June is serving a summerish mood, for sure. Even though you can see the signals of drought. Hence, it is very important not to get into the drought of inspiration and looks like cultural acts, upcoming festivals and, well, a good old DT podcast can be as refreshing as the rain. This is such a poetic statement. Here's an interview with Grischerr, Cologne based producer and a DJ. After you dive out of our conversation, immediately dive into the mixtape Grischerr recorded for us. Subtle push to enjoy summertime to the fullest.

Summer. What is your favorite part of this season? Do you prefer spending it lazy or more like skipping sleep, when the nights are so short?

What I love about summer is that the days are so long. Especially this year, I realized during winter that I missed the sun and the brightness. Although I am not an excessive sun bather, I do enjoy going to the lake and swimming there. I think I love being outside during the warm nights, easing off everything with a cold drink and a good chat and of course, good music.

Summer's the season of festivals too. Always the same "problems": how to be able to digest so much good music in such weekend marathons. What's your festival survival kit 101? And which ones are on your map for upcoming months?

Festival’s and their respective timetables can be challenging, especially if you visit those venues with a bigger group of friends. Hence it is important to know what to want and what to expect from the festivals. I don’t often have a strict plan – neither for festivals nor for real life, haha. But I survive festivals together with my best friend and girlfriend Kathe. We always have a good time out in the dusty fields! Drinking a lot of water and eating apart from the usual festival menu.

Seems that you are like-minded with DJs and producers Heap, Bocksrucker and their Neubau label. They released your EP in 2022. For you, how important are such friendships/colleagueships while working in music? And how did you meet each other?

The underground music scene is a great place for both encountering and expressing yourself at the same time. I am very glad that I was able to release on Neubau because it was a label that had been on my radar for quite some time. Heap and I became good friends, and we frequently share nice chats. Safe to say that he is not only an inspiring person but also a very honest and modest artist, whose expertise will always be appreciated.

Those friendships are rare but invaluable. “Rare” because even the underground electronic music scene is fast-paced and the geographical distances between the people do contribute to the fragility of potential friendships.

Heap and I met in Vienna back in 2019 where we had “Spätzle” and “Schnitzel” and talked about potential releases and other musical content. We got along right away and I like him a lot!

Being a mentor. In your opinion, is such a noble concept still alive in the electronic dance music world or is it more often taken over by egos, who're concerned in holding their position high rather than helping young talents to find the way to the scene?

I think I was lucky enough to have had experiences with “mentors” that were far from being ego-driven. However, I heard stories from other cases which I find quite saddening. In my opinion, people should always be aware of their responsibility. This also includes acknowledging new generations and helping them and paving ways for new directions. Here in Cologne but also in Düsseldorf, there have been great things going on with new young talents and I wouldn’t want to miss them.

What would be the area where you'd find yourself as a good mentor to a beginner?

Tough one, but I think when it comes to counteracting abusive and threatening behavior, I know many things to help blossoming artists. I recently talked to a great DJane and artist who introduced me to the concept of a safety-rider for artists to avoid encroachment etc. With this, clubs must make sure that not only the guests but also the artists are safe. Music culture is supposed to be a safe place for everybody in every possible way.

Now, synths. Unmissable part of the interview, where you can share all your funky recent discoveries or express deep love for the loyal synth confidants. What's on your menu?

To be honest, I haven’t bought a new synth in ages. But there are some synths on the market that I would love to test such as the Arturia Minibrute after the major firmware update. It sounds so sick, especially when you combine it with guitar pedals! But for the past years, my productions still rely on my old horses such as the Yamaha cs1x, DX7, Behringer TD-3 and the 101 just to name a few.

Grischa, what's inspiring your sound and where do you see the influences coming from? Have you ever been consistent with your favorites in music or you tried many different genre areas? Who are your favorites now? And how did you get involved in digging and producing music?

At the moment I have been driven by bass-intense music reaching from old DMZ tracks up to modern reggaeton compositions. Hence, some of my recent productions are inspired by these. But I have always been a sucker for breaks which is why I incorporate breaks in almost every recent song I made. I was never bound to any specific genre which helped me to dig deeper and even to fuse boundaries.

I wouldn’t say I have many favorites but there are the ones that I always return to such as Ulver, Future Sound of London, Hamilton Scalpel and DMZ.

I started playing guitar in a death metal band when I was fifteen. I quickly discovered limitations in this sort of music production and started making trip hop at the age of 17. You know – with a cracked version of a crappy DAW and an ancient Casio cz-1000. I have always been fascinated by different sounds and I always imagined making music on my own.

For musical tourists coming to Cologne: where to go and what to see? Where's the biggest chance to meet you Friday evening?

That depends on what kind of tourism you want to pursue. There are two nice clubs that sometimes have a great techno booking such as “Gewölbe” which translates to “vault” and of course “Jaki”, named after great Jaki Liebezeit. But if you’d fancy the more underground sound and scene, I’d suggest taking the train to Düsseldorf to come to the infamous “Salon des Amateurs” where I would spend most of my dancing time. If you are looking for good chats, nice drinks and also nice versatile music, come to “Elektra Musikbar”, there’s a pretty high chance to meet me on a Friday night.

Give us a trailer for your DT mix in a few sentences, so the readers hit the play button right away.

Haha – ok. I think it's a classic “Grischerr Set” because it has everything. Reaching from experimental excursions to straight riddim bangers. Always with a pinch of glitch and uncommon sounds!

The classic last question: link to Grischa's number one summer hit.

It’s not a single track but a VA compilation that leaves nothing to be desired. Coming out very, very soon on one of my favorite labels by two of my favorite artists Jon K and Elle Andrews. The label is called “Mal Recordings”