It was Paul’s most musical and mature album to date, although still taking cues from the dancefloor and rave culture, offering a first glimpse of what was yet to come. His melodic sound, with its affinity for grand emotional gestures, obeyed the logic of the dancefloor, but Self introduced a narrative aesthetic, serving as a soundtrack to a film that didn’t exist (at least, not yet…). Paul’s third album Self (2004) would mark the beginning of a new era. The Lufthansa fetishist had now become a frequent flyer. Interviews in respected German magazines like Spex and De:Bug paved the way for regular international bookings. A series of further singles and two full-lengths (Superimpose and Time) followed, plus continuous live performances that threatened to shatter the grid of his calendar.,Together with Paul Kalkbrenner, BPitch Control gained a strong momentum. His first tracks were released in 1999 on Berlin-based BPitch Control (the newly founded label from Ellen Allien) as the Friedrichshain EP, titled after his home district in the city’s east. By this point Paul had already decided that he did not want to be a typical DJ playing other people’s records, but rather to play only his own music, live in a club setting. A job as TV editor got him through the mid-90s and financed his first music gear. Eventually, in one of many long and sleepless nights on the dancefloors of E-Werk, Planet and Whale, the dream was born to make music himself, and anything less important would be put aside. The early 90s were formative years for a young Paul Kalkbrenner as well. The eastern part of the city became the anarchic, creative playground for a euphoric youth, now freed from bureaucracy. The soundtrack of his youth, and of the majority of his generation, was still in its infancy, awaiting its breakthrough: techno music.,The fall of the wall meant reunification, but above all, a sense of no holds barred. As of 2010, Paul Kalkbrenner has tallied up more than 15 years of experience as a producer and live act, all the while learning what it means to go purposefully from one step to the next. Even though reality shows have been trying to prove otherwise, a successful career as a musician, even as a pop star, cannot be forced with a pre-packaged crash course.
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