Last weekend, whilst over in Amsterdam for Amsterdam Dance Event we headed over to Pulitzer Prinsengracht hotel to catch up with Matthias Meyer ahead of his performance the night after.

We had a good chat, speaking about his new music, what his favourite studio hardware is to use, what his highlight of the summer has been plus so much more.

Let’s start by talking about where you are performing at Amsterdam Dance Event this year… 

Tomorrow I play the ADE Berlin special party for Watergate X Katermukke at WesterUnie alongside Oliver Huntemann, Marco Resmann, Marek Hemmann, Mathias Kaden, M.A.N.D.Y and La Fleur split over two stages, I can’t wait to play!

What kind of vibes will we be hearing in your performance?

Tomorrow I am playing from 1-3am which I will be mostly playing deep house. I like to start slower at the start so I can add room to play some more rolling tracks later on in the performance. I tend to play a lot of melodic/dreamy grooves to keep everyone floating before the drops.

Where has been your highlight of the summer this year? 

This summer I have spent a lot of time performing in Ibiza, 7 shows to be exact, where I now have a residency for Hot Since 82’s party ‘Labyrinth’. The last show was a special party as the season was so successful, with so many people inside the venue at every show.

Over the season we also played a lot of fun villa afterparty’s, including a special party for the end of the season where it was only me playing for 6 hours…

What can we expect to hear next from your yourself?

There is a ‘15 years of Watergate‘ compilation coming out on November 6th where I produced a track with Ryan Davis after working on a remix for him last year. Our track on the compilation is entitled ‘Hope’, can’t wait for everyone to hear it!

I’ve been out of the studio for 3 months due to the summer season, next month I’m touring Asia and Australia, so finally, after that, I will be back working on new music in the studio!

How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard your productions before?

That’s a tough question… It’s always a little emotional, housey, I love the groove of the baseline to drive the track, a lot of melodies, sometimes some African influences.

How did becoming a DJ take place and who has been a massive inspiration to help you succeed your goals?

I grew up in a small village which we were always aware of the music scene. I remember reading a magazine, thinking I wanted to be a DJ, which lead me buying different vinyl and a turntable. I used to listen to a lot of different genres of music, ranging from hip-hop, indie, through to electronic music.

In the year 2000, I moved into a flat sharing community with a few friends, where we brought all our vinyl’s together and had two turntables. The first 5 years of my career was more of a private thing, but after that, I had my first release on liebe*detail which I released on for 5/6 years at the start.

When working in the studio, what’s your favourite piece of hardware to use and what is your favourite software plugin to use?

When I first started producing, I started using software plugins as it was easier to gain access. Now I tend to use more hardware. I have an amazing synth called Prophet 6 which I can use for almost everything, I tend to use this on almost every track.  I also like to use the Moog for my bass sounds, I have an old string machine from Roland which I use this quite often in my productions too.

My favourite software plugin to use is omnisphere from Spectrasonics, it has a lot of string sounds and different pad sounds, I use these on every track at least 3 times. It’s great because you can layer different sounds on top of each other and it allows you to mix it down inside the plugin.

A lot of wonderful sounds were used in the remix I completed for Butch’s Shahrzad track earlier in the year – Click Here