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Name: Lars Moston
Interview
Since the release of their first single “Keep On Burnin’“ (Lounge Rec.), German-based act The Killergroove Formula have been putting out tune after tune, securing them an almost permanent spot in the German Club Chart Top-40. The 12-inch “Killergroove Uppercut” (MUTO Rec.), released in August 2005, ranked high in a lot of international DJ charts: USA, Argentina, France, Russia, Hungary, Australia… the world is catching on to the Killergroove in a big way. How does this make you feel now?
Lars: Feels great. I wish I could have been in some more of the places where our tunes were being played. It’s cool to see how Breaks has become such a global thing. It’s all moving so fast now because everybody is so connected and up to date. Internet radio, myspace and yousendit are really having a big influence on the way a scene like Breaks develops.
Can you sum up your style for people that never heard of you?
Lars: The Killergroove Formula is all about Fun, Funk and Freestyle. It’s Breaks but we always throw in so many influences that the result is kinda unpredictable every time we sit down to start producing a tune. So on the singles we have released so far there all sorts of styles going on. “Keep On Burnin’” was like a HipHop track produced like a Breaks track, with drops and big snare rolls and a distorted bassline. On the other side of that one was “Shake Your Funky Bok-Bok” which has more of a BigBeat flavour to it, lotsa scratches, sampled shouts - we do like our old-school now and again. We had “The Last House Song” which was our go at a classic house tune, putting in lots of House clichés and playing on those, a bit like Norman Cook’s “Let the Drums Speak” I suppose, a favourite with the girls anyway that one. Then there was “Peter Gunn (Turntable Detective)” which was originally a remix of that famous Mancini Theme Music in a version played by an East-German Beat band in the 60’s. Their timing was all over the place and we had a hell of a job getting it tight but that band really went for it. We put some crazy computer-lyrics on there and some very noisy breakbeats to make it a party rocker. “Killergroove Uppercut” is tough peak time Breaks with a singer who sounds like Lemmy from Motorhead and “Please Mr Groove” is best described as sounding like a record on Lab-Rok, which of course it is ;-)
When playing out we spin lots of funky Breaks along the lines of Splank! or Finger Lickin, some tougher stuff like Aquasky too, but nothing really harsh or dark, it’s gotta be positive, a fair amount of bootlegs too. We may throw in some Electro-House as well or a little Drum n Bass if the crowd are up for it. It’s usually Jense and myself on four decks and NDN as MC, lots of scratching and acapellas mashed over the mix.
Where have you played this year and what were your favourite gigs so far?
Lars: With the Killergroove Formula the best ones were surely the one in Switzerland which you can hear on the live mix and my own birthday party which I held at my residency called “Loonyland” in Cologne, which is always cool. It’s a very big club and they always have these crazy performances, people in huge furry-animal-suits and that sort of thing. I got to host my own Breaks floor and it was us and our good friends Boogie Army playing, we had a blast.
By myself, I also played in Budapest and a mini-tour with a couple of gigs in the London area but the best gig of the year so far was the one at Fusion Festival in Germany that I did with my other partner, Malente, who I release tracks with on Splank! and Moonbootique. Fusion is a truly alternative festival, they have no sponsors whatsoever and are very idealistic about everything. So that means no huge advertisements everywhere or mobile phone people bugging you with flyers, no bad-tempered security guys with shades and headsets going through your pockets etc. - we played there on a scorching afternoon with 1500 people going mad in front of our stage, it was magic.
You have played with allot of headliners from the uk, name some artists that you have played with and who did you enjoy the most with?
Lars: Recently I played alongside Drumattic Twins, who were great fun. Also Superstyle Deluxe and Darftphunk when I was in the UK a few weeks ago. Steve Darft is a great guy, we had a superb time with something called a Beijing Ice Tea. If you should come across that drink, beware. I meet Roxiller’s Chris Carter every time I play down in Budapest for some reason, which is cool too, a fun bloke and a great producer as well.
What city are you residing in now? Whats up with the breaks scene there?
Lars: I live in a place called Münster, the other two reside in Dortmund. It’s in a part of Germany called the Ruhr Area which is like eight decent-sized cities all next to each other, so together it’s a bit of a metropolis but the Breaks scene is still very small, just a handful of activists throwing Breaks nights now and again. I am considering a move to Berlin where the scene is a lot bigger and there are good nights and top producers like Circuit Breaker, who I have also worked with.
Whats your background?
Lars: The other two guys in the KGF originally have more of a HipHop background whereas I come from a Techno/Electro/House/Breaks background. Jense “Der Wolf” Albert, the other DJ, used to be quite a celebrity in Germany when he had some chart-topping Rap singles out. He still does HipHop actually and is now working on his fourth solo album I think. NDN, our MC, is the front man of two Funk bands, Die Lebenden Legenden (Living Legends) and Fonky Silence who are both really great. Fonky Silence is right up NDN’s street as far as freestyling it is concerned - they are all top class musicians and I am told they compose all their material from scratch while on stage, quite a show. As for myself, I started spinning more techy stuff in the mid 90s,moving on to House and lately concentrating on Breaks and Electro. I actually started producing before I started spinning, that was when I was about fourteen, sampling loads of stuff off tv and radio and making tunes with them on some weird tracker program on the Commodore Amiga - 8 bit of course.
How long have you been playing breaks and how the hell did you get into them?
Lars: I am half English and came in contact with Breaks, or UK Hardcore I should say, quite early.. maybe 1992 when I was a young teenager and have loved it ever since. So there was always an element of Breakbeat in my sets. When Finger Lickin Records came along and other labels followed their example, Breaks became a lot more central to my style.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, with a portable turntable that had enough power to listen to one last breakbeat record, what would that record be and why?
Lars: That’s a tough one but considering I’d be at the beach probably Mr Ratty’s Rat Decor, great beach tune that.
Where you once a raver with big baggy pants and furry white boots?
Lars: Not as bad as that no, but I did own a Bonzai Records long-sleeve shirt when I was sixteen and raving haha.
How are your ears now? Are they in good condition?
Lars: Okay I suppose, they’re not ringing at least. But wear your earplugs everyone!
List some of your favorite breakbeat producers (past/present):
Lars: Liam Howlett, Krafty Kuts, Plump DJs, Evil Nine, Soul Of Man, SL2, Fatboy Slim, Atomic Hooligan, Chris Carter, Boogie Army, Stanton Warriors, Circuit Breaker, Malente, DJ Friendly, Aquasky, Drumattic Twins, Freestylers, Chemical Brothers
Do you play out and do E?
Lars: Nope.
If you had the chance to choose any 2 producers to put them together to make 1 breakbeat record, who would they be and what type of track would you get them to make for you?
Lars: Liam Howlett and Krafty Kuts to make a positive party tune with a rough beat, something that The Prodigy seems to have forgotten how to do.
Any funny stories to tell while at a dj gig? You must have tons of them over these years!
Lars: Latest weird bit: one of the bar-girls came up to me when I had just got on and the crowd was really getting going and she said “hey can you go back to playing relaxing Reggae and not this fast stuff, oh and turn it down a bit as well, we are tying to work back there at the bar!” Figure that one out…?
Did you ever go to a music school or take classes to learn an instrument and if so do you think it makes your djing any better?
Lars: Yeah I did have a couple of years learning to play keyboards. Didn’t really work, because I always preferred messing about with sounds rather than practicing my finger-work but I got some basic skills that I need in order to get some musical ideas into my sequencer. Don’t think it made me a better DJ though. I reckon that’s got to come from somewhere else. Producing can help however, i.e. knowing about song structures, bars, beats and harmonies.
What studio monitors do you swear by for production?
Lars: I use Event 20:20, they do the job but I’m sure there’s better ones if you have the cash to spare.
Any more production plans in the near future?
Lars: Yeah loads. First of all we have a Killergroove Formula album coming out, it will be called “Territory: World” and will be out around November 06. There will be loads of unreleased material on there plus some of the singles that are already available. On my side there will surely be another Moston & Malente 12” on Splank! and also on Moonbootique, and we have just finished a remix for Ursula 1000, out soon. And there will be a Lars Moston solo record coming out too, a kind of anthemy Electro-Breaks crossover tune called “We Like This”.
What do your parents think of your music and did they ever come see you at a gig?
They do like some of it actually, especially some of the new stuff off the forthcoming album, because they consider it more musical and not as “thumpy” as the older tunes. Keep in mind, my dad used to have his study above my bedroom where’d I’d be going thump, thump, thump all day long when I was a teenager living at home. They’ve not come out to a show yet but they have recently threatened they would.
Can you tell us about your gig about this dj mix? What was this event in switzerland? Whats up with Switzerland?
That was at a club called Taptab at a party named “Crème Fraiche”, which is hosted by bigbeat.ch, one of the few online Breaks magazines around these parts. Switzerland is of course very close to Germany and they speak German there, which is why our NDN is doing most of the MCing in German. Probably not many people in Canada will understand the language but what I think is cool about NDN is that he has this very conversational style of MCing, lots of interaction with the dancefloor, kind of like a sweaty private party, which is the vibe we want to create really, just a bunch of friends rocking out, just blown-up in scale. We did that gig on four decks, which really is my favourite way to play. The Swiss are a very friendly crowd. The breaks scence there is similar to that in Germany - or most countries for that matter - a few activists doing great things but struggling against more established styles. Apparently they like their Drum n Bass there, which is why there’s a fair amount of fast breakbeats on this particular mix.
Tell us some words of wisdom that you live by?
Lars: Do what you feel like, spend your money before it’s gone, enjoy the good things in life and try your best to improve the bad.
Shout outs?
Lars: Jense and NDN of The KGF who were not able to be here to take part in this interview, Malente who is playing in Montreal at Sphire, Boogie Army (looking forward to coming down for that gig guys), Jonny and Chris at Splank! whose brilliant show on ibreaks I am listening to now, and Heide who told me to mention “my sexy girl-friend” (i.e. her) in this interview - I’m not going to though.
WWW Links:
www.larsmoston.de
www.myspace.com/thekillergrooveformula
www.myspace.com/larsmoston
www.lounge-records.de
www.splankrecords.co.uk
www.malente.dj
www.ssc-concerts.com
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