Hans Nieswandt / Biography

Born in 1964 in a medium-sized industrial city in the northern south of Germany, Mannheim, Hans Nieswandt is a permanent, respected character in the world of DJ and club culture, of electronic music production and of quality music writing for more than 20 years. Extensive DJ and lecturing travels took him around the world. Solo and together with the group Whirlpool Productions, he produced seven albums and countless remixes. In 2002, his first book “plusminuseight – DJ days, DJ nights” was published at KiWi, Cologne; followed by “Disko Ramallah and other strange places to spin records at” (2006) and “DJ Dionysos – Stories From The Disco World” (2010). Since 2003, his weekly radio show “Plan B mit Hans Nieswandt” is broadcasted on main German station WDR 1Live. A man, who transmits on many channels...

The DJ: As soon as 13, 14 years old, Hans Nieswandt tried to take control of the sound system during school parties as well as of the music pages in the school paper. First payed for playing dance music in a public nightclub in 1983: early Rap, Dance and New Wave in the southern provinces of Germany. Moved to Hamburg in the mid 80s. Hit hard by Acid, Deep and Garage House in the late 80s, thus inspired to become a proper mix DJ. Since the early 90s Hans Nieswandt is traveling around with his record box, mainly playing his unique mix of Disco, House and Techno, but you can ask for special services ... such as late 60s Westcoast Baroque Pop.

The Producer: While always playing in Punk and artsy kind of New Wavy dancy pop groups as a teenager in the early 80s, Hans Nieswandt created his first successful project in the early 90s. With Eric D. Clark and Justus Köhncke, he founded Whirlpool Productions, eventually becoming (sur)real popstars in Italy in 1997 with their Number One Hit “From: Disco To Disco:”. After four albums, this project was put on ice in the year 2000. Besides, Hans Nieswandt released two solo albums, “Lazer Muzik” in 1999 and “The True Sound Center” in 2004 as well as numerous remixes for national and international artists from many fields. A collection of his remix work has been released in 2011 on Hamburg label Bureau B.

The author: After publishing a fanzine while going to school near Lake Constanze, Hans Nieswandt got his education as an editor and journalist in Hamburg, dropping his literature studies for a job at a city magazine, eventually becoming editor of the movie pages. Extensive freelance-writing for a lot of bigger and smaller German music and culture publications. Finally getting offered the dream job: editor at the most respected German music magazine SPEX in Cologne. Dropping the dream job after three years to focus on DJing and music production with Whirlpool. Less writing in the late 90s, but a book offer from honorable Cologne publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch. First book “plusminuseight – DJ Days, DJ Nights” is published in 2002 to great public and critical acclaim. One year later, the audio book version is released on Deutsche Grammophon, produced and read by the author. Two more books followed: “Disko Ramallah and other strange places to spin records at” (2006) and “DJ Dionysos – Stories From The Disco World” (2010). Hans Nieswandt is currently writing on his fourth book, his first novel.

The lecturer: Hans Nieswandt has been invited for guest lectures by academies, universities and institutions in Bonn, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Bochum, Osnabrück, Karlsruhe, Turin, Frankfurt etc., covering a wide range of topics from electronic music production, Djing, youth culture, fashion, politics, arts and social sciences. For the Goethe Institute, he travelled to Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, Siberia, Turkey and Italy, doing workshops and performances. He is also member of the board of consultants of this institution.