Zone Magazine Issue 037 Spring 2023

Tell us about Frank before the DJ /
producer.
I was always interested in electronic music, even
before I decided to start doing or producing. Before I was into
producing and then Doing, I was a more or less normal guy
who went to school and met with his friends, only with a little
different taste in music than my friends. During that time I
also developed the interest in how the music is produced that
I used to listen to. Around the time I had finished school and
started to go to University, I bought my first synthesizer
(Yamaha CS1x, I still have it today) and tried to learn how the
music is loved some much was produced.
How did you get involved in
electronic music first?
As a young child I got my first real contact with
music as my brother was playing the bass guitar in several
rock bands but I personally never really got into this kind of
music. In the early 90s I got in contact with some more
commercial rave and dance music via TV and I really was
impressed by the energy and the different sounds compared
to all the other ordinary music out there. I wanted to discover
more of this electronic sound and went to a local record store.
From this day on I visited local record shops on a weekly basis
and bought tons of vinyl of all kinds of electronic music, from
techno, trance, house, rare white labels and so on. I still have
them all at home, must be between 2500-3000 vinyl. As
mentioned before I also started to learn how to produce music
and purchased a few hardware synthesizer (Yamaha CS1x and
Quasimidi Sirius, which I still use as a master keyboard in my
current studio setup). The first production attempts of course
were really shitty but within the next few years I learned a lot
and when I found Ableton Live as my DAW around 2005 I
knew that this was a gamechanger for me and shortly after
this my first track was signed to a small label.
Best event you have played and
why?
Most of the gigs I had where more or less
memorable but my favorite one was my gig at Paul van
Dyk’s SHINE Amsterdam event which took place during
the Amsterdam Dance Event 2019 week. The event took
place in the famous Panama Club and had a huge line
up incl. PvD, John OO Fleming, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Lostly, Pierre
Pienaar. I played on the second floor where the energy was
quite high directly from the start. I also was able to test some
new productions there with great reactions from the crowd.
Worst event you have played and
why?
I don’t play on bad events, haha!
Tell us about your radio show.
In 2015 I started my own monthly radioshow called
‚Needful Things‘ which is broadcasted every 4th Friday of the
month exclusively to Toronto based broadcasting station
Afterhours FM. Although Afterhours is more or less a trance
radio station, I wouldn’t call my radioshow a pure trance
show, anything can happen here, from 125 to 140 bpm, from
progressive house, melodic techno and breaks to trance,
psytrance and techno. Genres don’t matter as long as I find
the track fitting to my style. I think that the wide spectrum of
electronic music I play in my show is unfortunately rarely seen
today as a lot of shows and DJs just focus on one specific
style where you can hear the same tracks over and over
again. I spend a lot of time searching for tracks that other DJs
don’t have in their mind as I also see my show as a piece of
art and not only as another show where only the current
trance promos are supported.
By the way, at the end of the year the 100th episode
will be broadcasted and I’m planning something special for
this milestone.
Festivals, Superclubs, small clubs or
House parties, and why?
I personally think that all these different kind of
events have their pros and cons. Todays festivals like
Tomorrowland, Creamfields or Nature One seem to be really
professionally organized and always full of energy. But on the
other hand show and light effects and visuals often seem to
be more important than the music itself. The same can be
said about superclubs like Ushuaia etc. But what sucks in all of
these locations and events is the fact that the majority of the
crowd is more playing around with their cellphones and not
really into the music. Back to the old days please where only
music mattered.
Where do you see the future of
Electronic music?
I can’t see into the future but I hope that some
things will change in the future. I’m a little bit concerned
about some developments in our scene, e.g. ghost produced
talentless superstar DJs who think they are the king of the
world. I hope that the scene develops back in the direction
where music matters and not just show effects and fireworks.
Maybe there are too many festivals with short DJ sets.
I personally hope that we come back to smaller club
with longer DJ sets where the DJ gets the chance to tell a
story through music. I’m afraid that this kind of art got a little
bit lost these days.
" Electronic music always should
try to reinvent itself but also never
forget its roots. Therefore a
mixture of old and newskool is
my choice. When I’m in the studio
and work on new material, I
always try to not forget my
personal roots of electronic music
and add a bit of this oldschool
flavor "