Contributing Writer
German DJ/producer Schiela has been taking the underground clubs of Berlin by storm. After making his mark in hotspots such as Watergate and KitKat, he landed sets in Paris, London and Barcelona. His sound mixes up myriad house styles driven by the energetic tempo of the 90s and always with an open eye for the hidden gems of Disco and Hi-NRG. We caught up with Schiela as he drops his first foray into production on Creatures Of The Night, ‘ALL NIGHT, BABY!’
Schiela! Welcome to Music Is 4 Lovers. How’s your year been so far?
Heyhey! Thank you for letting me be part of your platform! My year has been good so far! A bit quieter than last year. After flying around a lot for DJ gigs, I’ve now cut back on the travelling to focus more on music production; if you’re flying around every weekend, you don’t get anything done, and I’ve realised that the production thing is simply more important to me right now. I’m super happy with everything so far, I’ve already written a few new tracks!
Your latest EP, ‘ALL NIGHT, BABY!’, is out now on Creatures Of The Night! We’d love to know more about this release.
Well it’s my debut release, so of course it’s something very special for me. My goal as a producer is essentially to make tracks that I would play myself when DJing and that DJs I like would play in the clubs I like, that’s actually the background to how the track came about! I’m super happy about the involvement of artists I’ve admired for a long time, the release comes out on the label of Zombies in Miami, who I’ve been following for a years now because of their productions and their DJ sets.
Tell us about your journey as an artist/DJ. How has your experience of the Berlin’s underground dance scene been?
I started DJing while I was still at school with two Technics from eBay and my first vinyls. When I came to Berlin to study, I naturally threw myself fully into nightlife, initially only as a guest; at the same time, I started playing in small venues. That’s how it developed over the years. I’m currently playing regularly at Watergate and KitKat for the legendary ‘PiepShow’ party; these are always my highlights, two club institutions in Berlin that I’m very happy to be a part of! The ALL NIGHT, BABY! release party at Watergate was amazing! I couldn’t be luckier to celebrate this at such a special venue!
‘ALL NIGHT, BABY!’ Is a great record that captures the high-energy sound of the 90s. Are there any particular pieces of kit you used for this one?
I actually produce completely in Ableton. The only tools I use are my Ableton Push and my Adam Audio Monitor Speakers. I have all kinds of plug-ins flying around, especially filtering stuff is my thing!
What led to the link up with Benjamin Fröhlich and Known Artist here?
Zombies in Miami set this one up. Benjamin’s label Permanent Vacation has been one of my favourite labels for many years and I love his productions. And I’ve bought and played almost every release from Known Artist so far. To have these heroes as remixers for my first release is a dream!
You’ve now played across cities such as London, Paris and Barcelona. Are there any highlights from sets that come to mind?
What comes to mind spontaneously is a gig at the end of last year on the rooftop of Soho House Greek Street in London. It was October, we had 20 degrees of sunshine (crazy for London, right?!), so they spontaneously decided not to have the party inside in the club room, but to move it to the rooftop. The result: a rooftop filled to the last inch and the atmosphere was completely off the charts. I usually get good feedback from people, but on this evening every 5 minutes someone else came up and asked my name, randomly brought me drinks, thanked me for the music, the people were so appreciating! When I turned the music off at 3 am due to closing time, everyone was still there and just looked at me confused like “What are you doing, why is the music off?”; great memories!
When you’re not making music or spinning tracks, what do you like to do in your spare time?
There’s not much spare time at the moment haha! My great passion is art, so I like to visit exhibitions, artists’ studios and read a lot about it. It’s great fun and also brings some inspiration for the music; the ‘ALL NIGHT, BABY!’ cover for example, is based on a painting by my friend Max Rödel!
Where can we expect to see you filling up dance-floors this summer?
Berlin is mainly planned so far with not much travelling so I have the time to make music. I will play 1-2 private parties on the islands of Sardinia and Mallorca, we’re also planning something in Barcelona again. I’ll also be playing around Germany from time to time; next weekend, for example, I’ll be playing for the first time in the garden of Tresor West in Dortmund, the younger brother of the legendary club Tresor in Berlin!
Follow Schiela: Instagram – Soundcloud – Facebook
