About the author
David August, the 21 year old ‘wunderkind’ from Solomun’s Diynamic label. I fell in love with his music over a year ago, and every time I saw him playing this love grew a bit more. After I spoke a few words with David on WTTF I walked away with a lot of questions on my mind. How could a 21 year old, for God’s sake German guy (no offence), leave such a big impression on me… So I did what girls do, I googled him. But unfortunately there wasn’t much about him on the internet. How come? It felt like I could do better. My goal was to find out more about this J.S. Bach inspired musical talent, so I interviewed him before his gig at Beachclub Naturel.
So David, I would like to start with something different, I give you a choice of two worlds and you can pick the one you have most affinity with.
Festival/clubbing: “Wow, you already start hard… Festival!”
’80s/’90s: “’80s.”
Summer/Winter: “Summer.”
B2B/solo: “Solo.”
Live instruments/electronic music: “Live instruments.”
Cooking/eating out: “Going out for dinner.”
Berlin/Hamburg: “Solomun will kill me for this, but I choose Berlin.”
Male/female fans: “Haha, female fans!”
Bach/Solomun: Uhm… Well, Bach for my musical inspiration, and Solomun as a friend and a person that I really admire and got close with in recent years.
Your real name is Nattkemper. What about the August thing?
“Well, my parents wanted to call me David Augustus Nattkemper, after my grandfather. They didn’t at the end though, I don’t know why actually. But that was the most obvious choice for my artist name.”
You’re obviously a musically talented guy. If I’m not mistaken you play a few instruments, like piano and guitar. Why did you choose (deep)house music?
“I used to play in bands, I even had my own. But we didn’t make it to a gig; we had a drummer, a guitarist and me, but we lacked a bass player. So we were just jamming around all the time. But about my DJing. When I was fifteen or sixteen I started making commercial music. I wasn’t into the deephouse thing yet. It would’ve been better if I had chosen deephouse in the beginning. That would have made it a lot easier for me to develop as a electronic/deephouse DJ. It all would’ve made more sense.”
I have to produce to have a creative outlet for myself, for my own satisfaction.
So let me get this straight. When you were five you started to play piano. When you were fifteen, you started as a DJ. And when you where sixteen you started producing?
“Actually it was the other way around, I started to make music and then played at clubs. It was a bit hard because I was sixteen and not allowed to play in clubs yet. So I started producing earlier and at seventeen I had my first release.”
That’s exactly when he went to Oliver Koletzki’s label. Which is my whole point, he’s so young and did so much already! I asked him what’s his goal:
“Well, I’m still studying at the Tonmeister University. It’s a music related study, so I want to finish that. I would really like to produce different kinds of music, for different bands. But I feel that I’m too creative to just reproduce, I have to produce myself. That’s something that I found out in the last couple of months. I have to produce to have a creative outlet for myself, for my own satisfaction. But I would want to manage both, if I can. I also really want to play live in the future. And of course my new album is coming out.”
You’re planning to release it this year. I mean, it’s not something you can do on demand. How do you get inspired?
“Actually, my album will probably come out in February. But I do get inspired by a lot of things. Stuff that happens in my life, the past, my family, the relations with people I had in the past, things that didn’t go so well; I want to reflect that in my music. My album has to be personal, and tell my story.”
How do you pick the names for the songs. I mean, ‘You gotta love me’ is easy, the lyrics say it. But what about the other ones?
“Wow, you really ask good questions, other then; ‘what do you think of this venue’ or ‘how do you feel about Amsterdam’.”
Thanks, I already read those answers. I know you have a good connection with this city!
“Indeed, I’m in Amsterdam very often. Too often, so I’m glad I like it here! But okay, an answer to the question. The name is very important, it’s very significant for the song. If you would name a track ‘Kick it’ or whatever, then there would be a lot of tracks with the same title. So you have to choose an original name, one that’s not very common. Besides, most tracks have a personal meaning. For example, I was in Hamburg and saw a lot of girls and boys kissing and acting in love. My girlfriend was then going to Paris, which I think is for lovers. So I was finishing my track and then called it Hamburg is for lovers. Other than Rebound bro. That was one of my first tracks and I just picked a name, so it isn’t really original. The titles in my new album will be more meaningful and tell a story.”
Cut the crap
Now, enough with the serious questions. I found some modelling pictures on the internet, very interesting… What was that all about?
“Uhm.. haha, next question!”
You don’t get off that easy… Don’t you find it hard sometimes that you get judged all the time, about your music, your gigs, being too late, your hair?
“Just let them talk. People will always find something to try and get you down with. Fortunately it doesn’t happen to me that much. Last week I had some comments on Facebook about being to late on WTTF. People said that I didn’t care about being on time, so I tried to explain later. But to be honest, I don’t need those kind of fans.”
To get to know you a little better, describe to me your perfect day off.
“That depends on the time of year. But especially last month I would’ve really like some time to just hang out with friends or my girlfriend; watch TV and maybe make some music. No obligations. Just do what I want and chill out.”
Sadly, you already revealed the answer to my last question, which I wanted to ask ‘for all the ladies’…
“Yes, I do have a girlfriend.”
David August will be back in Amsterdam with ADE.
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