The most frequent description of your person on the net is: “The raven ornithologist from the Westerwald with a tendency to natural sounds”. Does this really well reflect who you are and what you do?
I do not really see myself in the sentence. Sure, it’s very extraordinary that a techno DJ is also a biologist at the same time. That’s what people are talking about. If I had to describe myself, I would say that I am a very curious person, very important to the knowledge, so that one does not go blindly through nature, but registers it and creates an awareness for it. Most techno DJs or producers talk about technology and technology. This is only a small part for me. It is about the beauty of nature with my music.
What role does nature play in your music? Rather abstract or do you record sounds?
I used to record sounds and bird voices and use them in my music, but I do not do that anymore. Nature is the greatest artist and I am inspired by her. I try to manifest the feelings I feel in nature. I do this because I have a pedagogical approach, for example, between stories between the tracks or on the disc cover. But it also helps me, because music is really nothing else but the selection from infinitely many options. But when I imagine how fireflies dance, I have a clear line in my head.
Where does this passion for nature come from?
From the beginning I had a very direct access to nature. As I grew up without a TV, I was free to develop my creativity in nature. When I was a child, a stick for me could be a snake or an airplane. I was so fond of the forest that my mother took me out of the nursery after a short time and left me in the forest.
And how did this natural boy come to the techno?
I started playing electronic music at the age of 15, after listening to techno music from Sven Väth on a ghetto blaster. These were very strange, fascinating noises for me. To understand how electricity becomes an acoustic signal, I bought Synthesizer and reassembled it and reassembled it.
At school, I was rather the outsider who was smiled because he was watching birds and making funny electronic sounds. This has spurred me on my hobby to be much more intense. Here in the area nobody was with this hobby, so I have brought everything auto-didactically. The first time I’ve hung up at Grillhüttenraves and in local pubs, during my studies in Bonn then also in clubs. At that time still for 50 D-Mark in the evening. At the time I had already made nine years of music, but did not want to publish it.
Then “DJ” was probably not your professional plan…
My music was never about success, and I did not do it well to arrive well. Besides, I do not like to be in the center at all. I had to be persuaded by a fellow student to show my music to a record company. I’ve made it a prerequisite that I can name my records as I want. German titles were then a no-go and then I wanted also so “funny” biology names such as “The red-bell-squirrels of the Tegernsee” or “Brenzlich, brenzlich”
How you decided to study science?
For me, it was clear that I wanted to do something with nature and nature conservation. Biology was too theoretical for me, the interface human-nature interested me. That is why I studied “Ecology and the Environment”, an interdisciplinary course of studies, which included biology, geology, geography and sociology. By the way, I worked in national parks, researched and guided nature tours. However, I graduated from the Diploma. If you come back from Paris on sundays and have to go back to Tokyo on Thursday, there is no time to study.
https://soundcloud.com/dominik-eulberg/rabimmel-rabommel-rohrdommel
Today you take the time for the natural science, right?
Yes. I am writing a naturalist column in the FAZEmag, and sometimes I make bird-fluids. I am currently working on a birdcage CD, write a book on nature conservation and would like to found a sustainable model. In addition, I have currently participated in three Kinofilms: “Birds and People”, “SongbirdSOS” and “Generation E”. The latter is about the subculture of electronic music as a substitute religion for young people.
The selection of the films shows how different the worlds in which you are moving …
Nature and techno-hedonism: these are antagonists! On the one hand, I love these opposites. Then I sit here and think: Now the blanket falls on my head, enough birds watching, I now want to have action. After three days of the club, I got my mouth full again. The change between the two extremes is an extreme challenge.
When I produce music, I creep around in the studio for hours. For this one must be very introverted. So much so that I have to be re-socialized a bit if the mail carrier knocks at the door. However, the transition from Ravenous to everyday life is difficult for all colleagues.
Do you give yourself to the excessive life of the metropolis at the weekend?
No, actually I am not an excessive type at all. I do not take any drugs at all and do not drink alcohol too much. I am interested in art, music. The energy that arises between me and the crowd carries me through the night and is intoxication enough.
So can you imagine a life without Technopartys?
A bit I’m living that already. I would also like to open an organic café here, offer guided nature tours and plant a herb garden. I could also imagine hypnosis. With hypnosis one reaches things for which ten years of psychotherapy would be needed. This pure techno-hedonism – to stand in the club, to re-roll the bass-drum and all raise your arms: That’s nice, but somebody does not satisfy you any more.
