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In 2015 'Mr. Mokum' Michel Klaassen a.k.a. Tellurian a.k.a. Leviathan told me about his first gig in a church in Hoorn. He was immediately asked to perform live. That was quite nerve wracking.
“In 1991 a friend, DJ Bastiaan Prins, organized an old-school party called God’s House in the old church in Berkhout, near Hoorn. I was 21 at the time and felt quite honored when he asked me if I wanted to do a live act with my self-produced music. A number of those tracks were later released under the alias Tellurian on my first Mokum Records 5 Release.”
Party people
“God’s House was a great experience. Various styles were played during the evening and the party was completely sold out. I remember that Planet Rock from Africa Bambaataa was played and also the first 2 Unlimited track, Get Ready for This, when they had not reached their status of fame yet. From constructive to solid, dark oldskool and techno, it was all played. The audience consisted of party people from Hoorn and the surrounding area. The type of crowd you would also encounter at other parties in The Netherlands.”
Freaky stuff
“I was pretty nervous. Especially because my music came fresh from my home studio and no one at the event had heard my tracks yet. Since I was playing a live set, I had been busy preparing for weeks. On the spot, I added some freaky stuff to the set. Bastiaan Prins was one of the people who supported me. At that time he often supplied me with his new mixtapes. We have always enjoyed listening and making music together. He is also known as a radio DJ and our taste in music is very similar: R&B, swing beat, house, soul, hip hop, house classics and so on. In those days he was one of my inspirators.”
Torches
“Was a girlfriend present whom I wanted to impress? For me, the big kick was that I got the audience dancing to music I had produced. In addition, as a DJ/producer of course you have to deal with all prejudices.” (laughs) “Considering it was my debut, the set went great. The church glowed with countless torches and on stage one of the dancers of Quazar, Sophia, was completely in her tribal/trance element. Both the audience and I went wild. So as far as I’m concerned: mission accomplished!”
Motive
“I picked up DJing later. That’s a different story. This is indeed striking, because most people start out with spinning and start producing later. Of course, I learned a lot from that first time. In any case, this performance was the motive for me to continue with music, which was later released by Mokum Records. That also provided in inspiration and motivation.”
This interview was originally published on DJMag.nl on Thursday, January 18th 2015
