Oliver Huntemann: Everyone comes to this scene excited

When DJs like Oliver Huntemann have watched the dance music scene develop since its infancy and stayed relevant throughout, they earn their legendary title with ease.  

He's been at the forefront of techno's evolution since the late eighties, and throughout the years he's never lost his sparkle or drive behind the decks (check him out in action below) or in the studio. 

Not only is he leading the way for new talent to release on his own label Senso Sounds, he's still churning out spectacular records himself, whilst approaching music and the scene itself like a youngster - filled with optimism and excitement.

It's not just on his own imprints where Oliver Huntemann has come into his own, he's had huge releases on Sven Väth’s Cocoon and DJ Hell’s International Deejay Gigolo labels. We caught up with the man himself ahead of his gig at Koko in London.

So Oliver, talk us through how you got started with music...

I started quite early, it was in the eighties. I was a big fan of break dancing and electro funk and I saw a movie and there was this DJ, I think it was Ice T when he was very young and I thought, "oh my gosh I love this, I want to do this". And I started buying records.

I was growing up in a little city in the North of Germany and there were DJs mixing, it was always with microphones or they were playing some rock stuff.

I made my first mix with Madonna's 'Holiday' and Indeep's 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life' and after that I was totally into it. I was so happy with the mix and I went to my sister and asked her to listen to it because no one was interested in that shit, no one was into the DJ thing.

There were guys at school parties who were making music but you couldn't dance to it or anything. People were smiling a lot more when the whole DJ thing came about. 

How did you make the transition from the working in the navy to DJing in a club?

At school I was already DJing a little bit but after school I went into the navy as an electronics engineer but I was sort of stuck with the music in a way.

I'd take my synthesisers, my turntables and mixers to make music at the barracks and once I'd finished with the navy I started at the club because one of my best friends had stopped being a DJ there and suggested that I should try it.

I had to play for one hour at the club in front of the boss and after that he asked me to come back the following weekend. From there onwards it became more and more professional.

There was a time when techno and house music came along and I was just infected with it straight away. In this club it was primarily RnB music but I had the last hour where I could play techno.

What is the scene like now in Germany compared to then?

Of course at that time everything was starting and we didn't have a clue about good sound. Nowadays, everything is mostly, not always, much more professional. The clubs are more professional, the music is in better condition, it's better produced.

It was super cool back in those days though because now DJs and producers seem to just limit themselves to one sound. You have the minimal DJ or the deep house DJ or whatever but back in the day we combined everything because there's good music in all genres.

I still try and do this now but it's more difficult than before. The times are changing. 

I'd imagine everything felt raw back then, a lot more stripped back. Is that a vibe you struggle to find now in clubs? 

Back in the day everything was dirtier, the clubs especially. The first Tresor in Berlin, everything was dark and dirty. For example they only had a strobe light, a soundsystem and nothing else else - but it worked - all night and all weekend.

Now you look at the likes of Tomorrowland and don't get me wrong, the stages are amazing but its so huge and sometimes I think it's too much. I don't think that the focus now with these big events is necessarily on the music.

I think if I was a young kid though I'd still be amazed. Everyone comes to this scene excited that's why so many people young people are drawn to electronic music. It doesn't matter if it's EDM or it's underground techno, in the end it all belongs together. 

Yeah I guess EDM is a gateway for younger people to get into other electronic music anyway.

Absolutely. I don't have to like it but it's part of it. It's always been like this. In the nineties there was this big trance hype, all on the commercial side of things.

But when I started making electronic music I would have never predicted that I'd still be DJing techno music at 47. I've been doing this for twenty years and it's so cool to see it but I never expected this. 

Do you ever feel like slowing down or are you still comfortable gigging all the time?

Well I feel fresh, I guess it depends on the person, I take care of myself very well but I think about the future of course that's why I have my own label and that's why I have my own booking agency.

There will be a point where I can't make ten or twelve gigs a month and I will slow it down and maybe go into artist management later on. That's the sort of thing I have in mind. 

Can you tell us about running your label Senso Sounds... 

I just do it because I like it and because I feel it. I want a platform for my music and for artists I respect.

I just try to react like I would when I was 20 when I'm running the label because then it's not my head doing anything - it's my heart or my stomach.

Do you feel like you have more freedom when you put your own music out on your label then?

Of course, I can do what I want without the pressure of a label not liking what I'm doing. I'd have discussions when I was a young producer and label bosses would say "put it more on the left side, this could be a bit higher", and I thought I don't want to do this any more.

I've always wanted to be my own boss to express myself with my music and my vision of music with other artists. 

You've got a gig coming up in London with Juan Atkins, Gary Beck and for Playground in Koko. Are you looking forward to it? 

I'm really excited because ever since I was a boy Juan Atkins has been one of my favourite producers. I've known Gary Beck for a long time and I'm always happy to see him, he plays a bit harder than me but I really like his style cause he's so straight with it. 

How do you find the UK scene at the moment then?  

It's difficult to say, I remember in the nineties the UK was so pivotal and all over the world it was basically only British DJs playing because of the language thing and the commonwealth.

It was so difficult for Germans, but it changed and the big Berlin hype came around and all of a sudden it was like, "oh I'm from Germany and now I get booked all over the world".

I don't know why it's so difficult for the British producers and the British scene as a whole at the moment . For example if you compare the electronic pop music that you hear now to the likes of The Gorillas and The Chemical Brothers.

Cool electronic pop doesn't really exist now, it's all cheesy trance pop or house.I think the cool producers are missing out at the moment. That's what I think is missing in England. 

Why did you stop your other label Ideal Audio?

I was working with my former business partner for fifteen years. And we worked in Bremen, I used to live in Bremen but I moved to Hamburg eleven years ago and I always wanted to have everything in Hamburg in one office.

Nowadays it's ok with internet and everything but I wanted to have discussions and meet people. In the end we had different visions so we decided to stop Ideal Audio.

I wanted to start something new, that's why I launched Senso Sounds with a new team. Everything is Hamburg now, and it feels amazing. It was time to make something for myself only.

Can you tell us more about your collab with Dub Fire?

So, a couple of years ago Dub Fire wrote to me on Myspace, it was all MySpace back in the day.

Ah, those were the days!

[laughs] Yeah they were! Well, he told me he liked my music and that was about the time when I released my Underworld remix and I wrote back to him to tell him I really liked his stuff too.

I asked him for a remix swap and he said about doing something together and that he had this offer from Cocoon for the compilation.

At that time we'd never met before, and we checked and had the same software and hardware set up in the studio and then we sent the sessions back and forth and we created 'Diablo'. 

We continued working together after that because it was a good collaboration. Now we've finished another track and it'll probably be out the end of this year or early next year. 

Last up, a hypothetical question, if I could give you the power to create your ultimate party and you could play with any artist from past or present, who would you pick for the line up and where would you play?

Oh wow, that's so difficult to say. There's so many good parties around but my favourite venue at the moment is La Fabrica (pictured above) in Cordoba, Argentina. It's like Berghain but open air with 5000 people. They go crazy, the city is insane, I think it's strongest city for techno in the world. I don't know why, they're just so into it. 

When it comes to the line up, hmm, when I was young I was inspired a lot by Laurent Garnier from Paris. He was the resident of Rex Club and he's a legend. His sets are a real journey into sound.

I really like him, and that's why I like long sets because I can play different genres that make sense. Sometimes I'll do all night long sets here in Hamburg. It's totally different than playing one or two hours for a festival or something, sometimes I need all night. 

So, an all night long back to back with you and Laurent Garnier in Argentina? 

Yeah!

You can catch Oliver Huntemann in London at Koko for The Playground's event on Saturday 22nd August.

Tickets are no longer available for this event