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German Karin Hofmann a.k.a. DJ/producer Frau Hofmann and I met in 2017 at the event Sassafras in art-village Ruigoord in Amsterdam. After an interesting chat we agreed to do an interview about her first gig. This happened soon after. She remembers: “The delay of the mixer was on the whole time. Hilarious!”
“I was already 29 at the time of my first gig and had been playing and practicing at home. My good friend Elektro Uwe had been organizing the Von Freunden für Freunde Festival (VFFFF) outside of Nuremberg for a while already. While Uwe is not a typical mentor, he has been supporting me in my DJ career from the beginning. So, it was only natural that he invited me to play my first gig at the festival on a large meadow in the middle of Franconia.”
Nervous as hell
“There were only a few days left until my first gig and I was nervous as hell. I prepared and practiced my set at home several times to make sure nothing goes wrong. When I got to the festival, I was so happy to be received with open arms by an extremely relaxed audience including friends, friends of friends and even my siblings – people who generally appreciated my music and DJ sets which I had recorded at home and shared via Soundcloud.”
Freestyling
“This made me feel very comfortable with playing and after a while I switched to ‘freestyling’: playing whatever came to my mind to go with the vibe. I still approach my gigs like that. Maybe with a bit less preparation but it’s always good to have a plan on beforehand since you never know what to expect.”
Unusual and interesting
“Playing in front of a crowd for the first time was an incredible experience. So much different from recording sets at home. The gig skyrocketed my motivation to continue playing and strive for more live gigs. Of course, I also thought about how to improve my skills. Not that anything went wrong or that I made a terrible mistake the first time! What did happen though, is that in the middle of my set I had a few people approaching me asking why my sound is so unusual and interesting. I took it as a compliment and felt flattered until I realized only after my set that the delay of the mixer was on the whole time. I was so focused on beatmatching and doing perfect transitions that I didn’t realize it the whole time. It was hilarious.”
Technical skills
“Every gig after that was special to me and I was always able to grow and learn something. I improved my technical skills, but what I think is a way more important learning is to better understand a crowd, to read the vibe and react to it with the music I play. This is something that, in my opinion, you only learn from experience.”
Euphoria
“When I look back now, I’m humble about what I achieved in my DJ career in such a short time. When I was recording my sets at home back in the day, I would never have guessed when that DJing would ever take me so far. There comes a moment when you realize how important it is to you. Even after longer periods of not listening to music or diving into other genres and especially after not playing for a while, the euphoria always returns and gets you.”
“I still get excited before every gig. The energy and satisfaction that DJing gives me always shows me what an important part of my life music has become. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the future brings and how the next gig may be.”
This article is originally published in June 2017 on DJMag.nl.