DJ Seinfeld and salute talk Gen Z, Manchester and fast-paced club tracks – Features

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Do you think the influx of live show bookings is due to everyone wanting to go back post-COVID? Or do you think it’s been a slow trajectory to where you are now?

greet: It’s probably a bit of both. Like after confinement, people wanted everything tenfold. The promoters had to compensate for that demand, and obviously it’s going down a bit now and people don’t want to go out as much because it’s expensive. People can’t afford it with the cost of living crisis. But I still feel like there’s momentum for me at the minute, which is really great. Since the end of the confinement, it’s really positive to see that people resonate with us, with the stuff that I do by the minute, it’s a great feeling. It’s been a long time coming.

You’re set to play The Warehouse Project this weekend, I’m guessing you’ve both played before – what’s so special about this party?

DJ Seinfeld: For me, it’s overwhelming but in all the right ways. There’s no club like The Warehouse Project. The queues are basically like a full-scale festival every weekend, twice a weekend! I’ve been playing there for a few years, and I don’t know how they use SOUP now, but back then they were putting up-and-coming producers and DJs there to see how they fared and how they played like a graduation stage to play the Warehouse Project, so I was doing that. From the beginning, I had seen this gradual process of playing on a smaller stage, then over time it caught on and got bigger and bigger. Every time I go there I can see how it has developed. It’s nice to be in the middle of a lot of doubts about anything music-related, and nice to be reaffirmed every now and then that you’re still at that point. The people who work there are super nice too!

Felix, I know you’re based in Manchester – is it really important to you to play The Warehouse Project?

greet: 100%, especially as someone not from Manchester — I grew up in Austria. Just being accepted into what I feel is an amazing scene of people in dance music, and out of it, and being able to play these shows which to me are some of the most important shows you can play in the Kingdom -United. It’s really a great feeling. The crowds are always amazing and as Armand said the staff are also amazing. I feel like the musical diversity you find at The Warehouse Project across the shows is just amazing. Like there was a show in 2018 I think where Mura Masa put on Black Midi and Vegyn. Then you can go to another The Warehouse project and watch KiNK. For me, it’s just amazing, I feel like a lot of Mancunians don’t really understand how spoiled we are to have line-ups like that! Growing up in Vienna, we would have never seen anything like it, ever. Yes, Manchester are very lucky.

Armand, you’ve been touring the world recently but you have a huge fanbase here in the UK. How do you find the crowds in the UK? Is it a place where you like to play?

DJ Seinfeld: In terms of crowds, it’s pretty unmatched. I think the only crowds that are on a similar level are Australian crowds. The biggest difference is that when you go to big cities like Manchester, Liverpool and London, the venues are usually bigger and there are more people. Before the pandemic, I found the crowds to be just super nice and engaged in all the right ways, or most of the right ways. After the pandemic, some of that was lost. We’ve all had to deal with a new generation of people who weren’t quite sure how to party and how to deal with the nightlife. It’s been great mostly with the UK public, but every once in a while I see the backlash of the pandemic in terms of inexperience in dealing with alcohol and drugs and all that sort of stuff. I think it’s going to take another two or three years before things normalize and the dating culture stabilizes a bit.

It’s interesting that you say that – there have been reports recently revealing that Gen Z are now moving away from the fun and nightlife. Do you see that in the crowd when playing compared to before the pandemic?

DJ Seinfeld: One of my suspicions is that the idea of ​​delusion has become quite performative. I think now with TikTok and Instagram you see all these videos going viral about what it’s like to go to Berghain, how a raver should and shouldn’t dress. Then it’s mixed in with horrible reports of needle sticks and all that sort of thing. So I think social media has at the same time turned this into something huge, but I think a lot of people see it from the outside and are like, ‘Yeah, that’s probably not for me’ .

greet: I agree. Especially with the pandemic and students not being able to be in college where usually you’d be surrounded by people telling you to come to this event, come to this club, we’ll teach you the ropes. It’s a huge way kids fall in love with electronic music, right from the early years of college. Because everyone was just at home, we didn’t have that physical connection, it just wasn’t there. This is why, after confinement, many of these children said to themselves: “We don’t really know what to do”. We don’t like it.” But I wouldn’t say that I don’t see a lot of young people at my concerts, because there are really a lot of 18, 19 year olds. Keep Hush did a survey recently, in fact, where they talked about it and asked a large group of 18-30 year olds what motivates them to go out. I think there is a need and a want as Armand said, but I think it would take a little longer before things stabilized again.

Read this next: Gen Z finds music through video games

What’s next for you two? Do you have anything in the pipeline?

greet: Yes, although I’m not really sure what to say! I’m going on tour in America at the end of November, then I’m going on tour in the United States towards the end of October. After that, I’m just working on the next single which will be along the lines of ‘Therapy’ and ‘Joy’, then I’m also working on some remixes. In short, I have a lot of stuff coming!

DJ Seinfeld: For my part, I really have nothing planned, I have a few remixes coming out. Then next year I’m quitting my live show, so I’ll just be doing club stuff next year, DJing. It’s going to be pretty cool because I’ll need some time to work on the next albums and the next projects and rework some ideas. We are working on ideas for residences in major cities around the world, but I want to go down in size. It’s not set in stone yet, but the idea is just to take a step back and try to rebuild communities and scenes here and there and touch the places where I come from.

For more information on this weekend’s Return to Depot at The Warehouse Project, visit thewarehouseproject.com.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag’s Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter

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