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[ intro music ]
[ greeting ]
Stuttgart (provincial capital)
A Mashup is similiar to a collage.
The concept of mashups means connecting different information
to create something completely new.
[ live music ]
I started to play music when I studied.
In about 2000 I found the first so-called bootlegs
and I found them very interesting because
I was kind of bored only playing two tracks one after another.
I wanted to try something new with music.
I posted the first tracks on YouTube
without expecting a huge feedback.
But when I logged in again - about three weeks later -
the video had 650,000 views and I received 200 messages
like: "Amazing stuff, keep going"
So I noticed that people are interested in that and I wanted to do more of it.
It was really a creeping process,
but there were a few milestones.
Very great was the "Top of the Pops 2011" that got over 40 million views on YouTube
After that I got more feedback.
More fans, more booking requests, and so on.
Generally you can say its getting bigger with every album.
Especially the one I made with Cro was great.
And I'm internationally on my way for about two and a half years.
I only started about 4 years ago.
[ Are you ready for party...? ]
[ If you want so put your hands up, everybody! ]
[ Put your hands up! ]
According to my friends,
my family and my employer
it is too much time. [ laughing ]
It consumes very much time to make mashups,
but it is my passion.
Its a bit like an addiction.
Family and friends complain,
but I will spend that time as long as I have fun.
I spend the most time to travel to the locations.
People only see me
playing a gig for about two hours,
but I start travelling at noon,
I have to set up and check my equipment
and there are also interviews ;)
And I come home next evening
and there are two days gone.
Thats difficult to handle.
[ piano sound ]
[ does not work as expected ]
Well, lets restart once again [ laughing ]
[ music playing ]
Yes, of course.
I get money for the gigs because they are associated with a big effort.
I try hard even if there were only five people in front of me.
I think it is ok to get money for that.
Furthermore I spend thousands of hours
for creating mashups, and I need money for
websites and premium accounts (e.g.sound cloud),...
Mashup Germany costs about 6000 to 10,000€ per year.
And if I would not play gigs I had to pay this from my normal income.
[ Interviewer: Thats really difficult ]
But I don't want to take money for my mashups.
They are often labels that want to license me, but thats against my attitude.
[Music]
An example: "Meine Zeit (Die Young Gangnam Style)"
I heard Die Young on the radio,
and the guitar intro sounded like
"Wolke 7" by Max Herre and Philipp Poisel.
But it reminded me also of Cro,
which was also fitting perfectly.
And "Gangnam Style" fits anyway... [laughing]
For other projects like "I'm coming home",
which are the more calmer productions
like "I did it my way".
In this cases I have often
an idea and I look for songs
that fit good in respect of content.
I grew up with music and
I have about
40,000 to 50,000 songs in my head,
including beats per minute and keys,
and that helps a lot.
Great question!
When I started, I made them only for myself.
I never thought that anyone would hear them.
So they were very authentic.
But the bigger it gets the more I think about it and
I don't know if that's so good.
[ Music playing ]
I have a basic rule: I buy every song that I mashup
That is in my opinion logical.
But it is very difficult to get instrumentals or vocals.
Some German labels are sending me some tracks,
Cro would be an good example for that,
but international stuff is really hard to get.
You have to search for a long time or you bother the producers.
A lot of them enjoy it afterwards.
But generally it is not easy.
We are the first generation that not only consumes media,
but we also alter and create new things out of them.
But our copyright,
that was made about a hundred years ago,
is not constructed for today's consumers.
And it is a scandal that politics did not react,
because in fact our daily life is illegal,
media consumption is de facto a crime.
It is deliberated what I do,
so it's a calculated and also a calculable peril.
I am in contact with the labels to prevent that.