Dj Joyrider

founder and head of "Mental Arts"

DJ Joyrider has a mission, and his driving force is curiosity.

It all began in 1985 with a three-year stint at the Roxy in Cologne, one of the few clubs in the city that held a nighttime license at the time, where he spun records three full nights a week. What began with blues, heavy rock and indie rock evolved into avant-garde pop, punk and '80s dance music, and continued through his collaboration with DJ Honesty in the late '80s and early '90s, incorporating soul, funk, hip-hop, breakbeats, Detroit techno and progressive house. Together they founded the Freestyle (Telefunken) Soundsystem in 1990 and began organizing their own parties at the M20 in Cologne, then took on a residency at the Sixpack, where their musical focus steadily and purposefully shifted toward more danceable styles.

In the early '90s the underground dance movement took off, and he DJed at a series of warehouse parties at the D-Base on Hönningerweg. That led to advanced guerrilla partying: old fortresses around Cologne, spaces under highway bridges, early outdoor adventures, and gigs at the infamous Sweatbox, where he performed for the first time under the stage name "Andrenalin". The name caused trouble almost immediately. A DJ from Wiesbaden was already using it – he now works as André Galluzzi – and starting in 1993 a house DJ from Düsseldorf named Andrynalin caused a second conflict. Legal action failed on the grounds that the names were merely similar. It was also in Wiesbaden that he played his first truly major gig, a legendary night at the Schlachthof in front of 3,500 ravers.

In 1993 he began working as a tea boy at Metra Studios in Cologne and, at the same time, organized several events with more than 1,500 attendees at the Farinafabrik. That same year he encountered the North German psytrance scene at VOOV – an experience that irrevocably changed his perspective on music and gave him the greater vision and what would later become his musical calling. In the fall of 1993 he helped organize the first psytrance-party in Cologne, once again at the Farinafabrik, together with the "Family of Love" crew from Göttingen: Dj Marcus, Dj Mahasuka, Dj Bimmel and Dr.DNA, who later became known as "Der Dritte Raum".

In early 1994 he made his first appearance at Club 42d.p in Cologne, where he was immediately offered the residency for the saturday-morning afterhour, known as "Morgenandacht" – a role he held for the next 4 years. Together with Ralf Henninger from Metra Studios he founded the Label Polytox Rec. and worked there as A&R Manager. He also founded the ELIXIER culture-club, which organized the very first Open-Air on the Herkulesberg in Cologne; partys outside the city followed with increasing regularity. His residency at 42d.p and the founding of ELIXIER laid the foundation for the psytrance scene in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia and beyond.

In 1995 he compiled the groundbreaking CD-Sampler "Heavy Mental Music" on Polytox Rec. and traveled to London to secure the rights to the tracks directly from Tsuyoshi Suzuki. With ELIXIER he organized big partys at the Kantine in Cologne, made first contact to the Freeform Booking-Agency, and had gigs in whole Germany with residencys at the Natraj-Temple in Munich and "Club Shambala" in Vienna. From 1996 on he was listed as a Free Form artist himself – his earliest documented appearance under that banner being the 38-hour open air "Maitreja" in Fehrbellin, 31. August 1996, alongside Cosmix, Mahasukha and Nartak. The '90s were a whirlwind: countless partys at the Sauerland clubs Tara, Cult, Zero and Grube, in the Ruhrpot and in Hanover – though the legendary "Club Tara" left the strongest recollections. When the MMS-distribution went bankrupt in 1996, Polytox Rec. went under with them, and he took over the sunday-evening in the Club 42d.p, where he established his own weekly night "Rise & Shine – Andrenalin & Guests", billed as "Psychedelic Techno & Spiritual Trance", with guests such as Dj Pushava (Spirit Zone).

In 1997, together with the "N-Factor" producer Xanu and the guitarist Maurice Larin, he founded the project "Sharas", which later had a release on Flying Rhino Rec. With the huge Freeform Open-Airs "Lovefield", "Matreja" and "Two Moons" he established a steady presence in north-germany, and got invited to play at the "Total Eclipse Party" in Venezuela (12.-21. February 1998, timed around the total solar eclipse), where he stayed for three months with lots of gigs all around the country.

In 1998 he dropped his residency in the Club 42d.p after four years, but was still partying every weekend. That same year he started the weekly "Spiritual Warrior – Sunday Trance Dance" at the KITT-Club in Cologne, running as "Dj Andrenalin & Friends" and promoted under the name Mental Arts Production – four years before the label of the same name was formally founded. An invitation to Brasil led to parties in Sao Paulo's "Club Lov-E" and with the Daime-Tribe in Bahia.

In 1999-2000 he started being more selective on his bookings due to occupational retraining, but played Free Form's "Paradise 2000" at the Kulturbahnhof Hamburg-Altona – three days, three floors into the new millennium – and the "Lovefield"-Festival with 4000 guests, where he was billed in the DJ line-up next to Raja Ram (Shpongle, Tip World) and Bigga Bush. His name-changing to the artist's name "Joyrider" happened in the first half of 2000 – the flyers of the time list him as "Joyrider (f.k.a. Andrenalin)" – and received a lot of attention. His project "Funky B.O.T." was released on Freeform Rec.

On "Silvester Paradise 2001" he rocked Hamburg again and later was involved with the Spacebus-Crew for two massive underground-events at the squatted Kolb-Halle in Cologne – one on Carneval and one on 1. May. He had a stealth-appearance at the "Antaris"-Festival and produced new trax with "Funky B.O.T."

In 2002 the final foundation of Mental Arts is set. He plays and produces together with Dj Puls as project "Lovecraft" and the two become regulars at the Soma-Festival, Cologne's Summer of Music & Arts in the Jugendpark – a festival drawing more than 15,000 visitors, whose line-ups over those years also featured The KLF, Ricardo Villalobos, Dj Koze, Miss Kittin and Roman Flügel. He played there in 2002, 2004 and 2006, the latter with a sunrise slot and half the Mental Arts roster. He hosts the beautyful "Circle of Light" parties at the Casino Garden/Cologne and engages into the election campaign through the Zerstoiber-Party.

While he was working to get this label running, in 2003 he got contact with the Sonics-Cybertribe, that intensivied his political-avareness and let to his involvement with the organisation of the Hanfdemo in Cologne. He participated at the "Chaos Comunication Camp" of the CCC and played a set for their camp- Radio Subether that can partly be heared here. He'd been writing reviews for the german V.I.B.E.Z-Magazin and organised the legendary Inner-Circle Partys. Mental Arts also helped two artists achieve their breakthrough: Neelix released his debut album on the label in 2003, and Necmi released his first record.

As A&R he also curated the label's own compilation series: "Uplifter Session - Mental Arts Compilation Vol. 1" (MA005, 2003), eight exclusive unreleased tracks assembled as one continuous journey rather than a mix, and "Uplifter Vol. 2" (MA008, 2004), featuring Klopfgeister, Oszilla, Audiomatrixx and two more Neelix trax. Both were compiled by DJ Joyrider and are still traded and reviewed today – one collector calling them "an absolute bomb" and placing both in his personal top 20 psytrance albums. The Uplifter name carried over to a party series of the same title at the Mütze in Cologne.

Starting in 2005 he took on the role of event organizer in earnest. Under the name "Inner Circle" he created event series and formats, some of which ran for over a decade: "The Hypercube" as a monthly residency at the Kulturbunker in Mülheim – which by 2009 had turned into a weekly Thursday night at Club Hop’L@ in Cologne-Kalk, run with Capowne, Ivo Angelo and NAD, and hosting guests such as Xerox (HOMmega Productions, Israel) –, "Moon Shadow" as a full-moon party at Fort XI and at secret venues, "Core Drilling" as a zenonesque event, "Narrenfreiheit" as an electronic carnival, and "Beltaine", the night of 1. May, which has taken place almost every year since 2001, as that date coincides with his birthday. Among others, he booked Dickster, Penta, Symphonix, ATMA and Headroom for these events – and, at the 2008 "Beltaine Dance Festival", two album premieres in one night: Tegma from Norway and Aerospace from Israel, with Japan’s DJ Domino headlining across three floors. Space Tribe played his birthday night in 2012, presenting a new album; Zen Mechanics and Klopfgeister were regulars.

Those years also took him beyond his own events. In 2005 the "Gathering of the Tribes" festival in Frankfurt invited not individual artists but labels and collectives, each sending one ambassador – Mental Arts was listed there alongside Twisted Records, Sinn-Tec and Toxic Tunes, with DJ Joyrider representing it. The same year he played the Freiraum Festival, a free non-profit gathering used as a platform by the SONICS network, and in 2006 their own "Optimystika" in an old factory hall in Bremen. In August 2006 he also returned to VOOV Experience in Putlitz – the festival that had changed everything for him thirteen years earlier – this time with a Sunday morning set of his own; that autumn a promoter in Münster billed him simply as "Joyrider – Mental Arts Rec. // VOOV Experience 2006". He shared bills with Astral Projection at the Kulturbunker in 2007, with Tsuyoshi Suzuki at the Solar Music Festival in 2006 – eleven years after buying tracks from him in London – and with Tristan and Zen Mechanics at Berlin’s November Ritual in 2012.

He had been working for the Dj-department of the Musicstore for 5 years, and starting in 2008 his company Nextlevel-Entertainment provided the technical support for numerous events in the scene. His "Glockenklang" sound system became a household name and was specifically mentioned on numerous flyers as a selling point in its own right – printed in capitals between the chai stand and the light show, from Wuppertal New Year’s nights to Fort XI in Cologne.

He continues to perform to this day, covering a wide range of genres and tempos: psytrance, progressive, Goa, techno and ambient, mostly in long sets. He regularly spins at the KitKatClub in Berlin, where he has been part of the Mystic Rose team since 2012, and has performed at major festivals such as Nature One in 2022 and 2023, the Antaris Project, New Healing, Nations of Legends and Waldfrieden Wonderland, as well as at underground events like the cult party "Panorama" on La Gomera, which he has played every Easter since 2018.

More than 200 of his appearances are documented, the earliest dating back to July 1994 – three decades of line-ups under the names Andrenalin and Joyrider, in squats, forts, museums, beach bars, city festivals and clubs, and a birthday party on the first of May in almost every one of the past twenty-five years.

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Contact:joyrider@mental-arts.com