Bremen’s Bebetta is a playful, colorful and charming personality who likes to inject everything she does with a sense of fun. Her goal is to make people happy away from the troubles of every day life. In order to make this happen, she has years of DJing and music collecting experiences, that she calls upon not only in the usual Club or Festival, Bebetta also puts on her pajamas and streams regularly her famous live-session ‘Bebetta In Bed’ around the world. In this video podcast you can listen to Bebetta’s current favorite tracks and discover pillow fights with other artists like Super Flu while playing ‘bed2bed’. Take a cup of tea, relax and be part of it! Her considered sound touches on house and tech with a real focus on melody, driving drums and emotional sensitivity and the DJ’s own personality always manages to shine through in the sets she lays down. Similar vibes also pervade her own productions, which have been offered up by different labels including her homebase Monaberry. These standout releases are often full of inventive, off kilter tracks with hooky melodies, lush chords and original ideas a world way from the norm. Since 2008 she has been doing her thing with a name loosely taken from the English words ‘be better’. It’s all about community, about bringing people of all color and creeds together and about freeing up minds and engaging them on a natural and spiritual level. She pours all her focus into her music, but also into design for her merchandise and the beautiful covers of her musical releases. As such she is a warm and creative soul who simply wants to connect with people in any way she can.
You came into the game old school vinyl DJ style, right?
Yes. To be honest I didn’t think it would actually get this far. I just love records and really enjoyed playing music I love. Not even in the club, just at home for myself or friends. Production certainly wasn’t on my mind but friends kept telling I should. As I was DJing I had a lot of friends producing and would spend time in their studios, watching what they were doing. I knew I had a lot to learn but also realised it was possible for me to do it too.
You did the artwork too, right? Was design your original career plan?
Yes it was. I’ve always been drawing and painting and designing things. I did a lot of friend’s flyers and artwork for example. So to be able to combine my art and my music has always been a big love for me. Any opportunity to do the artwork for my music is amazing.
Did you do the Elephant On eBay artwork?
No unfortunately not. Monaberry do their own artwork but I would have loved to!
Why elephants? Why eBay?
There are a lot of sounds on that record that remind me of elephants and I’m always painting them on my Instagram stories. I like combining a little fantasy with the reality and Instagram has been a fun way to do that. I’m not sure how eBay came into it now but we thought it was a fun idea. There’s even more of a story coming on a video very soon.
Stories are very important to you, right?
Stories are very important! Especially in a DJ set with different kinds of music, making waves and highs and lows and drama like a story. It’s the same with music, too. The elephant has a story. The man in Herr Kapellmeister is this little guy who came to life for me while I worked on the track and I needed to tell his story in the video. The same for Upper Cut with the little Bebetta character who runs and fights through parts of Berlin and Fusion Festival before meeting an end boss who you might recognise?
Yes!
It was a lot of work to do, though. A lot more than we thought it would be so it took more time and came out a long time after the release. But it worked out very cool because it means not everything comes out at once. Again, there’s a story to unfold over time. Everything is too rushed and fast and we risk quality and appreciation when that happens. People the music, they play it for a month and then ciao, they don’t want to play that any more. So this is why it’s good to do things gradually. Put the music out. A few weeks later maybe a remix. A few weeks maybe a video. You keep the energy and the story going. This is why the Elephant On eBay
video came a lot later than the music too.
I’m sure you’ve been asked this before but how did your name come about?
I’m always thinking I need to be better. Especially when I started DJing I was just playing records for myself at home. I didn’t think I could play on a stage in front of people. But a friend eventually persuaded me to play at her party so I called myself Bebetta Beta. Then after a year I felt okay I need to stop with the beta and just always Bebetta.
How can dance music be better?
We can always be better in so many ways! What I love about some techno parties are when you see everyone together. All races, colours, genders, ages, nationalities. Everybody together. I see it at a lot of parties now, a lot more than other scenes I’ve been involved in. No discrimination and openness. We are already doing this. We are already being better in this way.
How can we be even better though?
Be more honest maybe? There are weird things happening in the techno world. People getting records made and saying that they’ve made them. They are sitting in interviews telling the world how they made these records and you know they didn’t. It’s very fake and dishonest. When I’m not able to do something I collaborate with people who can and I hope people do this with me too. This is how we should work together and be better together.
https://soundcloud.com/bebetta/bebetta-at-fusion-2018-tankwuste