We joined the French born founder of the infamous Vinyl Club record store, Luc Ringeisen for a chat. Helping spread the love and appreciation of the various sub genres in dance music, its creating was an important milestone in Ibizas underground scene. His career in music has recently progressed in 2013 with the birth of Berlin based VCR booking management and agency as an extention of his label Vinyl Club Recordings, which has furthered his foothold in Europe and South America. Luc’s experimental approach to music and appreciation for alternative sound helped him to discover some of the world’s most intriguing producers and has held him high on the Pedi stool of dance music. We spoke to him about his history, recent releases and upcoming projects to keep an eye out for.
Hey Luc! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for MEOKO, it’s a pleasure to have you! How is everything going for you at the moment?
Hi, and thank you for having me, everything is pretty fine thanks!
You have another release coming out on Vinyl Club soon? I know releasing music is nothing new to you but how is this one coming along? Can you tell us a bit about this record?
We currently have it on pre-sale, it is our release number 22, a record presenting four of my new productions, it will be available (only on vinyl) from the 21st of November.
From early spring 2014 and during the whole summer I was testing it in clubs, beats and ideas born in the studio, this way I could select those that were working and sounding the best on the floor to then focus the studio work on those 4 tracks for some weeks, then playing them out again and fixing more details afterwards and so on (but not only to fix problems, but also for the source of inspiration that it represents, if I go back to the studio within the next 3 days after a gig I will still remember exactly what I was feeling when playing the track and I start to rework on it starting from there)... Even if I like to have most of the structure of the track done live in one take to create a spontaneous and human feel, I like then to spend, afterwards, as long as I want on fixing effects, details, mix etc..
Pre order your copy HERE
Can you take us through your production process and what hardware and plug- ins you use?
lately I am basing the production process on a MFB/Tanzbär drum machine, that allows me to sequence some Cwejman BLD euro-rack module for drums, Kick or bass, as well as a whole tiny Cwejman based modular system, my very favorite part. No jokes, those little high quality modules are so much fun to use and their sound quality have no comparison with anything else on the market (except Buchla and Mac Beth modular synths maybe). I also like the Vermona drum machine for the unique analogue low toms you can create with it. Then I often use a Juno 60 keyboard to add some vintage warmth and I record the whole thing on logic in one or 2 takes using an RME sound card. For the effects I am using an eventide H-8000. I m trying to use as less digital EQ as possible, same for the plugins. For this reason I use spectrum analyzers from the very beginning on each instrument and on the master to make sure I record the right frequencies during the analogue takes, so I wont need equalization later or very little. Then I might just do the same recording process again, right on top of the track I just recorded, adding layers, percussion and so on. Also, I love to create a whole little universe in the background of the tracks, creating the space and atmosphere thanks to a game of reverbs and effects. Then I usually ask myself how can I take that track out of the box ... and I try to find a new idea for every new track.
Vinyl Club Recordings is your own label, which you have started as a record store in Ibiza in 2005? What pushed you to move in Ibiza at that time rather than Berlin or London per example?
The record store in Ibiza actually started in 2004. But I arrived on the island much earlier, in 1998, it was then right after my studies, some long holidays turned themselves in a little business and in the early 2000 I was running a few little tourists shops across the island. My passion for music (and also because then, it was still a good business, there were not even CD players in the DJ booths at that time) made me open what was a bit missing then, a good big underground records store. From that point music took it directly over and I forgot my business ambitions and started to DJ professionally.
Can you tell us your story and relationship with the white isle?
Well of course after all those years it really is still a second home for me even if unfortunately I hardly find the time to go there lately, and still nowadays I can feel its kind of a magic and special atmosphere, I am not talking about clubs at this point. Most of those by the way have been pretty disappointing from my point of view regarding the quality of the line ups in the past decade, but very luckily the club where I started my DJ career, the Underground, and some amazing off parties that only Ibiza has the secret keep the vibe alive and the good music present, showcasing some of the best underground acts of the moment. I am still going every year to play at the Underground closing party, witch traditionally marks the end of the season closing marathon. It is always a very special moment that I just can't miss.
Have you always had in mind to start a record store or was it a spontaneous decision?
Lets say that I always had in mind that it would be great to have a record store, but the decision to actually make it happen was pretty spontaneous, the consequence of my former tatoo shop in the old port of Ibiza closing down in 2003 (funny cause and I don' t even have a tatoo myself). Right after that 2003 summer I found that huge empty shop at the entrance of the city, and asked myself “what is really missing in Ibiza right now ?”
Your record store was the meeting point for all big artists who were on the island at the time? How did that make you feel?
Most important is that it taught me a lot of what I know about Djing and music selecting. That was the best school ever.
Your record store was forced to close down in 2008 due to the rise of digital music? How do you feel now that vinyls are coming back heavily? Would you consider reopening a record store in Berlin?
OK there might be a “vinyl come back”, but according to me, the word “heavy” seems a bit strong... what is for sure is that we will never come back to the situation as it was before 2006. I mean yes, some Djs are coming back to vinyl, but mostly professionals, but in the early days of techno who ever wanted to DJ, even as an amateur, had to buy vinyl records. As we said above the DJ booths then would only have a mixer and 2 turn tables. I don' t think that we will ever come back to the point that everyone plays vinyl records so no comparison possible. But Berlin is an exception regarding this, here the very large majority of Djs are still spinning vinyl records, and comparing to Ibiza you can run a whole year round business, and pay a much lower rent, so yes of course I thought quit a few times about opening a records store here in Berlin, but when I arrived in this town in 2008 my mind was much more on focusing full time on music production and on developing the label. That was honestly something I had in mind from the start, because even in 2003 when I opened the record store there was already the first versions of Final Scratch and Pioneer CDJs, and everyone knew that the vinyl records will know very tough days in 4 or 5 years max. So moving to Berlin was a new important step in my life, and I preferred to watch forward rather than backward and I suddenly had all that free time to finally focus on what I love most, the studio and the record label.
The first ever release on your label was with Pedro from Arpiar? That’s a big achievement to have such an iconic Dj on your first release? It must have been a good kick-start for your label?
Actually Pedro appears on our 3rd release, a various artists where I present my first solo track ever released on vinyl, and same with the Pedro track, that' s the first Petre Inspirescu release ever. So eventhough he was already throwing legendary warm ups in the inside room of DC 10, he was still not the iconic DJ he is nowadays. We sold only very few copies back then (but now the record price online is in the clouds). But a very short time after that, Pedro released his first Ep, the Vinyl Club release n. 5, this one got heavily over played by pretty much everyone including Ricardo Villalobos, Josh Wink etc and it became such a hit that yes of course that was an incredible kick for the label, even a tiny something frustrating sometimes, while the years were passing, that for some people Vinyl Club was kinda reduced to this release somehow, and every new release would be compared to this one.. This record had its importance in the evolution of underground techno in the years 2000, it inspired (and still is..) hundreds of producers, Djs and labels toward some new kind of grooves and understanding of dance music and marks the beginning of the growing Romanian scene, but the aim of Vinyl Club is to be constantly exploring, not to find one formula to then stick to it, neither was the aim of Pedro.
So where about in France are you from? Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? How did you passion for music start?
I was born in Strasbourg / France, right next to the German border. I had a happy childhood, and the chance that my parents were asking me, since I was 9 years old, if I wanted to play any instrument, so the flute became a guitar when I was 12, then at 16 I entered the french conservatory of music still playing the guitar, I had a rock band with my best friends. I discovered the techno scene at the age of 17 in 1995, we would then cross the German boarder every Saturday night and come back home one or two days later, at this time on the french side we still only had a micro scene limited to some hardcore rave parties in the west and south of France, a couple of clubs in Paris and some very small gay clubs but on the German side the scene was already so developed that you would find after hour clubs opened from Friday till Tuesday with international guest DJs pretty much every where, and people were already talking about a “minimal techno” style which was already very popular in most good German clubs thanks to the early production of guys such as Richie Hawtin or Daniel Bell. Growing in Strasbourg actually allowed me to have an interesting perspective on the explosion of techno music that happened in the 90ies, at least in Germany and France.
Who or what influenced you in your career?
I had some, but restricted knowledge in techno music when I opened that record store in 2004, so the shop was really the beginning, when I started to learn everything I know about Djing, and of course the first clients I had at the shop back then were my best teachers, that and the fact that I had to go through thousands of new releases every week. I have to say that I learned really a lot from the Circo Loco crew of 2004 / 2005 that from the very beginning became the best clients of the shop, djs like Tania Vulcano, Fabrizio, Rene, and those newly arrived Romanian djs (Pedro and Rhadoo) who were really intriguing me from the very first day by their attempt to dig and select only very few totally unknown records, much better if only one or 2 copies were available at the shop, they were really trying to always have a different selection and as underground as possible. They would spend the whole opening time of the store listening to records, they probably knew the shop better than I was. Of course those guys really influenced me a lot. Then Club der Visionaere definitely influenced my way of Djing, those 12 or even 20 hours long sets with the best Djs around in front of a musically educated public is also one of the best school ever. I need to say here that I am very thankful towards the owners of Underground and CDV for both allowing me to express myslef as a Dj, puting the importance of the music higher than the one of the artist names and without I would probably not be where I am now in my career. Finally its hard nowadays not to be influenced by some dinosaurs such as Villalobos, but even if influences are of course crucial, I am trying, starting from those, to create my very own musical world.
You are also a resident at the mighty CDV in Berlin? Since when are you resident there and how did your relationship with the club start?
I started to play there in spring 2009, a DJ got sick or something and the boss of CDV had to replace him so a common friend told him about me, and I ended up playing the whole day, and then the whole night B2B with Matthew Styles who was also having his first gig there as far as I remember. As the boss of the club liked the music they started to call me pretty spontaneously when a Dj was missing or if a Dj was tired or when the party was lasting longer than what they thought (typical there..) Also Janina, Rebekah Aff and Alex Kraemer were inviting me to the regular parties they are running there. So I quickly became a regular of the late Sundays events. I have to say that I have very nice memories of my arriving in Berlin, it really felt like a new family was welcoming me, so while I was discovering this city I had the chance of playing music and making new friendships with some of my favorite artists, what happened to me here when I arrived was way beyond my expectations. Also, here people were making the effort to understand my music way more than in Ibiza, it allowed me to push a lot more my limits creatively speaking. This was a very important step in my quest of finding my own proper musical identity. I was starting to feel confident about taking directions that most of the others wouldn' t take.
You also run your own events with DeWalta “Vinyl Society”? Why did you decide to start a night with a residency already going?
The idea actually came from Gregor the boss of the club who suggested it to me. It sounded like a great opportunity to bring to CDV and share the booth with my favorite Djs for very long sets, and also to introduce the label and its artists to the Berlin scene. So in November 2011 (CDV had a roof back then and was opening all year round) I had my first “shared party” , meaning I was in charge of half of the line up and DeWalta was in charge of the other half. We had so much fun and musical conexion on that day that at the end of the party I suggested DeWalta to run the parties together in the future, that's how “Vinyl Society” was born.
Is CDV the only club you have had a residency at in Berlin? What other clubs do you like to play at?
That' s actually the only residency I really want (also because having 2 residencies in the same city is pretty much impossible for a Dj, but anyway I am more than satisfied being part of the CDV crew, I wouldn' t change that for anything. My musical identity really fits this club better than any other in the world). But yes for a year or two we were also running label showcases at the clubs KaterHolzig and Arena, and I played in pretty much every main Berlin club and most of them are real fun to play at with no possible comparison, really. And how to forget the very funny first Vinyl Club events we had in Berlin in some dodgy basement in Mitte, or some unforgettable off events in warehouses witch are often the best ones. Some of the greatest moments too were the 2 or 3 days parties that one of my best friend use to throw at Arena club around that same period of 2009, where I would warm up B2B hours long with Janina for legends such as Zip, R. Villalobos or Daniel Bell and we would then play again some endless after parties at CDV. Yes, arriving in this city was definitely surprisingly strong and nice to me. Nowadays CDV also runs an all year round club witch is actually a boat, Hoppetosse, and this is slowly getting pure madness, one of the very best club around.
Why do you think artists settle in Berlin rather than cities like London or Paris which also have a huge cultural history?
Nowadays its really dificult for an artist (I mean not someone whose main purpose is to make money or fame) to live exclusively from his art in Europe, but it's nearly impossible in cities like Paris or London where you canot really live out of the capitalist system (because everything is so ridiculously expensive). Also, it's nice to have a great history but present is important too and right now the industry is definitely here in Berlin, so it makes sense also for my label and its booking agency (VCR-Agency) born in 2013 to have their headquarters here.
Can you tell us a little bit about the very difficult door policies in Berlin and how "Berliners" don't like tourists?
Personally I have nothing against tourists, but I understand people that live here like to gather with friends in smaller clubs rather than loose each others in the huge main ones, especially knowing that here, being in a smaller club doesn't mean that you will listen to "cheaper" music.
I don't think Berlin has a specially difficult door policy, apart of Berghain which is famous for this, but somehow I understand that this is the only solution they have if they want the club to remain what a real "club" is, a place where people know each other, or can get to. For the rest of the clubs, I think that most of the time when they refuse people it is when more guests won't fit in the club, or sometimes there are just some very "specialized" event, where anyway you probably don' t want to go if you don' t share the same way of having fun. The rest is just typical door policy, just like all the other cities, but I would even add that I often prefer the much more relaxed door staff I find in Berlin comparing with most of the clubs in other countries. No doubt actually. They break that horrible but sadly often true stereotypes about door staff.
Can you give a few tips to our reader on the best places to go in Berlin?
I guess the best places are not the same ones for every one, talking about music the good thing in this city you can usually find the best in any kind of music you are into. Even inside the Techno scene we can say most of the clubs have their own musical identity. Each one finds here his or hers own paradise usually. It wont surprise you saying mine is CDV, but I truly think that regarding programming, in this very specific kind of music, it is amongst the very best we have worldwide. An other very nice Berlin particularity are its countless record stores (Spacehall is very complete, Hard Wax for rare U.S. imports, Record Loft or Audio Inn for second hand but the list would be way too long and I probably don't know a lot of them). An other tip of the moment for me is the Hoppetosse, the winter location of CDV on this old boat on the Spree river in a breath taking setting. A nice new interesting project seems to be also the Neue Heimat in Revaler strasse, a complex of old warehouses that are used now for food markets, live jazz music, some still pretty undercover few little Techno parties, flee markets etc..
Nothing very original here sorry, thing is I constantly keep on discovering new nice, funny or original places every time I let myself getting lost around or just partying with friends, but for a much better guide you better ask someone that doesn't spend most of his life time in the studio ^^ (still nice to know there are a lot of options around!)
Do you have any future projects you would like to share with the MEOKO readers?
I dont want to say too much for now but lets say that Lorenzo Chiabotti and myself are working on a special kind of live act that will use some original technology. An other exciting project is the Vinyl Club annual South American tour that we launched last year and the next one is looking very nice. I already want to invite our Argentinian friends to the opening party of the new Vinyl Club residency in Buenos Aires, the 26th of December at Bahrein with Thomas Melchior, Funk E, and some Argentinian promising talents.
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