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Saturday, 14 December 2013

Best of 2013 Interview: Felix Leiter

Felix Leiter holds the main room residency at Digital (Newcastle, UK)

Recently Voted 'Best Large British Club'
and 11th 'Best Club In The World' by DJ Mag

With ten years experience in the dance music world under your belt, you are already ahead of much of the competition.

As such, Felix Leiter has been a promoter, DJ and more recently a producer, his exploits include playing alongside, and learning from, the likes of Armand Van Helden, Pete Tong, Faithless, Calvin Harris and Laidback Luke to name a few. He has rocked the Metro Radio Arena to over 15,000 strong crowd and the main stage at the Evolution Festival in Newcastle… 50,000 people were in the palm of his hand as he warmed up for Calvin Harris and Dizzee Rascal.

Also in the Newcastle, Felix is the weekly, main room resident for Love at the cities super club Digital, his club brand Elektriqa also at Digital has recently launched with sell out shows from Calvin Harris & Laidback Luke...

With such experience of what works on the floor, it’s no wonder Felix’s first productions have been snapped up by the scene's biggest labels and can count Tiesto, Roger Sanchez, Mark Knight, Laidback Luke & Fedde La Grand as fans of his work... Felix has gained significant radio support from BBC Radio 1, Capital, Kiss FM & Ireland's RTE.
With a host of future releases on the scene's major label players & a gig diary to be proud of, you'll be hearing & seeing a lot more from Felix Leiter in the very near future...

Interview was written and conducted by Dimitri Kechagias, Radio / DJ

Name: Felix Leiter 
Location: UK

Dimitri:  Can you tell us about your achievements in your music career in 2013 as DJ &/or producer?

Felix Leiter : I’m really happy that Paradise will be my second release of 2013 on Mutants, with John Dahlback at the helm it’s a label I’m incredibly happy to be part of. This year has also seen releases for me on Spinnin & Strictly Rhythm so release wise it’s been a great year! On the DJ front I’ve played across Europe and over in the States, with some of the highlights being Mint Festival in Leeds & The Arches in Glasgow. My own club night, Elektriqa has gone from strength to strength as well, where I’ve booked and played with Bingo Players, Chuckie, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike & Sander Van Doorn to name but a few…

Dimitri:  If you look back on 2013, are there any events in your music career that you wished you had done differently in order to get a better outcome?

Felix Leiter : That’s a really tough question, there are decisions I’ve made in the studio that haven’t always lead to the results I’d have liked in the end, but I at the time they were where my heart was, so I can’t regret them, maybe just learn from them…

1) Best Track:
Felix Leiter : I love Sounds Of The Underground by Nicky Romero, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, the drums are incredible along with the overall production! Great old school sample in there too!
                                                                    

2) Best Artist (DJ & producer):
Felix Leiter : I can’t get away from the Sick Individuals on this one, they really crept up on me, but I’be been hammering their stuff all year and using it to make DJ edits for my sets too!

                                 

3) Best Remix:
Felix Leiter : You don’t see as many remixes as you once did… I guess the real purpose of a remix is to take a track from one genre and make it playable in another, so on that basis it’s ‘Storm Queen - Look Right Through (Danny Howard Remix)’ for me…



4) Best Event or Open Air Festival:
Felix Leiter : Mint Festival in Leeds UK was phenomenal this year, I played it in 2012 too, but it was even stronger this year… Great production, sound, bookings and most importantly crowd!

  
 
5) Best personal DJ Gig:
Felix Leiter :  My club night Elektriqa has had a truly amazing year, but even we couldn’t see how crazy our booking of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike would turn out to be! The show sold out in less than four days! My set before the guys was probably the best gig of the year for me… Playing at Digital to our amazing crowd…



6) Best DJ set of the year from another DJ?:
Felix Leiter : Sander Van Doorn was incredible at our last Elektriqa of 2013! He played an extra 50mins or so, and the party only ended when the club basically forced us to close down!


Dimitri: 2014 is ahead of us; would you like to tell us your plans for future releases, tracks, albums, collaborations or DJ gigs.

Felix Leiter : 2014 is a big year for me on a few different fronts, hopefully I can release some fresh new music on Mutants and othe labels, and I’ve got a few colabls in the pipeline too! Elektriqa will celebrate its second birthday with Martin Garrix and I’ve got some early festival bookings in too… Can’t wait!








Many thanks to Felix Leiter for this interview

Many thanks to Tom Surey at www.thesixthdegree.net  for his support to organise this interview

Additional info:
http://www.djfelixleiter.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FelixLeiterDj
http://twitter.com/DjFelixLeiter
http://soundcloud.com/djfelixleiter
https://www.facebook.com/elektriqa

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