About Me – And the Music: To understand where I come from, you have to go back. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the chaotic, grey mass of a transforming city, Techno became liberation. It was raw. Visionary. Radical, yet within reach. And it stood for everything our music teachers had never taught us to love.

I remember my first wild, unplanned journey out of the East. We were just kids, in a matte-black Mercedes W114 – meant to visit a friend in Switzerland. But something pulled us further. We ended up in Saint-Tropez, against every parental warning. We saw palm trees for the first time. Slept in the warm sandAnd we talked – really talked – about music, about life. We asked ourselves: What made jazz and blues musicians so great? Why did we, as die-hard techno lovers, respect them so deeply?

It was the love. Music made out of love – rich or poor, underground or stage-lit – always the same truth: Do it for the music. Or don’t do it at all. We swore never to betray that. Some of my unnamed friends from that night went on to do just that – to live it fully. Me? I may have taken detours. But I’ve stayed close to that promise. And when I look back on over 30 years of creative work, I feel pride. The jazz, the rock, the blues – they came later. And they stayed.

This is also a quiet, deep thank you to the friends who shaped me – before there were phones, the internet, or social media. Before AI. You know who you are. No one could ever put into words what we experienced together – through all those endless nights. But still, here’s a start: 1994 – 2010 Georg, Thomas, Lars, Steffen, Robert, Chrilly, David, Thomas M., Matchbox Micha, Claudia, Alex, Olaf - Lester R,  Marco, Basti S., Gunnar & Lars, Roman, Romano, the Marvellers, Rico, Flori, Anne, Basti K., Mr. Wenzel, Gregor, Uwe, Kathy, Kathrin, Rox / Fin / Manje, Helge, Sirius, Robert F., Alexandra H, Tina – and so many more beautiful, unforgettable souls.

This list would fill volumes. So to everyone not named – to Austria, Spain, Canada, and especially to my unforgettable friends in Beijing: I miss you. All of you. And it would be unfair not to mention the beautiful souls who shaped later chapters of this journey: Jennifer, Haito, Daniela H., Franzi, & Franzi, Giovanni M., Inki / Hitparaden-Helga, Casino Basti, Joachim, Ralf, Gianni Vitello, Dan, Aggi, Rupert, Graham, Walter & Lori, Sascha & Jessie, Veronika, Melanie, Tom, Felix, Deliah, OMG Carmen, Momo, Hawaiian Brain, the Tripod Band – especially Parat, Momo, Derek, BB, Nuel and his sister, Vince, Mallika, Arya M. Sharma... and so many others.  Each name, a night. A life. A moment. A spark. Each one part of this beat we call a life.