mariephi.
Finding the next track.
mariephi on warm closing tracks, back-to-back sets as table tennis and sensing a room as it slowly fills.
In conversation with mariephi
A record can accompany the journey home or open up an hours-long conversation at the decks. For mariephi, the appeal lies in the moment: when a familiar house track feels different after a long night, when a back-to-back partner offers an unexpected reply, or when an empty room gradually fills. The Vienna DJ and designer talks about the music that finds its way into her record bag, and how close listening can also become the starting point for a visual idea.
Marie Riedl DJs as mariephi and works as a designer, including on graphics for events and vinyl releases. In this conversation, she takes us from a Soul Capsule record through shared sessions and a long warm-up at PRST to her work for Rhythm Science. Five questions by email, lightly edited and translated from German.
A track for the journey home.
Which record or track has stayed with you recently so strongly that you had to find a place for it in a set? What drew you in, and how do you find the right moment for it?
During my last vinyl purchase on Discogs, I came across a real classic again in a seller’s stock: Soul Capsule’s Overcome EP. The 1999 record goes for a good 200 euros there. Luckily, though, there’s a 2022 repress. An emotional track like “Lady Science” is perfect for a closing set, so it went straight into the bag for my last afterhours set.
The soft, warm sounds, the simple vocals: instant goosebumps. Especially when you’ve been dancing all night, that’s something you’re happy to go home to. Being able to hear this track on a good sound system and look at people’s faces as they completely surrender to the music, listening with their eyes closed: that’s worth getting up at eight in the morning to play an afterhours set.
One record answers another.
You’ve spoken about lots of spontaneous back-to-back sessions. How can you tell that you understand each other musically when you play together? Can you recall a moment when someone played something that gave you a good new idea?
The spontaneous back-to-backs usually happen in a relaxed, personal setting at home. I’ll often try out tracks I’ve just bought and haven’t even heard loud myself yet. You exchange ideas, quite often take a photo of a record label, or send each other music afterwards that you think the other person might like.
There’s nothing at stake. You can be brave without the pressure of having to get a room dancing. There’s room for the slightly odd, quirky or minimalist sounds here, too.
It’s like table tennis: you send the ball across to the other side and wait for the reply. With the right people, that’s a game that can go on for hours.
It’s like table tennis: you send the ball across to the other side and wait for the reply.
Time to build a story.
You wrote warmly about your three-and-a-half-hour warm-up before Narciss at PRST. How do you build tension over such a long stretch without giving everything away too early? Was there a decision that evening that you felt particularly pleased with afterwards?
When you haven’t been behind the decks for very long, you naturally get booked for a lot of warm-ups. But I think the role is especially important, because you’re guiding people into the room and setting the mood for the evening. At PRST, the warm-up slot is deliberately scheduled from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., so there’s time to build a little story. A good sense of empathy helps here.
There’s little point in firing off everything you have right at the beginning, because then there’s no way left to build tension. Banger after banger gets boring in the long run, too. And there still needs to be room for the main act to develop things.
That evening, I started very, very slowly and gently. It was a hot summer evening, so people arrived later. When the room suddenly fills up quickly, you can follow the crowd’s mood. By 2:30 a.m., of course, relaxed deep house alone is no longer enough, and what was planned as a warm-up becomes a seamless transition towards the peak of the night.
Hearing music, finding images.
You also design graphics for events and vinyl releases. When you translate a musical project into visuals, where do you begin? Is there a particular piece of work where listening and designing influenced each other especially strongly?
I already enjoyed bringing design and music together when I was studying. For a university project on personal branding, I made a kind of analogue blog: a collection of personal drawings and photographs, with a separate soundtrack for each section. I still enjoy listening to many of those tracks while I work.
When I work on graphic design for a record label today, I start by listening to the music over and over and writing down the associations it brings to mind. That’s also how the Phonk EP by Michael Wagner for Rhythm Science came about a few months ago. Together with the artist, we went through my proposals and considered which design best represented the music visually while also fitting into the series of other Rhythm Science releases.
My dream is to design my own artwork for a release of my own one day, but for now that is still, quite literally, music of the future.
What makes a place.
You enjoy being on the dancefloor yourself and play at very different nights around Vienna. Which encounter or place has recently opened up something new for you musically, and what has found its way into your own sets?
Even before I started DJing, music was always my driving force for going out. If the music is right for me, I don’t need much else. Of course, it’s lovely when people create places that have a little magic beyond the dancefloor, too. Small collectives’ festivals and open-airs are particularly good at this: decorating with care, or using excellent awareness concepts to help FLINTA* people feel safe and enjoy themselves at ease.
One of those places for me was Wirtshaus zum Dritten Tage (Club Galerie) in Nickelsdorf, where I got to play the warm-up with Lisstn at the beginning of September. Everything came together: the organisation, including a shuttle from Vienna, a special location with great sound, and lovely people on both sides of the decks.
My musical highlight was Sibil, who had already enchanted us with her varied closing set at PRST in June. Her sets are always a surprise: you wait, track by track, to hear what comes next, and you’re never disappointed.
mariephi
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Bild bereitgestellt von mariephi · SCENE:ID Farbgestaltung · VictoriaV · SCENE:ID Farbgestaltung