It was 1996 when DJ and producer Ollie Goedicke started to produce music. The first demos he send out recieved a pretty prompt feedback and on sunday in July 1996 an A&R guy from a record company called him and asked if he has a track for a dance compilation. Ollie said yes and delivered a brand new track monday morning in time without even thinking about a name. Within 5 minutes D.O.N.S. was born.

What does it mean? That might always be his secret. The first track he compiled was also his first single. D.O.N.S. – Drop The Gun. It became a massive club hit and even hit the national sales charts in Germany and was signed to AM:PM Records in UK. His first signing was also the first release on Germans legendary dance label Kontor Records and this is the homebase of D.O.N.S. untill today. In producing more and more projects Ollie gained success with The Warp Brothers as one half of them and also as producer for many other club hits. Becoming a world wide regocnized DJ with Warp Brothers Ollie decided in 2004 to resurgence his first ever pseudnoym D.O.N.S. and produced the remake of D.O.N.S. feat Technotronic 'Pump Up The Jam' with which he already had a big international dance hit back in 1997. After 8 years this track blew up on more on an international level and reached 22 in the UK sales charts in 2005.

The rest as they say is history, and D.O.N.S remains one of the world biggest producers of room shaking house music and one it's most prolific DJ's. You can catch the legend himself at Kinky Malinki's huge summer party at Matter on the 1st August alongside a plethora of the finest offerings from the house world. Buy tickets early to avoid disappointment.....

How did you initially get involved in the electronic scene and how did you get your first break as a DJ?

Well I was already strongly influenced by electronic music when I was like 12-14 years old. My uncle was a DJ and played me the right records. I felt in love with Kraftwerk, especially “Robots” and Liaisons Dangereuses “Los Ninos Del Parque” when I was 12 years old. Ever since that time I listened to electronic music besides some Funk and Soul and ZZ Top (no idea why, lol). I developed my music taste and music meant everything to me even when I was that young. In 1988 I moved to NYC and got infected with the house virus which is still circulating through my veins until today and which is the reason why I still like to cover and use all these old analogue sounds. I started DJing in 1983 at my own private house parties on the expenses of my poor mothers nerves, a bit later I played on private parties and in 1985 when I worked for a very famous record store in Hamburg it was one of those typical cheesy stories which was maybe the best thing ever happened to me in terms of becoming a DJ. The record store was running its own club nights and at a Friday night I received a hectic phone call telling me, that the resident DJ became sick and that I was the only hope to save the night as I knew all the big records from working in that record store. I was a very shy person back in the days and I was scared to death. I never worked with record players with pitch control. Until that day I was fading records in and out. I was reluctant to say yes but they literally forced me to do it. I was never that nervous in my life before and afterwards again but the night turned out to be a gigantic success as I played different and the people loved it. After that night they already booked me for the Saturday and I became the resident DJ of this club on all weekends. The rest is history.

What kind of records did you spin in your first set and which still creep back into sets nowadays?

As my first set is over 25 years ago I can say that none of these tracks I played found its way back into my current sets. I still pretty much remember the records I played as I was so nervous that it’s still like an imprint on my memory (not saying I got traumatized at all though ;)). Not even a cover version. When I started DJing I played mainly Funk & Soul mixed with electronic music which might sounds weird but it worked great and I am still DJing ;).

With such a lengthy career as your own, what can you pick out as a real highlight from over the years?

My personal highlight is that I was fighting for years telling myself that I must have a real profession. I studied, had my own company and made a really good living. But my heart was always so much involved with music and everytime I forced myself to stopped playing something happened and I started again. At one point I wanted to create music myself and realized that DJing is my life and as my job never really satisfied me I took a drastic decision and quit everything and only focused on music from that day on in 1997. Best decision ever and def my #1 highlights. Other highlights are more or less successful events like being the #2 foreign producer in France last year, becoming an ambassador for Dance4Life, the success of my weekly radio show and some records which worked pretty good in the past years.

Which other DJs and parties do you respect? Who do you think is set to rock Ibiza this season?

I respect a lot of DJs and parties. There is a place for everybody and everything. Some guys you like more some less and the same counts for party brands. I think parties from the ones you’re doing and like F*** I´m Famous are all great. I think Space will be really good that season again and many DJs will rock the crowd. Tiesto will and already did at Privilege, Carl Cox, and hopefully me too ;).

Your DJing takes you all over the world, where remains your favourite place to play and where haven’t you yet been that you’d love to?

Again I can’t pick one place. It’s always a combination of the people, the vibe, the club and the country or city and club/event you play. I love playing in Australia even though it’s always a bit too commercial but the vibe is great. Ibiza I haven’t played there for a couple of years and I am curious how it will be. Definitely looking forward to play at Space. I love playing in London, the last gigs were really good and I am looking forward to Matter in August. I’ve heard great things about it. I still never played in Brazil and Argentina and definitely want to go there. Korea was a country on my list too but it will happen in July so I can cross that out from my most wanted list.

Your music is mainly described as house, what do you think to peoples speed and excession with categorising artists and do you find it prohibitive when producing new tracks?

I actually really don’t care about it and it has no impact at me at all. I am not a big supporter of categorizing everything as I feel it kills creativity and is limiting me while I am producing.

Which do you find yourself spending most time on these days, DJing or production and why?

I try to keep it 50/50 but travelling takes so much time but due to the technical and digital progress it allows a lot these days. So I never leave the house without my MacBookPro.

You are playing in August at Kinky Malinki’s London party at Matter, what do you have in store for the crowd?

A lot of new remixes and singles, and my passion and desire to rock that place.

Where else can your fans catch you this year? Will you be doing many festivals?

My schedule is pretty packed and I will do some festivals. Like the Exit Festival in Croatia, Summer Week Barcelona (with Tiesto, David Guetta and many more) and Love Fest Los Angeles (with Steve Angello, Sharam and many more).

The best way to see D.O.N.S schedule and keep up to date with all his latest is to check: myspace.com