Festival season isn’t over yet, so V spent a weekend in Mannheim, Germany for TimeWARP Autumn (“Timewarp Lite” as someone from the team joked). We had a tiiiiiiime for sure.

V chatted to a few artists in the wee hours of the rave to hear about their PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE in techno- how did they get here and where do they see things headed?

Artists featured: SPF DJ, DJ Gigola, Clara Cuve, Funk Tribu, Odymel, Bad Boombox

pAST

HOW YOU FIND YOURSELF IN TECHNO?

SPF: I grew up in a tiny village in northern Sweden – no clubs, no scene, just folk music and fox-trot. When I was growing up, my brother was listening to Trance with cringe melodies but very power kicks and bass. I had my R&B and indie phases but I didn’t find electronic music until I moved to Leeds for university. Clubs like Cosmic Slop and Wire opened everything up for me. 

Funk Tribu: It’s hard to choose just one moment — it’s a lot of memories that brought me here — but one that comes to mind is listening to old trance tracks in my family’s car when I was a kid.

Odymel: When I was 13, I travelled to Ibiza with my mom. I met a DJ who was playing at a restaurant on the beach — no one was there — and I talked to him. After that, I told my mom, ‘I want to be a DJ,’ and I never stopped. I was playing at my mom’s birthday and everything.

Gigola: I never wanted to be a DJ. Everyone in Berlin wants to be a DJ; I wanted to be something else. I studied medicine. I’m a doctor. I just started DJing one day for fun. I joined Live From Earth around 2016 when it was still small. Being a woman back then, it was really hard to get booked unless you played the same ‘Black T-shirt techno’ everywhere. I ended up doing bars, hotels, corporate gigs– whatever. Then LFE became my home, and we said, ‘Let’s just do it ourselves. Let’s find the clubs, build the lineups, create the environment we want.’ From the beginning, we were doing gabber parties in basements — way before it became a genre people talked about. 

Boombox: I grew up with a really wide range of inspiring artists by rummaging through my dad’s tape collection when I was a kid. Daft Punk’s Homework and Discovery literally altered the course of my life early on. However, I’m also very drawn to the synth-work and musicianship of Todd Terje and Lindstrom since they both masterfully take fun synth melodies that shouldn’t work in dance music and give them depth, making them come to life, like poets. When I was a kid in Bulgaria, my parents took me to a club by accident, on the coast of Bulgaria where there were some legendary house music beach clubs, and that’s what started it all.

HAVE YOU BEEN TO TIME WARP BEFORE?

Clara: I played Time Warp a couple times now but it never gets old. It still makes me nervous because I feel like the Time Warp stages are for the real OGs and I also always put more time into my sets beforehand to create the perfect vibe because I want to prove to myself that I earned it to play there. It’s very special to me every time.

PRESENT

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO THIS YEAR?

Gigola: In America, I found this innocent rave energy…unity, love, kids dressing up, trading kandi… I come from Berli,n where you do drugs at 15 and it’s all sex-in-the-toilet energy. So seeing that innocence– it inspires me. People in America aren’t ashamed to be fans. They cheer, dress up, and make signs. In Europe, there’s a certain poserism. If you can hold onto that joy, that sweetness– it’s really powerful. This year I played EDC, Portola, Crossd, Hard Summer… As a European raver, it’s wild to see that energy. But I love it. This is my fourth Time Warp. I think they really care about building long-term relationships with artists. It’s more casual, more connected. Very different from EDC. The crowd here though has this dedication–it’s special.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ARTIST ON THE TIME WARP LINEUP? 

Clara: I love the diversity of the lineups, especially seeing so many OG DJs in one place I don´t get to see playing often like Sven Väth… When I play, I always try to get to the fest as soon as possible before my set and also stay after to catch as many sets as possible. It inspires me a lot.

Bad Boombox: I’m a big fan of Kalte Liebe and MCR-T who represent Berlin, where I’ve been based the past few years. The raw-ness and edginess of the city is expressed in their sound, which I resonate with a lot, and I think the world needs more of. 

BEST CITY FOR TECHNO/WHAT FEELS MOST EXCITING IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC AT THE MOMENT?

Funk Tribu: In Bogotá, the scene is really growing every day. Every DJ who goes there has a good time.

Odymel: In Geneva, it wasn’t my type of techno, so I moved to Brussels. The culture there is insane. Fuse in Brussels is one of the best clubs in the world for me.

Bad Boombox: I feel that there’s a ne,w exciting energy developing in our scene and also the overall techno scene in general. In the past decade, I’ve seen several cycles of whatever the current mainstage genre is evolve and then switch. Whenever this happens, once every 2-3 years, something new and crazy comes out of the underground. My label Hot Meal pushes these new groovy sounds that are currently really special, and it was exciting to share what we’ve been cooking up at Time Warp.

FUTURE

WHERE ARE THINGS GOING?

SPF: Techno’s future is in cross-pollination– more openness, more rhythms bleeding into each other. Australia, Ireland, South America… there’s so much energy coming from everywhere. Time Warp gets that; the crowd here really values both the old school and the new wave.

Gigola: I’m working on a new album right now. It’s deeply inspired by PLUR. I’ve been working with Frost Children– I love them. The album is big music–emotional, playful, pushing boundaries. I’m finishing it this winter, and then we’ll see if people like it. It’s really different from what I usually play.

Odymel: Predictions? If you know them, you’re rich. I always go with the flow– I have no idea what I’m going to do in two years, even in one year.

Funk Tribu: Same– go with the flow!

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR LOCAL SCENE HEADED?

Bad Boombox: Together with my scene and my community, we strive to create the best environment for grooving and having fun together, free from judgment and expectations. This means also pushing back on fake music and fake people and bringing the dance scene back to what matters most. So in the near future we’re going to see a lot more hot house and a lot less over-commercialized BS. 

TimeWarp is taking over Brooklyn Storehouse this weekend in NYC.

Cover photo by Stef van Oosterhout