With his affable style and his sheer eclecticism, Munich born Tobi Neumann has been successful behind the decks for over two decades now. This summer sees Neumann in vintage busy form as he launches, amongst other things, a new label, a host of new production projects, and is set to play the massive Sonus Festival in Croatia this August. We caught up with the Cocoon man to get his thoughts on Sven, EDM and gentrification…
So, how have the past few years been for you? What's been keeping you busy? Life’s kept me busy recently. Not too busy but busy nonetheless. I’ve been playing at the weekends, social life during the week, studio-time in between. All good!
What’s keeping you excited right now then? I‘m working on a project together with my friend, Marco Unzip. We call ourselves ToCo and are just about to sign for two 12’’s and one album. Also, there is new music coming from our project called GLOVE (Thies Mynther and myself), which is taking up a lot of my time right now. I’m also starting a label called WHAT?! with my friend Patti from Solid AM. As I said, busy!
Can you talk us through your typical day? Is it 90% music related? Not really. On Mondays and Tuesdays I don’t listen to any dance music except when we work in the studio. But silence is really important after a weekend full of music. Usually I go to the record store on Thursday, check some news and then lock myself at home for the rest of the day is dedicated to music and preparation for the weekends. Beside my life as a musician and DJ I love theatre and film. Some days are dedicated for that, and that inspires me a lot.
You tend to focus more on DJing than producing. Is that a fair point? Or how is the production going? Yes, definitely better as I just touched on. DJ life was so sweet in the last decade, but not completely satisfying.
You were a firm fixture in Ibiza at Cocoon over the past few years. What's you favourite memory from that time? There are too many to mention. The best set was probably a 6-hour back to back set with Onur Özer in 2008. The after-hours for my birthday in July was great too. We celebrated it every year for 10 years! At the time everybody was together at the party and on the decks. Marco, Richie, Ricardo, Magda, Sven, Loco, Dorian, Vera, Luciano & Ricardo. No politics - just fun!
I believe you recently left the agency, however. Can you talk us through that decision a bit? Private reasons. I‘m very grateful for the years with the agency and I‘m still good friends with everybody at Cocoon. And I‘m continuing to play for Cocoon Events too.
Can you talk us through how you first met Sven and company? How did he strike you initially? I first met Sven back in 1999 in Ibiza and was immediately impressed by him. We started to hang out together and in 2002 he asked me to join the family. All in all I was more than 12 years with Cocoon. Definitely the best time in my DJ-life so far!
And when did you start taking it a bit more seriously? When did you start DJing full-time? In 2000 I started to get serious with playing and traveling. It was never planned to be my main profession. But as you can see, it turned into something serious over the years.
And where are you at right now as a musician in terms of where you'd like to be? Do you still set yourself goals? Of course I set goals. We just built a big new studio at the Riverside Studios in Berlin. There are collaborations planned. I mix and produce music for other artists, which is my original profession. And the releases of an album with ToCo and one with GLOVE for sure!
A lot's talked about the German scene in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. What made it such a special time in your eyes? I think it was special as techno at the time brought everybody together. Imagine back in 92 at the legendary Berlin Techno-Club E-Werk the residents were DJ Clé, Kid Paul, Woody and Paul Van Dyk. That already tells you a lot. It was just a very exciting and unique unity. But in my eyes it was not only a German phenomenon, even though the rise of the Love Parade was quite special and not possible in any other city than Berlin.
Has gentrification in Berlin negatively affected the city? I think it’s logical that it happened. It is a normal process in a city like Berlin where there was and is so much empty space to take over. Look what happened in London‘s east like Shoreditch over the last decade. Really, it’s the same thing.
Do you think house and techno will always remain popular? Are you ever worried that it'll become seriously niche again? I‘m not worried at all. I think it is a niche still, but a constant and broad one. Techno and house became a form of music with traditions like jazz, soul or blues. And it of course varies in fashions and hypes. Acid comes usually every 3 years back, sometimes we need it harder, and sometimes we want it slow. But the formula never really changes, which makes the music more resistant against streams and hypes like dubstep, two-step…
And what are your thoughts on the EDM scene that's currently pervading the US? Is it good thing for the next generation in terms of getting into electronic music, or just a cheap fad? Please don‘t ask me about EDM. I hate it! But I believe that young people after a couple of years of digital violence and raping their ears will start to discover and understand our decent underground music and the nice vibes which come along with it. And that‘s usually that’s a one-way road. Nobody who ever experienced the magic of a Moodymann track will later start to listen to some shitty EDM-trash. Not a very polite answer I know.
Catch Tobi Neumann at Sonus Festival, taking place from August 18-22nd at Zrce Beach, Pag Island, Croatia. For more info, head to the official website.
First photo by Bartosz Ludwinski
Second photo by aDee