Berlin underground, Ibiza & Tomorrowland DJ - Vinyl, CDJ & digital DJ lessons - from first mix to club-ready - all levels welcome

Find out more about Lars

• 1) When did you first develop a passion for music and your favorite instrument?

  I got into DJing and music production at around 14, and the two developed together. I heard a DJ set on the radio and remember being baffled by why the music didn't stop for an entire hour. I became fascinated with figuring out what the DJ was actually doing, listening obsessively to the mixing and trying to copy it.
  
  At the same time, I was discovering sampling and early music production software. I sampled beats, sounds and even bits of dialogue from TV and started making my first, pretty terrible, tracks. It was all very playful and experimental. DJing and making music became my first real musical outlets, and the two have gone hand in hand ever since.

• 2) Is there a particular type of music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

  I'm actually pretty good at not going insane while listening to the same eight bars on an endless loop when I'm tweaking details in one of my own productions. I think that might be an occupational requirement for a music producer.

• 3) Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

  I'm most interested in teaching the things you only really learn through experience, the stuff you won't find in a tutorial.
  
  For DJing, that means reliable techniques that keep a set working even when the equipment or situation isn't what you expected. With production, it's knowing how to take an idea all the way to a finished track that actually works, on a club system, with an audience or when you send it to a label.
  
  A lot of that comes from years of making records and playing gigs, and it's the kind of experience I really enjoy passing on to my students.

• 4) What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

  I'd say a modern DAW is probably one of the most complicated instruments ever invented. You can compose, program drums, design sounds, record and process vocals and instruments, manipulate samples, arrange, mix and ultimately make an entire record yourself.
  
  The possibilities are almost endless, which is both the great thing about it and what makes it so difficult to learn. A big part of becoming a good producer is knowing which techniques really matter and where to focus.

• 5) What are your keys to success?

  Enjoying what you're doing is probably the biggest one. If you can make practicing, producing or DJing genuinely fun, you naturally want to do more of it, and that's when you progress fastest.
  
  The other is recognizing when you've stumbled across something special and running with it. It could be a strange little idea that ends up becoming the hook of a whole track, or an unusual record that you figure out how to make work in a DJ set. I think developing that instinct is often more valuable than obsessing over doing everything the "correct" way.

• 6) Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

  I'm going to cheat and make it four: Liam Howlett of The Prodigy, Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, and Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty of The KLF.
  
  Howlett and Bangalter mainly because of their mastery of electronic music production. They both created music with a completely distinctive sound, and the fact that they're also amazing DJs makes them even more interesting to me.
  
  Drummond and Cauty because The KLF took the idea of what you could do with music, art and the music industry to some pretty unexpected places. I imagine hanging out with those four would lead to some fascinating conversations.

• 7) Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

  I did go to music school, but my most important music school was probably the clubs of Berlin. There were plenty of times when I'd be working on a new track until literally minutes before leaving to DJ, then play the unfinished track to a real dancefloor that same night.
  
  The reaction would tell me pretty quickly whether it worked, or what it still needed. You learn a lot about making dance music when there's a room full of people in front of you.

• 8) What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

  I'm good at taking something that seems complicated and breaking it down until the student realizes, "Oh, I can do this." I also build lessons around the music they actually like. If you're learning DJing, I want you mixing your music, not mine. If you're learning production, I'd much rather open your own Ableton project and solve a real problem together than take everyone through the same generic exercise.
  
  I came to production from a practical rather than academic direction myself. You don't have to be a virtuoso instrumentalist or know every corner of music theory to make great records. Modern production gives us some amazing tools to get around the things we're less good at and turn the ideas in our heads into actual music.
  
  A lot of producing is simply figuring out what you want to achieve and finding the best way to get there.