Dusseldorfer
At the age of fifteen
Alex Niggemann‘s older brother took him to a techno party in Düsseldorf which was a turning point for the young musician, pointing him away from the sometimes limiting discipline of classical piano and towards the world of electronic music. Since then, residencies in his home town grew to a move towards Berlin and all that great creative city had to offer.
Alex found work as a studio assistant to DJ T, running errands, capturing vinyl, mixing tracks and archiving records. This led to fellow Get Physical stalwarts Booka Shade discovering they had a promising producer in their own ranks. A lauded remix of Booka Shade’s “Darko” followed on a vinyl only release alongside Tiefschwarz and Radio Slave.
After finishing his engineering degree things began to snowball for Alex in 2008, during that summer he was signed to Supernature the home of UK duo Audiofly. They released the Black Rose EP in 2009 followed by critically and commercially successful releases on 8bit charting highly in many end of year lists.
Gigs across the globe followed and in the spring of 2010 he launched his Soulfooled label in the aim of responding quickly to artist needs and creating a platform for artists to release music quicker. The music represents Alex’s standards across old school disciplines of Chicago and Detroit orientated sounds.
Ahead of Alex joining We Love in Miami, we’ve asked him to answer our 11 Questions all about his past present and hypothetical future. You can download an exclusive mix he’s recorded, here.
Is there one book that you have read that has been life-changing for you?
Electroschock by Laurent Garnier. It totally changed my view of that glamourous DJ-life I had before.
Did your parents encourage you to work in music?
Yeah always, my Mom especially when I was I kid and wanted to learn piano. After my interests passed to house and techno music she wasn’t that happy… but my dad continued supporting me until he died unfortunately last year. Without him I wouldn’t be where I am right now! RIP Daddy!
How did you begin to work professionally in music?
It was a hobby for me until I graduated school. I had to decide what I wanted to do for living. So I moved to Berlin and started to study audio engineering to increase my technical knowledge about producing music. When I did the remix for Booka Shade on Get Physical, I knew that I made the right decision. That was the point where I got professional.
How do you apply your past experiences to what you do today?
Everything which you have done or which has happened in the past influences your life. As I also had a lot of really bad experiences, I think this definitely made me withstand things better and reminds me to not give up until I’ve reached my aims!
Reaktion
I just built my new studio on the 1st floor of my flat in Berlin. I spent a lot of money to make it perfect. It is a room in room construction, with all the finest acoustic elements to make the room with all the techniques to sounding perfect.
How much have you had to consider marketing issues since embarking on your career and how has that affected your creativity?
Well, I would say I’ve spent a lot of time with updating social network sites etc. I think the internet is an important medium, which more and more becomes an entertainment medium. But at a certain point of the career which I have right now, I cant do it on my own anymore. I mean, I still post / tweet a lot of things, I think it is very important to keep in touch with your fans, but for all other things I have my press agency. I definitely think that press and social networking became one of the most important things in this business, as there are too many “self-called” DJs / artist you have to stand out from! But all the marketing doesn’t effect my creativity as I do it most of the time when I’m on flights or in hotels, where I usually don’t produce.
How would you describe your work?
Just one word! Travelling! Playing and producing isn’t work for me. I still have a lot of fun doing that.
Who were your teachers?
Me, myself and my brother, who taught me the first skills in DJing. I mean I had some idols I was always and still looking up to like Ken Ishii, Steve Bug or Emmanuel Top, but they unfortunately couldn’t teach me anything personally because I didn’t know them. So I was learning most by trial and error, until my studies where I refined my technical background.
Your home is burgled but fortunately the culprits are caught and your possessions returned to you. What would you deem a suitable punishment for the burglars?
Show them how it’s when someone steals their possessions and let them life without them for a while.
You have to make one species of animal extinct. Excluding insects, which species would that be?
As I think, that every animal has its function on mother earth, I wouldn’t do it, because the natural balance will be broken. If the question would be only about a species including us, I would say human. As we are the most useless species. The world could life in its balance better without us!
If you could spend one week in any period of history, which period would you choose?
It would be the epoch of Rococo, as in this time most of the most brilliant creative people have lived. Such as Mozart or Goethe!
Thanks Alex. Connect with him on twitter and facebook. Download his mix, here.
Ibiza’s favourite son, 
