NOTE: This is the extended version of Rees Urban's interview with Lars Behrenroth, published in the February 2009 issue of 5 Magazine.

 

A native of a small fishing town outside Hamburg, Germany, Lars Behrenroth now resides in L.A. where he records his Deeper Shades of House radio show and podcast that is one of the most popular House Music shows on the internet. DSoH is being downloaded over 10,000 times a week from his website in addition to being broadcast on over 20 FM and internet radio stations worldwide.

DSoH was a featured program on XM radio's The Move before their merger with Sirius in mid-2008. With this, the only hope of spreading the Deep House vibe over satellite airwaves has completely died. Knowing it was potentially a losing battle, Lars took his show to the internet in a moment's notice.

Lars has continued his vision with the start of his own label, Deeper Shades Recordings, featuring up and coming artists from across the globe. No newcomer to production himself, he has released tracks on notable labels including Prog City Deep, Chez, Records of Interest and most recently Freerange and Peppermint Jam, as well as a remix on the famed West End Records.

 

 

5: You were born in Hamburg, Germany?

LARS: A smaller city up north called Cuxhaven. It's a small fishing town of about 60,000 people. Their main industry is hotels and fishing. I moved to Hamburg '92, it's the next biggest city. It makes it easier just to say I'm from Hamburg though. I started DJing when I was 15 in Cuxhaven at Sunday school dances for 10-15 year olds.

5: What were you playing?

LARS: (Laughs). We'll we got paid like $20 for the whole Sunday and had to buy all our own records. So I would only buy what I dig. I was playing Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Things like that. This was probably '86. I didn't do it for that long though because of course kids wanted to hear stuff that was on the charts. I moved on to local clubs.

I remember in '89 I was playing a school party and just 2 days prior I was listening to a live radio broadcast from a bigger city and they were broadcasting from 1 of the first Acid House parties in Germany. A few days later I went record shopping and bought all Acid House and that's all I played. No one had ever heard it before. It was so bad! All the kids went to their cars and got their tapes and wanted me to play them. They didn't want anymore of that shit!

5: You moved to the States in what year?

LARS: 2004. I met my wife in '99 here in Los Angeles. I was involved in Cyber Radio, which was the first internet radio station and later the first internet TV station in Germany. It was full programming during the day and at night it was DJs. When they started getting short on money they decided to start a headquarters in the US. We started Cyber Radio in LA and that's when I met my wife, she's been a Househead forever. I was on H2K, which was a mailing list (House 2000). I sent her a message saying I needed some DJs. So we met and rest is history. We had a 5 year long distance relationship and finally we were like fuck it and I moved here to LA because I was most flexible. At that time Germany was all about Electro-Clash and this awful Minimal stuff. There's decent minimal and bad minimal and this stuff was like unfinished Reason tracks.

Remember when minimal was minimal before it was called that? That shit started with Robert Hood and people like that way before. That was real minimal. There were changes in the tracks but they were so minor that you'd have to pay attention but they had a big effect. And now it's like I have this drum track and I can't really play any instruments so it's done.

5: So you were over the music that was happening there at that time anyway.

LARS: I didn't have the opportunity to play what or how I wanted to play. I'm fairly flexible but I still have to play music that I dig. There's wedding DJs that can play whatever it takes and I have respect for them. Everyone that's making a living at what they love and if they bend the rules even a little bit to be able to do that, more power to them. Even if people produce music I don't like, it's the same kind of profession and I think everyone deserves the same respect. That's one of our biggest problems. I'm jumping topics here...

5: That's OK, go ahead...

LARS: It's a big problem in the underground dance industry at the moment because everyone is just shitting on everyone else.

5: I'm guilty!

LARS: I love talking shit too! Everyone loves talking shit! But at the end of the day we're pulling the same strings. People who just listen to the music and didn't necessarily grow up with it and didn't learn where it's coming from, they don't know the difference. They go to a club and to them it's all Techno related. I would however rather have them call it Techno than Electronica. The problem is there's no unity in House because people are always trashing each other. And usually it's the people that are more successful than themselves.

I think it's everyone's choice how far they want to go with their production or how far they want to move into that commercial world. I don't think anyone should hate because they make it, but that's the whole sell out thing. People think, "Oh they started out so good." Like Roger (Sanchez) or Erick (Morillo), those type of guys. Those guys in the early 90's, they were fresh and now it's all Electro-House and commercially. I don't like it but mad props to them. I think that's the problem instead of aligning yourself with these people and saying they used to do underground and they made it, maybe I can stick with my underground sound that I dig and pay a little bit of attention to the people that have had some success.

If everybody made those adjustments instead of paying so much attention to hating, imagine how much more creativity could be used. Just think how much energy is wasted just by talking shit about somebody when the core is usually a tiny bit of jealousy.

Remember when House started, it was just House that was it. Now you have Electro-House, Minimal, Deep House, Tech-House, what is it that the Brit's have...Scouse House and now there's Fidget House. I'm like what the hell? In Chicago you guys have that Boompty shit. Don't quote me on that (laughs)! My thing is I try to at least explore different avenues. There are tracks that have certain sounds that I don't really like but I like the track so I'll try and put them in my sets.

People are very protective of their music even more so here than in Germany. As a DJ you're very protective of your gigs and over what you play. Some people take themselves a little too seriously. I can occasionally put myself in that category as well. Over here it's very political. So you might associate yourself with one group of people and another group of people you might have associated with in the past that really liked what you did before stop speaking to you. That's what's dividing everything.

Look at Hip-hop for example. It's usually like the brother that House is looking to. What did they do? House was equally as strong as Hip-hop at one point. The difference was Hop-hop has faces and House didn't. House had Crystal Waters and CeCe Peniston and they would show up in the gay clubs and maybe made it in Europe. Then the attention for House producers and musicians was focused on being successful in Europe and they took the focus off of the US and lost their leverage. Where Hip-Hop is all one, it's we're all Rap / Hip-hop, whether it's underground or even Southern or Gangsta Shit. It's all 1 industry. They have the same awards and all that. Nobody is really dissing each other. Of course you're going to have your political people that are going to diss the Southern shit and that because it's like bubblegum music. However, it's still all 1 industry. And House doesn't do that, it doesn't define itself as 1 industry. Everyone's so stuck on trying to be different.

Sometimes I play out at venues that have nothing to do with House. I play some hotel gigs and things like that. Some people ask me to play Deep or Soulful stuff and I do and then they'll come up and ask what I am playing. I'll say it's House or if you want to be specific it's Deep House and they'll start to disagree with me because there's so many different kinds of House. They'll try to look for it online and they can't find the music because they go to a site like Beatport or Traxsource and because they have no idea what they are looking for, unless they have an artist name to go on whatever, they're going to be totally lost. It's designed for DJs.

5: I always thought the download sites would help because it would bring music to people worldwide all at the same time and the average person that wants a track can go and buy it. You don't have to be a DJ or own a turntable or what have you.

LARS: I'm sure overall it helps! At least the tracks are available somewhere and people don't have to trade or download illegally. But the online stores are still mainly made for DJs. You have to figure out what you like. If the variety is so big like it is on a site like Beatport, a regular user is so overwhelmed. They only have to click 2 or 3 times on a track that has nothing to do with what they want and they give up.

5: I do the same thing. I get overwhelmed going on there. It can really be a pain in the ass unless you want to buy and play the same things everyone else is playing.

LARS: And you know what's up! Imagine going on there and you have no clue! You know that eventually if you keep digging, you're going to find a good track. Other people think I have been clicking 3 or 4 times and I have been listening and I hate these songs, they're going to think that this store isn't what I am looking for. I think iTunes helps though, because they don't have all the sub-genres, which of course brings us back to what sells most in regards to dance is people like Jay-J, Kaskade, even Tiesto and Oakenfold because those are the names that are everywhere. Those are the few faces that are really out there. No one puts themselves out there. The DJ hides behind the turntables. No one ever really knows who the producers are unless they are also a DJ. The vocalists in most cases sadly enough are too ugly to be presentable.

5: ...Or they're not even mentioned in the credits on the releases to begin with.

LARS: And that is of course another problem in itself. I personally could care less how someone looks as long as they can sing. Unfortunately most people that spend money don't think that way. No one wants to see certain people.

You have people like Osunlade that has a face that people recognize. He has a look that stands out. He enters a club and everyone knows it's him. Every time I play in Chicago there are ten DJs that I know but I don't even recognize them. It's their prerogative but that's the point I'm trying to make. That's what's missing. There's no identity in this music. As far as DJs go, there's Steve Aoki and DJ AM and that Samantha Ronson chick. (This has nothing to do with being a House DJ, just a DJ in general). Those are faces. They don't just have 1 or 2 press photos like most DJs. (If the average DJ even has that). It's also because they take their business side of their shit a bit more seriously.

5: They also have a bigger team of people working behind them as well.