Advice for band moving to Berlin.

TheGoodSoldier

Hi Everybody,

Not sure if anybody here can help me on this one but my band are moving from Ireland to Berlin next year and are looking for some advice on finding suitable gig venues for our style of music. We are called Toy Soldier and our sound is a hybrid on Electronica, Rock and Pop. Our sound takes influence from the likes of Depeche Mode, Garbage, Blondie and Nine Inch Nails.

I have recently returned from a 4 day reconnaissance trip to Berlin where I had a chance to get a taste for the live music scene over there. I met with quite a few Berlin based musicians, all of whom painted a very positive picture of the city as a whole. Indeed only after this, my second visit, I can really see how people fall in love with the way of life there.

One thing that became obvious to me from the outset was that the cities musical interests are predominantly divided between Techno and Hardcore/Punk. Almost all of the venues and clubs I checked out catered solely for these styles. Another notable point was that there seems to be a lack of 150-200 capacity venues in the city. Almost all of the live music venues I checked out are 400+ capacity which for a band starting at a grass roots level is too big.

So my question is; can anybody offer advice on particular venues or other non-traditional performance opportunities which would be suitable for an Electropop band like Toy Soldier?

We are going to Berlin at the end of October (2014) for the first of a number of 5 day trips, all with the intention of building a contact base before we make our full time move next year. To widen the prospects of booking some shows for this trip, as well as Berlin, we are also going to look at venues in Leipzig as I believe it is a culturally burgeoning city which is a manageable 2 hour drive from Berlin.

We have chosen Berlin as our destination as not only is it the epicentre of electronic music but also a massive music industry hub. Any advice on the topic will be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Cian
(Toy Soldier)

seachto7

Would it not be better to move to London? Nothing wrong with Berlin, but I would have thought London was where it was at in terms of the European music industry. No doubt it would be cheaper to live in Berlin, and Germany itself is a huge market. Enjoy!

TheGoodSoldier

Hi seachto7, yes for sure all the majors have offices in London, and indeed our law firm are based there too, but the majors are also based in Berlin and in quite a number of cases, like Sony/BMG for example, have there head office in Berlin. This makes sense I guess considering that Germany is the 3rd biggest market for music in the world (behind the USA and Japan). We often play showcases in London and the place offers huge opportunity for any band but all things considered we feel that Berlin is a better base for our band. Thanks for the reply!

seachto7

It's a darn cool city, that's for sure.

EvanKelly

Leipzig is quite a hot spot for hardcore/punk. Massive brand Impericon based out of there and has their own festival in the place every year. Just to keep that in mind. Berlin is where it's at.