Photo credits: Carolin Saage
Though rightfully titled the ‘Queen of Berlin’, Mira avoids the spotlight and instead focuses on quality and her true artistic expressions. She is exponentially flying at the pinnacle of the deep house music scene, headlining the best festivals and clubs around the world. Her unique ability to set and create the perfect vibe while hypnotizing crowds from all horizons has made Mira an artist like no other. She is unanimously acclaimed and unconditionally loved by an ever-growing base of admirers everywhere she goes.
Mira was born and raised in a classical, artistic family: mother, a photographer, father, a musician. A perfect combination and environment to find and establish her own musical abilities. Just like her sets, she is a slow-burning artist, who quite by surprise has found the entire deep house world mesmerized by her once-in-a-generation talent. Is she now the ‘Queen of Deep House’? If you ask her, Mira will simply smile and go back to selecting her next tracks.
Recently we had a conversation with Mira to talk about her double VA compilation ‘43 Katzen… tanzen auf’m Tisch’.
Electronic Groove: Hello, Mira, thank you for being here with us. Quite a ride this year, right? How are you holding up with the whole quarantine situation?
Mira: Hello, guys, thank you for having me! Oh, man, definitely… I’m doing ok. Keeping myself busy. Already in March, I started a radio show for Kater Blau’s ‘Keimzelle Blau’ together with my colleague and dear friend Mila Stern and we did almost 20 radio shows. This forced me out of bed and kept me motivated – especially in April and May when there wasn’t even a silver lining at the horizon. I played four live streams and uploaded many sets this year on SoundCloud.
People need music, but I also enjoyed being able to spend so much quality time with my family and friends. Weekend trips to the countryside in Spring and Summer, endless bike tours through an empty Berlin to get to know my city better… Normally we never have time for that. From mid-July, I was able to play again almost every weekend again and now I just finished the next project with the compilation. I will also spend more time in the studio with my partner in crime Christopher Schwarzwalder to finally work again on our EP. I love my work and don’t want to do anything else.
Electronic Groove: How do you think the German government has handled the situation? Do you fear for the future of the scene?
Mira: I think our government has handled and is handling the situation very well even if it sucks that most of the financial support doesn’t reach people like me. I don’t have employees or an office and most of my colleagues are in the same situation- we are defined as solo self-employed and can’t apply for most of the financial help. But I’m rather worried about the clubs and our culture, than about myself. Especially the small venues and little festivals are in danger since they don’t work with sponsors or have savings they live from hand to mouth. And say if the landlord for instance doesn’t want to find a solution with them – how can they ever pay back rent? Berlin has changed a lot in the last years, it’s getting more and more crowded and most of the spaces are highly competitive. If they get kicked out now they will probably never find a comparable space again and just disappear. But there is some hope: techno music didn’t count as a culture until 3 weeks ago, can you believe that? A court in the country has declared techno to be music, giving clubs the same tax break enjoyed by concert halls. This is huge.
Electronic Groove: You were able to play at Katergarten back in August. What were your impressions of this new modality of clubbing under social distancing guidelines?
Mira: It was weird but manageable. To explain it quickly- the atmosphere was more a beer garden style with tables and very limited capacity to guarantee the social distancing guidelines and pretty low sound but after such a long time without anything, it was pretty amazing to see your friends and play music in front of real people. Most of the guests took it seriously and were wearing masks or face shields. I don’t like to play with a mask but it’s better than not playing and even if most of the promoters told me I don’t have to wear it in an open air situation I felt liable to show the people that we are all in the same situation. You are kind of a role model, some of the people look up to you and in my opinion, you have to accept that as your responsibility. I experienced a couple of concepts to manage the ‘new situation’ from booked tables where you could just sit and listen to a ‘normal’ festival where masks were mandatory, smoking not permitted and if it was getting too wild they just turned off the music and explained the people on the dance floor they should wear their masks. Of course, no-one earned money with those happenings, this was just something to keep us alive. We need human interaction and I can just repeat myself: people need music.
Electronic Groove: Now, diving into the studio…you’ve been quite busy recently. You’ve just released a remix between you and Chris Schwarzwälder for Paul Baule’s ‘Opaque’. What was the experience like? What elements from the original version inspired you?
Mira: When doing remixes there has to be something that catches us right away and usually we feel this quickly after a short trial in the studio. In the beginning, both of us were pretty inspired by the dark and psychedelic style of ‘Opaque’, the groove is almost goa-trance which reminds me of the time I started raving, and damn…those dubby chords are pretty sexy. But it took us forever to finish the remix due to the pandemic. At first, I was traveling, then the lockdown happened and after that, we both had the feeling we were kind of blocked. It’s interesting how much all this affects us in our creativity.
“I love my work and don’t want to do anything else”
Electronic Groove: Where have you been finding inspiration during these hard times? Was it harder to write new music during the pandemic?
Mira: To be honest I didn’t produce any new music during the pandemic. It’s not really inspiring to be in a crisis with existential fear and anxiety and no idea how and when this will end. My travels and shows, the festival season, seeing friends, and the energetic exchange you have while you are playing –all these things inspire me. Chris and I started working on our EP already in 2019 and never finished it because we were both too busy with touring. In January 2020 right before I left to South America we worked on it again and also on the remix so that we were able to finish at least some stuff. Thank god I was at least able to play in late Summer/Fall – so these experiences may help me being inspired when going back into the studio at some point.
Electronic Groove: We know that due to public safety reasons, ‘43 Katzen… tanzen auf’m Tisch’ will not be happening. Could you tell our readers more about the celebration?
Mira: For the past ten years now, I’ve celebrated my birthdays by inviting all my favorite cats to play – we started off at Kater Holzig before moving to our home at Kater Blau in 2015. The 48 hours events usually start on Sunday at noon, it is very big and brings a pretty international crowd, mixed with the typical Berlin crowd and the right amount of promoters, musicians, old and new friends and they all know how to party. The vibe is very special as is the music. The whole concept is to not let you go home. I’ve been wondering for a while now how I can make up for the missed year and thought a compilation instead could be a good compensation.
Electronic Groove: So this year ‘43 Katzen… tanzen auf’m Tisch’ is a compilation album? Can you tell us more about it?
Mira: On this anniversary compilation you will find many of the amazing artists from the past nine years, and even some of the new faces I would have booked this year. The compilation is divided into two sections: Heinz Hopper and Acidbogen, reflecting the two floors, each with their own special flavor and sound that represent the identity of Kater Blau and my event ‘Katzen auf’m Tisch’. The whole record is programmed the way I would schedule the artists across the two floors for my birthday, warming up at the start before things start getting more intense later on. So it either works as a concept album to listen to in one piece and also with the single tracks to play in a club context.
Electronic Groove: Do you have any activities you like to do outside of music? How do you find time for yourself?
Mira: I’m a big fan of pilates and try to do it at least twice a week but since corona, I’m doing it every day in the morning. I love cooking with and for friends. Books are essential and having a walk or a bike tour and spending time in nature too.
“On this anniversary compilation you will find many of the amazing artists from the past nine years, and even some of the new faces I would have booked this year”
Electronic Groove: What would you like to achieve during 2021?
Mira: This is pretty hard to say because we all don’t know what we have to expect in the future. I could tell you what I would love to do but 2020 taught me: the bigger your expectations the bigger your disappointment… So I’ll rather keep it low-key: I would love to be able to work again, travel again, and play music for people with less than 1,5 meters distance on the dance floor.
Electronic Groove: Thank you for your time, Mira. It has been a true pleasure. All the best to you in the future.
Mira: Indeed! Thank you and take care!
Mira’s double VA compilation ‘43 Katzen… tanzen auf’m Tisch’ is now available Kiosk.I.D. Grab your copy here.
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