Berlin club culture according to Vice Magazine Germany

Vice magazines Photo: Flickr (CC) hfabulous / Henry Faber

Over the past ten years, Vice Magazine has become a leading voice of international youth culture with its own signature blend of art, music, lifestyle – and a healthy dose of controversy thrown in here and there for good measure.   
Originally started by journalists Suroosh Alvi, Shane Smith and Gavin McInnes in Montreal, Quebec, Vice rose to fame when it moved to New York City in 1999. Handed out as a free magazine at indie boutiques, record stores and venues, Vice soon became notorious for its unfiltered coverage of night-life activities and by exposing ordinary people’s fashion faux pas in their “Dos & Don’ts” section.

Today, Vice is a huge international conglomerate with regional magazine editions in 16 countries – including a German edition with offices in Berlin – and a current total circulation of 900,000 per issue. This is in addition to its own web-based TV station, the record label Vice Recordings, several events agencies and an expanding online platform.

So what’s the philosophy behind all things Vice?

“I guess it really comes from being bored with everything else that is around. If you flick through all the media, a lot of the content aimed at young people is created by these think-tanks who tell the editors what the ‘kids’ want to read about,” said Tom Littlewood, Editor-in-Chief of Vice Germany.

“So instead of having some 45-year-olds tell us what to write, we try to get as many young people as possible to write their own articles and come up with ideas,” Littlewood explained. “We even work a lot with people who have never written anything in their lives, but who are interesting people with interest-ing stories.”

As a result, Vice Magazine and the TV station VBS.tv have broken a number of unique stories on an international level, including the award-winning documentary “Heavy Metal in Bagdad” and an im-mersed journalist view of the war on drug cartels in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We travel all around the world. The way our culture works right now is that people in Germany or anywhere else can be influenced by some small Asian rock band from Indonesia,” said Littlewood. He added that Vice is currently expanding its network with offices in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and beyond. “It’s important that no country or subculture is ignored and we want to work with people locally to get it right.”

Originally from a small town near Nottingham, the soft-spoken Englishman came to Berlin as a foreign student of Modern Languages at Humboldt University. In 2005, he started as an editorial intern for Vice Germany. Since then, the German offices have grown from five people to 30 – in large part due to local productions for VBS.tv – with Littlewood at the helm as the current editor of the magazine. Having put in his hours on the party circuit, the 24-year-old shared his experiences – and disillusion-ment – with the Berlin club scene.

So what is your take on the Berlin club scene?

Honestly, I don’t know how it’s gotten such a massive reputation. People who are not from Berlin, they’ll say, “It’s so amazing! You can go out until twelve in the morning the next day! And go to another party, and yet another party!” But I don’t really want to party for three days straight, although the possibilities here are endless. I just don’t want to blow my mind like that.

What does Berlin's reputation look like internationally?

It’s got a reputation for being this late-night rave music scene, this drug-induced experience that peo-ple expect, and that a lot of venues cater to with great success. But it also swallows up the smaller and more independent things that are harder to make money with.

But are there still quality things out there?

There’s still lots of good stuff in Berlin. Good music venues, good bars. And independent initiatives that are great, like what the guys from [independent party and concert organizers] Twisted Robot are doing. They bring a lot of great international acts in, and it’s a real friendly, Do-it-Yourself-type thing. But overall when it comes to clubbing in Berlin, I’m a bit disillusioned... it gets kind of repetitive.

Has Berlin lost some of its spontaneity over the years?

I miss projects like Rio [club in the shell of a former Brazilian restaurant downtown]. There were so many empty buildings left over only two to three years ago, so downtown Berlin was a real playground for people to start these kinds of clubs in places that the developers couldn’t find investors for. Now the land is getting sold off and it’s hard to find these kinds of places anymore. Downtown now is mainly all about proper bars with a proper licence and security guys at the door.

Is this the end of the kind of spontaneous projects Berlin was famous for?

It’s become a lot harder, but it’s still happening. Just not right in the middle of town anymore. There are good locations like the [former public swimming pool] “Stadtbad Wedding,” but that’s a bit out of the way. No one wants to take the S-Bahn all the way out to Wedding and a taxi back when they can go out and get drunk more conveniently at the more mainstream places in downtown.

What is attractive about Berlin clubbing to foreign visitors?

I think German people don’t realize how good they have it. In London, going out on the weekends is always such a hassle. When you get to a club, you have to queue up for two hours, so no matter how much you drank before, you’re already on a massive downer by the time you get in. And then the place closes down after only two hours. In Berlin everything starts a little later and goes on a lot longer, so there’s not this pressure you have in England. And you rarely get into brawls here, every-one pretty much gets along.

Vice Germany is also known for putting on their own – quite legendary – parties...

It depends on what kind of events are going on in town. We’ll host a party for [fashion tradeshow] Bread&Butter, or for Fashion Week. Otherwise it depends on whether we have time and money. Like when some bands are in town that our friends are in, we’ll have a party. But our events team is always organizing events for other people, which is a service we offer as an agency without our name appearing anywhere.

What is your most memorable club experience?

The best ones are forgotten about. I remember going to Rio a lot before it closed [in 2008].

And finally, what do enjoy the most about living in Berlin?

Any bar is great. You can go to any neighbourhood “Eckkneipe” (corner bar) where beers are cheap and have a good time, even if there are some oddballs around.

Tom, thank you very much for the interview.

Weblinks:

Vice Germany website
www.viceland.de

Vice web-based television VBS TV
www.vbs.tv

The Vice Guide to Berlin (PDF)
http://www.viceland.com/pdf/Vice_Berlin_Guide.pdf