Mike Vamp

In 1980 Mike Vamp left Frankfurt, Germany and moved to his permanent homebase Berlin.

The first money he earned by being a DJ was in 1982 in one of the rare and hip discotheques in West Berlin called the MusicHall. In 1984 he started his solo career successfully by using a tapemachine for live with selfmade backings on which he added guitars, vocals and percussions.
His performances were mainly influenced by the sound of that time, where wild young art and industrial music dominated the underground musicscene of West Berlin.
He made his first studio experiences together with David Harrow, former producer of Anne Clark, who has now become his long-time-friend. He was offered a major record deal in 1986 and from then on learned all instances of the inflexible and ingnorant major music business of that time.

In 1989 after a long stay in London and Munich he moved back to Berlin. As a guitarist he joined a Berlin-based band called -The Spacecowboys (Roughtrade)- in 1990.
The band split in 1992 because they lost her nerve.
During that time he also started an own textile printing office and became the first one who designed extraordinary styles for clubs like -Tresor-, -E-werk-, -LoveParade-, Frank Schuettes label -3000- and many others in Berlin. Always with a foot in the musicscene.
Later in 1994 he became a member of the OceanClub (www.oceanclub.de). Together with Gudrun Gut (Monika Enterprise) and Thomas Fehlmann (The Orb) and Danielle de Picchiotto he started doing small parties in one of the basements of Berlins best known club -The Tresor-.
While in the mid-nineties most of the german djs played techno, Mike Vamp was more connected to the drum´n´bass now coming from Britain. His love for fast Italian motorbikes like MV Agusta and latin rhythms made him change his name into -MV Megusta-, always on a fast ride on cool drum ’n bass beats.
In 1997 the OceanClub moved from the club Tresor on air. Since then an interested audience listened to his extra ordinary DJ-sets Fridays on -oceanclubradio- on -Radio Eins- (www.radioeins.de) He mixed outstanding electronic tracks with house and drum`n`bass music now broadcasted to a large communtity of listeners.

Later in 1997 he became an offer which should define his music career for the next coming years:
Translating the opera Don Giovanni (Mozart) into electronic music. This was finally a great and fantastic challenge for him.
Due to the extent of the project Mike Vamp involved his friend DJ Cle in order to melt their
 

mutual musical repertoire. They presented -Don Giovanni- as a fusion of classical music with drum`n`bass- and housebeats. This time of intensive work developed now a close friendship between both musicians so that in 1998 -Maertini Broes- were founded ( www.maertinibroes.de or www.myspace.com/maertinibroes ) - like a real Martini which can be mixed in different pleasant ways.
Their first release on Steve Bugs label -Raw Elements- was followed by more dance tracks, later on Pokerflat-Recordings plus remixes for a lot of different artists like Louie Austin, The Scissor Sisters, 2-Raumwohnung, Tocotronic and many more.
In 2000 -MaertiniBroes- were part of Berlins biggest hype called the BerlinMitteBoys all based on a song by the PetshopBoys called NewYorkCity Boy.
The PetShopBoys agreed and the words were changed into german and claimed that BerlinMitte was the only place in the world to be!
That was long before BerlinMitte turned into a touristical backpackers hell.

In 2002 the international electronic music scene focused on -Maertini Broes- after their first big dancefloor hits called -Flash- and -Biggest Fan- which were sung half in german and half in english, all now released on Pokerflat- Recordings. Rumours were going round that he was also involved in a secret band project.
Their success was connected with live gigs all over the world; with lots of releases and more remixes. In that time -MV Megusta- changed back to Mike Vamp.
In 2005 –MaertiniBroes- were honoured with a golden record for their remix of -Bleib Geschmeidig- by 2-Raumwohnung. After many outstanding livegigs they returned to their dj-roots and created in the same year the -Maertini Broes DJ Lab-. This musical concept melts finest house and minimal tracks with samples, sounds and vocals into a long nightfilling dj set.

In October 2005 Mike Vamps long term experiences were needed to reorganize and to bring up a new Berlin club called the -arenaclub- (www.arenaclub.de) . He helped setting up a perfect soundsystem and a fresh new interesting booking. The idea to mix dj sets with live sets worked perfectly. The -SundaySession- were born. Every two weeks he invited artists of the electronic music scene to play. Mostly those who inspired him during his long musical journey. Also, this event helped to present new faces behind the decks.
The -SundaySession- fullfilled "his order" in summer 2006. The club is now known as one of the best underground clubs in Berlin and offers since October 2006 an open playground for label parties and other newcomers of the Berlin house and minimal scene.
The -SundaySession- was followed in October 2005 for a year by his new clubnight called -Nightingale-.
From October 2007 on he will start a new clubline in his new resident club “Watergate” in Berlin. Together with his partner Clé from “Maertini Broes” they will melt their experiences into a “dj-live-session” night.

Today Mike Vamp works with vinyl and with the newest dj- and live software. To make his set complete he breaks up very often the cool atmosphere of some actual records by using his vocaleffects and generating unusual sounds an he always keeps his eyes on the dancefloor.
His playing/dj-charts are published regulary on www.pokerflat-recordings.com

The journey continues ...