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When we met during ADE 2019, we couldn't stop talking. Such a feast of recognition! Nearly a year later, in 2020, the interview about his debut followed. This week in the MY FIRST GIG series: German DJ Oliver Böll, also known as Ruhrkraft. "It felt safe."
“I’ve been involved with music for as long as I can remember. From the age of seventeen, I really got into it. Most of my friends had DJ gear at home, so I was familiar with vinyl. I didn’t DJ myself but went to parties all the time. I attended events like Mayday, at a time when indoor events were still new. It was attended by ten thousand people.”
Lucky Break
“I was always tinkering with various music programs and making my own music. This took off after an amazing vacation in Ibiza in 2011. I was already a fan of Paul Kalkbrenner and really wanted to see him. I hit the jackpot. On the night we arrived, he was playing at Amnesia. Amazing! I love his approach, his melodic style with the strong kick and bass. Later, we also saw Carl Cox at Space. What an awesome club! We were pretty wild that night and had a great time, but I only consciously experienced an hour of the set.” (laughs) “I instantly fell in love with Ibiza. The whole island felt like one ongoing festival. People were dancing everywhere, making love on the beach, I was sold! We went out every night until six, seven in the morning and only slept when the sun came up.”
Tutorials
“After that vacation, the floodgates opened for me. I only wanted to make music! So, I bought my own gear and switched directly from vinyl to digital. In the long term, I also wanted to DJ. I believe that if I make music, I am also responsible for presenting it well. I taught myself both DJing and producing. I took DJ courses, and in a way, YouTube with its many tutorials was a mentor.”
Bridge Club
“This is how I ended up at that first gig. I regularly attended illegal parties under a highway overpass near Schwerte, in the Dortmund area. There, I met the organizer, Reinisch. Together, we came up with the idea to organize these parties legally in a club. We did this under the name Bridge Club. The logo was a highway entrance sign. We did it right from the start, with flyers, visuals, DJ intros, etc. The club Rattenloch, where it was going to happen, could hold about two hundred people. That first night, there were 170, and the numbers increased from there. We did a total of five editions.”
All Own Music
“I played at the second edition. I was really excited! There were at least forty friends in the audience. It felt safe. I had been hanging out with them for years and knew their taste. So, I wasn’t nervous at all. I knew exactly what they wanted to hear. During the third edition, I played a set with only my own music for the first time. Phielexx, the producer I was working with at the time, stood next to me in the booth.”
Harmonious Mixes
“I practiced my set for that first gig a lot at home. I’m German, we are good at organizing things.” (laughs) “I always have my stuff in order. I feel comfortable with that. Of course, I later learned to vary and improvise in my career. I love harmonious mixes. Nowadays, I usually create mini sets of two or three tracks within the same vibe: deep house or progressive or melodic house. I have a broad orientation. I can combine these mini sets to create a sort of new track. At that first gig, I did make a mistake, though. I forgot to mix in the kick after the drop once. Sometimes, mistakes are the most fun. You learn from them. Plus, it keeps things exciting. If you make a mistake, you have to improvise.”
Intuition
“I remember exactly what my first track was: “Deeper Love” by Adriatique. It was the perfect track for the moment. It’s a beautiful opening track that defines my style right away. The track sums up what I stand for: groovy and melodic. If I hadn’t remembered the title, I could have easily looked it up. That’s the great thing about working digitally: I always carry my entire DJ history with me.” (laughs) “Nowadays, I’m not afraid to improvise either. You rely on your intuition. I just feel what fits and what doesn’t.”
Super Proud Parents
“My parents have unfortunately never attended one of my performances. When I went wild at seventeen, they sometimes complained about the loud music in my room and the heavy beats, but they always trusted me. Now that they see I’m really making something out of music, they are super proud. They also really like my more melodic and accessible productions.”
Soaking Up the Atmosphere
“I strongly believe that every club night should have a common thread. DJs should check each other’s sets: where one ends, where the other wants to begin. Artists should take each other into account. I’m usually at the venue an hour or two before my set to chat with the organizers, discuss with the DJ before me, have a drink at the bar, and soak up the atmosphere a bit.”
Follow Your Passion
“One tip I’d like to give to upcoming producers and DJs is: follow your passion and do only what your heart tells you. You have to feel it, the spark, the fire. Producers should be careful about being too perfectionist. Otherwise, you’ll never finish anything.”
“Since 2008, I’ve been living in Groningen and organizing my own parties with Roger Lutter a.k.a. Lesley More. He introduced me to the Groningen dance scene and I’ve played at his open platform event DJFriday five times. We have also organized various other events together, such as Vivacity and Before the After. I am also working on my own label KORECRAFT and a rebranding. In the future, I will continue under my own name, Oliver Böll. Depending on how the current situation develops, I will start hosting my own parties again from the end of this year. I also have five new releases ready, which will come out in the upcoming months.”
This interview with Oliver Böll was originally published in September 2020 on This Is Our House.
Who is Oliver Böll?
Oliver Böll a.k.a. Ruhrkraft is an electronic music producer born in 1981. He grew up in Dortmund which is part of the metropolitan region “Ruhrgebiet” in Germany. Oliver Böll first encountered synthesized sounds in 1994 through Maruhsa’s “Raveland” LP and Oliver Böll has been raving ever since. By stumbling upon radio shows such as Partyservice on 1Live and the Steve Mason Experience on BFBS Oliver Böll found endless possibilities to feed his newly discovered passion for electronic music. His devotion increased further when his raving shoes first hit the floors of clubs like the Warehouse, Fusion, Soundgarden, Cosmic Club, Butan and Tribehouse.
Oliver Böll just liked the rhythmic and impulsive sounds which make you move and smile, surrounded by hundreds of people who all feel the same. In the years that followed, he bounced to the beat of Taucher, Sven Väth, Tomcraft, Pascal FEOS, Westbam, Talla 2XLC, Monica Kruse, Tillmann Uhrmacher, Paul van Dyk and many more. Later Oliver Böll discovered the realms of drum and bass in which he had a tendency to enjoy their more liquid and atmospheric versions. At nearby events like Mayday, Nature One and the Loveparade his musical experience was broadened on an international level. All this led to first attempts behind the decks and the realization that for him mixing the music was not enough. Oliver Böll wanted to create a style of his own compiled out of the sounds he learned to love over the years.
Around his 17th birthday Oliver Böll had a first go with Propellerhead’s Rebirth followed by Reason, Cubase and Ableton Live. After a few stops and starts he has now been producing continuously. Due to the fact that Oliver Böll never liked stereotyped thinking, he actually has a hard time putting his style down in writing. Some call it pressure chill, some chill jazz and others say it is simply somewhat ‘kraftwerky’.
More Oliver Böll?
More First Gigs? Check them here!
