Michael Mayer (DE)

Over the past four decades, Michael Mayer has done many things: maintained an internationally renowned DJ career; co-steered the Kompakt record label, physical store, and web shop; and produced a slow but steady stream of singles and albums, well over 100 remixes and several ground-breaking mix discs, from 1998’s Neuhouse, to the epochal Immer mixes, plus contributions to both the Fabric and DJ-Kicks series.

Key to all of this, though, is the decorous drive of his clear, yet open-minded aesthetic, and a wide-eyed, thorough-going appreciation for music in all its variety and complexity. When talking about this deep love of music, Mayer’s eyes light up: he’s clearly got the spirit in him. “I enjoy digging in all kinds of genres. What I’m trying to excerpt from all that is something
that could function within the realms of Kompakt or my DJ sets. My life is hunting down tracks, identifying them, and trying to bring them to the world somehow.”

As Mayer clarifies, though, this all weaves back into his calling as a selector. “I will always be, first and foremost, a DJ. Everything else I do, being production, curating the record store, curating the label, I’m doing all that with the heart of a DJ.” When asked what’s core to being a DJ, why it’s so important to him, he replies, simply, “It’s like a compass to navigate through this world. I’m striving to bring joy to this world, and make people happy, but at the same time, there’s always this educational thing. You want to play them the best possible music and the most state-of-the-art music right now.”

Ultimately, though, Mayer’s reflections on the work he does suggest an approach to life that’s built around care and consideration; around the spirit of sharing, both sharing the music that Mayer spends his time digging out for listeners, and sharing the space of the club, the venue, but also the collective, the crew, the heads that gather together wherever there’s a great night to be had.