Berlin Who? Ilian Tape Says Munich is a German Nightlife Capital

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Name: Ilian Tape
Vibe: Like dating a high-functioning German alcoholic who appears calm and collected at first—but it turns out he’s a huge party animal who can outlast you at the club.
Founded: 2007
Location: Munich, Germany
Claim to fame: Ilian Tape’s breakthrough moment came late last year, when Hessle Audio label boss Pangaea included “SEA (The Time Gate)” from Stenny & Andrea’s Vostok Smokescreen EP on his Fabriclive mix CD.
Upcoming releases: This week, Ilian Tape unleashed Rupcy’s Utow EP. Next up is a new Zenker Brothers record, followed by the first solo effort Andrea (of Stenny & Andrea). Plus, the Zenkers’ ITX series is gearing up to drop an EP from Italian newcomer Sciahri.
By the numbers: 25 records and counting: 23 Ilian Tapes releases and two on the ITX imprint.
Artists to watch: The Zenker Brothers (aka Marco and Dario), who run the label, are worth keeping an eye on.

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What’s the deal?
Dario and Marco Zenker were born into Munich’s club scene. Their aunt ran Ultraschall—German for ultrasound—which was “the only proper techno club in the city at the time,” and one of Germany’s most prominent spots alongside Tresor in Berlin. Dario first DJ’d there in 2002, when he was 18, not long before the club closed its doors. When Ultraschall folded, its management split into two camps: one faction opened the Harry Klein, and the other launched Rote Sonne down the street a few years later.

Eventually, both brothers became residents at Harry Klein, even though their family members were involved with Rote Sonne. “It’s funny that Dario got involved with Harry Klein,” Marco said. “The clubs weren’t really rivals, but they split up for a reason.” In 2012, the Zenker brothers split with Harry Klein and started to book their own nights at clubs in Munich, a freedom they weren’t allowed as resident DJs. They’re deeply involved in Munich’s dance music scene, which lives in the enormous shadow cast by Berlin’s prolific reputation for off-the-hook German nightlife. We chatted with the brothers about Munich’s relationship with the capital city and what it takes to run a profitable record label without using PR.

Tell us about the Munich scene right now.
Dario: There are a lot of clubs and a lot of big bookings every weekend. Of course, there’s the more commercial sound that’s pretty big, and you have big festivals here in the summer with big bookings, but we also have small, intimate parties, and cool clubs. There are four really nice clubs.

Cool. How does Munich’s scene compare to Berlin, and what’s its relationship to that city? Does the attention that Berlin gets take away from or attract people to check out Munich?
Marco: People are so focused on Berlin that they don’t even think about Munich that much—I would say, foreign people. For them, Germany is Berlin, at least when they think about techno.

Dario: For most people, it’s like that. If you play in another country, everybody asks, “How’s living in Berlin?” It’s like nothing else exists. Of course, Berlin is the techno capital city, but there are other cities in Germany, like Hamburg or Munich, where a lot of stuff is going on, where a lot of stuff has happened.

Marco: But it’s totally different—

Dario: —totally different. If you see the parties, you can’t compare it. In Munich, of course, there are wild parties and people are having fun and getting wasted and other stuff like that, but you can’t compare it. We have a lot of rules in Munich and restrictions: You can’t smoke. You can’t go to the bathroom with two or three people, because you could get thrown out of the club. You have to watch out for undercover police inside the club. You can have wild, free parties, but it’s just not like Berlin, because in Berlin you can do whatever you want.

Why are the laws different? It’s the same country.
Dario: It’s a different state. Munich is Bavarian, so it’s very old and conservative.

Marco: And it always have been very different. The city itself, Munich, is a very rich city—very wealthy, very clean, safe, comfortable. Berlin is the opposite. But if you’re partying in a club in Munich, you don’t feel restricted in anyway. Of course, you can’t smoke a joint on the dance floor, because you’d probably get thrown out, and if you’re really unlucky they might even call the police. But that’s just a small thing for me.

Dario: If you party in an adult way and have fun, you can do whatever you want, like in Berlin too.

THUMP: You started by putting out vinyl records, then switched to releasing as a digital-only label, and have since transitioned to releasing vinyl again. How did these developments occur?
Marco: I sent Dario some music, and at one point he said, “Maybe we should just do a release.” He said we should just do it digitally, because he was in a difficult situation with the distribution. There was a P&D deal, and some decisions were pretty chaotic, and when it ended we had a big debt. We owed them a lot of money for the distribution, but weren’t able to make any more vinyl records at the time, so we released it only digitally.

Dario: Back then, when we released the first record, we didn’t really thinking about how we were going to sell it, where we were going sell it, stuff like that. We had to release Marco’s music digitally to get back the money we owed for the distribution on the last record.

Marco: Then, I got more and more involved with the label, and started to do more digital stuff to get some money and to pay the debt. Then we did one party in Munich together, the first Ilian Tape night in Munich. It was really successful, and all the money we made we put into the label, the first vinyl record. That was number five, and the next one was my first vinyl record, number six.

You said you didn’t think too much about the details when you first started the label. How much premeditation goes into what you release now?
Dario: We were really sure about what we wanted to release back then. It’s more that we didn’t think about the selling and business view. Back then, we started with pressing 1000 copies, which is unreal. Nowadays we start with the first pressing way less, 500—

Marco: —And we see how it goes. But, we’re already established. When you first start a label, you can’t just start with a thousand, that’s crazy.

Dario: You’ll lose a lot of money. There’s so many labels where people do it like that and then disappear after two or three releases, because doing vinyl is pretty expensive.

Have you guys thought about hiring PR?
Dario: We got in contact with some PR agency for mail outs, for digital promo and stuff like that, but to be honest, it was way too expensive for us to afford.

Marco: We’d rather do a high-quality mastering and for 180 gram vinyl than for a—

Dario: —PR campaign, because there was just no budget for it. Now, it’s getting better, and we have a budget for stuff like that, but back then, or even nowadays, it’s like, we could pay 300 euro for a single PR mailout. Even if you sell 500 copies, that’s steep, and if you only sell 400 copies, you’ll lose money. The thing is, how many more records will you sell through the PR campaign?

Yeah. I think it’s more about increasing your bookings, but I have heard press impacts sales as well.
Dario: Even for that, we don’t really do PR and pay an agency to do that. We get some press, more and more press, and reviews and stuff like that—

Marco: —Without paying for it. It’s developing positively. But what you asked before about the how it changed since the beginning, I can say that over time ,when you get more experience, your whole approach totally changes, and your vision becomes clearer. That’s the natural development: It doesn’t start perfectly, and you learn on the way. I like it like that.