A few months ago I had the opportunity to get in touch with what I think it is one of the most tight and vibrant group in Mannheim – the BE9 family. I came to realize, from my long discussions with one of the cofounders, Benni, that we share lots of values which were born out of the passion for music. Passion is indeed a very present word in the electronic music industry, and as in any other domain, is mostly associated with hard-work. But what is it that matters at the end of the day for an emerging artist who wants to create his or her manner of communication through the sounds that burst from the studio or the sound that comes out of the sound system around the globe? The story of this industry is constantly changing and we are witnessing a very fast growth through technology and promotion, through festivals and Social Media, but its most important storytellers are still the artists.

My ideology remains strongly connected to the above statement and so I decided to end my presence on the platform where I had the chance to introduce people to some of these amazing artists with a duo which is determined to take on this industry with an energy that has already positioned them on the radar of many crowds: Sedee – Sebastian Werle & David Nicolas.

Hi guys. I so happy we finally get to do this. So, I am really curious to find out how did you two meet?

At the birthday of a friend. David played there and Sebastian came from another party with vinyls. Afterparty at David’s place, then started playing together and ended after 30 hours and more. We did this every weekend, playing extreme long sets and at one point it was clear: we should play together regularly.

Were you both on a journey of learning and expanding your knowledge together at this time?

Sebastian already played for about ten years. He used to have another b2b partner. They have been well known in our area. David just started playing two years before. We both were in love with quality house music from the beginning, so we put our collections together and started growing. It was the time when Pedro and Rhadoo released at Cadenza and we both loved it immediately. We loved how the style worked with the old stuff we already had, especially in our long after hour sets. Now we play everything we like and we definitely don’t wanna focus on one style. There is so much good stuff outside which should be played if it fits: jungle, hip hop, breaks & jazz if it fits.

So, just be yourself?

If you like it – play it.

How would you describe your workflow and processes when collaborating together?

If we do podcasts, for example, we think about the story we want to tell. The beginning is very important. If we don’t find the right track to start, we produce one. Then we start playing and make a list of what we want to play what fits together (this list can be changed 20 times during the process). When we play in a club we start 30 min before the gig to go through our vinyl, thinking about which track we can use to take over and then we just start playing. During the years we developed our own style and now it flows really natural.

Did it take a long time for you to find what worked or did you instantly click?

So we really enjoyed playing together from the beginning. For sure, it took a few years to combine our styles. The afterhours area at David’s place was very useful for that. During that time we have been the only DJs in our Mannheim crew, so we really played weekend after weekend nonstop. If we listen to our first recordings we really like it. It was the same taste and vision of music like it is now. Having fun and playing the music we like.

What are some of the events, happenings, moments that can best describe you as duo?

Both of us learned to party at Robert Johnson. It’s a club which is not that complicated and focuses only on the necessary things. It’s more of a cozy room than a fancy night club. We think this can describe us well. We don’t need and extraordinary artist dinner or a hotel room – what should we do at a hotel room without a proper sound system?. We want to get into the local scene, meet some people, doing some warm up, playing some records. That’s techno culture – going out and meet the people who are working in the same directions, pushing the same things. It happens very often for us to be the first guys at the venue and mostly the last.

How do you guys perceive the industry – let’s say the European scene – and how does that impact you as artists?

Lots of interesting things happening. London, for example (Stump, IQ, goosebumps) they are throwing really good parties. There are also very nice small clubs like Lion&lamp or The Boat. We really enjoy the record stores everywhere, but especially in Barcelona. There is always movement. Every generation is inspired by new things and is interested in being part of the whole thing and observe all these changes year by year, day by day. The quality is very high and as you can see it everywhere: Quality always survives! There is nothing better than playing one of your all time faves, which never left the bag since years and is still smashing the dance floor. We are very happy that there are always people around who understand that there is a lot of work and a lot of passion behind all these things. They are not self evident. You have to do something for it!

Now, I hear many people say that nowadays some artists get lucky and climb the ladder to success through mostly luck and then hard work. What do you think about that?

Everybody has his / her own career- don’t wanna judge. We are happy that we take the long natural way. We visited Sunwaves for years before we played there. Most of the people we play for, we know them from somewhere. Always very familiar and we would call most of the people we are working with, friends. Much more comfortable while traveling, even if we don’t know anyone, we become friends during the night.

“ Good things take time (mostly). A lot of careers which start very fast end fast too”

And speaking of which…what’s the balance between delivering the music you guys connect with and let’s say sacrifices in terms of music approach, style and so on, in order to be on the “hype wave”. What’s your opinion on this?

We would never play a track we don’t like 100 % just because we have to. If you do that you will not satisfy yourself – then you can’t satisfy anybody. It’s about presenting your idea of the night. You create the soundtrack to everybody’s movie. It’s a big responsibility, so you must stay true and trust your taste, otherwise you wouldn’t be where you are and do what you do. We are just ourselves and play what we would like to hear if we would be on the dance floor. Just be yourself and stay true to your school.

Growing up, there must have been some influences that inspired you. What influences do you feel nowadays when playing, for example?

Always the same influence. Good music, life, positive energy. It doesn’t matter if it’s from good people, good food, our beautiful nature. That’s what it is about. Everybody should go home with a smile: crowd, club owner, bouncers, cleaning stuff/ barstuff… spreading good vibes, emotions, memories. Make this crazy, disconnected world a better place, even a little bit – in our case with music. This should be the inspiration for everybody, no matter what he/ she is doing.

Now, many artists do prefer to stay away from b2bs, as well as duos or trios. There are many duos in our country too, like Praslesh, SIT or Livio&Roby. What exactly the thing that you think it connects two artists to function in this way and how did your collaboration impact one another in terms of music vision?

It has pros and cons. It could be more difficult to find gigs if you are more people (as in a duo or trio). Promoters always have to buy two tickets, etc. . It could take a longer way to earn some money, but you are always together. When playing, it can be much more comfortable. You have more time to go throw the bag and search for the next track, but for sure it has to fit together. Sometimes we listen to combos and would love to hear the DJs playing separately, because there is not the flow they would have playing alone. For perfect working combos the Romanians are a good example (Praslesh, SIT, Amorf, Sahau & arpiar)

Which one of you is more workaholic?

Would be a lie to call ourselves workaholics. We prefer to let it flow naturally. If we are in the flow we do two days studio session nonstop, but if there’s a weekend without flow it’s also fine. Since we travel most of the weekends, we need our time to recover and spend it with our ladies and friends, which is very important for us.

I am curious, what do you guys think about the electronic music scene here in Romania?

We love it. There is no other country we are that connected with. We made a lot of good friends over the years and it’s always a big pleasure to visit you. No matter which city (palinca is good everywhere 😉 ). People are very open minded and interested, and they have a very long breath. Also, the promoters and club owners go one step further (vitamin bar or fresh smoothies at Guesthouse). If you want the people to stay two or three days it’s good to have some things like that. You feel like home immediately. Also, we don’t know any party where they combine nature and party that well, like WAHA  or 3 Smoked Olives. Sunwaves is one of our main inspirations. It’s amazing what Catalin (Ghinea) is creating alongside his team each year. Even if it’s that big nowadays, the wooden tent still has the vibe it had in the beginning. If it’s getting dark and the red light turns on it’s pure magic. Or Waha, where they take pieces of trees out of the woods and create one of the most interesting scenarios we have ever seen. Same with visuals (Cote and Dreamrec). Ever since we go to parties in Romania we enjoy the whole package.

I really love Cheech. What is your favorite track? What’s the track that you think describes you most?

To be honest, we still enjoy most of our releases. Even the first one (Zayac EP) is still worth a listen. We never had this big hit and our music is not hyped at all, but most of the tracks are very special and have a unique style. Gravedigger EP, Kandue and Zip escort to name just a view. Also the MsDeep project with Marc Philip is always very special.

What are you guys planning on doing this year?

We just started to work with an agency (Reciproc) half a year ago, which is really nice because we can focus on music and don’t have to take care about schedules and stuff. W’re are also thinking about starting a label because there is so much unreleased stuff and we have so many friends who are making good music. The BE9 project is working very well. We’re gonna do our first showcase at Sonar this year, which is a first step for sure. Our BE9 headquarter which is also a very big inspiration is always on a move, too. So there is a lot of stuff to do. We gonna continue smiling and bringing our music vision to you. Only music survives !

Only music survives indeed, when it’s about telling stories and presenting new perspectives to the crowds, it becomes past, present and future. It’s a culture. And Sedee should be on everybody’s radar for sure.