Kevin Over

German house hero Kevin Over’s mission with DJing and producing runs somewhat deeper than most. The things that made club culture so vital in the first place — the breaking down of social barriers, the experience of coming together through music, the creation of unique spaces away from the norms of day-to-day society — form the very heart of what he does.

Alongside releases on Kerri Chandler’s Madhouse Records, Gerd’s 4lux, Mobilee Records, Truesoul, Get Physical, Noir Music and other A-grade imprints, he continues to study for a degree in sociology. It’s this other side of his life that forms the crux of his interests in dance music. “Taking part in and actually being responsible in building up certain societies which have their own morals and which develop their own behavior and character makes every club night special to me” he says. In age when people are coming to dance music through commercial channels with no grounding in the culture or history of the context in which it blossomed and evolved, it’s refreshing to hear such salient words from an artist in their mid-20s.

Whether he’s making raw, jacking house grooves, deeper, soul-drenched stuff or Detroit-flavoured workouts, his music is always muscular, intriguing and captivating. House music is his palette, but there’s myriad colours within it. “Musically, I like to see myself in an infinite swirl of musical progression and development. My aim is to never stick in any field, but getting in there, switching positions, and reproducing these experiences and feelings through my own sound... avoiding repetition while keeping my own character and expression.” He realises this ethos through an incredibly crisp, punchy, sophisticated production quality.

His DJ sets switch gears through different levels of house, techno and disco, from the roots of the music to his own freshly-cooked studio productions. He has played across the world from Australia and New Zealand to Argentina, London, Stockholm, Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin and Berlin. He relishes the challenges and benefits that come with playing at different times of night — whether that’s warming up, playing peak time or the closing set. “I love to play all kinds of different locations to create different atmospheres. The magic of the impossibility of the replicability of every night fascinates me. Every night needs a different key and taking the risk to find the right one instead of just brutally barging the doors down... that’s what keeps it exciting. The unexpected and unplanned possibilities and spontaneity of a night are what excite me as a DJ.”

With the aim of uniting his interest in the sociological aspect of dance culture with his love for the music itself, Kevin started organising special events in his hometown a few years back. He and his friends started taking over abandoned spaces and fields to throw events fusing music, food and other activities, creating immersive and personal experiences that took people on a real journey across the space of a night. These events gave birth to the acclaimed Hinter’m Kornfeld Rechts festival, which brought together 2,000 people at its last edition — mostly through word-of-mouth. Branching out to Amsterdam’s BRET for its first international edition, it’s the perfect embodiment of what Kevin Over stands for: creating a deeper experience with music, and building a real sense of community from it.

We hope that this is only the beginning and that Kevin Over will keep balancing his two worlds and can maybe teach those sociology types a thing or two about the magic of dance music and club culture, all the while continuing to churn out his steady stream of mesmeric productions and delighting dancefloors the world over.