Stephan Bodzin is one of the hottest names in minimal at the moment, having worked with some of the scene’s biggest names – including Thomas Schumacher, Oliver Huntemann and Marc Romboy – before stepping out to carve out his own niche as a solo artist in 2005.

In addition to his work with the above mentioned, Bodzin has put his inimitable remix touch to the likes of Depeche Mode, Booka Shade and The Knife, and his numerous releases can be found on labels like Get Physical, Datapunk, Gigolo, Systematic and Giant Wheel.

As the son of an experimental musician, and being exposed to music from an early age, Bodzin started his own label in 2006, Herzblut, as a way to get his music out there. The culmination of the last few years of work is his debut album ‘Liebe Ist…’, which was released back in May, and he’ll be here in October for a series of club dates.

You’ve only been DJing for a relatively short while now, but what was it that got you interested in doing it?

I started DJing because I wanted to get rich and have a lot of girls. No, I’m joking. There were so many requests for doing a DJ or live set, so one day I decided to do the step from the background to the stage. I worked hard on my skills for 2 months, nothing but spinning, every day for 10 hours. For all my life I honestly thought I’d never be something like an entertainer – that changed completely after my first DJ gigs. Right now I couldn’t imagine living without the weekly gigs, the happy people, the privilege to play my tracks just a few days after I’ve produced them… so I guess I’ll keep on doing it for a time.

Do you feel that DJing has opened you up to a wider audience?

Sure. It’s like a second part of my profile. People knew me for good productions before, but now I’m proofing my skills to rock a party. That’s a completely different business. I love both sides and I guess the people do also.

I saw a photo of you using both the Jazz Mutant Lemur touch panel controller and Monome pad bank in performance. Do you actually DJ with those in conjunction with Ableton or are they only for use in your live sets?

I’m using the Lemur and Monome only for my live performances to control Ableton and a huge row of effects. For my DJ sets I’m only using CDs.

A number of your recent productions have gained a lot of great press and sold incredibly well on Beatport in particular, do you find all your collaborations contribute to this success, in so far as they help keep things fresh and appealing for both you and your audience?

Sure. Those collabs have always been very important for me to have some influences from other DJs and producers. It’s a privilege to work for example with a Detroit-addicted guy like Marc Romboy. I’ve never been really into this stuff… now I’m addicted too.

What’s the reason behind most of your releases with Marc Romboy being named after moons? Is there some kind of story behind that?

Marc’s daughter and my girlfriend are both named Luna. So it was a pretty obvious thing, to choose moons for our track titles. There are still some unknown…

I was sad to read that you’ve finished the Rekorder project and have closed the label. Have you any plans to do a similarly themed project in the future?

Rekorder was planned to be stopped after the 10 releases from the first day. So I’m pretty proud that the whole concept, it just went on to achieve incredible success and will be over at its peak. And yes… I’m already working on a new project. Not similar, but a kind of side-project, where I can go for some stuff that’s a bit different to the “Stephan Bodzin sound”.

Have you totally ruled out doing any slightly more trance oriented projects in future? The track ‘Sonnenwind’ from your recent album ‘Liebe Ist’ certainly felt like it was on that path…

Not at all. My tracks don’t show a path… they show a point where I’m at the moment of producing them. After my “world-tour”, which lasts until the end of October, I’ll be back in studio to work on the next releases. Maybe I’ll be going for some more “trancey” stuff? You never know.

Are you often inspired to produce on the road or do you find yourself more creatively inclined back at home?

Usually I feel most inspired in the morning time after a long sleep at home. On the road I’m only collecting ideas. I’m always travelling with my MacBook – but it’s not really for producing. I need my studio to finish tracks. It doesn’t work with headphones at the airport.

Your upcoming Australian tour will be your first, are you going to get much of a chance to do ‘tourist’ things, or are you going to spend most of your time in the clubs?

It’s kind of 50/50. I’ll be at Australia for 12 days , so there’s not much time for sight seeing – but I guess I’ll find some days to scuba-dive on the Gold Coast and do some walks through Sydney…

You’ll only be DJing here for this upcoming tour, but can we expect to have you back for a Stephan Bodzin live tour if things go well?

Sure, I’d really love to. I guess it’s only a question of time, and weight..!

Stephan Bodzin tours Australia for the very first time this October:

Oct 5 – Brisbane, Empire
Oct 7 – Gold Coast, Elsewhere
Oct 12 – Melbourne, Likes Of You
Oct 13 – Sydney, ITM Members BBQ
Oct 13 – Sydney, Chinese Laundry