Steffi on playing live & Klakson records' relaunch

Steffi Doms is one bad mama jama. Since her move to Berlin in 2007 she's built a fierce reputation as an exacting selector, while continually moving from strength to strength in her own analogue productions for Ostgut Ton et al. Just as impressive is her ability to talk straight – which made pinning her down for a quick chat about her upcoming UK tour an actual delight...

The Skinny: You’re touring the UK this coming month – what do you like about the UK culturally and what can the people of Manchester expect from your set?

Steffi: Well I am massively influenced by 80s and 90s UK music, it has had a lot of impact on me. It has such a rich music culture and it goes without saying that Manchester used to be one of the most important cities when it comes to the development of electronic dance music. I recently connected with the Meat Free promoters and I think it's exciting to see that this younger female posse in the city is trying to build something special as an alternative to bigger clubs in Manchester. I like to support that!

Your schedule includes a live date in London – can you talk us through what the live project involves and what challenges you faced putting it together?

It was my next step to take in terms of challenges actually. I have been DJing for 20 years and I was ready to play my own music live after making two albums. My music is really diverse in terms of styles and also song structure, so I decided to use Ableton as a sequencer so I could be very flexible and improvise on the fly. I use additional instruments, for example a Roland TR-8, to write drum patterns and program effects during the show which makes it really organic and therefore every version of a song is different each time I play a show.

Of course some of my tracks also contain vocals, mainly by Virginia, so we decided to play a different live show for that with Virginia singing the vocal songs and playing a Roland SPD-SX e-drum so that adds another extra element to it all.

What gear do you get the most out of when working on your own compositions in the studio?

I work with a lot of hardware, both digital and analog, and it's all hooked up to a Cirklon step sequencer. It's fair to say that the sequencer is my favourite toy at the moment and totally changed my way of working compared to a few years ago. It's one of the most exciting pieces [of kit] around. My software setup is very basic with a couple of solid plugins. I mainly use it as a recording tool.

I am always on the look out for gear, though. I also love the development of all the brands, offering small affordable synths and new brands popping up every day, especially in the modular world – it's endless. Of course there is the obsession with old synths as well, I recently bought my long time dream: the Memorymoog! Yes!

The relaunch of Klakson with Dexter has turned a few heads this year...

Well, there simply wasn’t any suitable music for the label in 2010 so I pressed pause. The deal always has been simple: no good music, no release. Lately, I have been working in the studio with Dexter quite a lot on multiple projects and the energy was so right that we actually came up with the idea of doing more electro orientated stuff and that’s how we got new ideas for Klakson. It felt exactly right to bring it back again so I informed some artists and they all felt the same way about starting again.

What was the last record you bought?

I had a bill over €400 at Hard Wax last week so it was slightly more than one actually – haha!

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Meat Free presents Steffi at Mantra Live, Manchester, 27 Nov – tickets here

Subculture presents Steffi + Telford at Sub Club, Glasgow, 28 Nov

The Hydra: Ostgut Ton Zehn at Studio Spaces E1, London, 12 Dec