Jürgen Degener - Jurgen Degener - Everything is cyclical

Jürgen Degener, the enfant prodige of the Rome techno scene, born in Stuttgart, tells us about his journey and how every form of life, and therefore music too, is cyclical.

You started out in the underground scene - can you tell us how your journey began?

I studied classical piano for many years, and alongside that I always listened to a huge amount of music, mostly from abroad, from Northern Europe. During a period of personal difficulty I got into minimal, which to my mind resonates with the classical piano music I'd studied as a kid. From there I started going to underground techno nights, up until I began working at one of the genre's landmark venues, namely Ex-Dogana.

Speaking of which, it was right there, in one of the strongholds of the Capital's musical avant-garde, that you started out as a DJ…

At that time I was already playing for fun at home and at private parties, while there I worked as a barman. It was a lucky coincidence - a DJ closing the night had cancelled and they asked me to fill in. And it was a hit, that night the crowd went wild. That's when I understood that people found in techno the relief of a “non-place”, somewhere to lose themselves and think about nothing. From there I started playing regularly, founded the Berlin Calling night, and began producing my own tracks.

Beyond giving you an entry point into the job, did working at a techno club like Ex Dogana, a place of experimentation, influence your productions?

I remember they'd often close out the night with hard techno, ramping the BPM up from 130 to 160 towards the end, and I found it unbearable. Thanks to that experience, though, I gained access to a genre I didn't know that well and decided to dig deeper into it abroad. I think Ex Dogana gave me a springboard - being one of the most important venues in Rome's indie and underground scene, it gave me a level of visibility I never expected, and later allowed me to found Traumers.

And how did the Traumers project begin?

It's a really funny story, it makes me think we were destined for it. I decided to celebrate my 30th birthday at Ex Dogana, where I'd also be playing that night. And purely by word of mouth we managed to draw more than four hundred people. That's when we realised this thing could grow into something bigger. So together with five musician friends we founded Traumers, with which we produced our first vinyl releases for the label Trash Tune Records.

You've been producing with Traumers for years, and now you're also part of Head 2 Head. You've shifted genre, from techno to electronic music with funk and R&B samples…

Through Traumers I had the chance to collaborate with musicians from other countries, mainly the Netherlands and Germany, and that opened me up to different ways of making music. It allowed me to broaden my knowledge of techno, making possible an evolution I'd never have imagined before. Our latest productions lean more towards being actual songs, moving away from the purely techno tracks we were used to. That's let us range more widely, both in genre and in audience. I strongly believe that music is cyclical, and as such it's always destined to change.

When you perform live you often change things up, what determines your choice?

I think the choice is largely dictated by my ability to read the venue where I'm performing and the type of audience.

In the techno world, does the audience change a lot depending on the night?

Yes, a lot. I recently did a back to back with Agoritz, who makes harder techno than me and draws a more international crowd. On the same night Ben Sims also played, and he draws yet another kind of crowd. In general, I think the techno world has changed, and so has the audience. I think it goes hand in hand with people's need to let off steam, especially within a society that forces you to rush through everything, all the time. I think that this feeling of oppression, of "feeling boxed in," is reflected in everything, including techno music.

What excites you most about playing live?

Music is a vehicle for emotion, positive or negative. When I perform, what I try to do is create a break from everyday life, an empty space where people can step away from their day, from the last thought they had before walking into the club. When it works, feeling that emotion in the crowd, watching people's mood shift as they listen to me, is priceless.

What do you think of the Italian techno scene?

I think it's definitely behind other European countries. Above all, we're behind when it comes to supporting emerging artists. The main nights out there are clearly built almost exclusively around the biggest-name headliners. And that's a shame, because access to music production is now far greater than before - today's technology allows talented people to emerge more easily. At the same time, it's as if listening itself has become more superficial. People have lost the will to dig deeper into what they're listening to, and that's a shame.

Can you recommend a record to listen to, a milestone of techno?

Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman - “Spastic”, without a shadow of a doubt - it encapsulates pure visionary spirit.

Ride the wave of great music

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