"The weather is much better," he tells New Times over Zoom. "We're hanging all day by the pool."
For Brejcha, being away from his home in Frankfurt was a regular occurrence. If there was a major dance-music festival somewhere, there's a good chance he was booked to play it. Never mind the endless club gigs that probably had him racking up more frequent flyer miles than he knew what to do with.
Then came 2020, and everything screeched to a halt. No club or festival gigs, something that for DJs like Brejcha has become an essential part of their careers. Few DJs and producers can make enough money solely through productions.
Still, Brejcha took the pandemic as an opportunity to relax and enjoy the slower pace.
"Twenty-nineteen was like super packed with gigs, and every year [I plan] on taking my holidays between December and April," he notes. "So I was on holiday when the coronavirus [started] in 2020. It was the first time in my life that I was able to sit the whole summer in my house and garden and just do nothing. I had time for my girlfriend and for family, and, of course, I had time to make new tracks. For me, it was perfect."
That doesn't mean Brejcha didn't miss his connection with audiences in a live setting. While all music benefits from a social setting, dance music perhaps is more intertwined with public spaces than most genres. The act of dancing itself is communal. Sure, you can dance at home, but half the fun is feeding off the energy of those around you.
The same is true for DJs. Any astute producer knows that once you're behind the decks, you are in control, not only of the sound terminating from the speakers but of the crowd. A good DJ set has hills and valleys that take the crowd on a journey."It was the first time in my life that I was able to sit the whole summer in my house and garden and just do nothing."
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"DJs nowadays are like entertainers as well, so the people are looking to the front to the DJ at what he's going to do," Brejcha says.
There's a widespread misunderstanding that all a DJ does is push buttons. While there is some preprogramming, especially in a music-festival setting, there's more to it than just twisting a knob and throwing one's hands up in the air.
"For me, I'm sitting from Monday to Thursday in the studio to produce new tracks and new content for my shows, because I play only my own music," Brejcha explains. "It's hard to impress myself and impress the people with new tracks, and I'm going to mix these tracks on stage."
That dedication to putting on a good show has perhaps finally led Ultra Music Festival to give Brejcha and his label, Fcking Serious, a stage at this year's event. It also, surprisingly, marks Brejcha's debut at Ultra — something that is utterly dumbfounding considering his stature in the industry.
He laughs when asked what took him so long to make his Ultra debut.
"I don't know, man," he quips.
The festival will return to Bayfront Park on March 25-27 at Bayfront Park, and it marks Ultra's first event since 2019's venture in Virginia Key, which was plagued with logistical issues. (Getting more than 50,000 people in and out Virginia Key solely via the Rickenbaker Causeway was destined to run into snags.)
Brejcha's debut comes on Friday, March 25, at the Cove stage, which is part of Ultra's Resistance festival-within-a-festival concept, along with fellow Fcking Serious acts Ann Clue, Moritz Hofbauer, and Deniz Bul. Brejcha will headline with a three-hour set.
"I would be happy if just me would be played there with all the other headliners," Brejcha says of the opportunity Ultra has given him. "It's super-massive for us that we can bring our Fcking Serious team to Ultra. Everybody understands that we love each other and work super-nice together, and the music is fitting as well. We just want to show the people that."
The German producer has played in Miami before, most recently at Club Space in 2021, but this will mark his largest performance for an American audience to date, a milestone he's still in awe of.
"It's a super-big festival, and people are coming from all over the world," he marvels. "It's crazy, man."
Brejcha admits he was nervous during lockdown that the pandemic would curb the public's appetite for in-person events."I was telling [my girlfriend], 'Maybe when corona is over, nobody wants to party anymore.'"
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"I was telling [my girlfriend], 'Maybe when corona is over, nobody wants to party anymore — I mean, if you live life without partying for two years, why should you go back to partying?'"
Of course, his fears were unfounded, and he's been pretty busy since venues started slowly opening back up last year. Even Ultra, which encountered pushback from ticketholders for withholding refunds for the canceled 2020 event, has sold out this year's festival.
"I learned that the people are really into partying," Brejcha says in retrospect. "They love that we're coming back to make parties."
In case you need to get into that party mood, Brejcha released Space Diver, his first album for Ultra Records (no relation to the festival) in 2020 and quickly followed that up with Never Stop Dancing in 2021. Both feature the producer's signature tech-house style, making him a favorite with dance-music fans.
But also make sure to cock your ear in the direction of the stage during Brejcha's set, as there's always the possibility you might hear something that's not yet ready for primetime.
"Every time when I'm on stage, I'm going to play a lot of tracks which are not released, that's for sure," he confirms. "All of our artists are playing only their own music, so when the people come to our stage, they can be sure that they're going to hear a lot of music they never heard before."
You've been warned.
Boris Brejcha at Ultra Music Festival. Friday, March 25, at Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; ultramusicfestival.com. Sold out.
