Interview with NightGen

I found an interview I made with NightGen (R.I.P.) in 2007. Thanks so much Richie, aka VoiDet.

This week we are talking with the Berlin producer/dj/master/god that is known as Bassbottle. Bassbottle has been a long time resident with the Nightgen Dj Team since 2004. He has been banging out his own style of music since a kid, with much wide recognition from the scene. We talk to this beat-doctor/dj now!

Nightgen:: What is your age, location, and tell us your life history, where have you been, lived, bombed?
Bassbottle::Hi everyone, my name is Fabian, 25, born, raised and living in Berlin Germany.

Nightgen:: How do you define your music?
Bassbottle::Well… it’s Techno, hehe. Jokes aside, I always try to keep my music interesting, even if I make a kind of tool. I always range between more drifting Techno and hard pounding stuff. Most of the time at 150 bpm, sometimes faster. But the bpm are not always the most important and when it sounds better at 140-145 bpm, I do it that way.

Also I try to make interesting breaks, often with melodies, cause I love melodies. That’s why I already started other electronic music projects, far away from hard beats. But I still and furtheron try to put melodies into my tracks. And vocals… I love vocals. I used porn stuff many times*laugh* and other stuff. The selfmade things are the best but.

Nightgen:: When did you first get involved with your style of music?
Bassbottle::It was sometime in 2002 I guess when I discovered a CD compilation with „Schranz“ tracks on it. I already was into hard techno after starting with Trance, Hardcore, Jungle aso. in 1996/97, but I never heard that special style before and even the producers were absolutely unknown for me. So I followed the white rabbit deeper and deeper into his den and discovered more and more, what Hardtechno is. And I turned my own productions into that direction and practised until now. It’s always pactising, even if I don’t finish a track.

Nightgen:: Name some icons and clubs you used to listen/goto at the time.
Bassbottle::Hehe, I have to admit that I’m no big party animal, which means I go out extremly rarely. But I always enjoy it when I pulled myself together to go out again. ^^
My icons in the past were for example Westbam, Marusha, RMB, Prodigy, a lot of Hardcore and Gabba producers and later all the people who brought this music forward on vinyl, cd, in the radio… in big style or not.

Nightgen:: Why are you in the scene? What do you like and hate about the scene?
Bassbottle::Good question… I love the music. But why do I? Maybe it’s the energy. Cause even if I have weak moments, I am full of energy. I love the energetic and pounding kickdrums. I love to step and stomp around to good and loud beats. But I miss coloured people in the scene.
When I had my first gig in my doctor suit, the people supported and loved it. I guess most people don’t have the courage to wear freaky clothes, hair, accessoires… because of maybe some scornful looks from others. That’s sad, but I can understand it cause I wasn’t better. It’s not that familiar feeling the people had back in the late 80’s and beginning of the 90’s when the Techno scene consisted of maybe 300 people, who ran around with white gloves, orange warn-wests and vacuum cleaners on their back. *laugh*
That’s why I love the people who make the Tokyo Decadance Parties. They’re all dressed up colorful with absolutely freaky clothes, wild and coloured hair, fat glasses, big boots, freaky accessoires, make-up… call it Cyberpunk, if you want. So amazing. I’d love to involve that into the Techno scene. Maybe I will do it one day. And maybe some people follow. Some years ago there was that fatpants-elephantboots-neoprenjacket-time. This was a good start, but after all cheap stores followed with noname shit and everyone wore it (many scary people wore it combined with normal clothes), this style got a bad name.

Nightgen:: Who are your icons at the moment?
Bassbottle::I like Sven Wittekind, Arkus P., Felix Kršcher, Boris S., Mario Ranieri, DJ Rush and many more. Also guys not that popular but good producers and DJs anyhow. But I’m not that kind of fan because I’m not fanatic. I like the music and the way people promote themselve.

Nightgen:: What technology do you use to dj and produce? Have you seen a large and growing trend in the scene in the past?
Bassbottle::Two Technics SL-1210 MKII, a Behringer DJX700 and a Sennheiser HD 25-1 I use for dj-ing. For my own music I still use FL Studio and WaveLab.
I see more and more DJs using Laptops for DJ-ing and CDJs. Not my taste. I’m a Vinyl lover even if a record case can be very heavy, haha. But CDJs and also a Laptop are better for playing unreleased stuff, maybe the upcoming track from you.

Nightgen:: When was your last gig, how did it go?
Bassbottle::My last gig was in northern Germany. It was fun and my mixing was good. My love Anne and I appeared in doctor suits. Like I said, the people loved it and kept it in mind. Cool image I think.

Nightgen:: Your favourite gig was? what happened?
Bassbottle::I liked the gig I had in Austria with the guys from Nightmare-Crew. DJ Ogi and Matt M. Maddox were there also. I played after Ogi. The crowd was cool there. Many people who were really nice!

Nightgen:: How are your releases going?
Bassbottle::I am a bit lazy with sending demos to labels. But currently I try to change this. Cause after my last releases my sound quality got better and my style changed a bit again. Like always.

Nightgen:: Do you think your music is original to the scene? How do people respond to it?
Bassbottle::That’s always hard to say, cause the people who don’t like your stuff don’t often tell you. Which is ok. But I really really often get positive response from all over the world about my work. However that doesn’t mean the music industrie or the label owners think I do the right thing. Hehe. But I’m sure… I know it’s definitely original, up to date, not a copy of others and always different from the tracks before.

Nightgen:: What are your future plans? Any deals? contracts?
Bassbottle::I will try and become more active in pursuing releases and gigs. Maybe becoming a resident somewhere here in Berlin. That would be cool.
And I’m looking forward to getting bookings via „Treasure Bookings“, a booking and event agency I became member of.

Nightgen:: What has nightgen done for you in the past 4 years?

Bassbottle::Nightgen and its founder Voidet always gave me room to promote my stuff to the people, to host my homepage which was done by Voidet (big hugs) and to get in contact with other musicians and party animals. And it’s good to know that I’m a member of a selected group of young talents on this unique and rising project.

Nightgen:: Give some advice to the newbies who are thinking about starting up in this scene
Bassbottle::Never stop practising, always be critic with yourself, never give up asking people (producers, labels, clubs…) and always be yourself.

Nightgen:: Any last words?
Bassbottle::Keep rockin‘ out there! I’m always with you.