"It worked for the crowd, they were really into it. But the manager of the club was behind me in the booth and when I dropped Craig David in his club he freaked out. That was the last time that I ever played at Fabric." –Matthias Heilbronn

As a bar-back-turned-DJ in his native Germany, Matthias Heilbronn began making visits to New York in the late 80s and was captivated by the scene at Larry Levan's Paradise Garage. When he finally made the move to New York in 1989, he began working with Francois K at Axis Studios, where he truly cut his musical teeth, becoming one of the most in demand editors in the industry, working with everyone from Danny Tenaglia and Todd Terry, to Madonna, Sting and SWV.

Heilbronn's impressive resume also includes remixes for Martin Solveig ("The Heart of Africa"), Everything But the Girl("Lullaby Of Clubland"), Dimitri From Paris ("Strong Stuff") and MKL vs Soy SOS ("Her Song") and the recently released Deep & Sexy 3 on Wave music. This latest compilation showcases Heilbronn 's brilliant live sets, touching all corners of the soulful House genre, and encompassing elements of bass-drenched dub reggae and Afro-tribal riddems.

But now, Heilbronn seems to be at a crossroads. With the musical landscape of America no longer as supportive of House, it has become increasingly difficult for Heilbronn to practice his craft in his hometown of New York City. He recently took the time to sit down and discuss his accomplishments in the music industry and the challenges he faces that keep him trekking the globe as a DJ.

Which do you prefer, remix or production work?

I love doing remixes because it's a challenge to work with someone else's melody and put your own music on there but you want to keep the integrity of the original song. When I go into the studio to do a remix, I take about 3 days. I do half the music myself and I bring other musicians in. Nowadays, remixes are actually seen on the same level as productions in terms of respect and as part of your career. If you think about Shep Petitbone or Francois K or Larry Levan, they would take original qualities of the song, mix it a bit and put some new effects on it. Now you take all the parts out and really create a whole new song.

With the Everything But the Girl remix, my favorite vocal mix was never released. Instead they released the instrumental which was really only there for performance purposes. To me, that's a boring mix to choose to release. I may as well turn around and say, this has nothing to do with your song. If you're putting out the instrumental, then that really is my own production and should be treated as a new song. I was very disappointed with how that record was released.

Another example of remixing, I just did a mix for Dimitri From Paris and one for MKL (which was released on Peppermint Jam), and they were both done over a year ago and they're just now coming out. The MKL record (“Her Song”) I did two years ago, thinking it would be perfect for that time. You know, House music changes so fast. Not necessarily musically, but certainly drum-wise. The drum track I chose then, I really wouldn't use now, so it ends up making me look a little bit dated.

What was it that captured your interest so strongly when you first came to New York?

The difference for me from what I saw in Germany , was that when I went to the [ Paradise ] Garage everything was geared towards the music and dancing. It wasn't about getting all dressed up and looking fine, it was about being comfortable and letting loose. Also, how Larry [Levan] was creating a night from record to record. I experienced the Garage at the very end, which was when House was already a genre. The records I was playing in Germany was a different kind of R&B. Colonel Abrams would be in the same set as The Whispers. When I came here, all of a sudden I heard all these records that were just one kind of music. I also experienced a lot of disco classics that were not big at all in Germany . My background before was Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Smiths, the Cure. But here it was all about Loleatta Halloway and the Salsoul sound. When I came here, all of a sudden I saw that [Disco] was a big history here.

I started going out an buying those records and bringing them back to Germany with me. Another club that I played at in Germany , they would contribute money to my trips to New York . They wanted me to bring records back. Every time I came back, I had enough new records for the next year to blow people's minds.

What was the most valuable experience from your early days as a producer?

It was very, very hard work. We would put in over a hundred hours a week and half of those hours were unpaid, when I would just go into the studio and work on the equipment to learn how to further my skills. Francois would encourage us to just go in and play around, even
if we wanted to produce our own music, just to learn the equipment. It was a very humble experience. Knowledge was readily shared with people, which I thought was a great thing at Axis. Rather than being intimidated by someone else or thinking that they might take your job away, people would pass their knowledge on. You didn't have to be jealous. Working in the studio and on productions has a lot to do with individuality, charisma and personality. Everybody does the work in their own way. It's not all about knowing more or working faster, it's about getting along with your collaborators.

How do you craft your live sets? What are three essential records in your bins right now?

I really don't have those essential records. I take a little bit of everything with me and so my records are constantly changing. I can go anywhere I want to [in my sets]. I'm always inspired either by new records that I want to play or old records that I want to play again. Really, as soon as you start playing you know that it's not up to you what gets played. If you're trying to experiment a bit and you're trying to take the crowd somewhere that they don't normally go, you have to feed off them and their reaction. You have to try and force them a bit sometimes, but then you'll start to notice where they are willing to go.

If you play one type of music for the whole night, it gets boring, no matter the style. I like to hear somebody mix it up. I like to play a soulful record, then bring in something tribal, maybe bring it a little techy or even progressive and mix it up again and go in as different a direction as much as possible.

I was playing this night at Fabric in London and I felt that the DJs playing before me, it sounded like one long, boring song. So I decided to mix it up a bit and threw a Craig David acapella over some techy, progressive track. It worked for the crowd, they were really into it. But the manager of the club was behind me in the booth and when I dropped Craig David in his club he freaked out. That was the last time that I ever played at Fabric. The set was great, the crowd was great and I thought it went really well. But the manager wasn't having it, and I can only imagine that's why I've never been asked back to that club.

What is your creative process like in the studio?

I find that I just like to be in the studio by myself and not have the pressure to come up with something. Sometimes the flow of everything happens right then and there, and other times you have sit there and try out different chord progressions, bass lines, different drums. When you have someone sitting behind you and they're waiting for you to finish the drums so they can lay down the keyboards, it's a lot of pressure. If I'm not feeling the flow, I might end up settling for something that isn't quite as good as if I had time to just keep working on it.

What happened with the “Love From NYC” party?

I DJ all over the world, but in New York City there is a tremendous amount of pressure to get a crowd within the first two or three nights [of a club residency]. With the Love From NYC party, there was a lot to fight against; the history of Body & Soul [the hugely successful Sunday party previously held at ARC], plus the weather of one of the worst New York winters in quite some time. The first three months were nice and the number were building, but then they slipped. We [ Heilbronn and co-DJ Tedd Patterson] were doing all the promotion work. I was spending more time for less money. It's a situation where, after coming home from traveling, the last thing I wanted to do was spend time on the computer promoting a party on messageboards. I'm paid to play, not to promote, yet there I was every week on the computer.

I would love to have a New York night. People here are educated, open-minded and they have such a history with the music. I just can't play weekends here, or even a Thursday, due to my travel schedule.

What has been your experience working with Wave and Francois K?

I wish I could release everything I do on Francois' label. But what I find now is that it is so hard to sell our kind of music over here [in America ]. England and Europe have been a bigger market ever since all the radio stations over here switched over to R&B and Hip Hop. Even though House and Dance music is played in all the clubs here and around the world, record sales are down here in states.

How much do you think that has to do with file sharing?

I don't think that file sharing really affects what I do so much. Sure, I might be able to find productions of mine on [the internet], but that kind of downloading I think affects the pop, R&B, Hip Hop and reggae, not the dance music community. Our record sales really are limited to DJs and once the DJs start giving each other the music, no one else is going to buy them. Since everybody knows everybody, DJs pass tracks around to each other and by the time my new record comes out, the people who would buy it, already have it because it's been passed around to everyone. It's not as if we're selling 500,000 copies of each single and then there's another 10,000 copies that you don't care about. The only 10,000 people who would buy the record are swapping records instead.

I have to wonder, how are we going to make money by selling tracks on the internet for $1.99 or 99 cents? We're already not making money. The business has changed so much from where I used to DJ to promote my productions, now I produce to promote my DJing. You have to have the productions out there, even though it may not be worth it for you. I love being in the studio, butI can't support my family with that, so I have to DJ. In order to DJ, I have to do the productions to stay in the charts and to stay interesting.

What is it about House that keeps it vital?

To be quite honest, I don't think it is anymore. For me, I'm interested in all different sorts of music and I've been thinking why not change things up a little and move into a new music category. The next song I'm working on is a reggae song. Of course, I plan to do a house mix of it, but I find that I had more fun in the studio working on it and I'm even still listening to it now. A lot of times when you work on a house record, you've heard it so much that by the time it actually comes out, you don't even want to play it. It's so interesting to see all the different genres of house, but what's even more interesting is the way that you can put them all together.

Pictures used with permission

Words by Alex R. Mayer for JJazproJect.com