These two German trance producers have produced such massive club hits like “Made Of Sun”, “Velvet Morning”, “Walk Down”, “Kiksu”, “Megashira”, “Are You Fine?”, “Hide&Seek” and so much more. One little known fact: all male vocals come from Steven Moebius Albert himself! Give a warm welcome to Kyau & Albert!
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What has been the best show for you this year?
Steven Albert: Our big 15 Years Euphonic Night in Dresden, Germany
Ralph Kyau: For me it was EDC in Las Vegas.
Name the most inspiring person you ever met backstage and tell us why this person has inspired you?
Ralph Kyau: We meet so many people backstage, but hard to say if they really inspire us. It’s definitely always awesome to meet other DJs and producers backstage. For example: Jody Wisternoff, becasue Jody is such a positive character and has a good sense of humor.
Steven Albert: Paul van Dyk was possibly the most inspiring person for us in the beginning of our career. His music was so positive, new and bright. Therefore we were super excited, when Paul invited us the first time to his radio show in 2001. He was also the first big DJ who massively supported the early Kyau & Albert tracks and therefore brought us on the global map.
Ralph Kyau: And this year we made a collab with him called ‘Open My Eyes’. Steven is again singing on it. The Kyau & Albert mix of this song will be exclusively on our new album CD ‘Nights Awake’, which we release in early 2013.
In your opinion, is it more lucrative to be a DJ or to be part of a rock band?
Steven Albert: It can be both as long as you are popular.
Tell us more about the best experience you ever had in the DJ booth?
Steven Albert: It was on a stage and not in a DJ booth. I will never forget playing in Kenya for NYE next to the beach with a wonderful view to the Indian Ocean and super ecstatic clubbers under old trees with little lights every where.
Ralph Kyau: There’s also a little video diary about this Kenya gig from 2011 on our channel: www.youtube.com/kyauandalbertTV
What defines the term DJ for you?
Ralph Kyau: Only someone who spins with minimum 2 decks. For me a perfect DJ is also able to build up a set and take the crowd on a great journey. When the DJ is additionally good at interacting with the crowd, then it’s the perfect combination, cause people go out to have fun!
Steven Albert: Someone who presses the start button of a laptop is not really a DJ in my opinion, but the innovations in technology make it more and more easy to become a DJ today. When I started with vinyl records on 2 turntables in the basement of my parents house, it took me almost 1 year to get the perfect skills. Playing later with CDs was so much easier, i.e. finding start point, seeing remaining playtime, stable speed and so on. But I still have all my old vinyls at home and will never sell them.
Owning a record label can be a lot of fun, but everything has a downside. Define the downsides.
Ralph Kyau: Founding our own record label Euphonic was one of the best things we did, except starting Kyau & Albert of course. Our label still gives us full creative freedom. There are not so many downsides in my opinion. Maybe there are coming way too much demos with low quality tracks nowadays. And sometimes it can be a bit exhausting to work with artists, especially when the artist always believes that he/she is bigger than the demand, sales or promo feedback.
Steven Albert: Luckily most of the Euphonic artists are long-term friends, so we are a little musical family, where everyone respects each other.
What would you say is the best restaurant in the world you have been to and what makes them so great?
Steven Albert: Hard question, cause we eat literally everything when we’re travelling, from Western food to any kind of Asian food. If possible, we try to eat quite healthy.
Ralph Kyau: Steven is a master at eating with chopsticks! Even in Asia the people are always surprised about it. I am always jealous, how good he works with the sticks, but try to do my best. For example, last week we played at club Octagon in Seoul and there we had for the first time an original Korean BBQ. This was special and very delicious. So we always try local food when we’re flying around the world.
Do you make music with the intention to make it a popular record, or do you make music solely to satisfy yourself and is the success a nice side effect?
Ralph Kyau: First of all we make the music we love, but of course we try to be successful with it.
Steven Albert: Success is the mystical thing with music – you never know how big a release will be in the end…
Who is the best promoter to play for?
Ralph Kyau: There are many good promoters. Hard to pick out one.
Do you feel it is good or bad that Beatport has that much influence on the scene?
Steven Albert: They were one of the first stores for Electronic Dance Music and really feature the whole spectrum of club music. Therefore in my opinion Beatport’s influence is real, especially for DJs who look for new tracks to play in their sets.
Ralph Kyau: We personally check Beatport quite often and look for tracks we didn’t get as promo yet.
Did you ever visit a far country where you were surprised people actually knew all your music?
Ralph Kyau: Mongolia was a big surprise for me. We played there in front of a crazy crowd who knew all of our classics.
How often do you have streakers during DJ performances?
Not very often, unless you count the GoGo dancers? 😉
What cars do you drive?
Steven Albert: Nothing special. I have an Audi and a Ford, but don’t really care about cars.
Ralph Kyau: I bought a Skoda Yeti this year. The design is quite unique, but to be honest I have never been a big car fan. My real big hobby beside the music is to brew my own beer. But right now, I try to spend most of my spare time with my almost 3-year old son.
Is there a final thing you would like to say to our readers?
Ralph Kyau: Watch out for our new album ‘Nights Awake’ and a big world tour in 2013!
Steven Albert: For all other news check out our Facebook or our homepage kyauandalbert.com – where you also find all tracklists of our radio show ‘Euphonic Sessions’.
