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In the beginning of 2016, I had the opportunity to ask German DJ/producer Klaudia Gawlas about her first gig. Her family was not happy that she became a musician. Luckily many friends supported her, also at her debut. “From the beginning I followed the flow on the dance floor and it turned out to be a fantastic night.”
“My first performance was as a club Alcatraz. It was one of the biggest and best venues in Bavaria, Germany. Everyone who was someone was playing there! It’s where I started to rave myself. The club had a big name when it came to techno!”
DJ contest
“I was 22 at the time of my debut, that took place at a DJ contest. Of course, I was super nervous. It was a horrible feeling. I thought I would die! In those days there weren’t many women playing, so I knew that people were going to watch exactly what I was doing.”
Love of techno
“This club itself felt as my home! All people who came there, loved techno and we were like one big family. That made the performance easier for me, because I exactly knew what the people wanted and needed. I knew many of them personally.”
Favorite vinyl
“I hadn’t prepared my set at home, but I brought all my favorite vinyl with me, and I knew exactly where every single record was. Good organization is important when you get nervous. That’s all I did before the gig. From the beginning I followed the flow on the dance floor and it ended up being a great night!”
Sad
“My family was really sad when I told them I wanted to be a musician. They had no clue about what I was doing or about techno music. Fortunately, I got a lot of support from friends, also after that first gig.”
Mother
“I never really had a mentor, but I was always impressed by my mom’s energy: her positive look on life and how hard she worked. That’s why at one point I I realized that I had to work hard for what I wanted. That was an important realization for me! But sadly, my mother didn´t join me at any of my gigs. I think they were a bit too loud for her.” (laughs)
Influence
“Although many of my friends were present at my debut, none of them was my ‘boyfriend’.” (laughs) “I simply loved the music so much and that night I merely wanted to play great for the people and have my own influence on techno music.”
Booking agency
“In the end, that first gig went pretty good. After that I joined the first booking agency. I was really lucky at this point. That way I could concentrate on the music, while they did the rest. So I got bigger and better known.”
Happy
“My memories of that night are positive ones. It was a good feeling to rave with everyone there and take control of the music. I didn’t make any big mistakes. Maybe some pitches that didn’t go as planned. In the end, I was happy!”
“What I mostly learned that first night is that it’s important that you love what you do. That love will push you in a forward direction, that’s what passion does. I just love it!”
This interview with Klaudia Gawlas is originally published on DJMag.nl in Februari 2016.
Who is Klaudia Gawlas?
With the release of “Papillon” in 2013, Klaudia Gawlas chiseled her place among the top rungs of the techno world. For nearly two decades the thoroughbred musician has been following her calling, headlining events around the world, trooping together fans and topping the lists of DJ polls.
As a 9-year-old Klaudia Gawlas came from Poland to Germany and experimented with keyboards and guitar. She quickly noticed that music education was set up to teach the student to play other people’s music. Klaudia rejected that. Her drive was to express her own music, the music she carries inside of her. Luckily, she soon found the computer. She made her first beats at the age of 13 on her Commodore 64, soon after started tiptoeing into clubs and fell in love with the music she heard there. Her aunt gave her a Jeff Mills tape – Klaudia was hooked.
Klaudia Gawlas knew she wanted to dedicate herself to techno, as a DJ. She would take any gig, radio or event-wise, it did not matter as long as she could play her music. Upon her return to Germany Klaudia Gawlas wanted to share her ever-growing record collection with the dance-floors and worked and honed her craft, after borrowing money to buy some record players. She got her first bookings in Bavaria, her network started to grow organically, slowly, but steadily and then suddenly, there it was, her chance: Klaudia Gawlas won a mixtape contest and played at the Ruhr in Love Raveline floor in 2008.
Klaudia Gawlas’s career started to pick up steam. Bookings for Mayday, Time Warp, Nature One, Awakenings, Tomorrowland Brazil, Argentina followed and Klaudia kept on nurturing the ever growing community of fans around the globe with every gig. She partnered with Eric Sneo, running the cult-label MOD together. Her LPs “Zeitgeist” (2013) and “Vision” (2016) in combination with her immortal single “Papillon” established her reputation as a producer. And the success story continues.
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