Mario Berger will be the guest of Late Night Consumptions party series this week on January 22., at The Tunnel club in Novi Sad. Mario Berger is a resident host at infamous club Tresor in Berlin. We had a chance to chat with him about his DJ career, musical influences and what can we expect from his 3 hours vinyl-only set.
Since it’s first time that crowd in Serbia is meeting with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your DJ career? When your passion for music have started?
It actually started when I got eagerly interested in music in general when I was a teenager. There was no internet, no Facebook or Soundcloud. There were local radio shows that featured Techno and House music. Somehow I was faszinated by this music and the atmosphere which surrounded it. My friends and I always recorded these shows onto music tape and we went to the clubs they talked about in these shows. Just like Tresor which was our landmark. I was deeply impressed by the atmosphere, the energy of the music and last not least the DJs that played at Tresor. So I put money aside to buy record players and records of course. I am not that “Hey, I am a DJ, let me play” – guy. So It took me many years to play in front of a real crowd, besides smaller parties in my hometown.
Actually it was Alexander Kowalski, I was introduced to by a mutual friend (of course I knew him as an artist before), who came up and asked me: “You are also a DJ, right?! Do you wanna play on a night I’m hosting at Tresor?” Actually I turned him down back in the days, which is still something he is joking about today. 🙂 Six months later he asked me again. I said yes and had my first appearance at Tresor on a Wednesday. Shortly after that Marcel Heese, who is a resident at Tresor for many years now, invited me to play at his New Faces issue. Meanwhile this was years ago..the rest is history 🙂
How much have growing up in Berlin affected onto your musical taste, knowing the fact, that Berlin have a vast history of electronic music?
Until now I think it totally affected my taste. Since I grew up in Potsdam (which is a train ride of 30 minutes into Berlin’s city centre) I had the chance to visit all those popular clubs and see those great DJs and producers play when I was really young. So I could and still can experience a wide range of the electronic music. In fact this is the thing I like most – this music is multifarious and almost everything with the coordinates of House and Techno is equally played at Berlin’s clubs within one single DJ set.
Right now you are a resident at the Tresor, how does it feel to be part of such a famous club? And can you tell us something more about your resident night, what is the concept of the parties?
Since Tresor was the first club I went to back in the days when I was a really young and since Tresor is such an important club for the whole scene and I admire and own my records of the label, it is an honor to be a resident there.
I have great respect for anything Tresor and the label have done for the scene and for the development of the whole culture.
I could hardly imagine a better place to play because the sound system is really great, the ceiling is low and the crowd is so close to the DJ booth. Fog, strobe – there’s always a special atmosphere.
Simple as that the main concept of the New faces series is to give young artists an opportunity to play in front of an audience in a famous club with a huge sound system.
I felt honored when I was asked to be one of the hosts. I always try my best to find young artists who fit my taste: raw and pure Techno with a tiny drop of understatement. 🙂 It is fun to get in contact with them, to swap ideas on music and, of course, to hear them playing.
You are collaborating frequently with Alexander Kowalski on numerous tracks and remixes, how you two have started working together? And are you planning on more releases together or something on your own?
As I mentioned before I met Alex through a mutual friend. We became good friends and since I was interested in the studio work with such an experienced producer he asked me to collaborate on a remix for a track of himself.
Yes, we are keeping on collaborating and (hopefully) releasing tracks. I really like to work with Alex in the studio. It is fun and he is such an experienced producer. So at the moment there are no plans on working on my own. I think I still need a counterpart to be creative.
We saw that you will have vinyl only set at Novi Sad, do you usually play only vinyl or you are opened for different types of music formats?
Once or twice a year I play back to back with Alex Kowalski. We are using Laptops which are synced, with Traktor on it and maybe a Roland TR-909 to put a little more spice in it.
When I play solo, which I of course mostly do, I play 99 percent vinyl and 1 percent USB sticks in the CDJs. 🙂
I, for myself, really like to play and buy vinyl. I love it to go to a record store or dig for rarieties on the internet. I also think you value, you cherrish music in a different way when you buy it on a record.
But I’m not that vinyl-only-soldier. It does not matter how someone is playing as long as the music is good.
Is there something that you want to tell to the crowd at Late Night Consumption party, since it’s your first time in Serbia? What can we expect, beside good time?
I know the great guys of LNC through my New faces parties and I know we are going to have a great time with cool music. I’ll try my best to present my idea of Techno. So expect a cool party with lots of wicked tunes. I am really looking forward to it!! 🙂
