News : 20 Questions With Sven Väth: Dance Legend on First Album In 20 Years, Ibiza’s Glory Days & Techno Going Mainstream

Katie Bain March 04, 2022

In 1981, Sven Väth hitchhiked from his native Germany to Ibiza and set up a makeshift camp in the island’s pine forest. From this humble base, the then 16-year-old Väth explored the burgeoning nightlife of the Spanish island — which, over the next three decades, would become his second home, and a hub for his empire of techno.

Väth held down a residency at the island’s legendary club Amnesia for 20 years, with the club night named for the Cocoon brand that now encompasses events, a label, an artist management company and Frankfurt’s namesake club, which opened in 2004 and enjoyed an eight-year run. While building this brand, playing countless global shows and becoming an international figurehead of techno, Väth also released eight studio albums, with the last one in 2003.

But the pandemic gave Väth something he hadn’t had for a long while: time. Inspired by a night spent dancing in his house with his girlfriend in January 2021, Väth returned to the studio. Here, he collaborated with longtime Cocoon artist Gregory Treshor on the tracks that compose his latest LP, Catharsis, out digitally on Friday (Feb. 25) through Cocoon. The album is 13 tracks of immersive techno that includes the lead single “Feiern,” a propulsive, shimmery production that lives up to the album’s title. Catharsis will get a physical release on vinyl — the medium in which Väth plays all of his shows — this April.

Here, Väth reflects on his career, his new music, techno going mainstream and more.

1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?

Currently, I am on vacation with my girlfriend in the Maldives before I start my great world tour – hopefully! It feels like being on a cloud since you see mostly blue here. The atolls are very fascinating and offer stunning marine life. Unfortunately, it is also very endangered.

2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

In 1976, when I was 12, my parents opened a disco, so they brought 7” records regularly. That’s why we’ve always had a lot of records at home. The first record my older brother owned was the album from S.O.S Band, in 1981 I bought my first record Computerwelt from Kraftwerk, and Heaven 17’s Penthouse and Pavement.

3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you do for a living now?

My father was a very talented craftsman and master painter. My mother was a housewife and busy with us three boys. Both were passionate rock & roll dancers, and with their very own nightclub, they realized and continued this passion. Sometimes they came home late at night and woke us up because they had won a dance competition. The three of us then sat on the couch and our parents danced for us. We loved it!

When I was 16, my mother asked me to start as a disc jockey at their disco. Tragically, the resident DJ had a fatal accident. To this day, from time to time my mother still dances with me at my parties and the audience is always celebrating her for it. Of course, she is very proud of enkindling my passion.

4. What’s the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?

I’ve always been a fashion fanatic, from an early age on. With the first money I’ve earned as an artist, I bought a white leather jacket from Thierry Mugler with reinforced shoulders and silver studs down the sleeves.

5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance music, what would you give them?

Daft Punk‘s Homework from 1997.

6. What’s the last song you listened to?

Larry Heard Presents Mr. White, “You Rock Me.”

7. Catharsis is your first new album in 20 years. Why has it been so long?

There has simply been so much to do in the last 20 years. My focus was on many things simultaneously: Evolving and forming my company with the divisions: Cocoon Artist Booking, Cocoon Events and the associated record company. We have established a very ambitious series of events in Ibiza. Accompanying this, my first mix compilation series came out on my label, Cocoon Recordings, and extensive world tours followed every year. In my hometown Obertshausen, we organized the Green And Blue Festival annually. In parallel we planned the Cocoon Club in Frankfurt, which we’ve opened in 2004. Then in 2010, my son Liam Tiga saw the light of day and I became a father again. I enjoyed all of it! Also, two singles with Anthony Rother were released in 2005 and 2006, “Komm” and “Springlove.”

8. And why is this the right time to release a new album? How much did the pandemic play into it?

Due to the pandemic, most of my performances were canceled, but this also had a positive factor for me: Time!

I’ve never had this much spare time in my life before. This resulted in a particular process: It all started a retrospect to the 80s, which is how the idea for my What I Used To Play compilation was born. A selection of songs from 1981-1989, with my favorites that I played back then. Out of the 120 songs I selected, 37 tracks will be released on vinyl, in [the] form of an exclusive box on Cocoon Recordings later this year.

At the same time, I’ve started to write because the music and the related memories stirred me up. On the occasion of my 40th DJ anniversary, my team and I started working on a coffee table book with numerous pictures and short texts. We’re still working on it, but we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel. All this took a lot out of me emotionally, but in a positive sense. It was a cleansing: Catharsis.

In 2020 my label Cocoon Recordings also celebrated its 20th anniversary. Therefore Pete Tong asked me to record an Essential Mix for his radio show. On a January evening in 2021, during the second lockdown, the mix played on the radio. While listening, my girlfriend got in a dancing mood. Somehow, we hadn’t danced in a long time. It was marvelous, we danced into the night. The next morning a certain feeling overtook me, an impulse. I told myself: “You have to write lyrics for a song now!” The last months and that night especially had shown me what I missed so much: Playing my music and merging with my crowd. Out of this deep longing, the song “Feiern” evolved.

Intuitively, I called my friend Gregor Tresher and asked him if he would like to go to the studio with me. It was spouting out of me. Gregor was very empathetic, so we were able to connect creatively more than well. The musical flashback and looking through my archive of photos, videos, flyers, posters, cassettes, etc., definitely left their mark on the album production. Also, we used current samples that I recorded while traveling.

9. I understand that the themes of Catharsis include the sort of mystical aspects of dancing. Why is dancing a spiritual experience for you?

This happens on different mental levels, they are worlds into which one dives, the experience of one’s mysticism and ecstasy. Dancing is a conversation between body and soul and connects us with our fellow dancers in a spiritual way. It is exactly what we are all missing so much right now. No dancing, no paradise!

10. What’s your take on the concept of Business Techno? Have areas of the scene totally sold out? If so, is that a bad thing?

To be honest, I don’t get the whole discussion about the moral of our scene. I have not and will not participate in it. With my 40 years of experience, I can say, I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. Music trends and the whole club culture included was a long and winding road. There’s no point in complaining! In my experience, if something is going well and is successful, it automatically attracts imitators.

Of course, people with sheer “business ideas” will always try to get a piece of the cake, and certainly, our scene has grown globally and there are also purely commercial interests. That’s the way it always works in music, fashion, tourism — see also Ibiza, etc. — and in many other areas of the entertainment industry. Generally, we should always have a respectful attitude towards authorship. Unfortunately, because of the constant availability nowadays, most of the time people often no longer perceive where something comes from and whom it comes from. But I prefer to focus on the positive progressions.

11. In 2020, there was talk about Berlin raves receiving UNESCO world heritage designation in order to protect them. What’s your take on this possibility?

Only Berliners can come up with something like that. [laughs] Techno is firmly established in our cultural landscape; there is already a certain acceptance, especially in metropolitan areas. But still, the scene is often politically dismissed as “disreputable,” “not serious” or “irrelevant,” which does not do justice to the subject of techno

12. Techno has grown in mainstream popularity in the U.S. quite a lot in the last few years. Are Americans catching up with Europeans in terms of taste level?

It’s interesting to see that this is perceived that way. In my opinion, there has always been good taste in techno and house music in the U.S.A. As I see it, the early scenes from Detroit, Chicago, and New York weren’t appreciated well enough in America at the time when it all started. But yes, a lot is going on in the U.S. lately. I’m happy to see that this sound is so well-received now. I’ve also never been a fan of EDM and the whole “megastage circus.”

13. What’s the best city in the world for techno right now? Or will it just always be Berlin?

Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Kyiv, New York, or Tbilisi…? To be honest, I can’t tell at the moment since not that much has happened in the last two years.

14. You’ve been playing in Ibiza for more than two decades. What are the most significant changes you’ve seen on the island during this time? Are these changes a good thing?

I love Ibiza with all my heart. My whole biography relates to this island. In recent years great hotels and restaurants have opened. In general, the island continues to attract artists and individualists. Even if you think you know the island, you always discover something new. Especially during the pandemic, we did a lot of hikes and discovered incredibly beautiful places. But there are more and more real estate speculators and a “jetset crowd” of VIPs, which weren’t there before.

In terms of party life, there was just too much on offer in Ibiza just before the pandemic. Ibiza is financially exploited and used as a business hub by promoters and DJs! I’m curious how things will go in the future. I will do my best to keep the spirit!

15. Give us a great Ibiza in the ’90s and early 2000s story?

There are countless! My arrival on the island in 1981 was adventurous already. When I was 16, I hitchhiked from Frankfurt to Ibiza with a friend. When we got to Barcelona, we flipped a coin and it fell for Ibiza and not for mainland Spain. We got on the ferry and that’s how it happened. Maybe at this moment, I unconsciously made a big decision for my future life. We made ourselves comfortable in the pine forest for a few weeks. Then we went and discovered the island and were fascinated by the nightlife. It was incredible what we experienced that night. Roofless clubs with a playful and pretty crowd. Music that I have never heard before, a mix of Italo disco, disco soul, psychedelic rock, new wave, and African percussion. It smelled very sweet, with the scent of hashish and patchouli.

The hippies discovered Ibiza for themselves in the 1970s. The freethinking and the resulting lightness and spirit shaped the island enormously. I stayed for three months. I knew I would come back to this beautiful island repeatedly.

After that, in the ’80s, I used to go to the opening parties with my friends. It became a ritual. We danced into the early hours and were excited to see who was dancing along: Grace Jones, Duran Duran, Freddy Mercury, George Michael, to name just a few. A dream came true when I heard our song “Electrica Salsa” in a club in Ibiza for the first time. We produced the song in 1986 in the hope that it would hit Ibiza, which happened, and not only there, but it also became a club hit in Europe.

16. What decade on Ibiza would you say was the best?

I liked the ’80s and the years from 2000 onwards on Ibiza much better than the ’90s. The dominance of the English club brands was too much for me, and the music wasn’t my taste. However, I played the opening and closing parties at Space Club in the ‘90s, they were always legendary! Things took off when I decided to do Cocoon at Amnesia in 1999. My motivation was to give something back to the island after all the great memories I experienced there. It was a big challenge to have a residency in Ibiza, especially with my sound, but with my team and lots of ideas, we had the chance to make great parties in Amnesia every Monday. It took two years until things have been going well, but the effort was more than worth it. We offered an uncompromising sound and presented new DJs on the island. The list is very long, and many of them are top players today.

Spontaneously organized after-hours followed, and the word has spread quickly. They became our signature and ensured that unforgettable nights did not come to an end. I felt unlimited freedom and played sets for more than 15 hours. I’m proud to say that Cocoon has turned the sound and party style of the island upside down and reinvented it. Happily, there was a lot of encouragement from the locals and the newly forming scene. In 2019 we celebrated our 20th anniversary with concerts by Underworld and Kraftwerk! Another dream came true, it was a perfect time to close the chapter Cocoon Ibiza. And then the pandemic came.

17. What your favorite place to listen to and experience dance music?

Since I only play vinyl, I need a specific setup. I have a very good configuration at home; it’s just perfect for listening to new releases. Certainly, I prefer to experience and play club music in the club.

18. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?

I never stopped doing what I love most! Following my passion was and is my best investment.

19. Who was your greatest mentor, and what was the best advice they gave you?

I’ve never had a mentor. I am an autodidact, taking everything into my own hands and approaching everything step-by-step. There have always been partnerships and new goals. Visions keep growing as I have the opportunities to implement them. In 1988, I opened the nightclub OMEN with two partners. I was 24 back then. My grandmother always said to me, “Sven, be yourself and stay true to yourself.”

20. One piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?

Don’t dream your life, live your dreams!