A Sit Down With DJ Tube & Berger

As DJ’s, producers and owners of the imprint ‘Kittball Records’, Tube & Berger aka Arndt Roerig and Marko Vidovic, certainly have many talents. They begun their musical careers in a punk band at the tender age of sixteen, but quickly progressed to producing a unique brand of organic Electronic music after an introduction to House and Techno in the nineties. Since a mammoth breakthrough in 2004, the duo has gone from strength to strength. On their independent label, ‘Kittball Records’ with DJ Juliet Sikora, their music has had consistent global success.However, after having already dominated DJ booths in world renowned clubs such as Frankfurt’s Cocoon and Manchester’s Sankeys, they are now releasing their much anticipated first studio album Introlution that features collaborations with Chicago House legend Robert Owens and trumpeter extraordinaire Thalstroem. We talked to them about growing up in the small industrial German town of Solingen, as well as their up and coming releases and projects for 2012.

 

“Well drinking too much and staying up til dawn isn’t healthy at all and it makes you lazy.”

 

Your real names are Arndt Roerig and Marko Vidovic, how did you come up with the names Tube & Berger and why?

Roerig means something like “Tube” or “tubish” in German and our friends came up with Berger a long time ago. Back in the day, even our teachers thought Marko’s real name is Lou Berger. When we were looking for a band name it was our friends again that told us: “You ARE Tube & Berger”.

Tell us about when and how you met Juliet Sikora. Why did you decide to start Kittball Records with her and what qualities do you both bring to the running of the label?

We formed the label and our uncle, Marc Romboy of Systematic fame, helped us and things were going ok until the vinyl market collapsed. Things were taking off for Tube & Berger so we focused on that and then when we met Juliet Sikora she talked about the label and said she could help us run Kittball on a day-to-day basis. She put some structure into the label and we’re all joint A&Rs, but last year both Marko and I became daddies so it’s been great to be able to rely on Juliet.

One of your most recent projects together was your remix of Kurd Maverick’s ‘The Rub’, what’s it like remixing a track together? Do you work together in the same studio whilst remixing a track?

All 3 of us loved the original from back in 2006 and even if it was hard to improve on the original we had very cool studio sessions while making that remix. Juliet came over and we started from scratch and most if it was done within a few hours but it took a little longer until we finally finished this beast of a remix.

Do you have any favourite nights you like to attend? If so, what are they and why?

We are lucky because the nights we play are the good ones in our opinion. Paradise with Jamie Jones should be fun too.

Where do you gather songwriting inspiration?

Everywhere and nowhere, baby! On the road, in the studio, hanging with friends or our collaborators. We don’t have a strict routine. Hippy punks who went raving, you see!

Who is your favorite artist from EDM outside your own specific genre?

Definitely our “heroes” like Underworld, The Chemical Brothers or Daft Punk. We also love Felix Laband who’s making the coolest chill out music on the planet!

How do you define creative spirituality? What about when DJing or playing LIVE, do you guys have a certain ritual you do beforehand, in order to get the right frame of mind?

Creative spirituality is often far from showing up in the studio. We learned that you can’t force the flow. But when it’s there it’s a magical feeling and all in all it’s the main reason for us to make music. We gave up most of our rituals over the years because most of them were a bit unhealthy. We still think it makes sense to be in the club at least an hour before our gigs to get in the mood and have a look at the crowd but that’s not really a ritual neither is getting high or having​ too many drinks. Wow..we became old and boring.

You changed your early style to deep house. Why was that? Would you ever consider changing again?

We were not comfortable during the minimal techno hype and were very glad when it was no longer frowned upon to incorporate vocals and melodies into tracks. A few years later this style became known as deep house, and we were able to shape this scene rather than running behind it as we had come from a more electro house style than minimal. However, even when the deep house bubble grew to full size, we never saw ourselves as a ‘deep house act’. We somehow always do something that ‘falls between two stools’, as you say in English. In the years since we began as DJs we have seen the underground club sound evolve from electro house through to minimal techno through to the deep house boom, and now it seems tech-house and techno reigns supreme. Throughout all of these transitions and scenes we have always tried to sound like Tube & Berger but with one eye on what’s happening.

Which DJs from EDM became your personal friends?

Over the years we met a lot of DJs especially from Germany. Loads of good buddies over here. Last summer we had a cool time at Coyu’s place in Barcelona and a crazy night with Phillip from M.A.N.D.Y in Croatia. Most of our personal friends are not really involved into the whole EDM thing. That’s good because we like talking about stuff that has nothing to do with dance music.

If you weren’t a musician what would you be?

Children’s Charity Worker – probably in Africa. We are both Fathers now and feel the pressure to make the world better for ours and other people’s kids. All the proceeds from our current single ‘International Corporate Motherfuckers’ goes to the charity IT BEGAN IN AFRICA which we have supported for many years now. After our own album, we will be producing a 3rd compilation album for this cause.

Questions? Comments? We want to know:@djfollower