Words and Interivew by Alexander Cheves
In Mitte, you can find artist Ben Reymann carrying boxes of vinyl records from a building near Monbijoupark to an under-construction, street-level storefront on Torstraße. He’s carrying merchandise for SEVEN, a new Berlin-based music label, to its new headquarters.
SEVEN is a queer-and-FLINTA*-leaning label that “plays with the intersection of house and techno music,” as its site reads. He is Operations Manager, and a good one: he’s at the office first, almost every morning of the week, and seems to love unpacking boxes.
Ben Reymann is a DJ resident for Room Trax, a Berlin and Barcelona-based label. At these gigs, he showcases his experimental mix of techno, ambient, and club sound. Known for his live and vinyl sets, at 28 years old, he is already a music producer and owner of the label Rhythm Werk.
On top of all that, he is one of the nicest people you will meet. The SEVEN and Hinterhaus teams share an office, and some folks work for both. So we know him well.
Ben Reymann brings a “big brother” energy to the room—he is fastidious, trustworthy, and very in touch with his feelings. Outwardly, he has the athletic look of a good hiking buddy: ready to go.
Originally from Germany, he lived in the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands before choosing Berlin as home.
“Berlin was the only constant in my life,” he says. “I always came back here.”
“I didn’t have the chance to experience Berlin all the way yet. So when I came back, I dove in hard. I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest.”
Though we know him from his music (and his office presence), in our artist interview with him, we spent more time talking about his other major passion: food.
Tell me about pizza night!
Before he moved to Neukölln, Ben hosted infamous “pizza nights” in his Schöneberg flat and invited all his friends.
One day, he just decided to “make lots of dough and invite everyone and make it really social.” To his friends in Berlin’s underground music scene, these nights were very special.
Less than a minute into our talk, Ben Reymann explains how pizza stones work: “It’s a ceramic stone that you put in the oven and it heats up really hot. It’s important because it gets the bottom layer nice and crisp, but it doesn’t stick.”
For dining out, he knows the best places. “The food in Neukölln is great,” he says. The best pizza in Berlin: “Gazzo. They make sourdough pizza.”
Another recommendation: a Thai place on Sonnenallee, Mae Charoen Thai Imbiss. “For good falafel I go to Falafel Jakoub. These are not fancy restaurants. They are good, local food. My area has small, cute spots like Knödelwirtschaft, which has good German Knödel.”
Ben’s family is from Krefeld near Cologne. When he was two, they moved to Berlin. Then, when he was 11, they moved to New York in the United States—then, some years later, Italy.
All this travel was not without hardships. “At first, I was culture-shocked. I was a kid!” he says. “Looking back, I’m grateful my parents did this. It’s a privileged experience to move around at a young age and know different cultures and languages.”
He practises his Italian when he visits Italy—often, since his brother still lives there. Even though he lives in Berlin full time, his Italian is fluent and flawless.
How did you start your music career?
Electronic music in Italy piqued his interest. “I started listening to dubstep, not techno at all,” he says. “Italy has a big history in electronic music, and Turin specifically. There’s a group there called The Bloody Beetroots. They do dubsteppy electronic music that sounds like early Skrillex. I used to love that stuff.”
When he was 16, his family moved back to Berlin a second time and he had a brief taste of clubland, but it was too short—after three years, he left again to pursue a bachelor’s degree in the Netherlands.
“I didn’t have the chance to experience Berlin all the way yet. So when I came back, I dove in hard. I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest.”
At universtiy, he studied international business, but it was not his passion. “I decided I would finish school,” he says. “I’m happy I did.”
Let’s talk about work.
Thanks to his university degree, Ben Reymann has always kept a day job—typically in business management. Even though his current job, working at Seven, touches nightlife, he sees it as very separate from his music work. His business education makes him a great fit for this job, and the rules he learned there still apply: stay organised, keep good records, and work well on a team.
“I like separation between my work and my creative side,” he says. “It gives me peace of mind.”
“I do not feel pressure to make something. I can play for three or four hours and just jam. I don’t have my subconscious telling me I have to produce to make money.”
Some people might think every artist’s goal is to get famous to the point that they can quit their day job and be a full-time, working artist—admittedly, even we thought so. But not Ben Reymann.
“If I go in the studio and produce, it’s free time, not work time,” he says. “I do not feel pressure to make something. I can play for three or four hours and just jam. In the end, if what comes out is stuff I’m not happy with, I don’t have my subconscious telling me I have to produce to make money.”
For Ben Reymann, music is art, not a job. In this way, it stays free of commercial pressure. And right now, his music feels like it’s changing.
How is your music changing?
Ben describes his sound as “loopy, repetitive techno,” but lately he has experimented with ambient and “cinematic” sounds.
“I got inspired by nthng last year when I played a gig for Syntop and nthng did the closing,” he says. “They had these crazy soundscapes but always a constant rhythm and groove, a driving force that kept you there. It was one of my best musical experiences that year.”
We asked if playing residency gigs felt different than non-residency gigs. Short answer: yes.
“For parties outside the residency, I play a lot of my own music and go in a clear direction,” he says. “I try to present the sound I want to share internationally, so if people are there who might want to book me, they’ll know how I play.” In contrast, “Room Trax parties let me experiment.”
Last year, he played a five-hour closing set at a Room Trax party. “I just packed a big bag of records and didn’t plan it at all. It was so fun. I felt comfortable doing that because I knew the party and the crowd. I knew the vibe.”
How did you become a Room Trax resident?
Many artists might be curious about how residencies happen and what they’re really like.
“I met [Room Trax founders] Alexy and Blanka through friends,” he says with a shrug. “We were just chatting and got along well. At some point, they invited me to record a podcast for them. This was in the Covid period, when they were just doing the Room Trax streams, which I loved.”
“A couple of weeks later, they wrote to me saying they were gathering a list of new residents for the coming years, and they asked me to be one. And that’s how it happened!”
What was his favourite set (so far)? “Last year, I did an opening at RSO,” he says. “I was nervous because I was opening for DJ Pete, aka Substance, and I have so much respect for him. He works at Hard Wax and really knows his stuff. I also play records, so I knew I had to have a good selection.”
Ben is close friends with the artist Rill, co-founder of Syntop. “We grew close because we make similar music,” he said. “And we live close.”
They both moved to Neukölln in Berlin around the same time and realised they were a five-minute walk from each other. “We have played back-to-back at Syntop and collaborated in the studio. We share music and teach each other.”
Many nightlife people live on his street, he says—DJ REKA and No.Name are close by. “Sometimes you walk on the street and see someone and think you know them, but of course, it’s from Instagram.”
Neukölln, in his view, is like an artist village, a haven where creative people live and work close together. “We’re all connected,” he says. “I’m planning new projects just by meeting people in other disciplines. Without these connections, I would not have these new ideas.”
“My parents needed some time to see DJing as something legitimate. Now they collect my vinyl.”
What are your other passions?
Outside music and food, Ben Reymann loves bouldering and cycling. At one point, he considered taking his ice hockey career to the professional level.
These passions quieted in 2014 after a severe injury. “I dislocated my knee and had multiple tendons ripped underneath,” he says. “I was out for a season.”
At that time, his passion for music already clashed with his practice schedule. “That’s when I asked myself if I want a social life, or do I want to go back to hockey and do it professionally. I chose fun.”
That same leg has not been lucky in the years since. In 2022, on a bike ride, he collided with a truck. The tires went over his foot, shattering his heel and breaking his ankle.
Ben is healed and walking now, but his athletic life has largely moved indoors. He works out four times a week in the gym with one his closest friends, the artist CRYME.
What about love?
This year, Ben Reymann will celebrate his third anniversary with his girlfriend. “She is studying medicine and wants to be a surgeon!” he said. “I am so inspired by her.”
He talks about community and family often, so we ask about his parents—not always an easy topic for artists. What do they think of his DJ career?
“My parents needed some time to see DJing as something legitimate,” he says. But they came around. “Now they collect my vinyl.”
On the subject of family, he told us a sweet story. Last year, he took his grandfather on a road trip to Italy for his birthday. “He loves travelling, but he’s getting old and has a chronic illness. But he is so motivated. He wants to live and enjoy life and travel.”
To make the trip enjoyable for his grandmother too, he took over all care tasks for his grandfather, fully planning the trip and helping his grandfather every step of the way. “It’s something they couldn’t do themselves,” he says.
Like we said, Ben Reymann is a nice guy. Look for his name at the next Room Trax party.
Follow Ben Reymann on Instagram and RA, and listen to his music on SoundCloud.
Words: Alexander Cheves
Pictures: Mara Menzel
