During the week Shir Khan is Exploited Records’ label manager, a radio host on the mighty Berlin Fritz Radio and a part-time blogger for Berlin Battery. During the weekend, he travels the globe alongside the usual suspects. Top 20 2008 on Fairtilizer and bonus interview on OUR BLOG.

Hi, can you introduce yourself to us?

Hello. My name is Jan Simon Spielberger. I come from Berlin and DJ under the name of Shir Khan. In 2007 I set up my own label EXPLOITED.

What’s up in Shir Khan’s world right now?

At the moment I am doing a weekly radio show at Radio Fritz. It is a 2 Hour Dj-Show with live guests from Whomadewho, to Housemeister or Mark Stewart. On the weekend I am mainly djing. During the week I take care of my label Exploited. I am also a part-time-blogger for the blog Berlin Battery which is a successful party series in Berlin. Furthermore, I am in the planning of a label-Dj-Mix-compilation with some exclusive tracks from Siriusmo, Lorenz Rhode, Adam Sky, Oliver$, Malente&Dex, Mowgli and many more – which should be ready at the end of summer. In February/March there will be a few Exploited gigs with me, Malente&Dex.

I am also doing a few remixes at the moment for Evil9 and Mexican Institute of Sound.

How would you define Exploited’s sound?

The sound of Exploited is a blend of many styles. There is no trademark sound – but the whole package – including the remixes and the artwork – has to be a nice joint venture:
Siriusmo – Modeselektor, Lorenz Rhode – Ben Mono, Adam Sky – Crookers, Malente&Dex – Bobmo, RQM – Oliver $…Exploited Records plays with a spectrum ranging from disco to rave, from elektro to hiphop. Visually – each 12“ is a sort of “best of pop“: Millie Jackson, Kim Wilde, Donna Summer, Nico, Grace Jones, Madonna – all of which get mixed up and marked with an Exploited seal of approval.

Actually, Exploited was nominated for “Best Art Vinyl 2008“ and was featured in exhibitions in London, Birmingham, Northampton and Norwich. We didnt win, but at least we were one of the 50 chosen artworks.

How do you see the future of records labels?

Actually, for me the record label is a bit like a hobby. I really don’t know how to make a label. But I also know that it can be a dangerous hobby. For me it is still important to put out good music from friends. I am very idealistic. As long as you love what you do you can’t be that wrong – even if you loose a bit of money.

Actually I do it like this: Make limited vinyl for the fans, get bonus tracks for the digital release, get exclusives for the blogs, watch your budget.

It’s probably quite useful to make your own parties (actually I have done so far only in Berlin), start booking your artists, start making remix managment for them and do a bit of merchandising. Well – I am working on it.

Actually, I still want to do vinyl and I am a bit bored with all these new digital labels who don’t want to take any risks.

How is the scene in Berlin?

The scene is very varied. There is a strong minimal and house-scene, there’s a lot of underground elektro-parties and there’s also a small disco scene. I really like Sirusmo and Oliver$. Both of them are very talented. They differ from each other but they have a very unique sound. I think they will have a strong future. Siriusmo did amazing remixes for David Rubato, Idiotproof and Housemeister. His sound is always groovy, funny – but at the same time intelligent – and very disco. There is no one that sounds like him. Oliver $ on the other hand is in between jackin house, stripped down Fidget sounds and techno. He is also one of a kind. Oliver $ is resident at Jesse Rose’s Made to Play-Night at Panoramabar. He is a good Dj and a dope producer. Both of them have done their contribution to Exploited Records – Oliver $ as a remixer and Siriusmo with his “Allthegirls“-Ep. And there will be also an upcoming 12“ from Oliver$ under his alias of Bassjunk which is a bit more Dubstep/Grime.

Siriusmo will contribute some new tracks to my upcoming labelcompilation and he will also release on Modeselektor’s new label. You should also check out Lorenz Rhode – he’s not from Berlin but from Düsseldorf. Though – if you love Siriusmo, you will like Lorenz Rhode. He is the new signing on the label and sounds like Herbie Hancock would have made a jam-session with Kraftwerk and Rick James.

Places you recommend to check in Berlin?

My favorite record store in Berlin is Oye Records. It’s just around the corner and they really take care of getting exclusive vinyls from all the small berlin labels. Also their selection is big and goes from Tropical to B-More, Mash-ups, Techno, Brazil, Disco to nearly everything you can imagine.

There is also Hardwax which is good for Techno and Dubstep and I also like Rotation Records for deeper stuff and Dense for the more experimental.

Clubs! Thank god we have WMF back! Best club for years….but I was away for far too long. WMF has the best soundsystem, a dope venue, quality booking and a cool crowd. It just reopened. Also I like to hang out at Picknick, Cookies, Scala and sometimes Villa. There’s plenty more. For afterhours I reccommend Zur Wilden Renate, Golden Gate and sometimes Panoramabar.

My favourite Bars to start a night are Wohnzimmerbar and Klub der Republik in Prenzlauer Berg and 1000Bar in Mitte. The thing I like the most is to cruise through the city with my bicycle. In the summer I really love to cruise near the area of Wannsee close to Pfaueninsel and I also love to ride through Tegeler Fließ…in that area Berlin feels like a little village.

How important is the internet for you and where do you see it going?

The internet is the main distributor of every idea you have right now. In the future there will be huge storage systems where you can store probably your whole life.

It’s all about sharing, exchanging and trading. I really dont know if thats a good or a bad thing. But the future is definetely about getting everything for free.

As an label manager, producer and dj, what kind of services do you expect from the internet?

Probably Fairtilizer is a good example: giving labels and artists the chance to spread your music on a healthy platform. Whether thats meant as a promotion tool for Djs or Media, or as a Stream or Download-Service just to get known. I think it’s about supplying as many services as possible at once on one platform – for labels and for artists.

Blogs are still very important for Musicians to get attention and known. I think a lot of artists who weren’t so known and got a lot of blog love, probably got a few bookings only of this. On the other hand, there is just too much crap out in blogs which gets a lot of hype. It is not so easy to filter what’s hot and what’s not. Seems like there is more music than ever before. But it got way harder to find the really good stuff. Too much shit gets a lot of hype. I think it got quite hard to filter but it is hard to tell which blogs to read. Really there is probably only a few blogs I really read and think who are important…Print media is not of big importance anymore. Therefore, I think it is good to promote music in blogs. But with blogs it can be also sometimes complicated…it is kind of a love/hate-thing cause too much shit gets the same hype.

What was you best night out so far, and what would be your dream team line up be?

We had a few good parties I did in cooperation with my blog Berlin Battery.

The Exploited/Berlin Battery-Night together with the label Moshi Moshi was a blast! Well – and there have been plenty of others. For the latest parties you should check out our blog: http://berlinbattery.blogspot.com

The next party will be with Metronomy and Lorenz Rhode. Word!

My Dream Team?

This would be probably a big list of artists who have influenced me.

It would probably become a big festival:)

Any tasty joke to end?

Don’t sweat the technique!

Do not forget to check the Berlin Battery and download the free compilation here!

More here:

Visit Exploited Fairtilizer profile
Visit Exploited website
Visit Shir Khan myspace

Visit Berlin Battery website
Visit Fritz Radio website
Visit Art Vinyl website