Kruse & Nuernberg: All in a Day’s work
Kruse & Nuernberg (AKA Nils Nürnberg and Florian Kruse) are a production duo from the German city of Hamburg. They’ve made their presence felt with a constant flow of lush deep house tracks over the years, culminating in their debut LP – Let’s Call It A Day which is out next month. The album is aimed to stretch out across 24 hours, soundtracking a ‘typical day’ from the time you wake up until the time you chill before bed. I recently had a chat with the duo about where they’re going and how they met.
When did you both get into playing and making music?
We started DJing about 15 years ago and have been into music production for more than 10 years.
How much influence did the local scene in Hamburg have on your musical development and how has the scene changed?
We both have the feeling that it was way more diverse and vibrant in the past, with more clubs and bars that were known for playing certain genres. Whereas today you only find a handful of good locations… not even a handful. The scene was definitely bigger back in the days. It is a very sad development and in our opinion Hamburg could definitely have a few more good spots with good underground house music. Today it seems to be difficult to set up a new house club or party but then again the Diynamic crew have done everything right – they run the most successful house club in town ‘EGO’. Though Hamburg is not a dead city. It still has some really nice bars playing house music where you can dance if you want to – ‘Bar Rossi’ and ‘Hoch3’ for example.
How was the Hamburg music scene when you were young?
The music scene in the late Nineties/early 2000s had a big influence, especially clubs like ‘Lounge’, ‘Gum Club’, ‘Clique’ and ‘Echochamber’ made us wanna become DJs and producers. Of course we were influenced by certain local DJs playing out the hottest shit. But also back then buying records (vinyl – lots and lots of vinyl!) and CD compilations really gave us an idea of what was going on in the global dance music scene.
Who were your local heroes?
One of the local heroes in the late Nineties was Timo Maas. He played a residency in a club called Tunnel here in the red light district in Hamburg. Also, Vincenzo who is Florian’s brother-in-law was a big idol for him – he was a resident DJ in Hamburg in several clubs before his career took off. A lot of names from around that time are still big today, like Knee Deep (Lovebirds was one part of the duo), DJ Play (Solomun) and so on.
Was it always your ambition to make music or did you have other dreams as youngsters?
Nils: It sounds weird but I always knew that I was going to end up in my own studio doing my own music. I never had any doubt about it.
Florian: It was always my dream! That’s why I studied audio engineering and worked for a DJ promotion company. My older brother Vincenzo has always been my role model. The apprenticeship I took (as a bank clerk – yes indeed!) was only to appease my parents. I remember I had to do a speech at school when I was 15 years old about my career plans and it was all about being a DJ and music producer.
When did you first start to take music seriously as a career choice?
About five years ago. Around that time we still worked separately from home on our own productions. Bedroom style so to speak, with part-time jobs to earn the money to make it through the month. But the productions got better and better. From time to time we decided to work on K&N tracks which for instance found a home on Global Underground compilations. All of a sudden we were at that point where we wanted to chance it. We spent all our money on equipment and studio rent and took it from there. We were quite lucky that we didn’t go broke or anything like most of the people with huge ambitions and rather little knowledge about how hard the music business really is.
When did you both meet and why did you decide to make music together?
We met about 10 years ago on a party. We never really asked ourselves why we started making music together. It just happened. Maybe we both just sensed that we function well as a team. Of course we figured that we have the same taste in terms of music, lifestyle. It makes things easier.
You now operate a joint business together as well as DJing together and making music – do you ever argue? Well… of course we are not always on the same page when it comes to making decisions that affect the business side of things, for instance but to be honest we barely really argue over anything. We are both rather relaxed by nature and tend to search for compromises rather than going mad at each other. Call it maturity. Meanwhile there is also enough space in the studio to escape from each other. The direction in which we are heading is clear anyway. Forward! No question about it. We are both free to do what we want to do and if one of us feels like he needs to do something for himself, then he just works on his own productions. But we get along with each other very well. Imagine if it was the other way around. It would be horrible, considering the fact that we spend so much time together in the studio, touring, playing gigs and so on.
Do you ever have to compromise for each other?
Just the usual compromises one has to make like. For instance, a holiday for one of us always means double the usual amount of work for the other one, who has to stay in the studio, but stuff like that really is a piece of cake.
When did you decide to start working on an album?
It was always a dream to both of us to work on an album and do something totally different compared to what we usually do but the concrete idea came up about two years ago.
Does it have a theme?
We chose the title Let’s Call It A Day because the music reflects the cycle of a day.
The first three tracks could be a good start into your day, your wake up call. You are on your way to work while listening to track 04, 05 and 06 in your car or on your iPod.
Peak of the day is the Interacid Interlude, maybe you could practice some sport to it. Track 08 and 09 are just right for having a drink in a bar after a long day at work. Track 10 and 11 let you reflect on yourself while hanging out on the couch.
You have several vocalists on the album – how did you find them?
We found Nathalie Claude while we were browsing Beatport a few years ago. She did this amazing song with Andre Lodemann that caught our attention. We just wrote her an email and ended up hanging out in the studio a couple of weeks later to record our first ideas. Stee Downes is a friend of Lovebirds, and Lovebirds is a friend of ours who also lives in Hamburg. Again, we just got in touch and immediately got a response with great ideas from him. Miwaki also is a friend of Lovebirds and Florian’s brother Vincenzo. We accidentally met her in Berlin last year and decided to work together. Her voice is simply outstanding. All the vocalists we worked with wrote their lyrics on their own.
What would you say is the album’s biggest selling point?
There was never an intention to produce an album for a particular selling point. We hope that people who understand modern dance music will understand the concept of this project. Especially the deep house and house community which is very open minded – as this music underlies constant change and reinventing processes. Hopefully they will like what we did.
What’s your next step?
We have quite a long list of remix requests and labels asking for original tracks, EPs, etc. but we are taking it easy. No stress. Gig-wise we are booked up until the end of the year and are really happy with how things are going in general at the moment. Not sure what’s going to be the next big thing for us. We just continue with what we like most. Making music, playing gigs, live, love, sleep (every now and again), eat good food.
Let’s Call It A Day is out on October 1. For more information on Kruse & Nuernberg visit their website HERE.
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