Get Physical Boss Roland Leesker Talks about Running a Record Label and Doing Business

Ronald Leesker | DJ & Dance Entrepeneur

Roland Leesker has been a stalwart of the electronic music scene since 1989. He started in Frankfurt, where he worked in the Delirium record store in the 90’s. He then moved to New York, where he also set up a record store. He has produced and DJ’ed with anyone from ATA to Ricardo Villalobos, and from Cajmere to John Selway. He has remixed (a.o.) M.A.N.D.Y, DJ. T, Chris Liebing and DJ Pierre. He has worked for companies like Ministry of Sound, and has been one of the driving forces behind the legendary Get Physical imprint. Roland draws inspiration from all corners of the electronic music scene. He shares with us the secret about running a successful label. One of the most important things is to have a good partner: “I’m good at some things, but not at other things. My partner Phillip is very good in knowing who will be the next great DJ. I’m better at organizing a team, organizing the whole setup. And I’m quite good with numbers.” It’s all about controling the numbers, Leesker says. “At the end of the day, it’s a business. You have to be a good business person, and to control the whole thing.
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Get Physical Boss Roland Leesker Talks about Running a Record Label and Doing Business

Aleksi Perala about Music Production and Colundi

Aleksi Pirala | Music Producer

Aleksi Perälä started out in the late ’90s recording ambient electronica under the names Ovuca and Astrobotnia, but the Finnish producer has hit a particularly rich seam of late, and he owes it all to Colundi. What is Colundi? Well, it’s kind of hard to say. At its simplest, its advocates explain, it’s an alternative tuning system—“the Colundi Sequence”—that rejects conventional Western tuning in favor of a number of unusual resonant frequencies. Dig through the web pages and internet groups dedicated to its existence, though, and the story rapidly becomes more tangled and unlikely, taking in numerology, mysticism, sacred geometry, and various flavors of woo.Use this area to describe the image or provide supporting information.
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Aleksi Perala about Music Production and Colundi

Armada A&R Jeroen te Rehorst about Finding New DJ/Producers

Jeroen te Rehorst | A&R Manager at Armada Music

Jeroen te Rehorst is the A&R (artists & repertoire) manager for Armada Music, one of the world’s leading electronic music labels. He speaks about the traits an A&R manager should have, and the work that needs to be done when scouting for artists, guiding their careers and promoting their music. He also offers some wise learnings for unsigned producers about sending demo’s. “A producer needs to make sure of a really good pitch towards us. They need to have a story ready: I’m this and that guy, I’ve made this track, I’ve had feedback from my surroundings. He can say that in a short story, and he can have a link to listen to that we can play immediately. Not that we need to download it or something like that. The less action we need to take to listen to your music, the better.
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Armada A&R Jeroen te Rehorst about Finding New DJ/Producers

Steve Bug Talks about the Early Berlin Days and Running a Label

Steve Bug | DJ/Producer

Steve Bug has been DJ’ing and producing electronic music since the early 90’s. He has also been running his own labels Poker Flat Recordings, Audiomatique and Dessous since the late 90’s. His minimalistic house sound has been a great catalyst for the German minimal house wave of the 00’s. Today, Poker Flat Recordings is a label to be reckoned with. Here is Steve, talking about the do’s and dont’s of running your own imprint and releasing music: “A track has to sound much better now, than it had to back in the day.”
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Steve Bug Talks about the Early Berlin Days and Running a Label

DVS1 Explains How Big Festivals Are Jeopardizing Club Culture

DVS1 | DJ/Producer

Few artists in the techno genre are as outspoken as Zak Khutoretsky aka. DVS1. In recent years, the Russian-American DJ/producer has been the instigator of many a fierce discussion on electronic music’s most sensitive topics. His essay on dancefloor photography (2014) kickstarted a worldwide movement banning photography in clubs. Now Zak is questioning the festival culture, saying it is jeopardizing some of electronic music’s core values. The School of House sat down with him during one of his recent visits to Amsterdam to talk — amongst other things — about the devastating effect of big festivals on our culture.
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DVS1 Explains How Big Festivals Are Jeopardizing Club Culture

Kenny Carpenter about His DJ-residency at Studio 54 and Bad Habits

Kenny Carpenter | DJ

Kenny Carpenter started out as a light jockey in the 1970’s in legendary New York clubs The Galaxy and The Inferno. His big break came one night, when the DJ was taking a break and Kenny was standing in. Two scouts for Studio 54 walked in. Kenny: “I knew I was being auditioned. I said to myself, I’m gonna rip this club tonight. If you don’t play good ever again, you’d better play good right now.” They offered him a job as the new Saturday night resident at Studio 54. He played there from 1980 until the club shut down in 1984. Kenny Carpenter hit some rough waters after Studio 54 closed. He had developed a coke habbit, that wasn’t easily beat. Kenny: “When I was playing in the Studio, I never had to pay for my drugs. Dealers would be lining up to give me drugs. But when that all stopped, I had to start paying for it. Then my mother died, and I started using crack. At the time, I never considered myself an addict. It took me until 1990 to quit.” As soon as he beat his addiction, his musical star started rising. In 1990, he was asked to do his own radio show at NYC’s famous WBLS. Soon after, he started touring to Japan, Italy and the UK (Ministry of Sound). Kenny has been DJ-ing around the world ever since. Most recently, he has been focused on producing and on his own label KC Recordings. We sat down with this living legend to hear some great stories from the golden disco days, and how Kenny overcame his trials and tribulations. In the end, love for music conquers all.
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Kenny Carpenter about His DJ-residency at Studio 54 and Bad Habits

Eric Keijer Explains Event Production and the International Success of Sensation

Eric Keijer | General Manager of Sensation

Eric Keijer has been the General Manager of Sensation, the world’s leading dance event for many years in a row. He has been part of a little under 120 Sensation events in over 20 different countries around the world. If there’s anyone in the world of Events & Organization who has seen it all, it’s Eric Keijer. The School of House sat down with Eric for a long and very insightful interview about managing a giant and internationally renowned event like Sensation. For a year, we’ve been using this content in our classes, but the content is so cool, we decided to make a publication out of it. There are some valuable learnings Eric is sharing with us. He has a very clear vision of the industry and all the people in it. When asked which personality traits are most welcome at Sensation, Eric says: “Being open to other people’s knowledge. There are plenty of stubborn people of course. Especially project managers are great at minding other people’s business, but they need to understand that the technical team is more knowledgeable than the project managers. Put your trust in other people’s knowledge.”
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Eric Keijer Explains Event Production and the International Success of Sensation

Legendary DJ/Producer Kerri Chandler on Music and Inspiration

Kerri Chandler | DJ/Producer

Check out this inspiring video interview with House icon Kerri Chandler about his musical roots, from collecting to producing. Kerri 'Kaoz' Chandler one of deep house music's originators, has been injecting soul into music since the early nineties.
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Legendary DJ/Producer Kerri Chandler on Music and Inspiration

Detroit Swindle Never Planned for Their International Breakthrough

Detroit Swindle | Electronic House Music Duo

Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets burst onto the scene as Detroit Swindle in 2012, with their seminal release “The Wrap Around”. The international breakthrough that followed, took them completely by surprise. All they had ever aspired, was to maybe have a couple of their tracks released. They weren’t even aware of the fact that a friend had sent their tracks to Huxley, the British DJ who signed them to his new imprint Saints & Sonnets. ‘We were looking at each other, like: “Did you send out anything? Me neither.”’ Six years down the line, Detroit Swindle has become a household name for quality, funk-infused and catchy as hell house music. They have released on renowned labels like Freerange, Kaoz Theory and Dirt Krew, have remixed the likes of Hercules & Love Affair, Chet Faker and the late Romanthony, and have broken a few artists themselves on their own imprint Heist. Lars and Maarten have managed to stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing electronic music scene, and are currently finishing the preparations for their second studio album. We sat down with the charming duo for an open-hearted talk about combining a strict work ethic with having fun, finding out what your sound is, learning how to say yes to the things that feel right, and building a platform that will strengthen your career and lift your spirits as an artist.
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Detroit Swindle Never Planned for Their International Breakthrough

Learn More about Online Ticketing with Former Paylogic CEO Jan Willem van der Meer

Jan Willem van der Meer | Entrepreneur & Investor

Jan Willem is a Tech, Start up, Marketing & Ticketing visionair who started at Paylogic, currently known is See Tickets. Paylogic was a ticketing company with a tech DNA and it has over the last 10 years disrupted traditional ticketing in two ways; firstly by introducing print-at-home ticketing in the entertainment industry, and secondly - and more impactful - by successfully liberating the organizers; offering them “white-label”, “do-it-yourself" ticketing in The Netherlands later many other markets. Since then it developed to become the fastest growing 'new generation' ticketing company of Europe and is probably the largest player in the Electronic Music space in the world. The company has offices and teams active in Amsterdam, Groningen, Berlin, Antwerp, London and Sao Paulo and offers it services to many more countries in all continents the world. Paylogic keeps on innovating new technologies and solutions and brings ticketing to a whole new level. In December 2013 Paylogic became part of SFX Entertainment.
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Learn More about Online Ticketing with Former Paylogic CEO Jan Willem van der Meer

MC Gee Talks about His Career and Residency Sensation

MC Gee | Sensation's Resident MC

If there is one person who embodies Dutch MC culture, it’s MC Gee. Traveling all over the world as the resident MC of Sensation, he has hosted some of the world’s biggest stages. We sat down with the Englishman in Amsterdam to reminisce about his early endeavors in the UK drum ’n bass scene, reflect on contemporary DJ-culture, and discuss what it takes these days to be a kick-ass Master of Ceremony. It’s basically the art of shutting up, Gee explains: “If you work with DJs like Solomun or Eric Morillo or Deep Dish or Joris Voorn or somebody, you say one thing in 45 or 50 minutes, when the crowd needed a little pick me up, and they’ll look at you like: ‘That was nice, thank you. And now put the mic down and I’ll see you in another hour.’ So if you’ve got the skills, then you can hold the mic and run it and make the crowd go bonkers. But at the same time the discipline is can you shut your mouth. And less is more, so to speak. I dunno, I kind of enjoy that.”
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MC Gee Talks about His Career and Residency Sensation

Kenny Dope Emphasizes Playing from the Heart and Knowing the Business

Kenny Dope | Record Producer and DJ

House music pioneer Kenny Dope has been in the music industry for over thirty years. We spoke to him about the highlights of his career–from organizing block parties in New York City in the 80’s, to the Masters At Work heydays in the 90’s and 2000’s, to touring the world still as Kenny Dope in 2018. Kenny emphasizes the importance of sticking to what feels best, but also of learning the business-side of things. He made some bad deals as a young artist, and had to learn the hard way. But he hopes the new generation will make use of all the great information that is available online. Check out the full interview with this house music legend below.
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Kenny Dope Emphasizes Playing from the Heart and Knowing the Business

The Road to Circularity and Sustainable Festivals & Events

Xander Kotvis | Revolution Manager at Revolution Foundation

Xander Kotvis is manager of the Revolution Foundation, creator of sustainable - and circular systems that were going to be implemented at DGTL. Check out this cool video presentation of the co-creator of the tool ‘Zero Emission’. 'Besides their circular purposes, these systems aim to provoke a shift in the behavior of the festival goers themselves.' Xander is an expert in explaining complex ideas in an easy way, bases his decisions on data and will give the first talk about these subjects mentioned. Enjoy!
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The Road to Circularity and Sustainable Festivals & Events

Shelter's Originator Merijn van den Heuvel about Running a Club

Merijn van den Heuvel | Managing Director of Club Shelter

When Shelter opened its doors in 2016, it immediately struck a nerve in Amsterdam’s already bustling nightlife. First of all, the sound system blew everyone away. Secondly, the club’s atmosphere — a culmination of the team, the musical programing and its aesthetic — attracted a loyal following of dedicated clubbers and ravers. We sat down with former Managing Director Merijn van den Heuvel to talk about all the things necessary to start a successful club. Merijn has some valuable learnings to share with us, and answers all kinds of questions, like where to start: “You start by asking yourself what it is you seek in a club. What’s important for you? What’s important for the market? We put a few pillars on paper, which were most important to us. They were: sound, sound, sound, acoustic, acoustic, acoustic, because we’re a quality club, and that’s the thing. If that isn’t immediately well executed, you need to fix that while building.” Find out more about the vision behind Shelter, and all you need to know before starting your own club, in the video below.
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Shelter's Originator Merijn van den Heuvel about Running a Club

About Headline Bookings for Sensation and Talent Development (In Dutch only)

Peter Hillebrands | Music Director at Sensation

Peter started his Music career 23 years ago organizing parties in his hometown Landsmeer. Together with his friends they started ID-T, where he worked on the Thunderdome project, as Music Director of Sensation Worldwide, A&R and Scouting for Headliner Entertainment.
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About Headline Bookings for Sensation and Talent Development (In Dutch only)

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