| housefloor.de: |
you have just found two labels, upstruct and king fu. why did you decide to do so and what’s new about them? |
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alexander
koning: |
i thought it was time for something new. i’m always thinking off new stuff to do and i’m somebody when i think of it, i just do it.
upstruct is my new night which i started in 2006 with great success. we already did ten nights in different venues this year with artist like james holden, tiefschwarz, marc romboy, thomas schumacher, martin eyerer etc. so i thought why not also do a label to support the night and vice versa.
on king fu i just wanna do whatever music i like best ranging from techno to club and all other styles i like. |
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| housefloor.de: |
since many years you are running several more labels such as equal records, xxxflicks, bassethound records, madnurse, zaebize and badgirls to name just a few. why do you have so many different labels and not just one or two? |
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alexander
koning: |
i think that a label shoudn’t have more then four to five releases a year to keep it strong and healthy, so i thought of another label and then another and then…
i also like to work with a lot of different distributions to see which one is better and which ones i really like to work with. there are also a lot of different artist i like so i try to work with everybody that i like and i also wanna give new artist the chance to get their tracks out on vinyl and not only as an mp3. |
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| housefloor.de: |
your musical style has always been located somewhere between house, techno and techhouse. if you don’t fit in genres what is characteristic about your music in your eyes? |
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alexander
koning: |
that is the characteristic thing, that i play it all. i’m really not a guy who just likes one musical style, i like a lot of styles so i try to mix them up in my dj sets. but i also just play on techno or club parties. but even then i try to mix in some other styles just to keep it interesting for me and the public. one style for me is really boring and i think a lot of the dj’s play a mixture of styles now. even the techno scene it starting to get more openminded. and that’s good. what my music making concerns i just make music and if turns into a house or techno track, i don’t care as long as i like it. :-) |
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| housefloor.de: |
throughout your career as a dj you have had quite a number of residencies such as in mazzo, melkweg, time, patronaat, stalker or hemkade and you still have some of them. why is it important to you to play regular nights in certain clubs? |
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alexander
koning: |
i don’t know if this is important i just like to do it. the clubs i still play in i already play for ten years or more, so you know everybody and it’s always nice to come there.
i don’t play in those clubs every week but four to eight times a year. so you don’t get bored and every time you come there is like coming home. :-) |
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| housefloor.de: |
already in the early days of house and techno you organized parties, first in your hometown beverwijk, later in a bigger location in amsterdam and zaandam. still today you are promoter for the regular “eye on the future” parties and invite artists who have never visited holland before. why is it important to you to make parties yourself? |
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alexander
koning: |
from the beginning i just liked to throw parties myself, so that you could invite dj’s which you had never heard. nowadays i do a lot of different parties just for the party.
i like it when people have a good time and they enjoy themselves.. i doesn’t matter if this is on a house, techno or minimal party. people having a good time that’s what does it for me. after new years i also gonna do some real small parties in bunkers for only 125 people. i just wanna do some real underground stuff again for people who just like good music and are open for new things. so my parties range from 125 up to 3500 people. but i get as much joy from the little ones then from the big ones. we live to party (said the old man ;-)) |
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| housefloor.de: |
since 1995 you own a recordstore named trancentral in haarlem which offers sheer endless rows of house vinyls. what do the store and the good old vinyl mean to you? how do you handle the new dj techniques? |
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alexander
koning: |
vinyl will forever be my thing i still play 95 percent vinyl and i’m afraid this will never end. i just don’t like to play with a cd player, it doesn’t give me the real feeling. a lot of younger kids are starting up with playing mp3’s, but i think in five years and if you really like the music you gonna feel sorry for yourself that you never bought the vinyl copies and don’t have a nice collection of records to go through on a rainy day or show to your friends. everybody should know for themselves but i will stick to vinyl. for me it’s also really strange that the younger producers, dj’s etc play digital. but their dream is to release a record on vinyl hmmm. i also heard that the vinyl sales are getting better again so i might not be the only one thinking like this. |
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| housefloor.de: |
so you are dj, producer, head of a bunch of labels, you have a record store and you organize parties... sounds like a lot of work. how do you arrange all that? |
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alexander
koning: |
i don’t, i just do what i have to do… work 24/7 ;-). and then again it isn’t real work, it is still my hobby and i love it. when you love something you don’t care how much you work on it. only my girl complains from time to time. so then i take some hours off. ;-) |
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| housefloor.de: |
you are a musician for about twenty years now. what can we expect from you in the near future and what are your long-term aims? |
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alexander
koning: |
i started playing in 1989 but i only started to make real music in 1998. still i don’t do it that often maybe twice a week for a few hours (i wish i could do it more). i was supposed to do it much earlier but i blew all the money i saved on parties and fines that i had to pay when i was arrested for making a whole lot of graffiti ;-). my long-term aims are just to make music and maybe move to vancouver. i just wanna be in the mountains to snowboard and hike (my other hobbies), have a studio with a view over the mountains and try to start up the scene there a bit cause it is still a bit behind.
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.:: alexander koning online ::. |
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myspace |
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homepage |
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sounds and styles labelsite |
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upstruct labelsite |
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eye on the future labelsite |
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