Tube & Berger, aka Arndt Roerig and Marko Vidovic, found music at an early age. The two found themselves performing stage shows in a punk band when the ‘90s House and Techno boom hit town. Driven by the challenge of giving electronic music an organic and live character, they made their breakthrough in 2004 with ‘Straight Ahead‘, and the journey since then has been unstoppable! Over the years, having established their own label ‘Kittball Records‘, with their friend and colleague DJ Juliet Sikora, they garnered plenty praise and immediate success and soon found itself amongst the ranks of the top Tech and Deep house labels, with its tracks regularly played by the international DJ Elite. We had the incredible honor and pleasure of catching up with this awesome twosome on our coverage for the prestigious Tomorrowland 2014! And as part of our exclusive Tomorrowland Rewind series, we bring to you an exclusive heart-to-heart with none other than German emotive musicmakers Tube & Berger!
TBB: So earlier this year, you performed in Mumbai & Goa. What was that experience like?
Tube & Berger: Oh it was amazing! We performed alongside Paji, and it was a lot of fun! We really loved Goa and had a great time. Mumbai, the energy was great but we had a problem with the cops. They ended up taking Paji’s laptop to the police station because the music was too loud!
TBB: How’s it going at Tomorrowland guys? How has you’re journey to Boom been so far?
Tube & Berger:We just arrived after playing at our hometown of Dortmund, at the Juicy Beats festival. It was a great event! The weather was perfect and the event was super packed. And now we’re just pleased to finally be here.
TBB: You guys have toured and performed all over the world. What are the things that draw you most towards Tomorrowland?
Tube & Berger: The most impressive thing is that its super organised. The stage production is amazing as all promoters are working round the clock to make the event a success.
TBB: How does it feel to be part of the Bakermat & Friends stage?
Tube & Berger: We’re friends since a few years. We signed a single by Bakermat on our imprint Kittball records as well. We played a few gigs together in Paris & London, and we’ve just been close ever since.
TBB: So what’s the story behind you’re collaborative name “Tube & Berger”? Also tell us the story behind your first track ‘Straight ahead’?
Tube & Berger: It’s just a fun name from our school times, and the pet names we had from our last names, and while starting off, our friends just said, “c’mon guys, you’ll have to go ahead with Tube & Berger..!” The story behind ‘Straight ahead’ was that back in the day, while we were assistants in the sound studio, we came up with the original version, which was like a 140 BPM techno track! The owner of the studio liked the sound of the track and the vocal edits on it, and that’s how it became our first track and went number one on the Dance charts! Pete Tong supported it as well and it was the first thing that got us going!
TBB: If you’ll were not DJs, what would you’ll be?
Tube & Berger: We’d probably be unemployed!
TBB: You’re productions are highly-emotional tracks, and connect well with the audiences. What do you think makes a Tube & Berger track?
Tube & Berger: We spend a lot of hours in the studio, constantly experimenting and erasing many ideas we cant connect to. We try to create more organic sounds, like the one’s from 70s or 80s, using live instruments that we play ourselves and not just “cool” electronic stuff. We don’t necessarily plan to have our tracks top charts, for instance with ‘Imprint of pleasure’ we tried to make a track where we ‘feel’ something, more like a B-side track. We have 100s of ideas that we start off with, with no reason to finish them! It takes more and more time with more ideas coming in.
TBB: You have a charity project called ‘It began in Africa’. How did it come about and what is you’re drive to do it?
Tube & Berger: We were at a bar once and we were having a few drinks, when someone raised the point that ‘someone can survive in a month in Africa with the amount of money on drinks we had tonight’, and that sort of inspired us to start this project together with Juliet Sikora. We spoke to Timo Mass and he was immediately on board, and then things started taking shape. We were able to make 14,000 Euros through the compilation! Unfortunately, we haven’t done it in the last two years and we wanted to done last year. But let’s see, maybe we can do one more chapter for it.
TBB: In the past couple of years, Deep House as a genre has spread far and wide and more & more people are lending an ear to it. Do you think it will go mainstream eventually or will it remain its own distinct sub-genre in the club spectrum?
Tube & Berger: We’re not sure. We just heard that at Ibiza, Hardwell played half his set of Deep House music. So there is definitely a shift in focus and attention. It’s perhaps because it’s melodic and people can groove to it. The masses will always sway to what trends, but I guess, every genre will exist.
TBB: You just finished touring extensively across Europe, Australia, South Africa & Brazil. Tell us one of your memorable experiences from your tours around the world.
Tube & Berger: We had a very special time touring in Croatia. We rented a boat after our gig and we had a great time. We always love playing at Germany at Nature One, but there isn’t anything like playing in Ibiza.
TBB: What can we expect from the Tube & Berger studio in the coming months?
Tube & Berger: We just finished a remix for Suara, for our buddy Coyu. We’re working on a Tube & Berger & friends EP which will contain 4 tracks with artists we’re in touch with since the past few years. We’ll probably come out with an album next year as we are touring a lot currently and can’t squeeze in any studio time.
TBB: Do you think touring a lot affects your time in the studio?
Tube & Berger: Yeah, touring definitely takes up studio time. You need free time for yourself as well, time to spend with friends and family, plus we spend time for the label as well. The month of August is hectic because we have 17 gigs in that month alone, followed by another 4 weeks touring North America. So all in all, they’re all pretty hectic schedules that finally do take away some studio time.
TBB: What are the next steps for Kittball? Which artist are we going to see come from the label?
Tube & Berger: The next artist we are bringing is Lexer. He’s a talented producer from East Germany. We’ve got an upcoming release by Veerus & Maxie Devine, new Juliet Sikora EP and plenty of remixes and releases from us and our regulars from Kitball. So things are looking pretty packed all the way till the end of the year currently.
TBB: Tell us your three Top Bangin tracks.
Tube & Berger: Teenage Mutants & Purple Disco Machine – The Path
Watermat – Bullit
Our upcoming EP for Tube & Berger & Friends
TBB: Any message for your fans in India.
Tube & Berger: We hope to be back soon and we hope to see more of India, more than just Goa or Mumbai!
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