Helena Hauff’s listening diary: ‘I feel so grown up listening to jazz while cooking’
8pm I was going through my record collection to pack for the weekend. Sometimes I try to find things that I haven’t played in the club for a while, but it’s quite difficult because I play so often. I saw Structure by Aquasky and I was like: “Oh, yeah, that’s great”. I listened to it really loud on my headphones and danced around in my little studio in Hamburg. I didn’t actually end up playing it, but sometimes you find things that just excite you, and that was one of those. It’s really energetic, exciting and fun. And it’s fast. Sometimes I play drum’n’bass in my sets, but not that often, it really depends on the venue and the event. I’m always excited when there is an event coming up where I think: “I can really do this here”.
4 November
2pm I was in the taxi to the airport and Never Let Me Down Again by Depeche
Mode was playing on the radio. It’s always very nice to hear stuff that I like on the radio because it doesn’t usually happen that often. When you’re in a taxi they play a lot of modern pop stuff that I’m just really not into. Sometimes when they’ve got 80s radio on, you get to hear some tunes that you actually like, and I always get really excited. It was just a nice coincidence because I love Depeche Mode. Sometimes, if I’m in that kind of mood I go on a little YouTube hunt and, you know, you have all those suggestions, and it leads you down this rabbit hole, through this loop of famous songs. If I’m in the right mood, I really enjoy it and I click through them.
3pm I arrived at Hamburg airport where there’s a little smoking lounge, so you can sit there and have your coffee. I was just doing some emails and I fancied listening to some music. Somehow, I started thinking about how I haven’t heard Portishead in a while so I went on YouTube. I ended up listening to
Over, it’s such a nice song. In my head, Portishead then led me to Elliott Smith. Cupid’s Trick is one of my favourite songs. I quite like listening to that kind of mellow stuff when I’m at an airport. I don’t know why. The sea of people walk past and it gets you into this vibe. The music creates such a nice atmosphere, it makes the whole airport experience a lot more calm, relaxing and enjoyable.
2am My set at Zoo in Geneva had
just started and Reconstruct by Shawescape Renegade was my opening track. The person playing before me was playing a bit of electro, a bit of breakbeat, so I knew immediately I could do whatever I wanted. I thought it would be a good track to start with: it’s electro, it’s quite funky, it’s not too much. I mean, it’s quite energetic, but it’s not too full on. It’s a nice lead into heavier electro or techno. The last time I was here was in 2018 when I played with Galaxian. It’s quite small, a proper punk venue with a good crowd. They seemed to be really up for anything.
5 November
5am After Geneva, I had to go to the airport again for my next gig in Berlin. I didn’t listen to any music throughout the day because my ears were ringing, I needed a break. Berlin is a really good city to play in. It’s such a weird place, I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that’s like it. The crowds are quite open-minded and they seem to know a lot about music so you can go quite far and take them on a proper journey. In other places, you might have to be a bit careful with what you play, you have to see what will get them into the vibe and make sure they understand where we’re going. But in Berlin, they’re ready for everything. At 5am, I was midset at Tresor and thought it was time for Screech LFT (Vox Remix) by Spoiled Drama. It went down really well, the reaction of the crowd was insane. It’s such a good track and pretty much every time I play it, people go completely bonkers. And so they did in Berlin.
7 November
11am I was back at home, having breakfast and getting ready to go to the gym where I go bouldering. Sometimes on a Monday or Tuesday, it’s no music whatsoever because I need a break. I felt like listening to something that gets me up and going; something that’s not too harsh, has a bit of that Monday morning energy but isn’t techno because I’ve had that all weekend. I put on Scrambled Tricks by Wu-Lu. I love his latest album Loggerhead, it came out a couple of months ago and I bought it immediately. I was like: this is fantastic. I’ve had it on repeat since, it doesn’t seem to get boring at all. I’m such a big fan. It’s rare that I get excited about new stuff, but it’s just a feeling, you know. You hear something and you’re like: this is amazing.
6pm I was listening to Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil while cooking. I love to cook, I spend a lot of time doing it. I always want to make something really nice, really tasty and really special. Food is really important to me, it’s such a wonderful way of showing love to other people and also showing love to yourself. I have a little bit of a jazz collection but it’s not something I would listen to every day, all day. When I want to relax, I don’t want to listen to any more dance music, anything that isn’t electronic is helpful at this point. I enjoy jazz and there are moments when I can really get into it. Also, listening to some jazz while cooking is a really nice thing to do, and I feel so grown up doing it. That’s what you do when you grow up, right? You cook, listen to jazz and light a candle.
Helena Hauff ’s Living With Ladybirds is out now on Fabric Originals. She plays at London’s Colour Factory on 11 November