Oliver Huntemann plays the twenty first of June at Sala BeCool.
Oliver Huntemann was quickly influenced by the North American music culture invadeding Germany in the 1970’s Rap and the culture that surrounded it, break dancing & graffiti, were quickly a part of his life . Soon after he began to experiment on a couple of turntables, mixing vinyl. He was quickly asked to spin at clubs and parties when he became acutely aware that this is what he wanted to do with his life. During the 1980’s when acid house invaded Germany, Oliver began to organize techno parties and met Gerret Frerichs, proprietor of a club and a small recording studio, where they created the Humate project along with the jazz musician H.G Schmidt.
Oliver's sound has a way of maintaining an avantgarde style within the current music scene. In Sala BeCool in Barcelona, we had the opportunity to ask him a few questions after his show. Here’s the interview, written by DJ The Ego.
CC: What tools did you use when you began to produce music? What tools do you use now?
Oliver: I began with an Atari console and several sythesizers, like the 909, 808, and the Junos 106. Now I only use computers and once in a while some old tools. Today virtual instruments are very easy to use, midi players also, they’re easy to work with and fast. Basically I changed from the use of hardware to software.
CC: Still you work with Gerret Frerichs?
Oliver: (laughs) Not much, we are very good friends, but we have not worked together recently. He is very occupied developing ideas for the Humate project, and also this producing music for advertising announcements of cars, among other things. In January we tried to work together, but it do not work very well because I had to go on tour in Australia and in the end we left the project by the wayside. He’s a great producer, hopefully in the future we’ll work together again.
CC: Who are your favorite producers of electronic music?
Oliver: There are many, its difficult to say somebody in particular, but someone that I respect very much is Carl Craig.
CC: Will you do any live acts in the future?
Oliver: I’ve done live acts before, but I am a DJ at heart and prefer to spin, just how I began. I did live acts with Stephan Bodzin when we were of tour with Andy Flecher of Depeche Mode, in Germany, and it was a good experience, but I wanted to spin instead so we left it, perhaps for the new album I'll do a small tour with a live act.
CC: Where do you like to spin the most? What’s your favorite city?
Oliver: I’ve had some incredible celebrations over the years in several different cities, all cities have their enchantment. The celebration at Moog Barcelona a few months ago was incredible, the Love Parade in Paris also, the Future Music Festival in Australia was impressive, I do not have a favorite.
Oliver thanks for your time, we wish you lots of luck in the future.
By “The Ego”