Blitz Club Munich Visionary - David Muallem

They say that we are shaped by what we love, and that life prepares us for what is to come – This seems to have proven true in the case of David Muallem, certainly not a new name to the music and DJ industry. Having traveled extensively, produced for over 20 years plus working as a DJ for even longer, Muallem’s passion, musical expertise and understanding of nightlife culture were responsible for propelling Munich’s, Bob Beaman to a top spot on the list of Europe’s best clubs. Most recently, he has been active as one of the minds behind the new BLITZ Dance Music Club in Munich. Due to his interesting biography and the recent cooperation between Denon DJ and the Blitz Club, our product evangelist in Germany, Frank Hahn, paid a visit to David for an interview.

Hi, David! Tell us a little bit more about your current artist-based projects, how you got the idea to open the BlitzClub and the concept behind it.

Currently my main focus is on Blitz club. We opened last year in April and to be honest with you, its way more work than I expected. However, I’m still mainly a DJ. Unfortunately I haven’t spent much time in the studio these past years and I really miss it, which was also the driving force to work on nightclubs actually. When I moved back to Munich around 10 years ago, I got the opportunity to partake in a nightclub project from scratch as creative director. It was never really my intention to go down that road, but I felt the possibility to create playgrounds for dance music culture. The concept behind Blitz is based on my team’s experience and on what we believe makes a really good club. We all love to go out and dance! Sharing this love is the essential part here.

When I see the tech installations it directly comes to mind that you truly care about a good sounding PA-system and in best possible acoustic environment. What exactly is installed and how do you like the Denon DJ Prime gear in combination?

I truly believe that sound quality has an upmost priority in a dance music club. The early NYC school always affected me, i.e. the approaches of clubs like The Loft and the Paradise Garage had a huge influence on my understanding of club culture. Key players like David Mancuso, Larry Levan and Richard Long e.g., set a huge focus on acoustic space and soundsystem design back then. I always wanted to continue this approach. Blitz club is basically designed like a recording studio, where you’ll find very few elements and surfaces without acoustic function. I really wanted to have a dry sounding room with a minimal amount of reverb. In terms of sound system, it’s all a partnership with Void Acoustics. We have a 4 Point custom made Incubus system, with additional 4 Points (as fills and delays). Its quite a complex system, though Im not sure if I should go into more detail here. I really like the new Denon SC5000 media player, foremost the layer function. Sound quality and feel are great. It’s definitely a great option. I haven’t tested the VL12 turntables in greater depth yet, but the feel of them comes really close to the classic Technics, which is really important as they are placed in most of my peers bedrooms for the past 30 years and more.

Blitz Club Munich with Denon DJ Sc5000 Prime and Void System

Can you tell us about the upcoming events and artists at Blitz Club?

As I’m involved in this club most of my time, it’s really going from weekend to weekend for me. Some highlights of the next months that spontaneously pop into my mind involve: 2 Many DJs / Âme / Anastasia Kristensen / Anetha / André Galuzzi / Ben Klock / Blawan / Dixon / DJ Normal 4 / Dr. Rubinstein / Freddy K / Gerd Janson / Hunee / HVOB / Kink / Krystal Klear / Len Faki / Lena Willikens / Leo Küchler / Loco Dice / Mall Grab / Mano Le Tough / Marcel Dettmann / Mind Against / Mor Elian / Palms Traxx / Pariah / Perel / Redshape / Robag Wruhme / Roman Flügel / Seth Troxler / Shed / Tiefschwarz / Truncate / Umfang / Upsammy / Volvox and many many more. Im always especially looking forward to our Cruise nights as well.

I remember back in the days when the Munich electronic scene was massive and locations like Pulverturm and Flughafen Riem prägen were the movement. How is it today and what has changed from your perspective?

I think the scene is still massive, though we constantly have to fight lots of prejudices. Everyone hates on Munich all the time. However, over here, we always had a really flourishing scene with great artists, labels, clubs and so on. Disco was really big here in the 70s and 80s and Munich evolved into a techno hotspot early on, with clubs such as Ultraschall. However, in the here and now, there is lots of cool stuff going on, actually way more than in many other cities. There is no need to make comparisons anyway, however there is also no need for having a negative stand when it comes to the city of Munich.