I’m currently touring Europe with the Cumbia Cosmonauts, and Berlin is also on our itinerary (playing at Club Magnet and Cafe Zapata) in September.  But one of the main men in Berlin we are keen to meet is Man Recordings head-honcho Daniel Haaksman - who we are playing with on the Generation Bass stage at the Incubate Festival (Netherlands).  So here goes my interview with Daniel Haaksman, watch out for more exclusive Scatterblog interiews with European producer powerhouses we are meeting on tour…

M > Saca La Mois DJ!!

D > Daniel Haaksman

M: Man Recordings HQ is in Berlin.  Is that just coincidence, or why have you chosen Berlin?

D: I moved to Berlin from Frankfurt in 1997 when I fell in love with a Berlin girl. Even though we split only after one year I decided to stay there as Berlin´s the only big city in Germany which offers a lot of space and cheap rent apt., so for artists of all kinds it´s the perfect place as you can follow your art 24-7 and not do it as a side job.

M: I have to say every remix of yours I’ve heard explodes the dancefloor (and there are many!).  How do you do this? Do you have a formula or secret production technique? We want to know!

D: Well before starting Man Recordings and getting into music production I was DJing for many years. When I make tracks or remixes I make them from a DJ perspectiving aiming to achieve maximum mayhem on the dancefloor.  There´s really not a formula for this, I also try to not stick with one BPM format but rather program all kinds of tempos and grooves for my remixes, all depending how the original track inspires me.

M: How would you describe the musical philosophy behind Man Recordings?

D: It started as the European platform for baile funk, and until today it´s the only label outside of Brasil that has dedicated to this sound. The last five, six releases were opening up to a more musically open reference system, where baile funk is one reference, but also music from Africa and the Carribean is becoming more included with artists such as Ku Bo or Bert On Beats. . But the over all philiosophy would be: Man Recordings releases fresh, exciting, nostalgia-free music from all over the globe.

M: Initially Man Recordings mainly released Baile Funk, what made you start a label so strongly representing Baile Funk?

D: In 2004 I released the compilation “Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats” on my old label Essay Recordigns (which I ran from 1996 to 2004). When I saw how well the compilation was selling and what a global media resonance it created, I decided to start Man Recordings, establishing a multi leveled platform for baile funk in Europe. Still up until today it´s really hard to get hands on really good baile funk tracks, and especially collaborate with Rio funk artists, so Man was conceived as a label which would release the hard to get tracks from original producers such as Sany Pitbull, DJ Sandrinho, DJ Edgar or Amazing Clay, and artists such as Edu K and parallely establish an artist network in which producers from Europe and MCs from Brasil could work together. The Funk Mundial series for example is one of these platforms: I started it in 2006 when noticing that I was missing musical “bridges” in my DJ sets, i.e. tracks that would lead from baile funk to European club music. A lot of baile funk tracks are released in 128kps or 160kps MP3s, so when played on a high-quality European club sound system the tracks would usually sonically fail when mixed with some other electronic dance music tune. So I asked producers like Stereotyp, The Count+SInden and Crookers to make their versions of baile funk and sent them sample-folders of baile funk. On top of that, I sent them baile funk acappellas which I recorded in Rio with various MCs. The series had ten different releases and I´m happy to say that all producers made very individualistic adapations of baile funk – and all tracks worked perfect as “bridges” in clubs and became real anthems, such as “Tamborzuda” by The Count And Sinden or “Para De Graçinha” by Crookers.

M: In the past few years there have been a number of musical styles from Africa and Latin America making an appearance in European/North American/Australian club scene such as Baile Funk, Kuduro, Cumbia etc.  Do you see these as fads or is there an increasingly inclusive musical revolution happening?

D: I think baile funk kicked off this new wave of music which emerges from cities that were formerly considered peripheral, being located in the “3rd world”. And considering the fast paced fashion of dance music, all the styles you mention have become fads. Nevertheless, I think those styles are representing a musical revolution. With the advent of the internet and file sharing, music from these formerly peripheral cities all of a sudden travel at high speed across the globe. Before the internet, it was always labels and media channels that would decide which music from which part of the world the audiences in Europe, Australia, Japan or US could listen too. Now that these barriers are gone, and music from the most obscure cities all of a sudden gets discovered or put into new contexts. But this is not only happening in the rich countries, also in places like Brasil, Colombia or Angola this accelerated speed of travelling music has effects, I mean look at Guarachero in Monterrey, Mexico which is a blend of speeded up Cumbia and European electro. Ten years ago, we wouldve heard of this music on one compilation, now you can watch and hear it unfold in real time as also the kids in Monterrey are blogging, doing mixtapes and sharing music so the whole world can follow it.

M: Any piece of advice to young and aspiring producers who want to hear their music explode in clubs all over the world?

D: First, find your own style, no problem if you try to emulate the styles of your favourite producers first, but then at one point take it from there and create an original sound. Then try to release as much quality tracks, remixes or mashups as possible, add some theme oriented mixtapes, the not-so-good tracks should remain on your hard drive, try to release at least one track every two weeks or at least once a month, no matter if it´s on a blog, label or mixtape. But most of all: Tell a story with what you do.

M: This year is the fifth anniversary for Man Recordings.  Any special parties or releases planned?

D: There´ll be the “Valeu” compilation, released in early September, featuring exclusive tracks and remixes by Crookers, Zombie Disco Squad, Seiji, Schlachthofbronx, Oliver $, Edu K and many others, additionally we are planning a string of Man Recordings parties across Europe from September until November, and then hopefully a Man Rec party in Australia in March 2011.

M: What is the future direction of club music according to Daniel Haaksman?

D: I think a large part of mainstream club music will remain in the disco/house/techno continuum, but on the fringes it will continue to innovate. Watch out for producers from cities you never dreamt of having a club music scene.

Buy Daniel Haaksman’s latest release “Hands Up EP” from Beatport and download his unreleased remix of Classixx below:

Classixx – “I´ll get you” (Daniel Haaksman Remix) by Daniel Haaksman / Man Rec