Artist’s don’t always have the musical beginnings that you think they may have. This November, Berlin artist Oskar Offermann shall be coming down to Australia to play at the earthcore festival as well as a show at the Royal Melbourne hotel. This doesn’t sound like the usual gig hallmarks of an artist who find’s his origins in Hip-Hop music.

Using his knowledge and skill of the MPC, Oskar has brought elements of his early Hip-Hop days through to contemporary house and techno tracks via his White label which was established back in 2007.  Since then, Oskar’s music has seen him fly across the globe touring with his music.

We shot over a few questions to the man ahead of his trip down under.

SR: Your label White has been running since 2007, and is now up to its 27th release. It must be a wonderful feeling to have a successful label that keeps on giving. At the beginning, you said that White is a home for you and your friends passion for music is graphics. What has changed about the label since 2007 and what has remained the same?

OO: The basic change is, that we will discontinue the label this year. We have a big compilation coming up, which will be the final curtain. I just like the idea of things ending proper. And I think the time is right now. We helped so many young talents to get their debuts out and I still feel very proud of this. But I always hated the office work. So now I wan’t focus on what makes me happy the most, which is simply producing music and djing.

SR: White grew to the point where you needed an office. How did it feel when you knew the label had grown to the point that you need to open an office to run it?

OO: In 2011 we were at a point, were we had to decide, do we wanna do it right and try and see what happens or do we wanna continue running it like amateurs. So we set up an office and took it from there.

SR: Whats is upcoming on White? Any special plans in development. To follow on, have you got any new upcoming works yourself?

OO: As I mentioned above, WHITE will be discontinued this year. One last compilation by the name of “Friends & Values” is our farewell.

Personally I am working on a 12 inch which will be released on the label Hardworksoftdrink in spring next year and there will be some remixes coming up.

SR: Having released music as Oskar Offermann since 2008, you decided to put out an album titled Do Pilots Still Dream of Flying?  in 2012. How did the idea for the album come about and did you creative process change when writing a full body of work?

OO: This was my debut album from 2012. My new album is called “Le Grand To Do” … I guess I kinda like poetic titles… Le Grand To Do, was mainly inspired a by broken realationship and a phase of meditation and pseudo vegan lifestyle which resulted from the break up. Because I was searching for answers. It took me a very long long time to face these tunes again. And once I completed the list of songs, I was healed from the loss.

SR: How to do feel coming into the earthcore festival? Have you experienced similar gigs in other places around the world?

OO: I have played a few festivals in Europe for sure, but never one in Australia. I love traveling down under. I was there for the first time when I was 14 for a exchange student program from my high school. I lived close to Brisbane with a very nice family. And the country seemed to be so much more open minded than Germany at that time.

SR: In your opinion, what is it about throwing a large music gathering in the middle of nowhere that is so attractive and fitting for techno and house music?

OO: I think it is a great experience, because it feel a little bit like an island. The isolation is good for the vibes I think, people can get really lost in the music, which is important for hypnotic music like house and techno for sure.

And of course no neighbour complains… 🙂

SR: What’s your ideal venue to play, be it small intimate venue or a larger festival crowd?

OO: I like to play both. I play different styles thou. I love to play for festival crowds at night, that is where I tend to play more trancy stuff, but I mean it in a detroit sort of way. no real trance for sure. And in a club I like the more intimate feeling. I love communicating with the crowd. Music wise I would rely more on chicago there. But of course no rules without exceptions.

SR: What your opinion on today’s modern and contemporary variations of house and techno? Do you prefer the sounds of today or yesterday?

OO: I dig lots of old records for sure. But I also buy new good records.

I don’t like the real hyped up contemporary style so much. I think this music is simply to cheap. I think you can provide so much more quality without being cheesy and still can give the people the same pleasure without sounding like their teacher.

But there is fresh good stuff just around the corner waiting to be discovered. There are lot’s of cool young labels from Frankfurt right now, Traffic, Die Orakel, Hardworksoftdrink and so on…

SR: How would you class as some of your favorite DJ’s that inspire your own mixes?

OO: For a club I love Zip and Tama Sumo. They are some of my favorite Djs. I dance since many many years to their music, and still I think they are awesome. They dig deep & play cool. For bigger stages Sven Väth is still my favorite. And above all is Ricardo Villalobos. Still strongest man in the game for me.

You can see Oskar lay it out at earthcore 26th-30th November 2015, Pyalong