How has the bass music scene developed in Berlin in the two years since you started Sub:stance?
It's hard for me to answer this definitively since I'm not really too much of a scene dweller, but I'll try. It's clearly grown and continues to do so. Before we started Sub:stance I think I'm right in saying there were only two regular "dubstep" nights in Berlin, which were Freak Camp and Bass The World. As far as I know they had been running since around 2005 so those guys were on it early and definitely deserve a lot of credit for sowing the seeds in Berlin.
Now it seems there are quite a few other nights featuring dubstep / bass music / whatever, but I would say that's indicative of the music and scene growing in general throughout the world rather than a direct result of us running Sub:stance. It's great to be a part of that growth, though, and I'm certainly proud of what we've done with the parties—especially the fact that we've managed to take some music that's not just straight 4/4 house and techno to a club so renowned for just that, and make it work.
Did you ever have doubts that the city would embrace this style of music?
Definitely. As Paul Rose has said in interviews before, we were very nervous before opening on the first night as we had literally no idea if the gamble would pay off and people would actually turn up. Remember, this was the first time Berghain had ever opened on a Friday (normally only Panorama Bar is open) so I think the guys from the club were a little nervous too.
However, within the first couple of hours the queue outside was just ludicrous, to the point where my friend Ben, who has lived here for 11 years, described it as "the longest queue I have ever seen at Berghain" as he was leaving at 4 AM. I still have that text message saved in my phone as well as one from ND Baumecker of Berghain which says "the first English tourists are already outside the club taking photos!" That was at 9 PM, three hours before the doors opened.
Have there been any particular year 2 highlights?
For me the biggest highlight musically was having Tikiman performing live with Scion, playing all the songs from the classic Burial Mix 10-inches he recorded with Rhythm and Sound. It took a lot of work and persistence to make that happen and it was really satisfying to be there in the middle of the dance floor hearing those tracks coming live out of the Berghain system. It sounded amazing and went down really well.
Other personal highlights would have to include Joker, Peverelist, Mr. Rigsby and of course Scuba's live debut. But truthfully, everybody we have booked has been an integral part of the whole Sub:stance story so far, and they really all have their own individual sound and style too, which is one of the things I love about this scene.
What was the thinking behind the Panorama Bar programming for the second birthday?
Last year for our first birthday we wanted to acknowledge that US techno, and of course Detroit specifically, had been very influential on us both. We chose Stacey Pullen and Dan Curtin since we're huge fans of their productions and neither had played in Panorama Bar for some time. This year we really wanted to represent the more house / garage / disco side of things and MJ Cole and Idjut Boys had been on our hit list for some time. To be honest the thinking is very simple: to represent good music we love, that will work in the Panorama Bar context, and be something different to what people might expect from Sub:stance.
Will there be a follow-up to Scuba's Sub:stance mix on Ostgut Ton?
This hasn't been discussed yet, but I suppose it's possible some time in the future.
Are there any plans to further expand the party into other regions/countries?
We've already hosted parties in Amsterdam (with Sonic Warfare), New York (with Dub War), Leeds (with Exodus/Room 237) and a few other cities. We're certainly hoping to do more parties in more cities in the coming months and years, although right now the only specific plan in place is that we're hosting the Friday night (September 3rd) for the
Outlook Festival in Croatia with Appleblim, Scuba, Distance, Headhunter, 2562, Shackleton and myself. I'm really looking forward to that one, the whole line-up for the festival is amazing.