Christian Schwanz (Cee)

Christian Schwanz, born in March 28, 1977.

I grew up in the Northeast part of East Germany. Yes, life was a bit grey, but good, because as a young child I didn’t care about what was behind the iron curtain anyway.

Once I got older it really annoyed me that I couldn’t see my relatives in the West, not being able to travel to places where they have palm trees like Spain or Italy and yes I knew what was going on in communist East Germany. Some of my relatives were actually in prison because they tried to leave the country.

But besides the shitty political situation, life was good. I enjoyed being close to the sea. I am a country boy I guess.

Formerly from Vienna based electronic collective Al Haca in the ’90s.

Al Haca in the ’90s was based in Northeast Germany. It was a Reggae and Dub soundsystem first and I joined them as an effect operator. I also did a bit of toasting. First Al Haca was run by three friends Alex Pehlemann, Hardy Dinse and Carsten Kliemann. Later Oliver Weisse and I joined. The other guys were the record collectors and DJs of the crew. I was the nerd behind the effects and started to DJ a bit later.

We played mainly Reggae and Dub, but mixed it up with Hip Hop, Punk and Funk and whatever suited the mix and party vibe. We were very influenced by early UK Dub though. We recorded a lot of dubplates with the big singers like Horace Andy, Zebra, Freddie McGregor and Daddy Freddy just to name a few. And we spent a lot of money on that (laughs).

Later end of the ’90s and the beginning of 2000 I got more into full audio production and started putting beats together for Al Haca. We recorded with Farda P and Tweed from Rockers HiFi and I also bumped into RQM back than. I worked a lot with MC RQM.

On the production side Arnd Wollmann joined me. A great friend and harmony wizard. We released our first album on the Rockers Hifi label Different Drummer from Birmingham, UK. The rest is history (smiles).

Was that where you struck on the idea of branding as a prime importance?

Al Haca was for sure a big step to building a crowd and building a brand. We traveled a lot with the Al Haca collective and it taught me how to think global and not just local. Al Haca was still based in that little city called Greifswald close to the Baltic Sea.

We lived in that nut shell, but we were always able to let the nut shell travel on the stream of music. All folks behind the collective were pretty intellectual guys and we were all into art and politics. That also gave Al Haca the different twist and made it possible to brand Al Haca as the outsider. I believe in niche marketing.

How did you connect brands to your fans?

Very simple. The brands just gave me the needed cash to produce my music. I always used the “right” brands for my music and I never had to go the “heavy branding” or “sell out” road. So the connection between fans and brands was very simple.

Let’s take Carhartt for example: We toured the U.S.A. for 5 weeks and just collected lots of content which we could turn into a great article for their magazine called Rugged. On our promotion pictures we were dressed in Carhartt, but the stuff is comfy and not “in your face”. It matched and clicked.

In 2008 you joined Vice magazine, Vienna.

I am still super close with Vice. I am actually writing an article for them right now. They taught me a lot when it came to subculture marketing or what we call fire starter and key influencer marketing. So the niche I started building on paid back.

A lot of advertising guys and brands are still afraid finding a niche and they all wanna go mass, but mass has no guts and is not really connected. Vice is always aiming towards a networked crowd and believes in exclusivity, emotions and engagement.

Before I joined Vice I only produced music and brands started to support me in times when nobody bought CD’s anymore. Music itself was still cool and will always be cool. The product just sucked (aka plastic CD’s). With Vice I could continue to produce and market content people actually wanted and paid attention too. This attention turned into money.

And in 2009, you moved to Kuala Lumpur to marry the woman of your dreams. Worthy of a love story?

A friend of mine just told me I should put together a primer/handbook or something about the possibilities of relationships and marriage. That doesn’t sound very romantic (laughs). But yes, I moved here [Kuala Lumpur] because of the love I found. It’s what really matters to me. Even though I had to leave many things behind. I do miss my family and friends in Europe, but love comes first.

What is Barefoot?

Barefoot is very free. It’s a feelers thing. If you don’t feel it in your bare feet, why dance to it (laughs). I just made up the coolest core principle.

Barefoot describes the kind of music which is hard to describe. The music you can feel even though you hear it for the first time. Barefoot is more than music though. It’s a way of living….

The Barefoot history.

Stereotyp and me started making music together about 10 years ago. People needed a genre, even though I don’t really believe in music genres because you get stuck.

Lexie Lee tweeted the other day: I don’t listen to genres. I listen to artists. I really like that quote.

But anyways, we needed the right box because [the media] started to put us into weird boxes like “Futuredancehallbassglitch”. That ain’t sexy. So about 2 or 3 years ago we still didn’t have the right name for the music we loved and produced. Even though elements always change, a certain dirt and bass was always there.

One day we were sitting in the Crunchtime studios in Vienna and as usual we were barefoot. The summer was in town and we hardly ever left the yard anyways. We looked at our bare feet and Stereotyp said: That’s it! Barefoot! That’s what we’ll call that shit. We had a name and that made it easier for people to follow and here we are.

Producers and musicians all over the planet started to call their sound Barefoot. Dizz1 in Australia, Jahcoozi in Berlin/Germany, k.gol in France, there is a crew in Turkey and producers in the U.S.A. And now we have Asia.

Barefoot is niche and authentic.

Failures? Well, since we don’t follow a certain tempo grid I guess it’s still hard to define what a Barefoot song needs. But that failure is also the strength: Ever changing influences keep it fresh. Feel it and you know.

The Barefoot now and the future.

We are now building the Asia crowd and that’s a lot of fun. Stereotyp is leading the European scene and I am guiding the scene in Asia… Africa is next I would say (smiles).

You’ll be spinning at Home club on 17 July at the launch of Barefoot Asia.

I am thrilled to be part of Barefoot Asia movement. We are gonna bring lots of different people together, which are open minded and feel no borders. Bass will unite us. Damn, did you see the line up? It’s like a Barefoot festival I would say. See ya there folks!

Kiss My Culture and Zul Andra would like to thank Christian Schwanz for the interview. See you at Barefoot Asia on the 17 July at Home Club.