We managed to catch up with another electronic dance music legend Jam El Mar before he heads over to Frankfurt on October the 6th to step behind the decks of the legendary Technoclub...

Rolf Ellmer, also known by the names Jam El Mar and Trancy Spacer, is a classically trained musician and composer (concert-guitarist) and has become one of Germany's most known house and trance producers.

Together with Markus Löffel (alias Mark Spoon), also from the German music scene, he has recorded under several monikers such as Jam & Spoon, Tokyo Ghetto Pussy and Storm. He was also a member of the group Dance 2 Trance, along with Dag Lerner (alias DJ Dag), which had success all over the world and is said to be among the pioneers of trance music.

Jam El Mar will be joining JamX and the founder of Technoclub Talla 2XLC this Saturday to celebrate 32 years in the business for the German trance legend. We've already had the pleasure of JamX and now its Jam El Mar's turn for an i:Vibes interrogation.

i:Vibes: Jam thanks for taking some time to talk to ivibes.nu. Where are you at the moment and how has your summer been?

Jam El Mar: At the moment I am in the studio. I had a nice summer. I had some small gigs. I also played for the second time at Nature One. My set for the Technoclub will be a little different than my Nature One set. I use Abelton Live, have a very small keyboard, the Nano-Keys and guitar and will make sure to make some noise.

i:Vibes: You have been a producer for 23 years now. A man that was seen as a studio rat, you were seldom in the clubs, but recently have begun to DJ. What has moved you to go this direction so late?

Jam El Mar: I was able to test a Traktor-S4 at my first gig at Nature One last year. I saw that I could play one part live and one part a DJ set and this just made a lot of fun. I finally saw how much fun it is to DJ. I am sad that I didn’t start earlier. If I make remixes now, than I make more DJ friendly mixes - the old tracks are just hard to mix.

i:Vibes: You recently played your second time at Nature One. What kind of experience was that for you?

Jam El Mar: It was a great experience. It is a big festival and not everyone is able to play at a gig like that. It is just huge to be able to be a part of this. I like how the Nature One facility is set up.

i:Vibes: When you are playing records, have you been able to take some of the influences from your long time friend Mark Spoon or have you based your DJ act from other influences?

Jam El Mar: Both. I worked very long with Mark Spoon. Often I think how Mark would have done it as DJ. There is so much good music that you can be influenced by so much. Often when I hear a break or groove I like, I try to do it like that in my DJ set. For my DJ’in I am influenced by artists like Sandwell District, Nicolas Jaar, Mike Wall and others from Berlin, Louis Flores from Mexico who does techno music, but is so musical, or Dixon from the Robert Johnson group. His sets are always mixed so well.

i:Vibes: Now when you are DJ’in at a gig like Nature One, you are confronted with many people. What is the most usual question that people ask you now?

Jam El Mar: People don’t really ask me so many things, but it is more what I hear from them concerning my music which makes me happy. Often I hear people say that they came to the electronic music because of my tracks or that my music has inspired them so much. Hearing these types of compliments make me very happy.

i:Vibes: What is the hardest thing for you when preparing a classic DJ set? There are so many classic tracks, but so little time to play all of them.

Jam El Mar: When I prepare a classic set, I go by what I remember hearing in the Dorian Gray from DJs like DJ Dag or Sven Vath. Those guys inspire me. I found many of the old tracks that they played back in the day on MP3. I use them in my track list and digitalize them. There were so many great tracks then. Now there is so much music a lot more now than back in the day.

i:Vibes: You will be playing at Technoclub on October 6th. How excited are you about playing in this legendary club?

Jam El Mar: I am very excited, but at the same time also nervous. I just hope when I start that the sound comes out right and there are no technical problems. You never know what can go wrong. I was never your typical Techno club listener, but I am very thankful for Talla. He released our first track “We came in peace” from Dance 2 Trance. Nobody wanted it, but Talla released it on Suck me Plasma. This really got my career going. Talla was an important milestone in my career.

i:Vibes: Were you surprised that Talla 2XLC asked you to play in his club? If I recall right, there was some rift with him dating back to 2000 in a Raveline interview concerning Storm?

Jam El Mar: I don’t remember having a problem with Talla. We never had problems. However Mark Spoon had problems at times with people so maybe he did?

i:Vibes: Talla 2XLC and yourself have been an important part for the Sound of Frankfurt. When was the first time that you too crossed paths?

Jam El Mar: I remember it well. It was in 1991 in his old office in Bad Homburg. It was concerning the release of Dance 2 Trance “We came in peace”. I remember getting an advance payment which was more typical then than it is now.

i:Vibes: How important has Talla 2XLC been for the EDM scene? What do you respect most about him?

Jam El Mar: Talla 2XLC has been very important. He influenced many people back in the day. I remember back in the 80s, he already had good contacts to Belgium and was releasing music. When I came onto the scene, he was already established. I respect him very much.

i:Vibes: What is your favourite Talla 2XLC track?

Jam El Mar: I don’t remember the name but I think it was a 1988 release from Talla. Oh wait; I loved Moskva-TV, "Generator 78"!

i:Vibes: How would a Talla 2XLC track/Jam El Mar track sound like?

Jam El Mar: I have no idea. I think we would both put a good mix into the music. It would be a great experience if we would be in the studio.

i:Vibes: What can we await from your DJ set at Technoclub?

Jam El Mar: I will play old material from Jam & Spoon as well as exclusive new mixes from Jam & Spoon tracks. I will play a more techno mix for Right in the night, Stella, Hello San Francisco, 3 new mixes of the latest Follow Me Remix-project and the closer will be the age of love

i:Vibes: In the last years, you produced music for ex Tommy Lee wife Ursula Karven and made music with Sonic. You haven’t been producing dance music as much as before. Are you fed up in general with the music or will you be producing music like this again in the future?

Jam El Mar: I am working on something now, but it is still top secret. The track has been played by DJ’s, but it doesn’t have my name on it. I think that you get labelled as an artist at times. I want to stay in back round and I want my music to find its own way without people labelling me. So many times, people hear a track and see my name on it and think the sound is weird. I want my music in the future to be established without people knowing right away it is me. Sooner or later they will know its from me.

i:Vibes: Will new Jam & Spoon remixes be released soon?

Jam El Mar: We will release new mixes of Right in the night. We will make new sounds for the track. How it will sound we will see. I remember Pascal Feos telling me in 1999 that he was going to produce something with you, but instead a short track with Mark Spoon came on the Resistance D album.

i:Vibes: With what Frankfurt producer would you still like to make a track with?

Jam El Mar: That is a difficult question. I respect so many artists I would like to make something with Roman Flügel from Alter Ego. It would be an interesting mix.

i:Vibes: If you sitting at café del mar on Ibiza, which Jam & Spoon track would you like to hear most when watching that sunset?

Jam El Mar: I would like to listen to the Jam & Spoon track Hispanos in space. Back in the day, we liked to make bonus tracks. We liked making ambient tracks from time to time as was evident on the 1993 album Tripomatic Fairy tales 2002. We were able to experiment a bit with the ambient tracks. When we produced Hispanos in space we imagined being on a beach and listening to a flamenco track and that is how we came to make that track.

i:Vibes: What music acts do you like to listen today and can you get inspirations from then?

Jam El Mar: I don’t really listen to so much commercial things today, but more over ground music. I really like Skrillex. He goes a very interesting way and very extreme. I can’t listen more than 10 minutes to him, lol. I also like Zedd who is from Kasierslautern and unknown in Germany but a superstar in Asia. He plays big raves there. This type of music isn’t all always my taste, but I like how he makes the music.

i:Vibes: What would be the first thing Mark Spoon would tell you from heaven after hearing one of your DJ sets today?

Jam El Mar: Mark would say Piss off and go back to the studio. I think that he would make a joke because I am using a controller for mixing and no vinyl, but in the end he would appreciate and like it. I think Mark would tell me first to learn how to mix the old way. Being able to mix to records together is an art. Ti me it doesn’t really matter how a DJ mixes two records together vinyl, cd or mp3. The result counts. It just matters that good music is being played no matter how it is mixed technically.

i:Vibes: When looking back at your career, what is something that you would have liked to have experienced but couldn’t?

Jam El Mar: I am happy how my career has gone. However the only thing that I regret is that we didn’t make more Jam & Spoon tracks. We were lazy at times when we should have been more in the studio. I think that we could of made more beautiful music together.

i:Vibes: What’s your favourite jam & spoon track and why?

Jam El Mar: That is also a hard question, but I think it is Be Angeled. This is a track that I can always hear again. I remember making so many tracks in the past once they were done; I never listened to them again. I never get tired of listening to this track

i:Vibes: You were a big Formula One fan in the 90s. I remember you giving greetings to Michael Schumacher and Aryton Senna on your records. Will Sebastian Vettel break the Formula One season titles of 7 by Michael Schumacher?

Jam El Mar: In theory it is possible. I raced cart in the 90s. I don´t do it anymore. I had more excitement for Formula One in the past. The Formula One field is so good now and the cars are even better from their performance. It would be difficult for Vettel to do this, but it’s possible.

Thanks Jam for the chat!