Berlin and Manchester Compared: An Interview with Mark Reeder

Abstract

Mark Reeder was intrinsic to the Manchester punk scene in 1977 but moved a year later to Berlin, and had a long career as an electronic musician/producer. In this interview with John Willsteed, Reeder discusses the relationship between the scene and the city in both Berlin and Manchester across the last 40 years. Governmental interest, both local and national, in the electronic music scenes and night-time economies is discussed, both pre- and post-Covid-19, as is the effect of gentrification on the ebb and flow of the club scene. Reeder places the rise of EDM in the cultural contexts of both cities and uses his position as a concerned and passionate insider to speculate on the future of EDM and electronic music in a rapidly changing world.