LIFE OF THE PARTY - SVEN VÄTH

It’s not only pop mega stars who reinvent themselves – superstar DJs do it, too. For all his flamboyance, Sven Väth has credibility in the underground as an electronic pioneer. He’s also a canny musical chameleon. Ahead of his return Down Under for this year’s Future Music Festival, the self-described “entertainer” is being promoted as ‘the King of Techno’. But, in the ‘90s, Väth was ‘the Godfather of Trance’, a title he surely shared with his German compatriot Paul van Dyk. In later years Väth has spearheaded the minimal revolution.
Speaking from Phuket, Thailand, Väth has lost none of his enthusiasm for electronica, but he’s recognised the value of time out. “At the moment I’m really chilling. I’m having a big holiday here in Thailand with my wife. I’m recharging my batteries. Then I’m going to start my world tour.”
Väth has said that he’s easily bored. In 2010 the underground sound he favours straddles house, techno and, yes, electro – and, he says, “it’s as crazy as it [ever] was.” He’s digging Germany’s new deep house, rating Michel Cleis’ La Mezcla as his top track of 2009. Still, Väth doesn’t fully understand the backlash to minimal. “It was always a big mistake to suddenly call techno music ‘minimal’, because techno music is minimal. There was suddenly this hype around this word ‘minimal’. A lot of new people discovered techno music, but they called it ‘minimal’ because it was so cool... I was always playing minimal music – and I have been doing this for more than 20 years. I don’t care too much what the people say about it now. There was a time in the last few years when this new M-nus sound was becoming bigger and bigger, and everybody thought it’s so cool that you only can hear four tracks in one set, [but] I think the people now are up for more music again. This is what has happened in the last two years. Especially last year, house music had a big renaissance – the new house music.” By the ‘new house’, Väth has the likes of Reboot in mind, but he reckons that his mate Ricardo Villalobos pre-empted club culture’s new direction.
Väth isn’t consistently about change. He’s proud to be among few DJs to not go digital. Väth wryly observes that he’ll possibly be the sole DJ at the Future Music Festival spinning vinyl. “I have been DJing for 30 years now. Why should I change? Vinyl and the turntables are my instruments – and why should I change my instrument? This is a part of my performance.” Nevertheless, his stance creates its own challenges. “I have to tell the promoters today really precisely what I need on the stage. I have the feeling that the club owners and promoters don’t take care any more of DJs who are coming with their records and playing on turntables – because there are not so many DJs who are playing with vinyl any more.”
A former apprentice metal worker from Obertshausen, Väth was DJing at the start of the ‘80s. At 16 he’d discovered pre-acid house Ibiza on a hitchhiking adventure. Väth’s DJ debut was at the hedonistic Dorian Gray club, situated rather improbably at Frankfurt Airport. However, even before he became the face of techo-trance, Väth was a pop star, leading the ‘80s electro outfit OFF (Organisation For Fun). They enjoyed a hit with Electrica Salsa. Apparently not at ease with popdom, Väth cut loose while his cohorts launched Snap!.
Väth funnelled his OFF royalties into a Frankfurt nightclub, The Omen, as well as the influential Harthouse/Eye Q stables. He also produced. In 1992 he released the seminal (and surprisingly eclectic) album Accident In Paradise, home to the cult L’Esperanza. Less well received was the even more conceptual The Harlequin, The Robot & The Ballet Dancer. As with Goldie’s follow-up to Timeless, Saturnzreturn, The Harlequin was rudely mocked by UK critics, who deemed it pretentious. Väth hasn’t presented an album since 2002’s Fire. The DJ had spoken of another project two years ago – he was working with Anthony Rother – but it’s never materialised. “It’s my big master plan for the next 10 years,” Väth laughs. “At the moment I am so busy with what I’m doing – running my club, running my agency, doing my DJing and so on – that I haven’t found the right moment to go in the studio. The time will come – time will tell, I think.”
When Väth issued Accident, trance was cool. At the end of the ‘90s, it was a bad word – associated with Gatecrasher, cheese and dodgy pop. Väth was now lauding IDM. He introduced the feted Cocoon parties in Ibiza at Amnesia, which just celebrated a 10 year run. (Forget regular guests like Richie Hawtin – the iconic Dita von Teese performed burlesque there six years ago.) Back in Frankfurt, he opened the futuristic Cocoon club, the successor to The Omen. Then, of course, he’s developed a label of the same name. Indeed, Väth has established Cocoon as a countercultural brand with mix-CDs (The Sound Of The 10th Season came out late last year). He is quite the entrepreneur. His arty Cocoon club entails a Michelin Star restaurant. “We’re about to open a new one in Frankfurt – in the city,” he says of the diner. Väth has been hands-on with everything, from the design to menus to “the ambience”. “I bring my personal taste into it.”
Tales of Väth’s decadent partying have long proliferated in the dance scene. He’s good-humoured about “the funny stories,” or myths, but wonders about the occasionally negative spin. Yet Väth, now 45, has learnt to temper himself. “The challenge when you love what you do with so much passion, as I do, is to always find the balance in it,” he says. “I don’t want to burn myself out. Even though I like crazy parties, I like playing long sets – for instance, last year for the closing party in Ibiza I played a 24-hour set – and this is something I love to do sometimes, I can’t do that every weekend.” He may publish an autobiography. “I have had some people who are asking me already, they want to take care of that – a publisher. A film guy also came to me, [he] wanted to make a special documentary. Maybe the day will come. I think in the next five years I have to sit down – because there’s so many stories!”
Väth does question why some of his peers trade off their legacies. Other DJs from his generation have simply disappeared. “There are some DJs who maybe don’t feel it any more, or they don’t have the energy any more for doing all this work – to dive into the music so deep that you always find something new, what is inspiring you... There are some DJ colleagues [of mine] out there, I’ve known them for many years, but they still play the same music. They think they’ve found their format and they’ll continue with this ‘til no one is listening to them any more.”
This original raver has an adult daughter. What’s more, Väth wed two years ago – in a Buddhist ceremony in Thailand – and is preparing to become a dad again. (He fancies a son.) Famously, rocker David Bowie had a very sensible son, Duncan Jones, who briefly pursued academia prior to directing Moon. Väth’s daughter isn’t wayward, either. “My daughter is into theatre and movies, and she’s into styling and fashion – and that’s what she’s interested in. She thinks that she has a crazy daddy!”

 
WHAT:   THE SOUND OF THE 10TH SEASON THROUGH COCOON/STOMP / PLAYS METRO THEATRE / FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL
WHEN:    OUT NOW/ FRIDAY 5 MARCH / SATURDAY 6