets?

Actually it was the first time I even met him in person! Cool that it worked out quite well. I've done quite a few b2b before, but I enjoyed most the ones I did with people I already knew, like Antal from Rush Hour, Floating Points, my label partner Pablo Valentino etc. 

You're a collector of vintage vinyl records. What items are on the top of your wants list right now?

It's constantly changing. Right now its an Ecuadorian space disco 7“ with no Google hits at all. And the guy who showed it to me of course wants to keep it.

You've heard a lot of old music already. Where do you hear more old music that you really want to buy?

In record stores, of course. And in other people's sets, suggestions from friends and the internet.

Deep house and techno seem to be really popular right now. What do you think is the next big thing?

The next big thing for me will be a nice glass of wine with my girl, in Paris, just now. 

Tell us a good German joke.

As you can clearly see from my answer above, German people just aren’t that funny.

Check out Motor City Drum Ensemble's upcoming gigs.