This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)
Dutch Jeroen Verheij a.k.a. techno producer & live artist Secret Cinema is refreshingly down to earth and open. In May 2017 I interviewed him about his DJ debut. “After that first gig, it was ‘live’ or die!”
“My very first ever gig was at the Ultimate Seduction Party at Tomorrowland, Rotterdam. This was a club where the first hardcore gabber artists were performing. I was just 20 at that time!”
Faking my set
“Was I nervous? Yes, I was nervous! Mainly because I was basically faking my live set. I didn’t want to DJ, I only wanted to play my own music live on stage the way a band would. But at that time, it was not possible to play live with an Amiga 500 computer, which is what I used to make all my music.”
Power cut
“So, I went to Paul Elstak and learned from him how to play live with a DAT tape running in the background. It felt horrible, and there was a power cut during the set, so everyone could see that the music continued while my keyboard was off. The funny thing was that all of the live acts that night were doing the same thing. But because the power only went out during my set, it was only then that it became noticeable.” (laughs)
Wider spectrum
“It was a really varied crowd. At that time electronic music was still developing, so you got people who were into a wider spectrum of music that had not yet been narrowed down into many sub-cultures and genres. They all just came for a good time!”
For the better
“So, there I was, standing behind my Roland W30 keyboard pretending to play! It made me want to really play live on next occasions, so I guess the experience was for the better. I didn’t like to fake the performance, but it was what everyone was doing at the time. It was my first gig ever, and I learned very fast to never ever go down that route again.”
Mother
“At the time, I had a lot of people from school and friends from my teenage years supporting me. My mum was skeptical when I left school to make music. But she supported it when my career took off. She didn’t come to that first gig though, thank god!” (laughs)
Paul Elstak
“As far as having a mentor goes, it was Paul Elstak who gave me some of my first advice. He was also playing ‘live’ that night, under the alias Holy Noise I believe. He was using the same trick I used.”
Make a living
“Nope, there wasn’t really a girl present at that gig that I wanted to impress. At that time all I wanted to do was focus on music, and be sure that I could make a living from it. I knew from the moment of the first gig that playing that way, was not the right path for me. I chose not to produce the hardcore style of music which was really popular at the time. I went down the techno road instead, and it’s been a good one since.”
Deflated
“How I felt after that first gig? Well, I think you already know the answer to this one. It was terrible! But maybe it was the best thing that could have happened to me, just in disguise. After that night, I decided to go live or die basically. I came away from that gig feeling a little deflated but also determined to learn a lesson and change things for the better.”
“A few years later I worked on a new set up, I had a DJ booth full of equipment, and played my sets with an MPC3000 and a Kurzwell 2000 with effects and so on. It felt amazing and exactly how it should feel to play live.”
Photo credit Loveland: Dennis Bouman
This interview with Secret Cinema is originally published on DJMag.nl in May 2017.
Who is Secret Cinema?
Secret Cinema is a key figure in the Dutch scene since 1991. An international headlining artist known for his sets in Berghain, Space Ibiza, Womb Tokio, Watergate, his frequent Elrow gigs or headlining every major festival in the Netherlands.
The artist known best for his Secret Cinema work started the nineties off with an array of projects that each played important roles. Secret Cinema’s story started at one defining moment in 1990 at his parents’ house near Rotterdam, the Netherlands: The moment he decided to stop playing video games and start making music on his Amiga 500 computer. His first release “Sonar System” as Meng Syndicate (Hithouse Records 1991) became an instant rave classic.
Hungry for more the young producer invested his royalties in equipment: the Kurzweil K2000. This piece of equipment sparked an extremely productive period. It was there that Secret Cinema made “Point Blank – Meng’s Theme”; a track that according to the Swedish Drumcode label boss himself, inspired Adam Beyer to start making techno. The first Secret Cinema release “Timeless Altitude” followed soon and was a massive worldwide club hit played by Väth, Cox and was a Love Parade favourite. “Grooveyard – Watch Me Now” and “Mary Go W!ld” were huge crossover hits that made their way from the club into the national charts in several countries.
At the time, Secret Cinema was part of a now extinct species of musician who made a living selling music without performing. He had one strong principle: he only wanted to perform his own music live on stage, no DJing. It was only sporadically he would bring out his huge rack of equipment to play a live set, inserting floppy disks with samples for each track. Again, it was a piece of equipment that brought around change.
In 1998 Secret Cinema discovered the Yamaha SU700 sampler sequencer. This compact setup made Secret Cinema a pioneer of live acts as we have come to know them today. It also gave birth to an international career with travel now within reach, trips to Japan, China and across Europe.
After 15 years of strictly live sets Secret Cinema broke his promise to himself. He decided it was time to get more freedom to play a different sound than his own. The start of Secret Cinema’s DJ career. It was then that he discovered Egbert who had a huge collection of unreleased tracks which only needed polishing. Gem Records with its booking agency and label nights was formed to accommodate the new talent Secret Cinema discovered in his search for new music which no one else had yet. This resulted in chart successes such as “Kurzweil“, “Jazz Me” and “Shake Ur Tek-Ass”. It also gave birth to a new act: Secret Cinema & Egbert.
More Secret Cinema?
More First Gigs? Check them all here!
