If you’ve ever been to one of Moonbootica’s live band shows or DJ sets then you’re probably already familiar with this guy…and if not…well I suggest you get your butt in gear and go as it will be a musical and visual spectacle to remember. He’s recently done us the very cool video for our latest release ‘Ahhh’ by Dirty Deal, which you can check out below. So without further adieu, meet VJ Videoking.
Have you had a nice Summer? Have you been on tour?
Summer was very relaxing this year as there was no new album from Moonbootica, hence no tour with them. Some visits to the Urban Art Festival in Austria /Salzburg, and also i did some hosting for VJ Morph from Australia who played here in Hamburg with me in a friendly co-op battle for Oliver Huntemann and Dubfire. But the year is not over and there some very good productions in the pipeline with Moonbootica…
How did you get into Vjing?
After studying art with the main focus on video installations it looked like the natural extension of my work. at that time (somewhen in the 90s) i visited a party in Berlin and Amsterdam where Micha Klein was playin or Safi Sniper, and it looked so easy, they were doing things i couldnt imagine to be possible live, with that kind of equipment. That was the main trigger. Later I met John Dekron and we started to develop our own tools together.
What is the best and worst thing about being a video performer?
both: the money.
worst: all the guys and girls wants you to talk to the dj about their music requests!
best: if some of them do not realize you are not the dj…
Where do you think video performance is going?
I just can talk about germany where around 1999-2002 it was all over Berlin/Hamburg/Munich, but now it looks like its diminishing, leaving just us “pros” and a bunch of newbies who play for 20€ and some beers. Its focussed on the big corporate events, but even there you find more and more automatic systems, either technically sophisticated AV server with touchscreen and audioreactive content or simple DVD players, both with boring Logos and footage in the CI of the main sponsor(s).
…So for me its playin in small clubs for fun but little money and playin at big events just for the money, or touring, and combining both.
Could you give some advice to those trying to get into video performance?
Just do it. If you have some basic skills with computers, you can do it. It doesnt have to be a top notch computer in the beginning, even a used Lenovo or an older Macbook can do.it . The tools are there, a lot of them, there is free stuff is all around the net, both footage and apllications, and the information is quite easy accessable, for instance at vjforums.com.
When and where was your best live performance?
My best performances are always with my friends from Moonbootica, no doubt! Either when they are live as a band or just the normal dj team.
In my old residency, the “click” here in Hamburg, Germany, i had also some very nice parties, with the Hacker from Grenoble, or Traxx from Chicago.
Who would you ideally like to work with in the future?
Im looking forward to finding more bands to play with, as i see that there’s much more potential for my work. If you do visuals in a club for some djs, its always a bit arbitrary, because you simply dont know what the next song will be. Also i really like some genre hopping, like playin for a death metall band, or something non techno related, away from the convinient 4/4 beat oriented stuff.
What 5 people or things inspire you or your work?
Richard Kern, Guy Maddin, the Vasulkas, N.J. Paik, Steven Beck
Do you have any career goals you are working to reach at the moment?
In the long term less clubbing, more band focused work, especially touring. Playing with skillfull musicians, playing abroad, opening up my horizons….I hope i can develop my style further and further, make it more recognizable.
For now, Moonbootica are setting up 4 gigs in an art museum here in Hamburg and I will be VJing with them for that, im really lookig forward to it!
For next year, I am working on developing of some wearables (suits, with EL tape and wire) and arduino boards, just to enhance my live shows.
Lastly, what production and releases have you been working on recently?
I did a youtube clip for “Dirty Deal”, (aka Marc Deal from the maniax and tobi tob from moonbootica), a playfull song named “ahhh”. The intro reminded me of old school computer gaming, so i had an excuse to do it this way.
Before that I had some fun with “Einmusik”, another German based label and act here in hamburg and we did a track called “Atl Antis” (also on the tube).
