Alex Niggemann 2015 Australian Tour Interview

With his Australasian tour starting on 16th April, we caught up with house and techno DJ/producer, Alex Niggemann, to ask him about his travel experiences, that huge success of ‘Materium’, and what he recommends for a trip to his home city of Berlin.

Hi Alex, where in the world are you at the moment?
I’m in Berlin at Tegel Airport, on my way to Bali, via Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

How do you feel about returning to Australia for your 2015 tour?
Really good, actually. I’m happy to be back soon. I love the fact that every year I know I’ll be Down Under in April/May and I’m always looking forward to it. Australia is a beautiful country with a great party crowd and multicultural cities – and therefore a lot of good food too. I’m really grateful that I have the opportunity to travel there once a year and I’ve not had any negative experiences to date.

What do you have in store for the tour this time around?
I will bring my new EP on AEON coming up in May, plus a bunch of new, and even unplayed, tracks with me. I could easily fill a complete set with new productions! So you will definitely be the first to get an impression of how my music in 2015/2016 will sound.

Your mesmerising track ‘Materium’ was easily one of the biggest of 2014; what inspires that kind of production for you?
I have tried to think about that… what did inspire me… actually I don’t have a clue! Somehow I had a clear idea in my head of this melody and having it on its own in the breakdown. I never expected that this track will become that huge though!

Do you have any releases or remixes planned for this year?
Yeah, as mentioned, a new EP on my own label AEON, follow ups on Last Night On Earth and Poker Flat, plus another EP I’m not able to talk about yet. There will also be a few collaborations. Watch out!

I see you played a gig in a church last month! What other out-of-the-ordinary venues have you played in?
Oh, yeah. What an experience! Something to cross off on my “to-do once in life“ list. I would also call playing inside a car park and a railway station out of the ordinary – I played in both of those!

You’re playing Bali and Singapore either side of your Australian dates; do you enjoy the travelling aspect that your DJ career brings? What do you like to get up to when you’re on the road?
Well this time is actually a perfect routing as I don’t just fly 36 hrs in and out of Australia. It’s good to have some time to stop half way in Asia, having a few days there before continuing. In general, I have to admit, that I’m actually not a big fan of travelling that way. First of all, I’m still a bit afraid of flying, plus, with these schedules, I usually only see airports and hotels, staying in each city one night and travelling during the day. It isn’t really what you would call relaxing. I always say I get paid for traveling… playing is the fun part! But I do like the advantage of being able to combine touring with holidays sometimes. For example, flying out for BPM festival and extending my stay there to enjoy a few days somewhere in the Caribbean. But those kind of “holidays” usually don’t happen too often. I actually enjoy being guided by locals the most, showing me the real life and not just the tourist sights. So I’m always on the hunt to find out about each country’s special or secret places, traditional food or other non-typical things.

What plans do you have for the European summer?
Actually, I’ll be touring North America in June and South America in August. In between, I play festivals and follow the Ibiza madness.

If we were planning a holiday in Berlin, what would you recommend we do in the city?
Just follow the people that live in Berlin. This is usually the most fun – they know about the hotspots. Restaurants, bars, clubs, illegal locations. To be honest, in Berlin there is so much to explore that even I am very surprised, after living there for 10 years, how many things I don’t know. Just make sure you stay in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg or Neukölln. These are the very cool parts of the city.

Alex Niggemann Australian Tour Dates

Thursday 16th April – Hu’u, Bali
Friday 17th April – Geisha Bar, Perth
Saturday 18th April – The Imperial, Sydney
Sunday 19th April – Parkside, Wollongong
Thursday 23rd April – L’Endroit, Caledonia
Friday 24th April – Darkbeat @ New Guernica, Melbourne
Saturday 25th April – Zouk, Singapore