One young gun (Alix Alvarez) leading to another one, we cross the Atlantic this week to drive you to Würzburg, Germany where Ralf Gum hails from. No doubt, 2004 has been quite good for the aforementioned, dropping a few goodies on his GoGo Music label (remember Raw Artistic Soul who recently score a Single Of The Week on these pages ?), amongst the production team on Hanna Haïs's album, not to mention giving birth to the first eponym compilation of his residency at Studio. Enuff reasons to pay him our full props…

Servus Ralf. Wie geht's ? Many things have occured since last time we met at WMC'… The reasons of such a recognition ?

I hope it is because of our continuous output of good music. It seems, that people realise that there’s a growing quality label.

Germany isn't particularily reknown for being the land of house music. Tell us about the local scene, the names to watch out there.

There’s almost no scene for the “classic house sound” in Germany anymore. It used to be a bit better in the mid-nineties, when house received a little hype. A lot of the Germans that you probably would connect with house-music, moved on to a techno and electro influenced sound, if not quit completely and go for other musical-styles. Nevertheless there are still people and labels doing great music. Mainly it’s the already established names like Needs or Sonar Kollektiv. New talents with an own sound are rare to find.

A few words about Raw Artistic Soul…

Raw Artistic Soul is the most exciting German project, which occurred to me since long. The mastermind behind the project, Phil Kullmann, is an enormous talent. He’s multi-instrumentalist and plays in different, successful bands as percussionist. Raw Artistic Soul is his first own project and he puts all his heart and effort into it. He managed to build up a band consisting of top-musicians from all around the globe. They play fortnightly in a Jazz Club called Hallmackenreuther in Cologne and are live as good as on CD. The album will contain different world-music styles like Flamenco or Afro in a modern, electronic way. The album is raw on one side, but has definitely some crossover potential at the same time.

The local media coverage and its main actors ?

There are a few publications dedicated to electronic music in Germany. The two most popular are “Groove” and “Raveline”. Both cover the whole spectrum of electronic music. Also house (and so called house) finds its place and gets reviewed. Especially in the late nineties a lot of new mags, mostly in a pocket format, fludded the market. Some disappeared again, others like “Subculture” and “Partysan” stayed. They are very informative for the party scene, but only deliver limited background information about artists and releases. Radiowise we have a handful of mix shows on the main stations, but it’s the exception to hear great & fresh music, as most shows have a commercial orientation. Like everywhere, we've also got a lot internet but all on all, the media coverage for house music is just as the scene is : not very big. The places to find interesting info are mainly websites, like deepvibes.de or couchsurfer.de run by enthusiasts liking music and not looking for the quick Buck.

Have you ever had some local heroe ?

Not musicwise I didn’t have a local hero. Especially in my hometown there’s hasn't been any one else playing the US-Sound for a long time.

Who would you feel related to in Germany ?

Nowadays there are only a handful German people which I really admire the sound of. I mainly feel related to the sound of people from other countries. I was influenced by many diverse music, sets and people during my life and it is impossible to mention just one hero. My interests reach from the old maestros of Bossa Nova or Jazz to the sound of the 70's, with artists like Chaka Khan. I am a fan of MAW, especially Louie Vega. I like the DJ sets of Rainer Trüby. I also like e.g. Incognito or the early Jamiroquai. Focussing on house, I could mention Urban Blues Project, Todd Edwards, Phil Asher, but many others, too. I simply try to keep my ears open for all kinds of good music.

The usual question. Your childhood, environment, background ?

My childhood wasn’t exciting in particular and wasn’t accompanied with piano lessons. I haven't had parents into music neither. I started to develop a strong interest for music as a teenager. Since then, I am collecting records. The “music-virus” got me more and more, I started to DJ at the age of 17 and later, at the age of 20, to produce. My love for house music developped in the late 80's, with the boom of the Chicagohouse sound and never left me since. Musicwise most of my abilities, are self-educated. In the studio, I am the one who programs drums, plays percussion, arranges and mixes. Since 1997, I am working with CrisP, who’s playing our keyboards, guitar and bass. We work together on the harmonically layouts of the tracks. When it comes to the recording of the instruments, I leave this to CrisP and sometimes guest musicians.

Suppose not being in the music spectrum, what would you have done ?

Hard question. I can’t imagine being out of the music-biz anymore. Music definitely rules my whole life. Nevertheless I have finished my studies as civil & economic engineer at University, but I don’t want to think about working in this job…

What decided you to create your own label ?

Different reasons. First, because I did not feel related to the work of a German label in particular. Also, I did not like their release policy or they did not account in time or simply haven’t been interested in artist development and long-term cooperation. So, I released music on various labels during the nineties and the decision to start an own company became obvious. Another important reason was that I wanted proof that there’s the place for a soulful label in Germany and that I want to reflect my musical tastes with an own platform.

Tell us about your team ?

My girlfriend Tina helps, next to her normal work, with financial-matters and contracts. She’s a big help and I couldn’t run the label without her. Steffen Meder, part of our SUGAR BEAT project, cares about our web-design. Roberto De Carlo will lead our up and coming GOGO Music booking-agency B-King.org, which will start in January 2005. Another friend of mine, Sammy, does the cover artwork. I am glad to have at least these helping hands, as all other things have to be managed by myself. I can’t afford a bigger team at the moment, which makes it really tough sometimes next to my DJ-schedule and studio-work.

What can we expect out of it in the following weeks/months ?

Next up in the pipe is GOGO 011: “Matteo Ionescu feat. Wendy Lewis – Angel”. Release date is mid January 05. It will feature a remix by Benny Pecoraio and one by myself. It will be followed by the second Raw Artistic Soul EP in early February, including remixes by SUGAR BEAT and Can7. Upcoming in February as well, is our first CD and label compilation “GO!”. More vinyl will follow during spring, including productions by Roberto De Carlo, another Raw Artistic Soul Ep (with some S.U.M.O. remix) then the album awaited at the beginning of April and some new stuff from myself.

What about your own works ?

Lately my own music often had to stay in the back. I had to care about the label and its artists and was mostly tied in the office. Nevertheless I found time to finish the one or other remix. I compiled and mixed two compilations. Now I really feel the necessity to work more on my own songs again. I have recorded vocals for different tracks and will finish them in the coming weeks.

Your residency at Studio ?

Studio was a lucky chance. It’s open since two years now. On Fridays you can enjoy fusion & nu-jazz and on Saturdays house music in the smaller of two rooms.

The place in itself. Any forthcoming guest of yours ?

Studio holds about 400 to 500 people in total and is separated by a transparent wall into club and lounge. Everything is designed tastefully with much love for architectural details. The lounge is the place for good sound. From day one I didn’t compromise soundwise. As the lounge is small enough, it is possible to fill it with a crowd that’s into the sound, even in Wuerzburg. As clubs with a open-minded deep-house sound a rare in Germany, we quickly managed to build up a good reputation nationwide. Recently, we've had Alf Tumble of S.U.M.O. for the club’s second birthday. I plan to bring Kiko Navarro to the Studio again, but as the capacity of the lounge is very small, the club owners only afford bookings on special occasions. They concentrate mainly on the residents Benny Pecoraio and myself.

The compilation ?

As already mentioned, I mixed two compilations this spring. The one for Studio has just been released this month for the club’s second birthday. I tried to show the whole sound spectrum of the Saturday night on this mix. The CD is called “Studio – the finest in lounge and house music” and got released by CKP, a German label specialised in high quality compilations. It has a really fancy packaging.

The first GOGO Music compilation “GO!” will come out in February. It features the highlights of our 3 year label work and some upcoming unreleased tracks. I will be doing on our first GOGO Music Tour in February and March to promote the CD.

Any project in mind regarding Miami ?

We will have no own event at WMC this year. I was asked to play at a party of a friendly label, but nothing’s confirmed so far.

Some reknown people talked about the imminent arrival of a revolution musicwise on these pages. Would you agree ?

I agree and would like to add that the change is already here in full effect. It definitely got hard to make a living out music today, no matter if you look on the artist or the label side. With the possibility to copy music without the lost of quality from CD to CD and the possibility to just download any song you like, a lot of consumers have lost the understanding for the value of music. Consumers will not think about copyrights and don’t see the necessity to pay for music, as long as no change in their mind is being made. This change of mind has to be urged by the industry, faithful fans and artists.

But by far not all the problems are on the consumer side only. Many DJs (which I don’t see as consumers here) don’t buy music anymore and just swap around their tracks. They help killing their own basics. Also, the politics of major radio stations make it hard for small labels to get on their playlists and have the possibility to reach further listeners. But also the house music industry itself (including labels, distributors and shops) has been sleeping and missed to adept to changing needs, e.g. by not creating structures to sell CD's in the shops.

All in all, this leads to an oversupply of middle and low class music, as the effort, involved in creating fresh and original music does not pay of equivalent. I think this can’t be in the sense of all! And I can’t say if we will see a change to the better in the future, but the hope dies at last…

Your best souvenir in 2004 ?

Making the acquaintance of people, who got real close friends.

Your biggest wish for 2005 ?

Health and creativity.

See ya in Miami…

hopefully…;-)

V/A: Studio - The Finest In Lounge & House Music - Compiled by Ralf Gum CDLP (CKP)