“In fact I did not want to become a DJ!“
Well, a fairly unusual statement for a DJ who has been going off behind the turntables for more than a decade - and quite successfully at that. No prizes for guessing that MentalX's name has something to do with “going mental”. Anyone who has pleasure to watch him play a set will realise that MentalX enjoyed the blooming techno and house culture of the early nineties. That was on the premises of the legendary “Stuckfärberei” in Basel - as the 15-year-old party animal that he was then. Just as this counterculture was about to dig its way through the European mainland's various underground scenes, the “Stucki” was attracting DJs and clubbers from all over the old continent. MentalX not only experienced these beginnings 'at first ear' but also helped to shape them at the “Heaven Underground”. All this laid the foundations for achieving things he had never dared dreaming of: his own Party-series; international respect; his own radio-show. Above all and most importantly he managed to
realise his personal vision of club music, thereby staying loyal to his own ideals.
“If you want to hear these records, play them yourself!”
It was not only young MentalX who was drawn to the incomparable groove of those parties - the my-house-is-your-house-feeling, the proverbial “Love Stimulation”. From a strictly musical point of view, however, he soon started to develop his very own ideas and therefore collected records that transcended the barriers between house and techno. Tracks such as “Papua New Guinea” from Future Sounds of London, “Song of Life” from Leffield or “Visions of Shiva” from the project known by the same name of the two Berlin lads Kid Paul and Paul van Dyk are among his adored favourites. As yet, there was no adequate platform for this undefined sound, so he asked the promoter of the “Heaven Underground” club to book exactly those DJs who played this kind of music.
“If you want to hear those records, play them yourself!” was the answer he received. So shortly after he played his first set at an after-hours session at Heaven Underground. Soon these parties had a better attendance than others at the “Stucki”. As a result he was soon allowed to take over the warm-up. After a while MentalX was playing prime-time sets beside the likes of Laurent Garnier or Eric Roug. A meteoric development when you take into account that for the first two years, he could not even afford turntables of his own! That is why he spent most of his spare time at the club practising - which had the pleasant side-effect of letting him learn about the business from scratch. He did the bookings, helped decorating and even did the animation part. On new year's eve ‘94-’95 this golden age of Basel club culture came to an end. Heaven Underground shut its doors, followed by the rest of "Stucki" premises two months after. However, deep down all this lives on in MentalX to the
present day.
“Raves were something really special, but clubs just gave me more”
In the mid-nineties, the underground movement of club music surfaced. Big, professionally organised and clearly commercial raves generated a mass movement. In this arena, too, MentalX can lay claim to having been there right from the beginning. He was the first DJ to get his own floor at the Swiss ravers' mecca, Roggwil. This resulted in twelve-hour marathon sets, for example at the Gay Nation, which enabled MentalX to foster his ever-growing fan community. It was through Rave culture that the DJ was increasingly becoming the focus of attention, a pop star of sorts. MentalX, who is rather reserved in private, did not really care about this aspect of rave culture; even today he prefers to express himself primarily through his music.
“Raves were something really special, but clubs just gave me more”, he says today, and he did remain loyal to club culture. Performances at clubs throughout Europe, including highlights such as Munich, Istanbul and Riccone, prove the point. His show at the after-party of the internationally renowned Art Fair in Basel was something very special to him.
MentalX stuck to his very own style of playing records. He was finally rewarded for his tenacity in 1996 when the English top DJ Sasha finally coined the phrase “Epic House” to give a name to exactly what MentalX had been doing for years. Epic house is a combination of the rather soft, melodic elements of trance music and the fascinating, pounding beats of Techno or House. Artists who strongly influenced the international scene were people such as BT or Underworld. It was important for the style's global success that it managed to dissociate itself from the commercially dominated Hardtrance fraction. Very soon this underground sound built up a following in Switzerland, too. Undoubtedly DJ-Gogo, who pioneered “Epic House” at the Zurich-based club Labyrinth, needs mentioning here.
Between 1997 and 1998, rave culture entered a phase of gradual and final decline. Before this, MentalX got world-famous DJ Paul van Dyk, to host an unforgettable party in Basel organised by MentalX himself. Just as a side-note: this was the only Basel party highlight in the second half of the nineties as far as this type of music is concerned. On the other hand, it was as early as 1996 that he got in touch with radio for the first time when he was interviewed for the DRS3 show “Let’s Dance”.
“I thought they just wanted yet another interview!”
In 1999 the phone rang and MentalX was invited to the Radio-Studio Basel. “I thought they just wanted yet another interview!”, he says. In fact he was given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to host his own radio show on the newly founded radio station VIRUS! A sound technician from the studio had attended one of MentalX’ parties in Basel and immediately recommended him. Thus “Shake” was born, the first Swiss radio show dedicated exclusively to Epic House (formerly also known as Progressive House). There is an interesting parallel between his radio career and his career as a club DJ. Just like his first sets in the Hidden Underground, his radio show "Shake" started off as a side programme, only to be promoted to a prime-time slot in no time. As MentalX puts it laconically, “quality simply asserts itself”, and he feels once again proven right for following his personal vision of club music in an uncompromising manner. Besides, "Shake" is an essential ingredient in his career as a
professional DJ. “In order to be a successful DJ, you just have to have your own radio show”. Comparisons with Pete Tong’s Essential Mix, Paul van Dyk’s Soundgarden or John Digweed’s show on Radio Kiss100 are appropriate rather than daring or flattering.
Every Saturday, MentalX presents four hours of the finest club music mixed live. MentalX is just as convincing on radio as he is in a club. In the meantime "Shake" can show off a guest list others daren't dream of: Paul van Dyk, James Holden, Underworld, Kosheen, Quivver, Ellen Alien, Electric Indigo and Mara, to mention but a few. They have all played their sound on "Shake" and answered the competent questions MentalX has put to them. As a reward for this great work, the show was nominated for the Ericsson Dance Music Award as early as 2000.
«From Hamburg to Paris, from Cologne to Vienna»
However, the club is the heart of it all. Besides gigs at the most-hyped clubs in Switzerland such as Club Cult in Lausanne or Q in Zurich, MentalX plays at the party haven Labyrinth in Zurich several times a month. For a while, MentalX was resident DJ at the popular Klub Dome in Lindau, Germany. It was there that he got to know Peter Lavalle who has been resident there for years. The two lads got along brilliantly - not just behind the turntables - and a couple of high-class joint sets were to follow. Along with Greed and his mastermind Tobi Wirz, head of the renowned SOG-label, MentalX went on a European tour in spring 2004.
The same year Greed and MentalX produced a dance-version of "Superfly" of the swiss rock and crossover band "Yellow Blackboard". The amazing success of the track was unforeseeable. It was listed on the O.S.T of the film "Snowwhite" and world star Paul van Dyk featured the remixes on his "Politics of Dancing 2", and call "Superfly" as best record 2005.
Since 2005 MentalX is also a fixed member of the SOG-Records family, as A&R always on the search for future floorburners.
In February 2006 the second single of MentalX and Greed, "Lumiera", appeared on the swedish frontlabel ACDC Records...
And the summer 's gonna be hot.
MentalX and Greed are currently remixing the new single of Huge-A. The israli Producer are signed also on Matthew Dekays label. Let's be curious about it ..
What more could you ask for? “I want my show to be a Swiss platform for Epic House, but I also want to provide a stepping-stone for up and coming artists. Looking at the whole story from a distance, MentalX has achieved a hell of a lot for his music, his show, and, above all, for himself. And he’s not dead yet - in fact he hasn’t even passed the thirty year mark yet. So we can expect the future to bring us and him a few more highlights!
more infos about DJ Mental X (Agenda, Playlists, Charts, News etc)www.mentalx.virus.ch
