Feature

Eddie Thoneick: Miami nice

Eddie Thoneick is the super skillful German House producer and DJ that is attracting heat from every corner of the house fraternity. Recently signed to the omnipotent Strictly Rhythm his remix of Witch Doktor has been on heavy rotation around the globe. Now with a new Miami mix under his belt, he tells us why he hates halitosis, how people can’t ever spell his name right and the perils of owning your own record label.

Complete the following sentence: Eddie Thoneick always brushes his teeth before DJ-ing because.... "of my 2nd job. Good teeth are essential for being a dentist. Plus I hate Halitosis haha!"

How many people manage to spell your name wrong? Does it piss you off?

Well at the beginning, yes. But after a while you get used to it and just have to laugh about it. That’s also why my management needs to give all artwork the final blessing.

What nationality are you, where are you from and where do you live now?

I’m from Germany (My mum is Dutch so that makes me 50% Dutch). I was born and raised near the Dutch border.
How would you describe your music and what you play? What is your sound?

That’s quite a tricky question… I play everything that I like, so sometimes rock tracks can be included in my sets. My roots, from beginning, we’re in House music. As there are so many different styles of house nowadays, I like to use the very eclectic term – ‘All Aspects of House music’. But all in all it needs to be uplifting and dirty.

Tell me about your show on Radio F.G. What does it allow you to do and how has it helped your profile?

I’m now in my 3rd year with Radio F.G, and I love doing the radio show. The show airs in France so I have a big audience over there. For me, personally I get the chance each week to start working on my self-made edits, which I, of course, use in my sets. If it wasn’t for the show, I don’t think I’d be doing editing as much, so from that side it has really helped the development of my sets – making them more unique.

As well as in France, I think a lot of people are listening to my shows on my website. The shows are available on the site each week, along with the playlists I’ve done.

I’ve also started my monthly Podcast on itunes called, ‘The Acid House’. It gets a lot of Plays. It is also a mix show but I also use it to discuss projects and feature interviews etc…

Why do you dislike the minimal sound so much?

This kind of sound has always been temporarily in fashion I guess. If you take a look back at the scene over the years, minimal always takes the scene back into Classic house with new electronic influences. Minimal doesn’t give me the same feeling as house does. I find it quite monotone without much emotion in it.

Tell me about your record label. How hard is it to put out the record you want?

I think I chose to start the record label at the wrong time. Illegal downloading was and still is growing and it’s hard to keep the sales figures up. There’s so much stuff coming out each week and it’s hard to keep up-to-date with it all.

The good thing is that Tonik Recordings isn’t focused on releasing tracks of mine exclusively worldwide. It’s more like a basis from where we take care of licensing my tracks around the globe. The good thing is that I can choose who’s going to work on the track as a partner, who will be doing the remixes and who’s tracks will be released.

If you start a label it becomes clear quite fast that sales are not as high as they were when there was still vinyl. But a positive thing is that the tracks get spread over the net very fast and people from all over the world get to hear your music. If it was just available on vinyl or on CD’s, nobody would buy them. The popularity of the artist rises, the DJ’s get more and more gigs and they also receive a better fee.

Many people have told me you are a very technical and skillful producer. Do you think this is true and why would they say this?

Haha! I just try to do things in a unique way, production-wise. Yes, I think I’m skillful and what impresses the most is that I’m always pretty quick when working with the equipment. I sleep in my studio sometimes too!

The skillfulness probably comes from my musical education which I started at the age of 4. Having played the piano for 13 years, the drums and more recently the guitar, my production side has enhanced.

What does it feel like to be involved with such a historic label - Are you going to play a bigger part on the Strictly label this year?

It’s truly fantastic. What you don’t know, is that I have about 90% of all the Strictly Rhythm Vinyls at home, some totally untouched. Back then Strictly were the trendsetters and whatever Strictly did became the law!

It’s been an honour working on some of the true classics and working together with them now on a brand new mix CD. It’s not just about how famous a record label is, but also about how the people are who work there. I’ve worked with a couple of people who had a lot of potential but simply had the wrong attitude. All the people I have worked with at Strictly were straightforward and fair. So yes, I think this is definitely a label that I would like to work more with in the future.

Do you think that Miami is still important for house music?

Yes I do. It’s still retains that house vibe, now more than ever. It’s not just about the people or the city itself, it’s the mixture of the summer, the city and all the music industry heads that help build the great vibe it has.

Everywhere you go and whatever time of the day, you always meet people you who have that special Miami vibe, which is fantastic.

Business-wise it’s not so important, but the importance it does have is that you can meet up with the people you work with once a year and just have a nice dinner and a beer or 2, or 3, or 4!!

Tell me about the Strictly Miami mix. What vibe does it have?

When I was asked to do the mix I had to do a lot of brainstorming for it and I decided that it had to have a classic house music feel mixed up the up-to-date sounds. I found a lot great records that I wanted to use.

I think the Strictly Miami CD was the first one where there were no borders regarding mixing as I had such a huge back-catalogue of acapella’s and old records I was able to use. When I’m DJ-ing my sets are filled with beats, acapella’s, tracks, edits, etc… and so I was really able to turn this mix CD into a big mash-up! It’s soulful, uplifting and timeless.

Which tracks should we particularly work out for?

Definitely the up-coming Strictly tracks. A lot of up-front tracks are on the CD such as Rasmus Faber Vs Candi Station, and the classic ‘Love Dancin’ track with HCCR Drivin remix. There’s also a lot of my own stuff from Subliminal and Tonik which are also on there.

Tell me about the parties you are playing at in Miami including Strictly Defected.

This year I decided not to play a lot of shows, but to enjoy the nights more than I had done in years before. This way I can check out more parties and meet more friends. But I’m definitely looking forward to the Strictly Defected party at Cameo! It’ll be AWESOME!!

Strictly Miami mixed by Eddie Thoneick and Karizma is released 15th March.
Words TONI TAMBOURINE