What the Hell—The Private Life of the DJ Legend

DJ Hell on his carefree childhood, his dreams of becoming a decathlete, and why he even skipped a Kraftwerk concert for a soccer match…

Even if he missed out on a Kraftwerk concert as a teenager, DJ Hell played more and more music by electro pioneers, such as this remix of the classic It's More Fun to Compute at the Hell/Dunkel Festival in Düsseldorf in 2016.

DJ Hell on his musical inspirations growing up—a wide range of influences, from Thomas Gottschalk and Dieter Thomas Heck, Iron Maiden and The Police, and even Otto Waalkes and Fredl Fesl.

It might be quite hard to believe, but DJ Hell, alias Helmut Geier, was even a fan of the wonderful traditional Bavarian musician Fredl Fesl, pictured here at a yodeling event in a show hosted by Robert Lembke…

DJ Hell on his first DJ outing in a disco in his Upper Bavarian hometown, on his escape to Munich, and how he got onto the latest albums of a record label in London.

With his pioneering track Jack Your Body, Steve Silk Hurley gave house music its big breakthrough. The hit spent two weeks at number 1 in the UK charts at the beginning of 1987.

DJ Hell on his interest in house music around the end of the 1980s, how he gained a foothold in the Munich music scene through a soccer tournament, among other things, and how he achieved his international breakthrough in 1992.

The 1992 track My Definition of House Music was DJ Hell's first self-produced single. It sold over 100,000 copies and became a club hit, making him one of the first techno DJs who didn't just release records but also produced them himself.

DJ Hell on how he ended up playing in front of a million people in Berlin, how he resisted the temptations of selling out, and how he still founded his own record label against all odds.

The track I'm a Disco Dancer (and a Sweet Romancer) by Viennese techno pioneer Christopher Just was released on DJ Hell's International Deejay Gigolo Records.

DJ Hell on selecting artists for his record label, and how he obtained the licenses for the re-releases on his International Deejay Gigolo Records label.

The album Halfmute by Californian post-punk new-wave band Tuxedomoon was originally released on Ralph Records, and was later re-released on DJ Hell's record label International Deejay Gigolo Records.

DJ Hell on balancing his work as a record producer and DJ, and how he helped shape the electroclash genre and even gave it its name.

DJ Hell on the strange story behind the song Kernkraft 400 by Munich duo Zombie Nation which he published on his record label in 1999 and which became one of the most-played stadium anthems worldwide.

DJ Hell on the physical efforts and challenges of the high-intensity sport of working as a DJ, competitive thinking in the sector, and where and when he always take his breaks.

DJ Hell on alcohol, drugs, and other stimulants doing the rounds during nights out, the great art of DJ'ing, and how he developed his technique over several decades…

…and, in the last part of the interview, goals and visions and DJ'ing into old age. Why Giorgio Moroder's not a role model for him, and how he came to be the regular DJ for FC Bayern.

As DJ Hell so often says nowadays, now is the time for his music: a few highlights from his productions from almost three decades. This is a song called Ultraschall, with the same name as the legendary disco at the old Munich-Riem airport where DJ Hell was a resident DJ.

…and heard here is a 2018 remix of 1994's Hell Don't Get Angry (Hell ärgere dich nicht) together with Jeff Mills.

For Your Love from his 1998 album Munich Machine was a groundbreaking record in the development of electroclash, according to a review by British newspaper The Guardian.

Follow You is from his 2005 album NY Muscle, which DJ Hell produced in New York. As the the website allmusic.com wrote: "This is the sound of nighttime New York City from the outsider perspective of an infamous German named Hell, and it's dark, dark, debauched fun."

This is U Can Dance from 2009's Teufelswerk. The singer? Bryan Ferry! The Tagesspiegel newspaper wrote the following about the album: "High-class German techno as a poignantly rebellious statement against the zeitgeist. A manifestation of debauchery that shouldn't actually exist in these times of pessimism over the future of physical records."

More recent is the song Car Car Car from his album Zukunftsmusik, released in 2017.