Sander Kleinenberg is one of the global dance scene’s brightest stars. A world renowned producer, and recent winner of Radio 1’s ‘Best Essential Mix’, the Dutch born DJ is taking the world by storm and the momentum just keeps growing. Inthemix.com.au has a chat with Sander Kleinenberg and chats about the upcoming Gatecrasher festival, as well as what he’s up to on the production front.
We begin our phone conversation and I ask him how he feels about always having to do interviews and phone conferences. He quips that he’s not shy about it, he finds them fun. “It’s kinda weird, because I’m talking to the other side of the world and there are people there who are interested in what I do.” Sander tells me he tries to be humble about it, not let so much attention get to him. Sander grew up in Holland and started DJing when he was fifteen, and now has gotten to the point of being recognised across the world. It’s all good though, he tells me, sometimes he has to pinch himself.
Sander Kleinenberg comes from a very artistic family; his mother and grandfather are artists and his uncle is a musician. This showed him at a young age that it’s a good thing to be creative and that you can make a living out of it. Mind you when he told his parents he wanted to be a professional DJ and producer, they had their doubts, especially in those days as DJs weren’t recognised as something special. I tell Sander that I’m sure his parents would be proud of him now, he replies “yeah they’re proud of me, but no more proud of me than my brother who is a teacher.”
Before Sander got into DJing, he was into the whole culture of graffiti and youth rebellion, being a DJ was somewhat part of that culture and was a positive progression. Speaking of progression, I suggest to Sander that he has been labelled as a “progressive nubreed”, and I ask him what he thinks about labels such as ‘progressive’. He tells me that despite labels, he just makes music; goes into the studio and makes music he likes and if people call the music he makes “progressive” then you can’t escape those labels. He does find the word progressive fine in the sense that the term means ‘going forward’ and that ‘music is the future’, so in that sense the term is fine, but as a genre Sander finds it problematic. “As you know every genre dies out, if I had the chance I would rather call my music house music. That’s what I got into ten years ago and for me nothing has changed, I’ve been playing the same form and style of records as I ever have.”
Sander is a globetrotting headliner now, something I think the majority of DJs would like to achieve. The majority of DJs who have the opportunity to be recognised around the world is because of the fact they produce music. A musical producer and DJ is able to get noticed more easily by distributing their music around, rather than just playing at clubs back home. I ask Sander if he thinks DJs have to produce music to become a recognised world wide success? He tells me he thinks for those who want to be involved in DJing in general, it’s a very learnful experience to learn how music is being created. “It’s very important to be able to understand what the fundament of music someone plays consists of.” Sander elaborates, “even if DJs would spend some time in the studio just watching how other people create music, it would help a DJ judge the material they choose to play.” Sander strongly believes that by producing and being in the studio, analysing music and understanding how it’s being created and being involved in that process, you can create a better ear for how a record has come together and this would probably make a DJ more critical on what to play and what not to play. “I think that’s a good thing in itself,” he says, “so yes, I do believe if you want to make a difference it’s good to be part of that process one way or another.” Sander emphasises that he doesn’t mean one needs to have knowledge of how a studio works, but it’s the process of music making, not technical, is what helps you understand how a track works, and he recommends that to anyone.
On the production tip, Sander will be releasing the last in his ‘Four Seasons’ EP trilogy in the next month or so. He’s in the studio working on the last track right now. Sander’s also been working hard on other tracks; he just did a track with John Creamer and Stephane K, “and no it’s not a love song” he jokes. He’s just done a track called ‘Beunos Aires’ which is probably the most similar to his mega hit ‘My Lexicon’. He tells me it’s at that end of his production, a good track with melody. ‘Beunos Aires’ came about when Sander did a couple of gigs in that city and wanted to capture the vibe of that city in a track. “You’ll hear it when I come play at Gatecrasher” he tells me.
I enquire more about his ‘Four Seasons’ EPs, the name, and the option of a trilogy intrigues me. The ‘Four Seasons’ EPs reflect what Sander plays as a DJ from the beginning of his sets to the end of his sets, and he wanted to find a format where he could display the diversity of his work through four tracks on one EP. The name ‘Four Seasons’ came about because his mum was doing an exhibition in a gallery called ‘Four Seasons’. Sander is quite a humble guy, he says he was worried that it might look too pretentious calling his EPs ‘Four Seasons’ because ‘Four Seasons’ is a great piece of music by Vivaldi and the last thing he wants is for people to think he was trying to be a Vivaldi of any sort. It all came about when he asked his mum if he could use the artwork she used for the invitations to her exhibition and the concept was born. I ask Sander if he would release a fourth EP in the series, after all it’s called ‘Four Seasons’.... he tells me he might get all his friends to do remixes of his tracks and call the release “Four Remixes”, and when you have DJ friends like Sasha, why not?
I read somewhere that Sander was interested in producing his own artist album. This is true, but he finds there becomes a frustration, one that he knows Sasha is experiencing; he finds that when he’s DJing and wanting to perform to a crowd world wide, and he’s loving what he does, he finds it’s hard to be focused. He believes that when you do an artist album, you should lock yourself up for three or four months and not do anything else but work on that album. Unfortunately he finds it difficult to find the time to do such ventures. The fact is he does want to do one, he was thinking of taking the tracks from his ‘Four Seasons’ EP and putting them into an album but feels since they are made for the dancefloor, their structure of a mix in mix out beginning and end would make them less interesting to listen to successively. Instead, Sander states his artist album may not necessarily be made for four-to-the-floor action, he may work with a vocalist or work with a band and do it like that. He’s not sure what he’s going to do under his own name, certainly not “Sander Kleinenberg: Twelve fantastic songs” he laughs, he’s not sure where it’s gonna lead. He’s thought about doing music for movies or working on a film, and that’s something that may happen in the near future, as he feels film is related to what he does as a DJ, in the sense that both try to capture a vibe; where DJing tries to capture the vibe of a club, he’s intrigued about soundtracks as it’s a vibe that goes with an image.
There are so many successful producers and DJs that are coming out of Holland, so I have to ask what the dance scene is like. Sander doesn’t actually DJ a lot in Holland. He has his own night called Everybody, which he’s going to start in December and do about eight times a year. Holland is a very small country, and the music tastes of the Dutch are not specifically his tastes, Sander says he has always tried to be a “global citizen”, from all the well know Dutch DJs, he’s probably the one who plays the least back home, despite wants from his friends. But the ‘global citizen’ life suits Sander, and he loves it, he likes to entertain crowds from Moscow to Auckland. Sander says he enjoys playing everywhere, places where people enjoy his music and where it really fits. This love is as a DJ only though, as a person sometimes he’d rather have a quite week in.
Sander was a resident at the real Gatecrasher club in Sheffield in the UK before he moved on after his Global Underground Nubreed compilation. Sander says he feels being chosen to do the Nubreed CD was the event of the year for him. Sander is also quite experienced in playing all of the big dance festivals in the UK, so what can us Aussies expect from the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System tour? He remembers in 2000 that the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System was the event of the year for him. He says it’s good to know that it’s on in Australia in summer, “so it wont be raining” he laughs. As it happens, most major festivals in the UK seem to rain and get very muddy and messy. He thinks sunny weather can create an amazing vibe. Sander is looking forward to Australia, especially because of the weather. I ask if he can tell us what we can expect from a Sander set, he says if people know his music they will know what to expect… “I won’t be playing any R’n’B,” he jokes, “and I promise not to play any Dutch folk music.”
