Rupert & Mennert biography
Rupert&Mennert are two producer/dj’s from the north-west of the Netherlands. A small city called Den Helder is where they live. Primary in Den Helder is the royal navy and the harbour. This makes the city a melting pot of cultures. Also due to the fact that the city is for ¾ surrounded by water, which makes it almost a peninsula, Den Helder is isolated from the other big cities. You can only go south. This makes that Den Helder is liable for isolated and eclectic culture. Music is bubbling everywhere.
Rupert & Mennert, real names: Ruben Koster and Menno Jager, born 1976 and 1977, are friends since a long time, and were always interested in music. Their inspiration has a very wide range: early electronics like Kraftwerk; neue deutsche welle: like Der Plan and Andreas Dorau; minimal music: like Wim Mertens and Michael Nyman. And ofcourse the dance movement from the mid 90’s: from Roni Size and Basement Jaxx to the whole Compost Posse, Jazzanova, K&D and dZihan&Kamien.
In dj-sets, R&M take the audience from drum’nbass to nu-jazz to hiphop to electro to jazz to funk and back to house. An eclectic listening experience. DJ-sets often last several hours.
The dj-style is reflected in their own productions. Sometimes there’s a drum’nbass influence, sometimes hiphop or plain 4/4 house or electro. But always with a leftfield basis.
Besides the music, R&M have ‘normal’ jobs. Because they have to eat too. Rupert has (together with his father) his own acountancy company. Mennert is an economics/business-economics teacher at the local high school.
