Clubbing Magazine

The Flying Duchman - Sander Kleinenberg

Sander Kleinenberg is back in Denmark at the Roskilde Festival. He started DJing back in 1987and today his track "My Lexicon" is a classic and he has remixed for the likes of Röyksopp, Sasha & Emerson, Justin Timberlake and PMT. He has done a Nubreed compilation CD for Global Underground, in June he will release the first album in the new Global Underground “24/7” serie together with Danny Howells, and he released his first Essential Mix CD.

Essential or Global Underground - or both

“I was asked to do one and I had to think about it. Global Underground is a great serie to be part of. But then I looked into the history of what Essential stands for and I saw the people who were featured on it and I thought actually it was a group of people I wanted to be a part of. It also gave me a chance to present myself apart for what I revert in the press being a progressive DJ, and I thought with the Essential Mix I could show people what I’m really about without having a specific tag on me”.

Hard to compress what I do

“It is really hard work and the more you do them, you get to understand the compilations a little more and know what it takes to build an interesting vibe. I find it very hard to compress what I do into 70 minutes. I’m happy with the mix – it has tension and I approach it with a fresh feeling”.

Put their faith into people like me

“There are people out there that put their faith into people like me, that we are the one who can dig deep into the caves of the underground dance music and take out the examples of what is going on at the moment and where the music is heading. In that sense there is room for that and the music has to be out there. If we didn’t capture this music on compilations it would be 1000 white labels and that’s it. Sometimes music has to be discovered and need to be put in the spotlight. If I could be a small part of that system, I would be more than happy in mixing another one”.

The big success

“I know when I have done the final part of the For Season EP, it is the end of the series and I want it to be really good. I want it to be a worthy end of the trilogy, because it has done a lot for me. I have the tracks ready to be released over the summer”.

Travelling the world - spinning music at the world’s most famous clubs.

”I am from Holland, but I am based in London now. I started DJ’ing when I was 16, slowly growing as a DJ doing the big clubs in Holland. I started producing music 10 years ago, and I am signed to London Records. I’m DJ’ing worldwide and coming to Denmark again. I can play a Francois Kevorkian remix, but I can also play something that is harder. I am a DJ that likes covering the whole spectrum of House music and that is where I am from - that is what I am about”.

In the search for the perfect record

“I haven’t changed my style, I think that producers change their style and I think that DJs are more depending on the producers than the other way around. So really the producers dictate where DJs go. This is how I always have DJ’ed. I DJ because I love music, I like to see music evolve into something and that is the big buzz of it all. So I don’t change my style but the quality of style changes and varies. I just try to search for the perfect record and the perfect sound.”

Interview and live photos: Christian Almind

Audio part

Telephone interview with Sander here. It was done in October 2003

Length: 30,26 min, mono 32kbps
Size: 7136Kb
Format: MP3

Interview published: Clubbing Magazine # 5 June-July 2002