maurizio schmitz

maurizio schmitz

About maurizio schmitz

Ciao my friends, as my name tells you I'm half Italian / half German guy with my Mama being from the beautiful island of 'Sicily'. I grew up in a small village near Bonn and have lived in various cities: After some time in Munich working in my father's company I moved back to my hometown Bonn to studi 'economy' . Then lived for seven years in Hamburg where i worked as DJ- & Clubpromoter for promotionagency 'Public Propaganda' and for 2 years as artistbooker & consultant for 'ID&T Germany' to invent 'Sensation White' at the 'Veltins Arena Gelsenkirchne'. By end of 2006 i moved back to Bonn and then moved to Offenbach in september 2008 working as eventmanager for 'cocoon' ... I always had a special interest in music and discovered my passion for electronic dancemusic in the early nineties while listening to radioshows like 'hr3-clubnight' or 'bfbs-experience'. After visiting various techno-clubs & -raves I was overwhelmed by this very intensive but always peaceful & tolerant energy. Then I focussed my thoughts on the ritual of dancing & self-expression and some years and hundreds of mixtapes later I felt that I have to take an active part in this movement by choosing, arranging & playing my own style of music… While living in Munich in 1996 I got my first official weekly dj-residency at the legendary & infamous 'Labor'-Afterhourclub. Restless clubbers as well as the whole nightlife-scene of Munich came to the very underground 'Labor' to celebrate the 'Sunday-morning-madness'…often until Monday morning… After two and a half years in Munich I moved back to Bonn and developed my DJ skills. I had numerous gigs in various clubs of the city as well as weekly residencies, e.g. 'Wicked Club', 'Die Falle' (engl. 'The Trap') or 'Nachthouse' and playing 2-4 times per weekend was no rarity. The longer I worked behind the decks the more knowledge & fun I got, but the more I wanted to make a living from music, so i choosed doing also a dayjob in the musicindustry: In 1999 I got an offer to work for a 'dancemusic promotion agency' in Hamburg and moved there. The first months have been quiet hard as the opportunities to play have been very rare for a newcomer like I was and I had to rebuild my reputation from zero again. But I've been ambitious and lucky - I established myself in Hamburg's nightlife by becoming resident DJ at 'FrequenzBerater', which is a collective of techno-enthusiasts, well known for high quality events since 1999 by presenting the top djs of the world like Sven Väth, Carl Cox, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, DJ Hell & many more in various locatios like 'Phonodrome 1 & 2', 'Waagenbau', 'Edelfettwerk' and latest at 'Uebel & Gefährlich'. Carsten Stäcker, founder & DJ of 'FrequenzBerater' asked me (without having ever heard me playing!) to join the crew as resident DJ and hosting the second floor at the events: On my first night (in September 2000) Ricardo Villalobos was guest artists, one week later Richie Hawtin & John Acquaviva appeared on their 'Plus 8 Classics'-Tour and the next week we had a various Floors-Festival with Laurent Garnier & Der 3. Raum… in consequence I reached another energy-level and had a platform for presenting my sound. Hamburg became my new homebase for the next seven years, and I played for various clubs & promoters as well as many gigs all over germany. This was also the time when I met DJ Karotte, who planned to move to Hamburg. My lovely roommate Nadschja and me where also on the search for a new flat and we all decided to rent one together. This was the beginning of 'Spaldingstreet 43', probably the most famous flat-sharing community in Hamburg :) Peter aka Karotte who is one of the best djs I know and also a very gentle person invited me top play several times at the U60311 in Frankfurt and after he left the flat, Tobias Schmid (&nd Rec. / aka Audision) joined us...not to forget some more very nice people that lived for a while with us. When we did the '24-hours-Spalding-Closing-Party' in Oktober 2006 we listed all guest names on the walls and recognized that more that 300 people have been our guests during the years… Back to my DJing: Right from the beginning of my career I've been influenced by the various styles of electronic music and I have always been open minded for new trends & styles, but basically my sets are composed of underground clubsound. The music ranges from deep-, trancy- & chill-sounds, over minimal house & techno, to electro, more progressive and 'rave'-suitable tracks, always having a look on the dancefloor and interacting with the audience. My good friend 'Dragon' defined my sound as 'Psychedelic Housemusic', I like that description:) Beside playing long sets at night, I have a marked preference for 'Afterhour'-sets as the state of mind in the morning is so different than during the night. I like the energy on big floors, but especially the 'intimacy' of a more private venue makes me feel comfortable. My focus always has been on DJing but from time to time i go to the studio to produce some tracks: With Jens Beese from Hamburg i did a track called 'Meander' which has been released on 'Liebe*Detail' Records as part of a Split-EP with Sami Koiviko on the other side. With my buddy Roland van den Toorn from Bonn i started a project called 'Topcats' and release on BluFin Sublabel 'Yellow Tail'-Records. Actually I reduced my DJ-bookings and accept only selected bookingrequests as I host my own clubnight called 'mauromusica' at 'Rheingarten' in Bonn which is pure fun! With help of my friends and appearances of my adored DJ-buddies like Karotte, Tobi Neumann, John Acquaviva, 'Crazy' Sergione, Monika Kruse and many more I present my 'open vision of electronic dancemusic' to the people. p.s. I still love raving, without any DJ ambition, just enjoying the sound, so I hope to meet you somewhere around…

Taken from Last.fm

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