Interview with Matthias Heilbronn as featured in Keep-On Magazine

The interview

DS3:

You moved from Germany to NYC in 1989. What were the main factors for moving?

Matthias Heilbronn:

'89 was around the time in Germany when house music switched over completely from Deep House, the kind of Chicago sound I like to Techno, at 1st House got the big hype from England & turned to acid which I could still deal with, but then it switched the crowds around & turned into Techno, which I really couldn't relate to that anymore. When I went to New York I really didn't have any plans to move there I was just going on vacation, I had been going there for the last 3 or 4 years, went to the Garage & I really loved it. When I was here in 89 I bumped into a few people I had previously met the year before one of them was Rob Spurdy, who by 89 was the manager of Axis studios, and we got talking about how it was in Germany & how I wasn't really happy with the scene & he basically offered me an internship. I thought about it a little bit & I talked to my Girlfriend at the time & we decided it would be a good move. So she was going to finish her studies & move over to join me when she completed them, which never materialised, so I ended up staying & luckily Frankie Knuckles had a spare room, and offered it to me until I found another apartment. So it all kind of fell into place.

DS3:

Whilst working at Axis Studios you were taught Engineering & Programming from the great Francois K what sort of an influence & mentor figure was he to you?

Matthias Heilbronn:

You have to consider I had never worked in the studio before, I could play a couple of instruments, I played a bit of guitar & a bit of drums, but studio wise I had no experience, and never really had any plans to go into studio work so everything I learned was through Francois. At the time I started I wasn't really too familiar with who he was until I got working with him & found the tape library, so looked through it & saw the kind of records that were in there, that he had worked on & I got to see his bio & stuff and over the next couple of years I kind of realised who I was dealing with! Francois has a very unique way of teaching people, it's very effective, but if you don't have any patience or are low on self confidence he could make you feel kind of lost. There was a bunch of people that gave up in the middle. But it is a great environment, he encourages everybody to learn everything he gives you the opportunity to work in the studio when it is free, so you could do whatever you wanted, you could produce tracks in there as long as you are learning. Which was funny as most people that would work in a normal studio would train to be a sound engineer, but most people that worked at Axis ended up becoming producers of some sort, because the environment gave you the freedom to play around as a producer or programmer.

DS3:

You became friends with Larry Levan and Tom Moulton early on in your career. What impact did that have on your credibility?

Matthias Heilbronn:

I only had the pleasure of meeting Larry for a short time, as he unfortunately passed away soon after I met him, Larry as a DJ changed my life completely, as at the end of the day without him, I wouldn't have fallen in love with New York, which wouldn't have affected my Djing that much, meaning I wouldn't have moved. I remember 1st meeting him at Axis, as he was going to get back into production & remixing. 1st time he got there I was wearing a Paradise Garage T-shirt, so we got talking & I played him some of my stuff which he liked & he was keen on us working together, so I got to sit in on some of the sessions he was working on. Although we knew each other, we did not spend enough time together to become close friends, which is why it was very sad that he passed away so soon after meeting as it also looked like we were going to work on some of my music together which would have been incredible to hear. But Tom Moulton on the other hand I worked with quite a bit, I got introduced to Tom through Francois & he was doing a lot of productions & editing out of his own house as he bought a semi-home studio, but he didn't know how to use any of the equipment so Francois put me & him together & I basically taught him how to work on the computer, which meant that he would call every hour night or day & ask me questions. But overall I honestly don't think knowing Larry & Tom had any impact on my profile as not many people were aware that I knew Larry, and not many people pay attention to the fact that I worked with Tom, as unfortunately I don't think a lot of people know who is he, as this is the 1st time I've been asked about it. I agree I don't think enough emphasis is made to educate people on where current dance music originated from which is a real shame... Yeah, Tom was like a fountain of information which was great as whenever we worked we always talked about the past & what he'd worked on & what the sessions were like, his apartment was unbelievable he had stacks of records, not shelves of records but STACKS from floor to ceiling & they were all things he had worked on & at the end of a session he would pull something out & give it to me and say 'I was really proud of this one what do you think' & it was a really fun time.

DS3:

How did it feel to have your first record released and what was it?

Matthias Heilbronn:

My first release was Sensible house - Give a little More on Suburban Records & it was very exciting, Tommy Musto gave me the chance to put something out as I worked with Tommy engineering at Axis, then when Axis downsized Francois told me I would be better off producing & going in a different direction & not wasting my time as an assistant engineer Tommy asked me to work with him as a production assistant/programmer at his studio & label. At the same time he said the same thing as Francois said and mentioned to me about going into to the studio & working on something myself, so I went in there with my room mate at the time Jimmy Lee Ross who also worked at Axis, and where it was so early on in our careers it was a complete mess, we had so many tracks going at the same time!! & luckily Tommy offered to help us out, work with us & put some perspective & direction into what we were doing, so he helped a lot & it was a great learning experience & an exciting thing to happen.

DS3:

You worked a lot with Mike Delgado and Mousse T early in your career. How did you come about meeting and working with them?

Matthias Heilbronn:

I honestly don't know who I met 1st but I worked with Mike Delgado 1st which was funny as Mousse T is from Germany & whilst I was living in there I didn't know who he was as we had never met before. Mike was a good friend of mine & I was working a lot with Todd Terry at the time & as Mike & Todd were the original Masters at Work we got to meet. Mike was also friends with Benji Candelario & I was engineering & programming for Benji, so whenever we were working Mike would come in play a couple of keyboards here & there, but was actually famous for doing drum fills for Benji & we soon became good friends. It was also at a time when neither Mike or myself were producing so we decided to go into the studio together & that's how it happened, most of the stuff that we did came out on Suburban records, as that's where we met & where both of us were working at the time. Where I was Djing at the same time as producing I heard Mousse T's & Boris Dolugosh's music & could relate to it, it kind of felt that we were doing the same sort of thing & going in the same direction & obviously us both being German sparked my interest. So one time when we still had the music conference in New York we ran into each other at a party & we hung out & got along very well, he is a very funny guy. We would then make sure whenever he was in town we would meet up & one year at the Winter Conference he mentioned about his studio & the label (Peppermint Jam) in Hanover and asked me to go over & do some work with him, he said they had a bunch of remixes in house that they could pass to me, so they took me on board & managed me for a while. The set up there was similar to the Moulton Studios in New York there were 3 rooms, so when we were working we would be in different rooms & then we would come together & collaborate on different things, he would sometimes come to me & say that some drums needed doing on a song or they needed a remix, or help with engineering & we were constantly swapping samples & then buying records together & stuff like that. It was a great environment, as you were basically living music all day long together.

DS3:

The Chez, Naked and Wave CD you compiled/mixed was voted the no.1 free mix CD of the Decade by DJ Magazine. How did that feel, and did you expect the success it brought you from the UK crowd?

Matthias Heilbronn:

I didn't expect it at all, I honestly felt that DJ magazine never really gave me any love, there were some people that were writing nice reviews & stuff but overall I felt that they were doing their thing in England & we were doing ours & it was getting further & further apart. So I was very surprised that it got that recognition, as when I mixed the CD I didn't think 'Oh my God it's a masterpiece' it was just another mix, although I spent a lot of time & thoughts on it. Although I don't necessarily think it that got me anymore gigs or productions it certainly gave me more recognition, and one thing that was great was whenever I would go somewhere in England I would always get feedback off someone regarding the mix, as its always great to run into people that appreciate what you've done. Although what I did hear is that MTV were supposed to be interested for a while but it all fell through (chuckling to himself) It is without doubt a strong favourite still with Deepsoul3, was it mixed in the studio? No it was mixed at home, very basic two turntables one CD player & two little self powered yamaha speakers in our one bedroom apartment! It was a nightmare though as I had to do it over & over because for some reason Naked didn't have their track listing together & once I mixed it I would find out that they weren't happy, as there was an unreleased song, or recently released song on there I couldn't use. So I was under a lot of time pressure as it was going on the cover. But it was still a lot of fun!!

DS3:

What can we expect from Deep & Sexy 3?

Matthias Heilbronn:

If you like the Chez, Naked & Wave thing its quite similar, along those lines, it's a little bit of everything, & a lot of new stuff which is great & lots of things that are just coming out like the Said record which has a little bit more of an African feel to it, and the new Eric Kupper which is the follow up to Havana, and a bunch of things that I have done that are not out yet, the new thing I have done with Monique (Bingham) of abstract truth coming out on Papa is on there. And I did a remix for MKL on dancetrax called 'her song' that was always one of my favourite records, Peppermint Jam had actually licensed the record and I did the remix over a year ago but it still hasn't been put out as they re waiting for Martin Solveig to do a remix, but he is real busy at the moment, so still don't have a date. Where I've waited this long I felt that it needed to be out, so they let us use it, which is great. And there are a couple of things Francois remixed, and a few things that I had not fully paid attention to on Wave like the Tom & Joyce dub, I always liked the vocal but never really listened to the dub & when I listened through their catalogue I fell in love with it. So to sum up the mix it goes from energetic to vocal to some really dubby stuff & some tribally bits, its right the way across the board & I tried to make it represent what I do when I DJ out. I also wanted to put some more of the Techy stuff on there like D-Malicious but as they were putting out the Wave Tech compilation at the same time, those titles were already used.

DS3:

Explain your DJ style?

Matthias Heilbronn:

I think what I really try to do is have an experience & relationship with the crowd & for that matter I don't really concentrate exactly how my mixing is & how long I play a record, if I have a feeling I need to change & go in a different direction I'll have an idea & have no problem mixing out of the middle of a verse, as long as I'm not cutting it out & making it sound horrible of course, so I will generally go with the flow, rather than have the perfect mix from one song to the next, I'd rather pick something that comes from a completely different angle & make it interesting rather than having the same beat for half an hour. I've noticed that when I come to certain clubs the DJ's will all play the same sound, not just through the set of one DJ but through the set of all the DJ's, & I think it's kind of sad as they are cheating themselves & the audience, as there are other different styles that would work in those surroundings, as when I played I mixed it up & it still worked. I hate playing one type of music all night. If I were to have my perfect gig, I would be able to play anything from classics to reggae to house to techno. I think Dj's that convince themselves that's not how they could play are lying to themselves & are not giving the crowd a chance. I believe I feel this way because diversity was one thing I experienced when I heard Larry play. Also I have been Djing for over 20 years now & played all sorts of different music I've had a reggae night here & had a hip hop night there, and had nights where I've played it all together. I've also played alternative & rockabilly & psycabilly, so have always been interested in all sorts of different music. As I didn't grow up with purely House music I grew up before that as a DJ and a dancer on a variety of stuff & was influenced by different DJ's playing different kinds of things. I Totally agree I don't think enough DJ's are prepared to play like that... Its because they are scared they say that if they play like that they will not get booked again. Look at people like Gilles Peterson & Norman Jay, they play like that & they are successful right? & Francois, he will play all the way across the board from drum & bass to Nina Simone. We were lucky enough to catch him on the last Whistlebump boat & his whole set was eclectic he played spacey dub reggae to very deep techy house to vocal house & disco & it was refreshing to hear... I do agree I think its refreshing, but I do realise that you cant play like that everywhere, I mean I wouldn't play at a Defected party & try & do that, but there are certain countries & cities where you can definitely try & England is somewhere you can generally do that. So you should at least give it a try!

DS3:

Have you any interesting collaborations in the pipe-line we can start getting excited about?

Matthias Heilbronn:

Yes I have 2 more songs I am working on with Monique from Abstract Truth, I am going to do something with Marcus Enochson, he did a record on Release the Groove called 'missing you' that was actually his 1st ever record & when we met we got talking about music & I said I always loved that record, but I feel it could have sounded a little bit stronger drum wise, & he totally agreed, so we are talking about doing mixes & putting that record back out. He also sent me a bunch of Demo's of new productions that he has been working on & they are all really good, so am trying in some capacity to work with him on that. Joeski & I are going to start doing this party together in Brooklyn & we've been talking about doing something together for a while together as well, as he bought the rights to the house classic Mafoumbe by culture vibe, but unfortunately where the vocals are no longer available, he has got Keith Thompson to re-do them, but still has ALL the original music so DJ Romain has just done a remix & he wants another one done so I think we're either going to do a mix together or do 2 separate mixes. But what I find most enjoyable now is working in the studio on my own, as you don't have to rely on people turning up or worry about them running late, as you can get on with it yourself. I also found it difficult to gain much recognition when I was working with Mike (Delgado) as where he was more experienced all the reviews would focus on him & I often didn't get a mention, so it wasn't really in my best interest. So I realised if I wanted to get my name out there I would have to do stuff on my own.

DS3:

Sum up Matthias Heilbronn to us in 3 words.

Matthias Heilbronn:

Work In Progress

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