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The exclusive interview with CO -partner and booker at Harry Klein - Peter Fleming.
Small but fantastic. Harry Klein has got minimal design, a great soundsystem and an outstanding crowd.
DJANEMAG: Can you tell about yourself? How did you start a work in the club? How long do you personally work out there? What are your responsibilities?
Peter Fleming: Since the late 80ties I am following electronic music and I early saw my soul developing into House and Techno music. I was a habitue at the famous Ultraschall since 1995 and in 1999 I started to work at this club. After its closing in January 2003 David Suess, one of the owners of Ultraschall, asked me if I am interested to open a new club. I was excited and very motivated, and so him, his brother Peter Suess, Jochen Schuecke and me opened the doors of Harry Klein in September 2003. From the beginning I was responsible for the music bookings, and I am still working on this. Jochen left the club in 2009, so David, Peter and me share our responsibilities since the beginnig.
DJANEMAG: When was the club opened? What is the story of club`s name? What is the capacity, politic of club, price?
Peter Fleming: As said before, the club opened in September 2003, and it was a hard time building it. The landlord offered us a sheet metal garage! This summer was one of the hottest summer ever here in Munich and we had to work on the construction in the night time and slept by day.
Our name Harry Klein is dedicated to a very famous German, better said Munich based crime serial named "Derrick". We needed 6 weeks to found this name and it really polarized, when we asked our friends. Our idea was to give a local identity to the club, further "Klein" means small and it was important, because the club was really small, if you compare it to the former Ultraschall venue. Officially the club has a capacity of 263 guests, but in a usual night we have between 450 and 550 in contiuous. We charge 7 Euros at weekdays and mostly 10 at the weekends. In rare cases it might be a little bit more, depending on the programming. Our politics is quiet simple: showing good electronic music to open minded people and music lovers. But it is strictly between House and Techno. No breaks.
DJANEMAG: What are the hallmarks of your club that distinguish you from other clubs in your city and in your country?
Peter Fleming: A strict programming in music and since the beginning the visual art was very important to us. Beside our local DJ´s we count around 15 VJ´s to be residents. So not only the variousity of DJ-sets are given to the listeners, since you always watch this visual pictures (videos, mappings) behind the performing artists on a comparatively big screen, which our guests never like to miss. David Suess, our managing director is responsible for this bookings.
In the last three years we also began to do special decorations every 2-3 months, which change the clubs look more or less showy. Further there are many little art works to discover when you enter the club right away and walk through the venue. Little laterns made of childrens puppets, Rembrandt pictures where we changed the faces to show a selection of DJ´s who acted at Harry Klein, neon art, a corner with one hundred little bath mirrors and funky styled restrooms. All that is Peter Suess work, unless we invite stage designers like El Movimiento (Mariano Cuassolo) which show work at festivals like the Fusion Festival, for example.
DJANEMAG: Does your club work in one musical style, which one and why?
Peter Fleming: Does the style of music depend on the party or on the day of the week?
Inbetween House and Techno music we are open, but we have a strict "four to the floor" policy. At the moment we love this new rave-trancy style, tech house pumping, all made for dancing. It should be modern and state of the art. Less hard Techno, but sometimes, too.
We are open from Wednesdays to Saturdays and we keep this music policy all days. Wednesday our queer night Garry Klein runs over 7 years, and it´s said to be the best electronic midweek party in Munich. Thurdays we invite local DJ´s and promoter groups or labels. Friday´s and Saturday´s we are heading national and international well known and new interesting acts.
DJANEMAG: What are the main differences between a Female DJ performs on the stage and a male DJ?
Peter Fleming: In our eyes there is no difference. We respect the courage of every DJ and love their work, there enthusiasm, and music spirits.
DJANEMAG: By what principle do you choose DJs to perform at your club?
Peter Fleming: The music style should fit to us. The artist should be lovely with a good spirit, because we are sure this charisma will be transmitted to our guests. Of course, being well known to our Munich crowd is important, too. And Dominic, who does our promotion is a good adviser as well, because he is listening to many, many DJ and live-sets.
DJANEMAG: Do you follow our top100djanes ranking and what advice could you give us?
Peter Fleming: I remember I did some years ago, but honestly I haven´t followed up. Just watching the 2017 top female DJ list I discovered 22 of those who performed at Harry Klein (one will do soon). Glad about that! There is one advice, which you might not like: we don´t like the appellation "DJane". For us DJ means Disc Jockey and this works for all genders. "Female DJ" or "DJ woman" is how we specify female artists sometimes when we speak. But I´d like to give you another sight: how would men like it to be called "DJoe"?. Unless we respect your work!
DJANEMAG: Does your club have as resident female DJs in your club and how could you characterize their work?
Peter Fleming: Yes, and we always try to keep the balance. Having 9 official Harry Klein residents, 4 or them are female: Alma, Johanna Reinhold, Lena Bart and Stefanie Raschke. Before there also was Ana, Julietta and Joolz. But we also should tell about Noé which is an incredible Garry Klein resident. Their work is to hit the crowd at least. But yes, they also help, giving workshops for interested female newcomers and share her knowledge.
DJANEMAG: Do you have favourite club in the world, which work you try to copy or do you create an individual club style with its own specifics?
Peter Fleming: At the moment I personal love the ideas of clubs like Kater Blau, Sisyphos, Südpol and Friedas Büxe. But we respect the work of clubs like Berghain, Watergate, Odonien, Hive, Die Rakete, and festivals like Fusion or Garbicz. And you can´t copy a club in our eyes. Every club is unique and has its own spirit.
DJANEMAG: Which of the female DJs do you consider the best in the world and who would you like to see djing in your club?
Peter Fleming: Well, the list of female artists, acting at Harry Klein is pretty long, and we really don´t like to give a list, because we were pretty happy with all of those who performed at our club. At the very moment we could give you a sight into those we invited to our Marry Klein event in April: Alienata, Anek, Bebetta, Eli & Fur, Elliver, Ena Lind, Ester Silex, Joyce Muniz, La Fleur, Magdalena, Mimi Love are headliners.
DJANEMAG: What was the most curious moment in your work in the club you remember for the last year? Share it with our readers?
Peter Fleming: When Meute played at our "Re-Act!" event (a party at the Kunsthalle Munich we do within every new exhibition) and after that, the band leader of Meute and I agreed to the idea, doing a festival around all that modern Bigband and handmade electronic music stuff. At 10th of March 2018 it happens, and the line-up is fantastic (Big Harry Festival, Muffathalle)!
DJANEMAG: Name 3 the most important qualities of a DJane.
Peter Fleming: Courage, authenticity, spirit.
DJANEMAG: Who is responsible for the meeting and taking care of a DJ in your club? Do you find this work tedious? Or do you think it is the most pleasant part?
Peter Fleming: Mainly this is my job as booker, but also my partners, other night managers and our residents are responsible. We love the dinners before, the very interesting conversations and meeting all these different characters. It is a pleasure of course!
DJANEMAG: What time a headliner plays in your club and how long?
Peter Fleming: Usually the headliner starts at 2am and the sets are between 2,5 and 5 hours. Live-acts start at 2.30am and last about 1 - 1,5 hours.
DJANEMAG: What was the most popular song/track in your club in 2017?
Peter Fleming: Innellea - Napoleon (Atlant Recordings)
DJANEMAG: What was the best party in your club in 2017 and why?
Peter Fleming: When Bebetta & Le Palf did there extremly rare b2b sets in October. They started when doors opened and played 5 hours incredible nice and headbanging sound. Then Innellea took over and smashed the crowd into heaven. Still remembering and we are happy to have them back in 2018.
DJANEMAG: How strong do you love your work and do you see your future only in this work or would you like to try yourself in smth else?
Peter Fleming: Doing this work since almost 15 years and in the music business since over 20, it already should tell that I love it. Within the years you might think you get bored of the music and the scene, but on the contrary - I still discover new bassdrums on our clear and super beloved PA, which are flashing me and which keep me smiling and impressed. It is still so much exciting to work with my partners, all the artists, the employees and this feedback you receive, looking into happy, smiling faces of our beloved guests. Receiving this inspiration for your own life, which you love to give back to the people around you is powerful.
Most of the people know that I am a big mountaineer and I am looking forward to continue my volunteer work for my local alpine section. And at least we are always looking into new experiences, such as we opened a Bavarian beer bar with friends 2 years ago, or work with such great musicians like the Jazzrausch Bigband.
DJANEMAG team want to thank for interview! We are absolutely sure that our readers found out a lot of interesting and useful information. DJANEMAG strongly recommend to visit Harry Klein !
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