Hamburg is well known for its vital and creative music scene, and a wide variety of artists, clubs and musical venues that emerged in the 1950's, where many international music artists (The Beatles, Rod Stewart, Al Jarreau, The Monks, Chet Baker, Joe Cocker, etc) started their carriers in the world of music. Stefan's musical journey began early on in life and at the age of twelve he stepped into a local record-store, where he purchased his first 12-inch vinyl, titled "touch too much" by AC/DC. Funk & Soul music hit the most responsive chord within...now Stefan was on the mission to get his hand on any and every album that had contributed and left an impact on this type of music. Being completely taken by "the magic of the vinyl" he quickly turned into a passionate and obsessed record-collector. Stefan and his friends started to visit record-auctions, swap-meets and yard-sales, to dig through the crates of used records searching for any kind of rarity in Jazz, Funk & Soul. Suddenly realizing that he had turned into a "vinyl-junkie," developing an addiction to Funk & Soul music in no time, Stefan happened to meet Lutz Gehrke, owner of "Starpoint Records" in Hamburg. A connection for life!!! Source of Stefan's daily needs, and where he soon became Gehrke's first employee and record-dealer. One day when visiting a professional DJ-friend he learned how a professional DJ is really set-up, and for the first time and started to imagine the endless opportunities of two flats and a mixing-console! Within a year he was able to afford a decent mixer and two unit's of the turntable SL-1200/MK2 by Technics, widely regarded as one of the most durable and reliable turntables ever. Still to date the "workhorse" of the industry, ...also referred to as "1200", "Tee 12's", "Technics", "Tec 12", "wheels of steel" and "ones and twos" (if you didn’t know, there is a model of the MK2 in the Science Museum in London as one of the pieces of technology that has shaped the world we live in) Inspired by New York's Kiss FM DJ's such as Chuck Letter and others, Stefan started to create his own mixing-tapes, which he exchanged with friends and music lovers, who also shared the very same passion and taste in music. These "Schoenewerke Tapes" soon became hot-ticket-items quickly and eventually brought in his first gig as a DJ, with many more to come!

In the late 80’s Stefan upgraded his equipment with a sampler "Roland S50" and a "Yamaha SY85" synthesizer, plus an "Atari 1040ST," one of the first Cubase versions for Atari. He started to compose his own musical ideas as well as collaborations with musician-pal's and friends. From the year of 2005 forward the "Ableton Live" software represents the spinal-column of all productions coming out of Schoenewerke Studio.

He experimented with more progressive sounds and rhythms, such as Techno and House music and at that point MELLOWTRON was born. Stylistically influenced by Jazz, Funk, Soul, Rap, Hip-Hop and House music he developed more of an interest for the world of electronic sounds and music. Stefan liked to keep his mind open and always tried to stay away from being categorized in genres.

Later on he stated: "I always thought that music had no boundaries, no limits to where it could grow and go, no restrictions on its creativity. Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.And I hated categories. Always thought it had no place in music."

Nowadays Stefan is mixing along the lines of Soulful House all the way to Psy-Trance,. When he is touring and contracted as a laptop-DJ, he mainly works with "Traktor Pro."

You will be surprised when you find out that Stefan's right arm is partially paralyzed, especially when you see his performances in clubland or listen to one of his many CD-releases.He masters the given challenges of a turntable-technician easily with one arm, where most DJ's need at least two arms to work with. If you ask Stefan about his musical ambition he humbly states:

"I believe that if I would not have to put up with this handicap, I would be a piano or guitar player. I always had the strong desire to play a real instrument. Fortunately I am able to compensate this by taking full advantage of what modern DJ-technology has to offer. DJ-ing is my way of bringing the music I love and adore to the people and audiences of the dance-floor across Europe. Indeed, the separation between all of us can be rendered non-existent by music. There is only one of us and that's the final magic of music! Music has always found its way to us. It has always found me, and with God's blessing and permission, it always will."

copyright 2010, bobolito 4 b-muzique