Dapayk is an alias for German musician, label owner and techno producer Niklas Worgt. He is one of the protagonists of Germany’s Minimal Techno scene.
FACTS:
1: I’ve never watched a Harry Potter movie or read a Harry Potter book.
2: I never liked beer before I turned 30.
3: I can gold plate an antique picture frame.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
The mix between being in the club every weekend and the isolation in our small house in the country side. I love the energy of the people from the weekend and always come back to the studio with new ideas.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
After the wall came down in Germany in 1989, electronic music was the new big thing. You couldn’t avoid it. It was everywhere and I loved it. Friends of mine had a C64 computer and were playing around with it, generating pleeps and plops. I was writing the rap lyrics for them. The whole thing never led to anything, but I was hooked. In 1993, when I was 15, I got my own computer, I rented an old synth from a friend and started to play around with it. While everyone else was playing computer games, I started recording small live sets.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
The Prodigy “Experience”
Moses Pelham “Geteiltes Leid”
Markus Güntner “Ashes of the city”
Janet Jackson “The velvet rope”
William Fitzsimmons “Gold in the shadow”
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Club scene, creativity, noise, dog shit on the side walks.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
My studio or my couch.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I studied restoration of wall paintings. So probably I would work as a restorer in some old building.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Nils Frahm “All melody” and Vars “Staub”
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
No one in particular. But I would love to work with a classical orchestra some day.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
One of the most memorable moments for me was to play the closing set on sunday night at Fusion Festival.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
I love to play around with new machines and like to incorporate differnt tools into my production process. A lot of my music just comes from jamming with new machines.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I have a younger sister. She has been to a few of my gigs, but is not part of the Techno scene. So mostly it’s just nice for her to get free entrance and drinks. Besides that, she never showed that much interest in what I do.
Dapayk Solo’s new album “The Calling” is out now via Mo’s Ferry Records. He will appear at Ritter Butzke on Saturday, 19th May 2018.
