Techno duo Kaiserdisco open up in ADE Interview

Like two brothers united by music, German DJ’s Frederic Berger and Patrick Buck are so in tune with one another that they finish each other’s sentences.Their obvious synergy is the result of a successful musical pairing under the project Kaiserdisco, which has seen one of the most consistent release schedules in recent German techno and tech house. Their music has been featured on many of the country’s top labels including Berlin’s Get Physical Music, Cologne’s Traum and its sublabel MBF (who released Kaiser’s debut album), Monika Kruse’s Terminal M and Munich’s Great Stuff Recordings. Adam Beyer’s Drumcode label was one of the first non-German imprints to release Kaiserdisco’s music with the EP ‘Le Feu’, the result of a collaboration with Naples producer Flavio Diaz. The EP was such a success that Adam Beyer invited Kaiserdisco to produce another record for Drumcode which is the birth of the ‘Victoria Harbour’ EP.

We caught up with Kaiserdisco at this year’s Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) where they delved into their beginnings in the scene, gaining the respect of superstar Adam Beyer and what’s in store in the future.

Frederic and Patrick are no strangers to ADE having had the opportunity to play the prestigious event various times:

“It’s already the fourth or fifth ADE for us. This time it’s very short for us – we’re here for just one day. We like ADE a lot. Usually we stay a few days and we go to a lot of parties so that’s why it’s always a highlight for us. It’s comparable to the Sonar Festival in Barcelona with a little less sun. ADE is very important for the industry and to meet people.”

The German duo use the opportunity to take in the ADE vibe and energy and catch up with their label colleagues and other artists:

“We try to see all the artists from Drumcode as it’s the best way to see everyone. Backstage is full of artists and it’s very easy to catch them all. There are a few other parties where we can hang out. We’re playing at the Q Factory at ADE. We’re pleased to be the special guests tonight.”

With a name like Kaiserdisco, it’s difficult not to be curious about the origin of such a funky name. The duo explains: 

“It was a mixture of the old projects we had before – we both had projects previously. The kaiser surived and the disco survived so we put it together.”

Getting the recognition of a techno legend like Adam Beyer is certainly worth an honorable mention. With tremendous success on such a huge label like Beyer’s Drumcode, the duo explained how the partnership began:

“We started producing in 2008 and at the time it was a more minimalistic sound. We then delved into some tech house and techno productions. One of the first ones was on Monika’s label and because of this release Adam Beyer sent us an email and asked us to send him some promos. We were very surprised by this as we already had. He asked us, and it’s usually the other way around. You send a demo and you’re lucky if you get an answer but this time he asked us to send some. That’s how it started – 6 years ago. Almost every year we have a release. Only one year we had to make a break as we had our own album on our own label. We have 5 EP’s and some compilation tracks. We’ve followed Adam Beyer for many years now – since the beginning of Drumcode.We like his label and the music that we are making fits his label so there is a lot of respect of course. He’s always giving us feedback.”

The birth of the project started in their home-town of Hamburg, where their paths often crossed. It was a serendipitous meeting that lead to the joint venture by the German duo:

“We’re both from Hamburg and we went to all the same clubs and although we should have known each other for 20 years –  we never met. At one point we met at a club and we knew about each other’s music and liked it and decided to try and collaborate. It worked perfectly and had a really good vibe. When we finished the track we came back to the studio and that was the beginning of Kaiserdisco. We were DJ’s for many years in our residence in Hamburg and had to play all night long so you had to have records from deep house to techno. We did some minimal house at the time which was the way we were feeling at the studio. Nowadays we try to focus on the techno side because we’re playing peak times mostly so we have to make sure our records fit the vibe and the time. At the moment it’s a lot of fun for us to produce techno tracks.”

With the success of events such as ‘Awakenings’ there is no denying that techno shows no sign of stopping and has amassed a huge amount of fans and interest in recent times. The duo delve into the evolution of the popular genre:

“Techno has changed a little bit. It’s more popular than ever and of course there are some others that are doing the more commercial techno and using some samples that people remember. There are still some very underground DJ’s and producers like Ben Klock or Marcel Dettmann who do a kind of weird techno – the very underground techno stuff production wise. So, in one way it’s very healthy in my opinion and in another way of course it’s very popular and very commercial. I think it will change like always. It will be a mixture of everything and other genres.”

With such an incredible journey so far the duo has so much more to look forward to. The charismatic Kaiserdisco explain:

“The next project is the Drumcode EP. We just finished a new EP which will be out in December maybe 1 or 2 weeks before Christmas on our own label KD Raw. We are also finishing a remix for Christian Smith.We are working on another EP for Tronic music which will be in January or February and it looks like we’re doing an album next year.”