Markus Eden has been involved in the music game for many years now, working across scenes as varied as hardcore, breakbeat, jungle, DnB, 2-step and house. With his latest release out now on Creche Records, we sat down to discuss musical beginnings, the new EP and his experience with club scenes across the world. 

Hello Markus and welcome to Music is 4 Lovers! How has your year been so far? 

I’m good! Hiding away in my studio as much as I can to escape the sweltering Cyprus summer heat when I’m not playing with my kids! 

You’ve been DJing for an impressive thirty or so years now. How did you first start out and what drew you to electronic music? 

I got into music from a younger age than usual as I have an older brother! Until I was about 14 it was things like Guns and Roses, Depeche Mode and The Cure. Cyprus having a UK army base near where I lived (Akrotiri) we could tune into BFBS radio – the British forces channel. They had a weekly show called the Steve Mason Experience which featured EDM in all its forms. I instantly gravitated towards what was then known as “Hardcore” while my brother was more into the Techno sound. We both started buying records by early 1992 and got a Technics deck each for Christmas 1993 which we put together in my room. From then on, every summer was used to travel to London to invest ALL of my pocket money in new tunes. Never looked back since!

You have a new EP, ‘Dub Siren’, coming out next month. What can you tell us about it? 

Well, the main track “Dub Siren” was actually a tune I made years ago! I run a party called LOST with my partner Peter Leontiadies here in Limassol and we booked Jordan Peak this June. Hearing him play reminded me that I still had this “banger” hidden somewhere in my library. I sent it to him, he liked it. Then I sent it to Alexis from Creche and he liked it too, so that was that. The other two tracks showcase what I do now. Artemis is very musical which I love as I’m a big hardware geek and it came together just by playing around with my synths. Long Distance on the other hand is a wink to the Italo house sound of the early 90’s, which I also really dig and which is back with a vengeance lately!

Are there any specific plugins or pieces of equipment that were vital for the record?

I use quite a varied palette of equipment to make music. Dub Siren was made using Sub Boom Bass and Massive plugin synths predominantly, as it’s a bassline track, while both Artemis and Long Distance were made using predominantly hardware synths, namely the Roland JU – 6A, the Korg Polysix, the Korg M1 and the Korg MicroKorg. For my bass sounds, I use Ableton’s Operator synth a lot – a fantastic plugin!! As far as audio effects go, I never really bought a lot of plugins for that as I’ve always used Ableton’s built-in plugins, which have improved vastly since I started making music in 2011. 

Creche Records is relatively new, having only just started this time last year. How did you get involved with the label for this release? 

Alexis Raphael, the owner of Creche and I go back a long way! Alexis is half-Cypriot and one of his best friends is the brother of one of my good friends from way back in the early 90’s. We knew each other fleetingly from then. We reconnected sometime around 2009 or 2010 when the whole UK Deep house sound was blowing up, which we both dug! Peter and I also started our LOST parties in 2012 and booked Alexis regularly from the get go! He must have played for us five or six times in the first couple of years!

In addition to that, Alex and I have very similar backgrounds musically. We both started off with Hardcore and Jungle, got into Garage and then moved on to House so we naturally like the same things! I had released a lot of music from 2011 to around 2015 and wasn’t really planning on getting back into putting out music, but the prospect of being part of something new with someone I rate so highly on all levels felt like the only way I’d want to do it again now!

What’s the electronic music scene like in Cyprus? How do you feel it compares to Frankfurt or Europe in general? 

Well, hailing from Germany originally and having spent a lot of time in Frankfurt in the mid-90s Cyprus obviously differs in many ways due to its size. However, I quite like the scene here for what it is. It’s more intimate, everyone knows each other, and I find not having 50 choices every weekend quite liberating! And the people who do run nights / clubs and bars here predominantly do it for the right reasons. I’ve also got into the “new Jungle” sound again lately and play a lot on the DnB scene here. It’s all really grass roots which is cool! Shouts out to Mr. Fox from Sousami and Vovo from DDC at this point! 

Are there any other artists, or DJs, from Cyprus that you think more people should listen to?

DJ-wise there is a few! I rate George D’Andre for his love of US Garage and quality House, Mr. Fox who also runs the best bar in Cyprus – Sousami, SixoneSix, Janis Plasmatik, our local Romanian INA and last but not least Aparapira Parape who are a young duo ripping it up locally right now! Production wise there’s a young guy called Peratikos who’s making some really good Techno right now! 

What track are you really feeling right now? 

Too many to mention! However, a few artists that I really dig right now are Munir Nadir, Rakim Under, Paolo Macri, Italojohnson, Guy Contact and Fantastic Man!

Finally, what can we expect from Markus Eden in the near future? 

I’m working on a follow-up EP for Creche as we speak! I might also be remixing one of Alexis Rachael’s tracks soon! Seeing as I have two kids – a nine and a three year old – and another one on the way (due in Feb) and a full time job my studio time is unfortunately quite limited! But I do my best!  

Thanks for the interview guys!

Markus Eden’s new EP ‘Dub Siren’ is out now on Creche Records – buy HERE.