Exclusive Interview with Eskei83

Siam2nite had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with Eskei83, shortly before his performance at Red Bull Thre3Style at Route 66 Club RCA on 4th July.

Where are you answering these questions?

I'm on the flight back home from Azerbaijan where the national red bull Thre3Style finals took place a couple of hours earlier. It was an amazing event and felt good to be back where I became world champion last December.

You are a DJ, Producer & Turntablist from Germany and the 2014 World Champion of the prestigious Red Bull Thre3Style competition. What can you tell us about your background and cornerstones of your development as a DJ that led to winning the champion title in 2014?

I'm doing this over 15 years now. I love to DJ and since I've been touring a lot I'm constantly working on my set to make it better and better. My way is not only looking for the perfect beat, but also for the perfect all around DJ set. I started working on routines after 5 or 6 years as a resident DJ and entered couple Club DJ competitions that time to get my name out. I started to realize that I can play this routines in my clubs sets too and since than I'm currently working on it. I won 4 of my 5 first dj battles and became a touring dj, booked in clubs all over Germany. 2013 Red Bull Thre3Style came to Germany and I entered. I became the first German Champ, 3rd place at the Worlds, won the German title again in 2014 and got crowned as the World Champ in Baku last year. To make it short: I stayed focused & searched for opportunities to get my name out. Thre3style is a perfect platform for this.

Besides your winning set at Red Bull Thre3Style, what other videos, mix-sets, tracks and/or remixes would you recommend as an introduction for someone that is not familiar with you yet?

I putting out mixes since I started DJing so there's hours & hours on my Soundcloud. The mix I'm most proud of is the podcast I did for Serato last October. I'm also releasing original tracks. My strongest record is "Get Down" that came out in the beginning of 2015. It was in the Beatport top 10 and is in many DJ sets till now.

What impact had the Red Bull Thre3Style champion title on your career and what were your personal highlights, the best and the worst gigs and the funniest things that occurred during your performances?

It was more the possibility to showcase my skills and what I'm all about on the world final stage than becoming first place in 2014. I really noticed that my following exploded after I took part in the world finals in 2013. Right before the worlds in Toronto I released a mix called "Thanks 10K" to say thank you to my 10.000 social media fans. Now I've over 100K fans & followers across all social platforms and more than a million views on YouTube & also over 1.5 million plays on Soundcloud. It all started 2013 after becoming 3rd place. International bookings started as well before the title. The interest was there. But as the champion you're also able to go & showcase to all the countries that have Red Bull 3Style qualifiers to play & judge. That's great.

How does your current schedule look like, where and what kind of events do you play and what are you currently working and focusing on?

I'm working on new music first. own production is the way to go. A new track will drop soon. I'm very proud of it. It's s massive bass tune that will be out on my own label Crispy Crust, that I've founded with my pals Drunken Masters last year. A new complex video routine is coming too. It's hard to beat my last one for "Get Down" but I'm on it ;) There will be also couple of mixed coming out in the next months for BBC1xtra, DJ Rafik's Autobahn Podcast, and, and, and. I need more time ;)

In January 2015 you released the bass-heavy Trap track “Get Down” - the track served as the peak of your winning set at Red Bull Thre3Style. What can you tell us about the track and your ambitions as music producer in general?

It's really important as I said earlier. It's easy to create & release music now, so you've to do something really good to stand out. Times have changed from when I've started. Back than you had to be a good DJ with Skills on the turntable & good selection/mixes. Now it's more important if you've a strong remix or hot original track. I'm able to do all of this. I've delivered remixes & own tracks and I will go on producing more original tracks, but the good thing is - I'm also a good DJ and can give the people that visiting my shows because they like my music, a DJ show. That's something some of these hit producers that became DJs after cannot do.

On July 4 you perform live in Bangkok on occasion of the Red Bull Thre3Style Thailand 2015 competition at Route 66 Club RCA. Have you visited Thailand before? What can the Bangkok crowd expect of your performance?

I've been to Bangkok once, but only on the airport for a connection flight when I was on Asia tour. I'm really happy to play at Club RCA and have my first Thailand experience at a Red Bull Thre3Style event. So I will be challenged a little bit by the new crowd but also can showcase what Thre3Style & I am all about. It will be a crazy party with good music only and a nice portion of DJ skills too ;)

The Red Bull Thre3Style competition will be held in Thailand for the first time ever. How would you explain the concept to someone that has never heard of it and what advice would you give to the Thailand’s participating DJs?

It's pretty easy. The DJs have 15min time to play at least 3 different genres of music and have the task to combine these genres in the most creative and skillful kind of way. Main goal is to entertain the crowd & the judges with skills on the turntable, a nice & original selection and a good overall show. That means you cannot play only hit records for 15min to crush the party, you also go left & right. Surprise the crowd & judges, do funny stuff, show your skills in mixing, scratching, live remixing or play your own songs or edits. Simply represent you in 15 minutes.